Heron August 2016 Issue 300 (Old Pages)
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Issue 300 A Publication of the Docent Council, Martin Griffin Preserve of Audubon Canyon Ranch © August 2016 Life Underfoot By Gwen Heistand The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all. Wendell Berry I spent much of my youth in woods and fields, creeks and ponds, salt marshes and coastal strands of the northeast. There were times, especially in the spring, when I was so overcome by sunlight on dappled leaves and the smell of wet, fertile earth that I would throw myself into the leaf litter with wild abandon. I would dig down so my eyes were at the level of wild lily-of-the-valleys pushing up through the earth. I would burrow into moist patches of skunk cabbage, feeling mud ooze between my toes. I would insinuate myself among the roots of pale touch-me-nots, and spend hours popping seed pods – my own private firework display. I was part of everything and everything was new and old at the same time. And of course the longer I spent wrapped in moist leaves and soil, the more I saw. Eventually I would turn over and the view of upwardly mobile plants shifted to earthworms and pillbugs, spiders and beetles, tiny hoppers and bright red mites going about their business. An old magnifying glass opened up an even smaller world … life teeming underfoot. Even the name given to the soil and leaf litter environment is laced with the promise of discovery – the cryptoshpere – the hidden world. Some folks have called it the poor man’s rainforest, indicating the magnitude of species diversity and all we don’t know. Leonardo DaVinci said back in the early 1500’s, We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot. continued on Page 18 A Look at What’s Inside Fall The Co-Presidents’ Ranch Guides Have Special Needs Kids Fall Kit & Trail Days More Dispatches from A Refresher on the Page News! Visit MGP Are Coming the Road Newest MGP Docents Otherwise known as Not only news, but Pamela Gach saw a And to whet your Aimez-vous les Before a new class Diary of Docent new officers! Read need and dove in to appetite, a very choses francaise? takes shape, we bring Recruitment! all about the season fill it. Now kids with detailed schedule is Don’t miss Lydia you the last bios from that just ended. special needs have a provided. Mendoza’s photo the Class of 2015. Page 2 program, too. essay. Page 3 Page 6 Pages 16, 17 Page 4 Page 11 "1 THE HERON Co-Presidents’\ Report: Docent Recruitment Class of 2017 - Diary and Update By Mary Lee Bronzo and Karla Kelly By the time you read this article our recruiting efforts will have ended with the start of training on September 7th. It’s been a long journey, a type of treasure hunt as it were, and one that involved most of docent community and many ACR staff members. Let’s take a deep breath and look back over the last several months. Ten months ago we (Karla Kelly and Mary Lee Bronzo) met with Maureen Lynch and Pattie Litton, the team that recruited the wonderful Docent Class of 2015. Maureen and Pattie generously provided us with their materials, methods and advice to help prepare for the efforts ahead. Further meetings with Wendy Coy (ACR Communications Manager), Gwen Heistand and Yvonne Pierce helped develop an early plan and things were put into motion. October – December Several meetings and emails during these months resulted in the development of recruiting materials that would feature ACR’s new logo and relect our new mission. We collaborated with Wendy Coy, who designed and wrote the text for web site pages, business cards, Ulyers, and a brochure. We created a new application for docent training that Yvonne posted on ACR’s website. January – March Wendy and Gwen introduced us to Ron Berchin from the Bouverie Preserve and we planned “The Day in a Life of a Docent” video. Several times Ron came to MGP to ilm docents and school groups. We distributed our new recruiting materials at meetings and mailed a set of brochures, lyers, and business cards to all active docents. Eileen and Gwen designed a Power Point slide show to use for recruiting that told the history of ACR and explained docent training. We decided to follow Bouverie’s model of having several Recruitment/Information Days throughout the Spring and Summer. Dates were chosen and published in all of the new recruiting materials. The Training Committee, headed by Paul Koski, Erica Posner, and Lydia Mendoza, provided “Point People” who took responsibility for recruiting in different areas around the Bay and helping with recruitment hikes. MGP Public season began and the Ranch Guides passed out recruiting materials and talked to visitors about volunteer opportunities. April – August We received many names of potential trainees from docents, other friends of ACR, online registration and guests to MGP. MGP hosted 8 Docent Recruitment/Information Days. Some days were well attended, some were not. Gayle Cahill created a reminder post card for us to use before recruiting hikes. Jeanette Carr, Joyce Grifin and Beverlee Johnson made several presentations in Marin. In June, we were interviewed on Peter Asmus’s KWMR radio show. We said many positive things about MGP and what it’s like to be a docent. In July, Michael Ellis mentioned our school program and docent training on Michael Krasny’s Forum program. continued on Page 14 "2 AUDUBON CANYON RANCH Ranch Guide News by Cheryl Dajczak, Ranch Guide President It’s hard to believe, but we came to the end of our microscope hooked up to a computer screen. We first Public Season at Martin Griffin Preserve since had a very successful series of special programs 2013. Our Ranch Guides, and other wonderful designed to bring in the local community, including volunteer Hosts, provided a warm welcome and nature yoga and a Little Folkies musical program for educational guidance to our public visitors on every families with small children. Conservation Science weekend from April 2 through July 31. Although we talks on a variety of interesting topics, given by local didn’t have the numbers that we were used to when experts, also drew new people to the preserve, some the nesting egrets were the draw, we still had of whom then lingered to talk to Ranch Guides or enough visitors to make it fun and worthwhile. take a walk on one of the trails. Some Ranch Guides Here’s a little recap of what we were up to on those offered guided hikes and one Ranch Guide offered Public Season weekend. nature sketching instruction out in the field. I think we worked out some good ideas to carry forward to We had a Ranch Guide station at the Clem Miller next year. Overlook – a place where almost all of our visitors stop to spend some time looking through the Speaking of next year, we need to increase our spotting scopes and talking about the birds and Ranch Guide numbers so that we can better cover other fauna that they see. We had a station at the weekend shifts for our next public season. To Monday/Tuesday ponds for most of the season, that end, there will be a Ranch Guide training where we shared our observations of some very program starting in early 2017. So, spread the word unusual newt shedding and discoloration. (If to all of those nature-loving people out there that you’ve been reading Gwen’s preambles, you know may be itching to get involved! all about this. If you haven’t been reading them, you As you may know, this is the last Heron article I’ll be might want to!) And we had a Ranch Guide in our writing as the President of the Ranch Guide Council. wonderful Curiosity Room in the Bourne House, I’m very happy to report that we voted in a new where we introduced ourselves and our visitors to President and Vice-President of the Council at our the wonderful world of tiny pond life, which we end-of-season Ranch Guide meeting on July 30th. could view much bigger than life, thanks to a Ellen Thomas is our new President and Allison Huey has accepted the role of Vice-President. I think they will both be great in their roles and I look forward to helping them in any way I can, as they offer their considerable enthusiasm for ACR and their creative energy to the Ranch Guide program. Send them a note to congratulate them, if you get a chance! Image from cliparts.co "3 THE HERON MGP Inaugurates Hikes for Students With Special Needs By Pamela Gach MGP is now offering hikes to 4th and 5th graders with special needs. As a special education teacher for 15 yrs. I have adapted many of our MPG materials for use by this population. Last May a class of eight students from Santa Venetia Valley school in San Rafael inaugurated our new specialized school program. During our school visit, docent Doug Cook and I showed the students an adapted and abbreviated slideshow. I am happy to report they wanted to see more! For the classroom activity, we did “Create a Creature” as a whole classroom activity. Each child made a unique, sparkling, feathered and bejeweled creation that they were proud of. The teacher then displayed them in the classroom. The following week the class came to ACR for a day at the preserve.