Allyn Schneider inspects a young banded water snake during a Master Naturalist class at the Savannah River Ecology Lab in Aiken County. The snake was later released unharmed. Click here for more photos - Master Naturalist class photos

DATE: 2/15/2005

CONTACT: Dr. Chris Marsh, (843) 987-4154; masternaturalist@charterinternet.com

Bob Franklin, (843)538-7487; rmfrnkl@clemson.edu

Vaughn Spearman, (843)726-3470; espearm@clemson.edu

WRITER: Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343, ext. 241; tlollis@clemson.edu

Clemson, LCI teach Master Naturalists

BEAUFORT – “Why does my live oak drop its leaves in the spring? Everybody knows oaks shed in the fall.” “What’s that animal that looks like a possum with a tank on its back?” “What’s that white bird with the long legs?”

A steady stream of nature-related questions like these from newcomers to the Low Country of South Carolina is what led Clemson Extension to organize the state’s first Master Naturalist (MN) class in 2000, according to Bob Franklin, Extension conservation forester.

“A lot of the new retirees were not only interested in the outdoors and the natural history of the area, but they were willing to volunteer some time to help other people learn to appreciate it, too,” he said.

“Jack Keener, who was county agent in Beaufort at the time, took the lead, and I helped him start the class,” he said. Recruiting students was no problem, even with a $500 fee. Fifty people graduated in the first two years.

“We didn’t have a class in 2002 when Jack retired, but from the beginning we had forged a partnership with the Low Country Institute (LCI) and Chris Marsh, who has kept the program alive,” said Franklin, who has relinquished the role of Extension’s local contact for MN to Vaughan Spearman, aea Extension agent in Jasper County.

Since 2003 another 42 students have gone through the Beaufort MN classes, and 21 graduated from a class on Edisto Island in 2004.

Marsh is executive director for LCI, which is involved in environmental education, conservation and supporting efforts that preserve the environmental integrity of the area between Charleston and Savannah.

“We recognize that the Low Country is developing, so we need to do what we can to see that it develops in a way that will preserve the water quality and as much representative habitat as possible,” said Marsh.

He feels good about having 113 well-trained advocates for the environment, many of whom have had experiences with other areas that have become over-developed – such as the New England States, the Mid-Atlantic, Atlanta and parts of Florida.

“Most policy makers won’t have the time to take such an intensive course as Master Naturalist, but those constituents who do will be able to educate the policy makers about the value of local habitats and how ecological systems work,” said Marsh.

He envisions his graduates being able to ask developers good questions about plans for protecting habitat such as wetlands. Questions such as: “Are you establishing buffer zones?” or “What does your drainage system look like?”

Marsh finds that people who learn about different species of plants and animals are more passionate about habitat. A visit in November to the Savannah River Ecology Lab gave the 2004 class some training in species identification.

“They learned the differences between the red salamander, the tiger salamander, the marble salamander and the South Carolina state amphibian – the spotted salamander, and how to tell a corn snake from a banded water snake,” he said. Franklin gave the class a history lesson on the longleaf pine and the importance of fire to its survival.

MN classes do more than identify plants and animals. They also visit sewer treatment and water treatment plants so they can better understand how people are using the environment and what they expect the environment to do for them.

“We are educating our students about smart growth issues,” Marsh said. “We’ve had people from planning departments take the class and find that it helps them when they deal with natural resource issues.”

Clemson Extension adds resources to the class such as the Coast-A-Syst program, which is aimed at educating the public on how to protect coastal water quality.

That is a major issue for Nancy Schilling, a graduate of the 2001 MN class. A New York State native, she came from Florida in 1985 to build and run a marina on Hilton Head Island.

“I am now retired from a marina consulting career, and my passion has become a full-time volunteer effort to protect water quality in Beaufort County,” she said. In 2001 Schilling took the MN class and founded an organization called Friends of the Rivers, which has a mission of educating the community about the value and fragility of the estuarine system. Friends volunteers, both students and adults, monitor water quality and provide data to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Jim and Marianne Rothnie, former Bostonians, moved to Brays Island in 2002 after falling in love with the area during several vacation visits. They have used what they learned from two separate MN classes to set up a Nature Center and Nature Program in their community.

“A number of resident at Brays will take future Master Naturalist courses because our program has whetted their appetites to learn more,” said Rothnie.

Diane Rand, who took the course in 2003 and served as a MN class volunteer in 2004, has used what she learned to lead birding and nature walks in Sun City, where she and her husband bought a home in 2000.

Ed Pappas and his wife, Sandra, enrolled in the first MN class after becoming Master Gardeners. They came to South Carolina in 1998 after he retired from AT&T in New Jersey.

“We’ve always been interested in the environment, but coming from the Northeast we found ourselves in a significantly different place,” he said. “We were eager to learn about the ecology of the Low Country.” He now volunteers for outreach programs with the Low Country Institute and has been elected to chair an ecology committee in the Callawassie Island community.

The MN classes have even helped South Carolina native Brandon Hoffman, a Swansea native and holder of a Clemson University degree in wildlife biology. He took the course as a form of continuing education, and has found the lessons on ecosystems invaluable in his position as Nature Center Coordinator at the Sea Pines Resort.

For Mike Ervin, a retired physician from Dayton, Ohio, who moved to Spring Island two and a half years ago, Master Naturalist was an eye-opener.

“Instead of seeing sand and mud when the tide goes out, now I see a live, complex arena. I see fiddler crabs in their holes and four different types of Spartina grass and how they are important to the life cycles of the fish we eat,” he said.

Marsh said that plans call for eventually expanding MN to the rest of South Carolina, since every part of the state has its own special ecological niches that need to be protected.

“Our role is to develop a good benchmark group that other people can look at,” he said. The class based at Edisto Island was a first step in that direction.

“We ran that program on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources, which wanted to train some volunteers to work in the ACE Basin,” he said. “When we get the kinks out of this model, then we can export it.”

And in case you didn’t know:

Live Oaks are evergreens and that’s why they shed leaves in the spring. The armored possum is an armadillo and the white bird could be a snowy egret or a cattle egret; it’s hard to say without a photo.

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