ECIMN 2015 Year in Review

Sixty-one master naturalists attended the ECIMN annual meeting on November 7 at Homer Lake; top highlights of this year included:

• 126 East Central Illinois Master Naturalists reported volunteer hours (8,150) in the first 10 months of 2015 on a pace to exceed 2014.
• The 2015 training class had 40 attendees – a record not seen since 2006. The class of 2014 had 31 graduates.
• Welcome new Advisory Board members Jim Hamilton (2011), Roger Inman (2010), and Mary Long (2013), and thanks to retiring AB members Gary Russell (2011), John Palen (2012), and Dave Easter (2012).
• Fourteen continuing education programs and five site tours were held in 2015. Topics included pollinators, emerald ash borer, climate change, native plants, astronomy, and falconry.
• New ongoing projects for ECIMN volunteers include a natural area at Bottenfield Elementary School and a rain garden at Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Foundation, both in Champaign.
• The annual ECIMN native tree and shrub sale netted $1500 for the organization and added 216 native plants to area habitat. The top seller was the hummingbird-friendly New Jersey tea shrub.

By John Palen (2012)