Hello! My name is Linda Nixon. In December 2016, I retired from my job as Environmental Services Manager for the City of Hemet California Public Works Department, and immediately packed up and moved to Princeton, Texas. Why? Grandkids!

Once I got here, I discovered a completely different environment than the desert area I came from, and I wanted to learn more! My first learning opportunity arrived when I decided to plant some flowers. I could not believe how black, sticky, and heavy the soil was. I went to a local nursery and asked what I could do to "fix" this black stuff. Luckily they told me just to add some compost. The next thing I did was purchase some native plants at the Annual Native Plant Sale at the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney Texas. I put them in the black soil and they liked it! Later I learned I am lucky to live in the Blackland Prairie ecological region of Texas that was once covered by 12 million acres of tallgrass prairie. Today there are less than 5,000 acres remaining.

Fast forward to the present: I became a Texas Master Naturalist with the Blackland Prairie Chapter in 2018. I am a regular volunteer at the Heard Natural Science Museum in the animal care program and am also a trail guide. I learned about iNaturalist at the 2018 Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting. I've been dabbling with it ever since as a way to learn about what I see outside. My long term goal is to learn more about iNaturalist and to get more involved in the iNat community. To prove it, I completed this profile!