Butterfly House Training

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Volunteering at the Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield MO Botanical Gardens is my favorite volunteer gig from May-September. Last week was the final training….in the butterfly house itself.

The late afternoon was breezy and a little chilly when I arrived at the park. I wore a sweater. The gardens on the way to the butterfly house were looking good – trees leafed out…past the spring bulb flowers and waiting for the summer bloomers.

Inside the house there were tiny caterpillars to discover. I didn’t have equipment to attempt to photograph them….but I did make a map of the trees in the house. The photos are of the largest ones: tulip poplar (for tiger swallowtail caterpillars) and pawpaw (for zebra swallowtail caterpillars). The others are wafer ash, spicebush, black willow, and false indigo bush.

Some butterflies were brought in but not released to the house while we were there. They were not very active because of the temperature. There are enough flowers blooming for nectar – butterfly food. There were even some milkweed plants with buds that will be fragrant and full of nectar when they bloom.

I missed the part of the training that was held in the Botanical Center (since I went straight to the butterfly house) but it was evidently the same as last year. The procedures for opening and closing were reviewed in the house…and tips for handling various situations. Even though the way we sign up for shifts is new…the skills I learned volunteering last season and in previous butterfly houses are still pertinent.

Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden

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Volunteering to maintain the Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden is a new type of volunteering for me! So far it has been all about pulling weeds and taking out debris from last season. The goal is to get the garden on the lake side of the boathouse iv prime shape for early summer pictures (the place is popular for weddings). The plants are mostly native, so they grow well if left alone. There are stone paths through the sloped garden to make it easier to reach weeds among the plants we want to thrive.

All the volunteers come with gloves and a bucket…maybe some hand tools. The bucket is for holding what we are taking away from the garden area that gets dumped in a natural area nearby to decay.

The crew of Master Naturalists meets on the same day every week and works for a couple of hours or more. At this point I am still new to the tasks but learning fast; hopefully part of the learning will be figuring out how to do it in a way that my back does not hurt!

Plastic Crisis – Plastic and Conservation After School Program

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I participated in a program about plastics and conservation for an after-school program at an area school. The grade range for the 43 participants was first through eighth grade. We did the program twice…to make the group size more management for the activities.

The gym was equipped with a projector for our short slide show to set the stage (featured a short video of animals in Missouri, a beautiful view of the Missouri river/a view of the river bank full of plastic waste), a little about how plastic is produced, and a picture of peanut the turtle (a turtle rescued with band of plastic around its middle deforming its shell).

There were two activities that the students rotated through: 1) a web game where a ball of yarn was thrown to participants in a circle representing parts of a Missouri ecosystem  to help the students visualize what happens as plastic impacts a web of life– usually in negative way and 2) looking at a piece of synthetic fabric under a microscope and talking more how many things we use every day are plastic and are shedding tiny pieces as we wear them…and launder them.

The whole group was back together for the last activity. There was a bin of water to represent a river and a small empty bin to represent a landfill. Every 30 seconds another small bin of trash was dumped into the ‘river’….and there was an effort to scoop it up and put it in the ‘landfill.’ It didn’t take long before 1) the landfill was overflowing and 2) there were still some trash in the river that we didn’t get out fast enough!

As we summed up, we asked what kinds of things they could do to reduce plastics…lots of interesting ideas emerged. When we asked if they thought their school could try a plastic free lunch day next school year …they were enthusiastic. Some of them said they should try a week or a month plastic free. It might not be as hard for their school since the cafeteria has reusable items. They agreed that those that brought their lunch might need to rethink small plastic bags!

At the end we were handed Thank You notes the children had made!

Plastic Crisis – Earth Day Music Festival

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My second Earth Day Festival for 2026 was Springfield’s Earth Day Music Festival - a plastic-free, leave-no-waste sustainability-driven live music festival. For Beyond Plastics Ozarks, it was our first tabling event. Our goal was to talk to festival goers about reducing plastics in tangible ways…hand out donated reusable bags to those willing to use them rather than taking the store-provided single use plastic bags…and develop a list of people willing to join our efforts.

I started the day early since I was bringing the materials for the table: tables, banner, camp chairs, umbrella with weighted base (and extra weights), info sheets from Show-me Less Plastic, and a mind map I created for what individuals can start doing at home. I had started adding rocks to make sure papers did not blow away but, once I looked at the forecast and saw it was going to be very breezy, I added decorative bookends to the bins….and there were 55 donated bags of various sizes/colors to hand out. The collapsible wagon I had recently purchased from Costco held everything which meant I didn’t have to carry anything more than a few steps. I was at the venue early enough to park in a nearby garage so I simply loaded my wagon after I parked and walked across the street with it rather than unload at the curb before I parked the car.

Our assigned space was under a tree! I had an umbrella that I set up for a few hours but took it down after the wind got too gusty; the tree provided plenty of shade. Other than the wind gusts, the weather was perfect for the festival.

The rocks and bookends worked great. After I got them arranged well, there were no papers blowing from our table. The indoor plants vendor next door was challenged to keep smaller plants on the shelves. They kept blowing off and landing in our booth! A booth further down that was doing a craft (nature stamps on cards) occasionally had cards flying.

I was at the table most of the time from about 9:30 to 6…setting up initially for the festival to open at 11…and packing up at 6 when the evening musicians were just setting up. I appreciated being able to leave before the crowds…just as I had arrived before the crowds.

It was a good first tabling – over 100 people stopped to talk and over 25 people indicated there were interested in learning more. Of course – this event being plastic free was probably a friendlier audience than we will find generally. I learned more about tabling on a windy day (bookends worked great…the umbrella did not)…and that the wagon was a great purchase for this type of event.

I did browse the other tables at mid-day…came home with a free smooth sumac to plant in a back corner of my yard. Lunch was 3 tacos in the compostable container from one of the food trucks. I refilled my water bottle at the water wagon a few times! Overall – a productive day for Beyond Plastics Ozarks…and enjoyable too with music and dancing just down the hill for our booth.

Earth Day Tabling

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I volunteered for two Earth Day events last week. The first one was on the grounds of a church; several Master Naturalists and I volunteered at two tables contains skulls and pelts….and exploring rotten logs. That’s not my favorite tabling topics…because with skulls and pelts the question about where they came from always come up; my standard answer is that they are provided to us by Missouri Department of Conservation to use for public or school outreach events. I like to contrast skulls/teeth of carnivores and herbivores with omnivores in-between. I had a coyote and red fox representing carnivores, white-tailed deer and beaver representing herbivore….then racoon as an omnivore.

It was a cold morning so there were not many children at the celebration for the first few hours. The rotten logs did not get a lot of attention from the adults that braved the cold. Shortly afternoon, we had some children start to peel off layers of bark and rotting wood looking for critters --- finding some and having a good time looking at the textures of wood and fungi while they worked.

Our tables were under a large tree with a good view of a neighboring sweet gum tree with lots of last fall’s gumballs still on the ground. I was pleased to see that even the decoration of the bathroom inside the church was nature themed!

My shift lasted for 3 hours and it was just warming up enough to shed my coat when I left; I figure that the shift from 1-4 had a lot more traffic!

Stay tuned for a post on my second Earth Table tabling experience where the topic was plastics.

Friends of the Library

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I volunteered with my local Friends of the Library (FOL) to set up 5 tables of used books/puzzles for an Indoor Garage Sale event at the local community center; the gymnasium floor was covered and taped for the event and there seemed to be plenty of other participants – no other used books though.

This year the Friends of the Library are adding more places the used books are getting sold although the annual sales associated with each library are also continuing. The prices are the same at all the events. Hopefully the net will be increased sales by getting the used books seen by a different audience….and more $$ for library programs!

I focused on the history and biography table. There were enough other volunteers to get the 5 tables fully loaded in less than an hour. It was so quick that my back didn’t bother me at all!

The tables and boxes of books were brought over on a truck…and we were hopeful that the load returning will be just the tables! Any books left after events are boxed to go to a book reseller…not saved for a future FOL event.

Plastic Crisis - Actions at the Community Level – February 2026

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At the end of January, it seemed like my community level activities about plastics had started out at a bit faster than I anticipated….and I wondered if it would continue. February was a month of preparation for things that would happen in April and beyond; I didn’t anticipate that there would be plastic-related legislation to begin tracking too!  

There currently are two plastic-related bills filed in the Missouri House. Neither is on the House calendar but they both had ‘read second time’ action in February:

  • HB 3193 - Phases out the use of single-use plastic products at Missouri State Parks and Historic Sites

  • HB 3357 - Prohibits the sale of intravenous solution containers and intravenous tubing products intentionally made with DEHP

I will be following both; it will be my first experience with tracking something through the Missouri legislative process. Beyond Plastics Ozarks will have to decide how we want to include information about these in upcoming outreach activities.

Beyond Plastics Ozarks’ first tabling - outreach event will be in April – associated with an Earth Day music festival. I’ve requested copies of information sheets from Show-me Less Plastic and have ideas for additional handouts that are more locally focused. We’ll probably make a sign to advertise our ‘bring your own bag (BYOB)’ initiative that we’ll start at local farmer’s markets. I’m collecting rocks to keep handout pages secure on the table even if it is breezy.

I’ve been asked to do a presentation at the state conference for Master Gardeners on microplastics in June. I’ve gathered some presentation materials from others and will facilitate a brainstorming session that will develop some gardener specific ideas on reducing microplastics.

Having a plastics movie showing and lining up tabling at farmer’s markets is still on the Beyond Plastics Ozarks ‘to do’ list. It looks like the first 6 months of 2026 are going to be busy!

Looking Ahead to 2026

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With 2025 winding down, I am thinking about what will stay the same…what will be different in 2026.

On the ‘different’ list are:

  • Ramping up activity with Beyond Plastics Ozarks

  • Organizing Winter Wellness field trips in January and February for the chapter of Missouri Master Naturalistis in Springfield and making sure training/field trips that are offered by other organizations but relevant to the membership are communicated throughout the year

  • Reducing plastics in my life/home

  • Planting a front yard native plant garden in the spring and maintaining/adding to it during its first year

  • Remembering to use violets from my yard as greens in season (rather than buying greens)

On the ‘same’ list are:

  • Traveling to Lewisville every month to see my Dad

  • Arranging programs for the chapter of Missouri Master Naturalists in Springfield

  • Staffing shifts at the Roston Butterfly House

  • Sorting donated used books at my county library and setting up for books sales

  • Posting daily to my blog

  • Browsing/reading at least 4 books per day

  • Walking on the treadmill if I am not otherwise active each day

And there are bound to be things that will occur and force me to change that I am not anticipating!

Volunteering – November 2025

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October was a lull in regular Missouri Master Naturalist volunteer gigs; the Butterfly House closing at the beginning of the month and Project FeederWatch not yet begun. Project FeederWatch starts in November and will continue until the spring. My husband I enjoy our view of the birds at our feeders through a window…accumulating our count for each week. I looked back at my FeederWatch pictures from last year and created the slideshow below…savoring the images before we really get going on FeederWatch volunteering this year.

The fall festival volunteering bridged September and October and is over until the spring festivals start. The hours to support the MMN chapter continue throughout the year.

I attended the Beyond Plastics Grassroots Advocacy Training so I am ready for that volunteering in the coming months; it will probably be the most significant change in the type of volunteering I do…and I am still exploring the form it will take.

I am still volunteering as a Friends of the Library in the county where I live. It takes the form of sorting used books and then setting up for used book sales. This month there will be a general meeting of the group that I plan to attend.

Overall – the cool season volunteering is beginning and I am looking forward to the change.

Roston Butterfly House Finale 2025

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The season for the Roston Butterfly House at the Springfield (MO) Botanical gardens ended the first weekend in October. I continued my weekly shifts.

On some of the cooler mornings in September, the caterpillars were the big show. Sometimes the skippers and hummingbird moths outside the house were more active. As the morning warmed, the butterflies in the house became more active and some seemed to enjoy sitting on people (including me)!

The large silkworm moths (cecropia, polyphemus, and luna) were not as available for display as during the summer months.

There was a very hungry tiger swallowtail caterpillar on a tulip poplar leaf; I made a short video.

My last shift was the Monday before the last weekend. The ‘stars’ of the shift were the Monarch butterflies (looking health and ready to migrate south), a black swallowtail caterpillar, and a luna moth (the last of the large species of silk moths we had to display).

I enjoy this type of volunteering…plant to do it again in 2026 and maybe do even more shifts!

Native American Heritage Celebration

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I volunteered in the Master Naturalist booth at the Native American Heritage Celebration at Wonders of Wildlife in late September. It was a Friday-Sunday event with school groups coming on the Friday. We had two tables – one for bison (things that were made from bison parts) and trees of Missouri.

The students seemed to enjoy both topics – some spending quite a lot of time touching items and interacting with us. I usually did the tree table…linked trees to Native American heritage with the hedge apple/osage orange wood being used for bows and eastern redcedar (medicine, flavoring, ritual/ceremony). The first year maple-in-a-bottle sparked their interest too…particularly the variety of roots (some hairlike, some stubby, the thick central root).

They looked at different kinds of cones (the egg shaped/sized shortleaf cone being the only one native to Missouri) and talked about things children might do with pine cones – now and before Europeans came.

I was glad that I could put tree related Missouri Department of Conservation publications on a nearby table…they were available but not taking any space away from my tree samples.

Volunteering – August 2023

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I have three areas of volunteering going on this summer: Friends of the Library, Master Naturalist chapter, and Butterfly House (that counts as Master Naturalist hours too).

I volunteer once a month to sort used books at my local library that will be sold in the sales that happen once a year at each branch. Setting up or helping during the sale itself is another volunteer opportunity (I prefer the set up!). This month the sale will be at the branch closest to where I live but I have used the sales as an opportunity to explore other the parts of the county that I am not as familiar with. The monthly sorting usually starts out a bit daunting with tables full of books that have been donated. Two people come in each week but there are certainly times that there is more than two people can sort into shelving by subject or box up within the 2-hour shift. I am always relieved when the table is cleared when I leave…and that the area is air conditioned; sorting books is good exercise.

I am the programs chair for my local Missouri Master Naturalist chapter, so I am doing the behind-the-scenes activity to arrange for speakers…and writing announcements to the chapter about what is happening. The speakers count as advanced training so I create an entry in the tool we have for logging our advanced training so that others can simply select it when they attend…minimizing what they must do to get credit for the training.

The Butterfly House has been my most substantial volunteering this summer…both in the house itself talking to visitors as they enjoy the butterflies and moths there and raising Luna moth caterpillars at home that have been taken to the house as big caterpillars and moths recently. The large cecropia caterpillars on display in the butterfly house recently were the 3 that were raised with my luna caterpillars (because they were mixed in when I was given the bin with a lot of newly hatched caterpillars). 

I’ve enjoyed all the volunteer gigs I’ve had this summer…even the ones that were outdoors on very hot days!

Volunteering at the Library

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I helped set up the used book sale at one of our county libraries last Friday. It was different than last year because the room was in use until 5 PM so our set up was delayed until after that. In addition, it was raining all afternoon. I wondered if there were going to be a lot of wet boxes.

I got there about 10 minutes before the allotted time and there were indeed people in the room, so I worked on a jigsaw puzzle that the library had set up near a window while I waited. Other volunteers were arriving too – some with a load of book boxes in their cars (since it was raining – enclosed vehicles were required…the usual pickups could not be used).

After helping stack chairs and move tables to the periphery of the room, I got started on the children’s books like what I did last year. There was a table and a cart. The differences from last year were 1) more helpers and 2) less books (we estimated what we needed for the sale based on what happened last year). I had two helpers that loaded the bottom shelf of the cart, so I didn’t have any backache from this set up! We were done in less than an hour.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2025

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Butterflies and birds…visiting a prairie and the place I spent some formative years….lot to celebrate in June.

Butterfly Festival. I volunteered at the Master Naturalist booth for the Butterfly Festival at the Springfield Botanical Garden. It was very well attended, and people seemed to be enjoying filling in the butterfly passport; I began to feel like a recording talking about the spicebush swallowtail as I handed out stickers…but kept going because the children’s excitement was contagious!

1st graders in the Caterpillar Café. 80 first graders and chaperones. I was glad the cabbages had caterpillars on them! The big message of the game I played with them was that most caterpillars don’t survive (i.e. they get eaten…baby birds need them!). I was glad I had prepared well enough that none of them cried!

Morning in the Butterfly House. I always choose the 10 AM to 12:30 PM shift in the butterfly house because it is the coolest time of the day…and, so far, every shift has been something to celebrate…and there are lots of aspects to celebrate: quiet time with butterflies/moths, watching caterpillars munching on leaves (or deciding to go walkabout), the development of fruit on the pawpaw trees, people (local and from around the world) enjoying the place.  

Luna moth caterpillars. This celebration is ongoing because the caterpillars are still growing. I celebrate every time I count and realize that the numbers munching is staying about the same (i.e. not much mortality). Every time they shed their skin and are noticeably bigger, I celebrate their survival and realize that I will have to ramp up the amount of leaves I provide.

Magnolia petals as seasoning. I celebrated my daughter’s introducing me to magnolia petals. I tried slivers in salad and a stir fry. I liked them best in the stir fry (a little strong raw). My son-in-law made kombucha with them…and I am looking forward to trying it.

Schuette prairie. My fourth prairie walk…and probably my last until it begins to cool down. I celebrated that I could identify some of the plants I’d seen on other prairies and saw bunchflower for the first time.

River Bend Nature Center. I visited Wichita Falls – where I attended grades K-10 in the 1960s - and celebrated the new-to-me River Bend Nature Center that is just the kind of place I would like to volunteer. There are aspects of our formative years that we seek to replicate in our lives….but this was an instance where I felt the place was still attuned to what I need now more than 50 years later.

Juvenile robins. I celebrated that the robins seem to spend more time in our yard…and the juvenile robins seemed to congregate in my shade garden. Maybe not using chemicals on the yard and leaving the leaves on the backyard through the winter has made a positive difference!

Missouri evening primrose. I celebrated the large yellow flowers of the native evening primrose I bought last month. It started blooming soon after I planted it and kept getting new buds.  

Hummingbird at our feeder. There is a female hummingbird that comes to the feeder on my office window multiple times a day. She gets a good long drink and seems to look at me before she flies way! I wonder if she is raising young birds nearby. Celebrating a relationship with a bird!

Roston Butterfly House

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The seasonal Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield MO Botanical Gardens opened in mid-May and I have enjoyed my initial shifts. It will be my primary volunteer activity until September! The mornings are still cool enough that sometimes the butterflies are not as active when my shift starts at 10…. they warm up and are more active before the shift ends at 12:30 PM. I signed up for mornings-only from the beginning but have already learned that in May, the temperature for any of the shifts would not be problematic!

It is easy to get pictures with my phone!

I find myself enjoying being in the butterfly house just as I did in Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy in Maryland (pre-Covid). There is something magical about so many butterflies in a confined space. The Roston Butterfly House is only native species so there no biological containment requirement…which makes it less stressful for volunteers!

Volunteering – April 2025

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April was a month of volunteering and training for some new activities in the upcoming months. I was glad to use my tree materials again at the Scouting event, find 23 puzzles for my dad as I volunteered twice with Friends of the Library (at a used book sale and sorting books for the next sale), talk to people visiting Nature Touch Tables as part of Earth Day, and do another month of Feeder Watch (citizen science). I also worked on the programs (planning, prep, and follow-up) for the Master Naturalist Chapter. I am looking forward to Butterfly House related volunteering beginning in May.

I am thinking about my motivations in volunteering. After I retired more than a decade ago, volunteer activities became one of the best sources of interaction with a broader range of people. That is still the case. I chose to become a Maryland Master Naturalist since I also wanted at least some of the volunteer work to be outdoors; becoming a Missouri Master Naturalist is the same. In Maryland, the reactions of school groups on field trip hikes, conversations with other volunteers before and afterward, and positive feedback from non-profits that organized the events were the appreciation/acknowledgment that what I was doing mattered. In Missouri, it is the same although there is the added dimension of the Master Naturalist Chapter. I’m not sure what I expect….it could just be more ‘icing on the cake’!

Volunteering is good for my community and for me too!

Zooming – April 2025

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Springtime photography….is April the best month? It seems like that might be true this year. The photographs were taken at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, my yard, the Missouri State University Campus, my daughter’s yard, Onondaga Cave, and 2 volunteer activities. There were so many images to choose from; I selected 23. I used three different cameras – iPhone 15 Pro Max, Canon Powershot SX730 HS, and Nikon Coolpix P950. Enjoy the slideshow!

Training and Volunteering in Lebanon MO

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I had responded to a request from a fellow Missouri Master Naturalist for a program last weekend – a little bit of training and volunteering about an hour from where I live. There was heavy rain for the drive there – but it was weekend and the traffic was not as heavy as usual on the interstate. Fortunately, the first part was training so I could destress after the drive. I wandered around the Route 66 museum that is housed in the same building with the library. It was interesting – lots of items specific to Lebanon and then more broadly to Route 66. Much was before my memories began so I would have appreciated a few more dates for the pictures and newspaper articles. I enjoyed seeing the displays….glad I don’t have to drive over any ‘bone-jarring Ozark rock roads’!

I do vaguely remember one of my grandmothers having a wringer washing machine in the barn in the early 60s so that was something in the museum that looked familiar.

Then I had a brief training on the nature touch tables set up in the foyer of the library/museum. There were skulls and rocks and pelts and snake models/skins/id puzzles and pictures of caves and wildlife there – a bat preserved in acrylic. Handouts for each topic from Missouri Department of Conservation were available and many people took at least one. The snake booklets were probably the most popular.

I’m learning a lot about different parts of Missouri through Missouri Master Naturalist volunteering…I like feeling more familiar with the state where I now live and interacting with people!

Butterfly House Training

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My plan is to do a lot of volunteering to support the Roston Native Butterfly House during its May – September season. The training for new docents was this month – 1.5 hours on a Saturday morning. The training was held at the Springfield Botanical Center. I arrived a little early and took some pictures of plants near the entrance as I walked in. The spring bulbs are almost done…but there are a few that are still beautiful.

There will be an orientation in the butterfly house itself in the days before the opening to the public and new docents are paired with experienced ones as the season starts. There might be some additional volunteer roles helping with school tours to the butterfly house. I am confident that it will be a rewarding experience – maybe my volunteer gig for summers for the next several years at least.

The session was well organized with folders of information for everyone, a signup sheet to get t-shirts, and forms to fill out. Their goal was to have 60 volunteer docents to keep the butterfly house running smoothly. They had that many last year and hopefully the new volunteers, like me, will make up for any attrition.

There are similarities and differences between the volunteering I did in Maryland at Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy. I am relieved that the containment requirements at this butterfly house are much easier since the butterflies are all natives! As far as interacting with visitors, I am anticipating that it will be very similar and something I will enjoy.

Used Puzzles!

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This is my second year to volunteer with the used book sale held by my local Friends of the Library. This year the first set up day was raining so transporting boxes of books from the storage area to the location of the sale was a bit more challenging. I helped set up tables to load with the books and then to unpacked boxes. We had to get everything off the floor before we were left since the building has sometimes gotten flooded in the past; the rain had stopped…but the nearby river might not have crested.

I volunteered again on the first day of the sale – the ‘members only’ afternoon and evening. The building had not flooded so the second day of set up had gotten everything in place and ready for people to buy books.

There was a rack that was great for displaying puzzles that was brought in on that second day of set up that was new this year; there was also a table full of puzzles.

I bought 20 300-piece puzzles for my dad! They are quite a bargain at $2 each. I will take them 4-5 at a time when I make my monthly trip to Dallas!