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ANF VOLUNTEER NATURALIST PROGRAM
Agenda for Informational Meeting on October 27, 2007 Purpose and Requirements November 2007 Schedule of Events Checklist Application Why I Volunteer on the Angeles National Forest Original Draft How to Subscribe to the Yahoo Discussion Group Return DRAFT CREATED BY STEVE SEGRETO AND JANE STRONG AUGUST 2007 USDA Forest Service Angeles National Forest VOLUNTEER NATURALIST PROGRAM Informational Meeting, Saturday, October 27, 2007, at 1:00 pm at the new San Gabriel Gateway Center on Hwy 39 Table of Contents 1. Purpose 2. Requirements 3. Field trips, programs, etc. list 4. More thoughts 1. Purpose The purpose of the ANF Volunteer Naturalist Program is to provide trained naturalists to answer people's questions and to lead nature walks at ANF locations. This would be forest-wide naturalist training for Mt. Baldy, San Gabriel Environmental Education Center, San Gabriel Gateway Center/Entrance Station, Chilao, Crystal Lake, Chantry, etc. excluding Grassy Hollow which has their own group. This group would be restricted to performing nature interpretation solely. We would have signs that say "Naturalist on duty. Please ask questions!" making the volunteers available and friendly, complementing and supporting the forest staff. 2. Requirements for ANF volunteer naturalists 1) Attendance of 12 [any number can be inserted here] selected programs first year 2) Commitment to staffing an information station or visitor center to answer questions, guide nature walks, maintain nature trails and native plant gardens, etc. EIGHT HOURS EACH MONTH MAY THRU SEPTEMBER FOR TWO YEARS 3) Giving a short (15 minutes) talk or a guided nature walk (30 minutes) on subject field of your choice at end of training. 4) Shadowing an experienced person for four hours [training while in service] and then doing the work with experienced person behind you. 5) Attending the reconnect meeting each year in spring to learn new forest rules and to reaffirm your interest in the program if you want to work 6) After finishing initial program, attending two new or review sessions each year. 3. Field Trips, Programs, etc. to attend, choice of 12 Programs that must be attended: Orientation and Operations, Fire Prevention and Ecology, Getting to Know the Forest scheduled over a year's time 1) ORIENTATION AND OPERATIONS. Use Mt. Baldy's Volunteer Manual. Go over forest rules. Radio/phone use. Campground/fire/wilderness regs. How to meet public. Uniforms or T-shirts after 50 or ??? hours of service. Maybe this is two meetings. The first one short with a good nature walk afterwards as an example and introduction. The second one operations: Writing permits, CA campfire, Red Box-Shortcut, Wilderness 2) BIRD WALK. Either at Chilao or Eaton Canyon. Led by Hill Penfold. 3) ROCK FIELD TRIP. Names and locations of rocks 4) STARS AND PLANETS. On Hwy 2. Star party between Halloween and Christmas. Led by Lance Benner 5) GOLD. Steve in East Fork. 6) BIGHORN SHEEP. Steve 7) GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. A car tour with stops explaining the landforms and natural hazards. 8) INDIANS 9) WEST FORK. Fisheries, water sources, riparian plants, etc. 10) Attend two San Gabriel Saturdays [learn how to talk to a group with mixed experience in the forest, how to manage cars and parking and lead a caravan] Steve 11) Attend two Walks on the Wild Side [learn how to talk to adults who are interested in nature, plants, butterflies] Jane 12) Attend two hikes in environmental education program [learn how to talk to children, words to use, attention spans] 13) WILDFLOWER OR PLANT WALK. Sierra Club Natural Sciences Section. CNPS at Eaton Canyon or Chilao 14) HAZARDS: Bears, mountain lions, rattlesnakes and poison oak. 15) FIRE PREVENTION AND ECOLOGY. Fire Prevention Patrol Officer 16) GETTING TO KNOW THE FOREST FIELD TRIPS: a. Mt. Baldy area: Visitor Center, trailheads like Icehouse and San Antonio Falls Road., Manker CG, the road to the Notch b. San Gabriel Canyon area: Gateway, East Fork especially Bridge to Nowhere, OHV, Environmental Education Center, Coldbrook and Crystal Lake CG c. Front Country: Chantry, Cobb, Millard. Little Santa Anita, SO d. High County along Hwy 2: Switzer's, Red Box, Mt. Wilson, Charlton-Chilao Recreation area, Vetter Mt., Newcomb's, Buckhorn CG, Williamson frog closure e. Grassy Hollow, Big Pines, Table Mt, Blue Ridge 4. More thoughts and some clarifications This is a rigorous program. Can be tailored to individual needs for those with previous teaching or naturalist background. But it will produce superior volunteers. Flexibility The program would be very flexible because the things taught are not sequential. That way if someone wanted to go on vacation or something like that they could. There are enough choices and offerings. Reconnect The second year program participation/orientation for rules review is called RECONNECT and is given in May and the sessions are called SUPERSESSIONS. Supersessions could include field trips and picnics/potlucks/pajama parties to Alf Museum, Big Bear Discovery Center, Crystal Lake [overnight?] or Chilao [overnight?], LA Co Fair, RSA, Fox Field. The idea here is to build a "community" after participants have been in training together, and to keep the participants coming back and to keep them together. Manuals Participants will be "proactive" about their learning, taking a few notes, investigating things, making drawings and diagrams or tapes and asking questions. They will be given a blank looseleaf binder and add pages each time they attended a program. This would serve as kind of an attendance diary. Also in the front would be the list of programs, dates and requirements so people could check them off when they did them. Examples of pro-active learning Before the bird walk we get a list of birds seen on the last one. The new person would use this list to make notes on. Before a plant walk, CNPS or Sierra Club NSS, we always give out a plant list. People check off what they see and make notes. All this would then be added to the looseleaf binder, but it would be produced by the participants, not the people who are giving the program. They should only be guides to learning. Manuals would be built as we go along. Training schedule Training will be between Labor Day and Memorial Day. Staffing will usually be between Memorial Day and Labor Day except maybe during snow play days. Communications We will create a Yahoo Group for notices and questions and discussion. Membership by permission only. Contacts Call Steve Segreto, USFS Mt Baldy Visitor Center at 909 982 2829 Email Jane Strong at 
The mission of the San Gabriel Mountains Heritage Association is to provide support for environmental education, interpretive and heritage programs on the Angeles National Forest. For how you can help, Return to SGMHA index page In partnership with USDA Forest Service
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