Master Naturalist goes on the road with “Secrets of the Santa Rita Mountains”

A Cohort 2 Master Naturalist, Dave DeGroot, is gathering stories from years of hiking the Santa Rita Mountains. He will share them in fast-moving presentations in local libraries under the title “Secrets of the Santa Rita Mountains.” Libraries are booking his pesentation for dates in mid-August.

“When I was teaching in Sahuarita I used to head for the mountains every Friday afternoon as soon as I was off the clock,” Dave says. “Depending on the time of the year, I could usually count on four or five hours of hiking on low trails, high trails, game trails, etc. The mountains were a place where I would recharge my batteries.”

Dave also took a lot of pictures with his iPhone, a camera with a long lens, and a trail camera.

“Close encounters with big animals were always exciting,” Dave says. “Bears, Coues whitetail deer, coatis, and ringtails were always memorable, but even kangaroo rats have stories to tell. Once I rescued a kangaroo rat who was stuck painfully inside a jacket of jumping cholla spines. And then there are the four kinds of big cats that haunt the northern part of the Santa Ritas – three of which showed up on trail camera pictures.”

Dave is a certified Master Naturalist and a docent for both Friends of Madera Canyon and the Town of Marana (Tortolita Mountains). As a teacher he organized field trips into the Santa Ritas for his classes, during which students hiked, studied wildlife, and even panned for gold.

“I think that even people who know a lot about the mountains will learn new things from my presentation – especially about the northern area above Vail and Corona de Tucson,” Dave says. “I try to keep my style of speaking and projecting pictures on a big screen closer to ‘entertainment’ than ‘exposition.’ “

Three libraries so far have booked Dave’s presentation. Each event will last approximately 45 minutes and will be open to the public in the library’s community room.  

• Tues., Aug. 13: Sahuarita Public Library, 670 Sahuarita Rd. (near Sahuarita Town Hall) 4:30 pm.
• Thurs., Aug. 15: Wheeler Taft-Abbett Library, 7800 N. Schisler (Silverbell & N. Cortaro) 5:30 pm.
• Thurs., Aug. 22: Dusenberry-River Library, 5605 E. River (River and Craycroft) 5:30 pm.