Kentucky Master Naturalist Conference-2025
The Master Naturalist Conference was an opportunity to teach my colleagues about the benefits of nature therapy, how they can practice, and a chance to take a small nature therapy walk at Lake Cumberland State Resort Park. The odd thing about presenting about nature therapy at a naturalist conference is in nature therapy we suspsed the need to identify plants, animals, trees (minus things like poison ivy, ticks, stinging nettle, wasp, etc.) We just simply ask to know a tree as a tree, a flower as a flower.
It was almost daunting to ask a group of professionals to not flex their naturalist muscle, but to let it rest and to just be with the land. As a forest therapy guide and a naturalist it is a fine line to straddle. It has taken practice to have the intention to nature bathe and to not worry about something I cannot identify, or something I want to identify later. It is a relief to be embodied with your senses and to just feel the grass or the bark of a tree and not worry if it is a sedge or a sycamore.
After the presentations I lead a small group on a walk to experience different elements of nature therapy. Like any Kentucky summer day we had to face pop-up rain, storms, and high humidity. There were elements of slowing down, using our touch on wet grass, and using our sense of smell after a brief but heavy rain. The walk pulsed a little bit into the woods, and back out to our sharing circle, then more pulsing to the tree line and trail. We concluded with a final round of sharing about our walk and got a small respite from the heat with some lemonade and water.
I have been a park professional working off and on in parks for the past 12 years. I have learned to re-appreciate the feel of a tree leaf in my finger and to save the dicot key and iNaturalist for a later time. When I hear an unfamiliar bird I don’t immediately bring up the Merlin app, but I just wonder quietly to myself where the bird is flying to. It is a practice to balance the naturalist mind with the nature mind. To be a naturalist and to love what you learn has been one of the greatest professional rewards I’ve experienced.
