Mississippi Master Naturalists

One of our many Master Nat rock stars!! Thank you Yvonne!!!

🎉Volunteer Spotlight: Yvonne Rogers!
Yvonne has been sharing her time and talent with the Museum since the early 2010s, from helping with summer camps to her current work with our Herbarium.

She loves inspiring others to appreciate Mississippi’s natural environments. Her efforts have contributed to thousands of plant specimens, including work on Miss Fannye Cook’s historic collection.

We’re so grateful for everything she brings to the Museum! 💚

Shout out to our key supporters and partners at MMNS!!! This is a big deal to not only maintain their national accreditation but excelled across the board in the review!!

Major Kudos!!

We are proud to announce that the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science has once again achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums. This is the highest national recognition a museum can receive, and fewer than four percent of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums currently hold this distinction.

This milestone reflects the heart of our mission. As our Director Angel Rohnke stated, “Reaccreditation affirms what we strive for every day to serve as responsible stewards of Mississippi’s natural history and the resources entrusted to us.” The reaccreditation process demonstrates our commitment to best practices, high professional standards, and excellence in education, conservation, and collections care.

We are honored to continue inspiring Mississippians and visitors to understand, appreciate, and protect the incredible biodiversity of our state. Thank you to everyone who supports our mission and helps make this work possible.💚

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science FoundationMississippi State ParksVisit MississippiVisit Jackson, MSAmerican Alliance of Museums

AWESOME ALERT!!!

The Clinton Community Nature Center has a few events coming up at the end of the month and in November, including:

October 28 @ 10am: Lecture on native plants and native gardens, led by Master Naturalists Lisa Martin, Jeanette Morgan, and Beattie Williams...Wooo Wooo Central Master Nats Alumni!!!

November 15 from 9am-1pm: Native Plant Sale

November 15 from 8:30am-2pm: Plant Propagation Workshop, led by Gail Barton and Heather Sullivan (one of our most fabulous Co-Instructors for the Central Master Naturalist chapter course)

Go check them out!! e

Super neat news from our coastal Louisiana neighbors! 🐢

There is now an outdoor learning space at our Coastal Chapter’s main office in Biloxi! Staff from MSU's Coastal Conservation and Restoration Program and Master Naturalist volunteers have restored an area of unused garden spaces, lawn, and an area of Chinese tallow inundated wetland into pollinator habitat creating an area outside for environmental education. 🌱🌼🐛

This space includes a wildflower meadow, pollinator garden, sitting tables, foraging garden, restored wetland, phenology trail, and soft landing sites. Since it’s construction, over 400 students and educators have utilized this space for field days, homeschool programs, and workshops implementing educational lessons on pollinator ecology, habitat management, invasive species, resiliency, and more. We also became a certified Monarch Waystation! 🦋

This project was funded through NOAA Planet Stewards and titled “Restoration and stewardship of pollinator habitats through outdoor learning spaces.”. We look forward to the future use of this amazing outdoor learning space! We could not have accomplished this without the support of the funders, partners, staff and volunteers.

To learn more about this project, please visit https://msucoastal.com/outdoor-learning/

🐢🐢🐢

Wow!!

What an episode by MS Master Naturalist and conservation icon in her own right, Former Museum Director Libby Hartfield on Fannye Cook - the woman who saved MS natural resouces!!

Give it a listen and then share it!!

Ep. 346: Backwoods University - The Woman Who Saved Mississippi's Natural Resources Podcast Episode · Bear Grease · 07/21/2025 · 36m

Our Final week!!

Congrats to our 2025 Central MS Master Naturalist Class!!! Newly trained and energized volunteeers ready to make positive impacts in their communities and environment!!

Huge shout out to all our co-instructors, interns, volunteers, and Mississippi Museum of Natural Science for being our main partner and host!

Want to join us next year? Go to our website for more information: https://masternaturalist.extension.msstate.edu

MS South Delta Feild Trip: Stop 2

After visiting the river we headed north to a private farm that is actively involved in natural resource conservation programs including smart irrigation programs, water quality protection, and creating wildlife habitat.

Kevin Nelms USDA NRCS Wildife Biologist, a 20 plus year veteran, always gives us a real world distillation of how all this works with real farmers including how they make management and financial decisions towards the end goal of stewardship!

Interesting research in a beloved species - Hummingbirds

Backyard feeders are reshaping hummingbirds - The Wildlife Society Researchers link rapid range expansion and bill changes in Anna’s hummingbirds to decades of feeder use

The 2025 Pearl River Clean Sweep is quickly approaching!!! Please remember that you will be able to double count your volunteer hours for participating in this event!!

You can and MUST register for the event on the Pearl Riverkeeper website.

This event was created by our own Abby Braman’18 and dozens of master nat alum participate and lead groups!! Get out there and sweep!! 🧹