-
Master Naturalists Abroad
(Or at least outside Austin!) On April 22 (Earth Day, a super-holiday for conservationists), I had the chance to travel east to the Caddo Lakes region of Texas – nearly Louisiana – and meet up with some of the Texas Master Naturalists in the Cypress Basin Chapter. Their event – the 5th Annual Flotilla held in Uncertain,…
-
Madrone Canyon Hike on May 6, 2017
[soliloquy id=”26425″] It was comfortably cool, bright, and dry for our hike on May 6. Lots of plants are blooming now: Engelmann’s Sage (Salvia engelmannii ), Barbara’s Buttons (Marshallia caespitosa ), Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), and Devil’s Shoestring (Nolina lindheimeriana), and the Missouri Primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa) on the east side of the Canyon is putting…
-
Inaugural Day at the Vireo Preserve Nursery
[soliloquy id=”26358″] Author: Jean Love The first workday for the Vireo Preserve Nursery, April 3, 2017 was great fun. The fence around the nursery area was completed just last week, and we are ready to continue to build our stock of plants destined mostly for planting in the Vireo Preserve and other parcels of the…
-
At the Vireo Preserve on March 5, 2017
[soliloquy id=”26295″] (Article by Jean Love. Photos by Marc Opperman) Volunteers who came to work at the Vireo Preserve on Sunday, March 5 participated in inoculating logs with spores of reishi, oyster, and turkey tail mushrooms. We had a large group of volunteers, and Jim O’Donnell, biologist with the City of Austin, brought all the…
-
The 2017 Bethany 4-H Club Butterfly Garden at Oak Springs Villas
(By Jean Love) On Saturday, February 25 the Bethany 4-H Club dug and planted the 2017 Bethany 4-H Club Butterfly Garden at Oak Springs Villas. The parent advisor of the 4-H Club, Ms. Valerie Queen, had ordered a butterfly garden kit that included bulbs and roots of several kinds of butterfly host and nectar plants.…
-
News from the Vireo Preserve 2/3/17
Description of activities at the Vireo Preserve
-
Lake Fail
Welcome to great big puddle under the overpass linking 183 and MoPac. Lake Fail is truly a place for the birds.
-
Love Notes:Long Canyon
On a cold and gray Saturday morning in December, Gloria and Robert–volunteers with the City of Austin Wildlands Division– guided us on a hike in the Long Canyon parcel of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, west of 360 and south of 2222. Rainwater runoff had formed the thick juniper duff into natural berms and swales in…
-
Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting Trip Report
(Trip report submitted by Mikael Behrens) I was fortunate to be able to attend the Texas Master Naturalist 17th Annual Meeting (October 21-23, 2016), and boy did it give me a lot to think about! The meeting was held at a resort on Lake Conroe, just north of Houston. Ironically, I and so many other naturalist…
-
Love Notes: Stewardship at Wild Basin Preserve
On a bright, cool Saturday morning, October 22, a small group of folks joined Aaron Haynes, Land Steward at Wild Basin Creative Research Center, to remove invasive plant species from the creek area in Wild Basin. The plants of concern on this day were nandina (Nandina domestica), Japanese ligustrum (Ligustrum japonicum), and Chinese ligustrum (Ligustrum…
You must be logged in to post a comment.