Long before Bob Thomas founded the Louisiana Master Naturalist Association, he grew up in central Louisiana, wandering the woods and waterways for snakes, frogs and bugs.

"It was a wonderful place for me," Thomas said, "because I was in the field all the time. Snakes were dripping out of the trees and fish were jumping out of the water."

His love for nature, fostered by a Louisiana wilderness childhood, led him to jungle after jungle studying snakes and their adaptations — Thomas became a snake expert, an environmental biology professor, the founding director of the Louisiana Nature Center and the director of the Center for Environmental Communication at Loyola University.

He wanted to share this knowledge and passion with people beyond academia. After several years of trying, he finall

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