Sat 4 Feb 2012

Chapter Meeting: Tuesday, February 21, 7–9 P.M.

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How to Get Kids Interested in Plants

A simple enough premise, right?  Yet often a real challenge.  Plants don’t generally run, jump around, fly, or make noises like animals.  Well, nor are they as slow as geological change, but maybe they need better public relations agents.  That implies you and me. Our speaker David Matthews says:

“It is true that young people are drawn to fauna more readily than to flora. There is, after all, a popular cable network dedicated to animals…Animal Planet…but not a Plant Planet.
Actually, getting kids interested in plants really isn’t so hard. I will share the “hooks” I regularly use with the students in my Environmental Science classes.  Joining me will be fellow teacher and one of the cofounders of the Green Tech Academy, Nate Rosenberg.”

David Matthews has been teaching in Austin ISD for over 30 years and has been recognized by Keep Austin Beautiful and Westcave Preserve for his work as an environmental educator. He is co-director of the Nature Camp at Bamberger Ranch Preserve. His gardening efforts on his campus led to the creation of the Green Tech Academy at Small Middle School.

The meeting will be on Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 7-9pm at Wild Basin Preserve, 805 N. Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360), Austin, 78746.

Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing, munching, and general good fun!  Nonmembers welcome; free admission. Those attending are encouraged to bring:

(1) seeds to exchange and give away;
(2) mystery plants for identification.

For further information, contact Mike Powers at 512-453-2289 in Austin.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 7-9 P.M. at Wild Basin Preserve, 805 N. Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360), Austin 78746.

 

Wed 4 Jan 2012

Chapter Meeting: Tuesday, January 17, 7–9 P.M.

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“Low Impact Development: Bringing Conservation and Conservatives Together”

For decades in the Austin area, the conservation and real-estate-development communities have been at odds over how to manage increasing regional population.  Georgetown attorney Dale Rye believes there is a way, however, to handle one of the most troubling development issues—non-point pollution in rainwater runoff—which can serve the interests of both sides.  By using low-impact-development (LID) methods to manage storm water, communities can significantly reduce the environmental damage from development while simultaneously increasing profits for the developers.  The idea is to handle the issue as close to the source as possible, rather than collecting and treating the water in ugly and less efficient central facilities. Current individual landowners can also implement some LID principles to reduce their own environmental footprints.  These methods include rain gardens, swales, green roofs, etc.  Native plants form an important part of this strategy.

Dale Rye

An El Paso native, Dale A. Rye received his bachelor’s degree from Rice University.  Later, he earned a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.  Since 1976, he has practiced law in Georgetown, where he has devoted considerable time to dealing with real-estate-development issues.  As an Assistant Williamson County Attorney from 1981 to 2010, he helped place the county significantly ahead of most Texas jurisdictions in the development and enforcement of subdivision regulations managing suburban sprawl.  With his wife, Christine Powell, Dale is active in local groups such as NPSOT-Williamson County and the Capital Area Master Naturalists.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 7-9 P.M. at Wild Basin Preserve, 805 N. Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360), Austin 78746. 

For further information, contact Mike Powers at 512-453-2289 in Austin.

 

Thu 8 Dec 2011

December Social & Silent Auction!

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Thanks to chapter member Steve Schwartzman for the photo of a rather rare vision in central Texas - snow on possumhaw!

Please join us for our annual winter social, pot-luck dinner & silent auction:

Tuesday, December 13
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Wild Basin Wilderness, 805 N. Capital of Texas Hwy (Loop 360), Austin TX 78746

No program…just food and chat and cheer!

Just bring a dish to share, any items for the silent auction, and your checkbook or cash! (Proceeds from the silent auction go to deserving native plant causes.)  Menu note:  the chapter will provide the main meat course.

(Please note…December 13th is the second Tuesday in the month, not the third!)

See you there…

Mike Powers
NPSOT Program Chair
512-453-2289

 

Mon 31 Oct 2011

Chapter Meeting: Nov. 15, 2011

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Valerie Bugh - critter expert

“Give me your bugs, your flies, your mystery critters yearning for IDs….”

That quote defines the passion which Valerie Bugh will deliver to our November 15th chapter meeting.  An accomplished naturalist and photographer, she will present Floral Fauna, a survey of tiny critters living within local native floral habitats.

Valerie specializes in the arthropods of the Austin area, with interests in taxonomy and photography. She runs the Fauna Project at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, leads insect discovery walks, provides insect/spider identifications, gives talks to local organizations, and has published a pocket guide to The Butterflies of Central Texas. Website: www.austinbug.com

Tuesday, November 15, 7-9 p.m. at Wild Basin Preserve, 805 N. Capitol of TX Hwy (Loop 360), Austin, TX  78746.

For additional info, call Mike Powers at 512-453-2289.

 

Thu 29 Sep 2011

Chapter Meeting & Plant Sale: Oct. 18, 2011

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Have you ever wondered why you can’t find certain native plants in the nurseries but can always find others? Frustrated by the fact you can’t buy a shin oak to plant in your yard?

COME TO THE OCTOBER CHAPTER MEETING:

OCTOBER 18th, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (6:30 p.m. for plant sale)
Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, 805 N. Capital of Texas Highway, Austin

Jared Pyka, Sales and Marketing Manager, Native Texas Nursery (Austin wholesaler) will speak on:

  • The future of native plant propagation
  • Challenges of native plant propagation
  • Mareting decisions made by plant nurseries
  • Propagation techniques from seed and cuttings
  • Sources for plant propagation

Bring your questions for this informal presentation!

PLANT SALE!

Come early at 6:30 p.m. and bring your checkbook and/or cash to purchase our native plants remaining from the Wildflower Center’s Fall Plant Sale (Oct. 14-16).

 

 

Sat 10 Sep 2011

September chapter meeting 9/20/11

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Chuck Sexton in big bluestem


Hey!  Have you heard the joke about Mother Nature’s relationship with the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics?  No?…well, Mother Nature walks into a bar and…

Okay, I’m being silly.  You will laugh while you learn, however, when Dr. Chuck Sexton, local wildlife biologist, presents Energy Flow in the Landscape at our September meeting.  I’ve previously attended…and enjoyed…his fun, non-technical exploration of how energy flow can be seen as an organizing–and disorganizing–concept for understanding the shape, complexity, and everyday functioning of the natural world all around us.

Chuck migrated from southern California to UT-Austin in the mid-1970′s, earning his 1987 doctorate by studying the impact of urbanization on birds.  An acknowledged expert on both the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, he first served as an environmental specialist with the City of Austin, 1985-1994, then as staff biologist for the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS) 1995-2010.  Chuck has been active in environmental issues for over 25 years locally and around Texas.  You may know him best as one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve system.

Tuesday, September 20, 7-9pm at Wild Basin Preserve, 805 N. Capitol of TX Hwy (Loop 360) , Austin 78746

This chapter meeting will be preceded at 6:00 p.m. by a gathering of the Rare Plant Rebels (rare plant & seed exchange group).

 

Fri 5 Aug 2011

Chapter Meeting: Aug. 16

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Elizabet Ney Museum - Photo by postmoderngirl (flickr)

What’s going on with the native landscape-restoration project at the historic Elizabet Ney Museum?

To find out, attend the August monthly meeting of the Austin Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas.  Mary Collins Blackman, curator of the Elizabet Ney Museum in Austin’s Hyde Park neighborhood since 1989, will present an overview of their landscape-restoration project: “Elizabeth Ney’s Formosa, 1892-1907, A Native Landscape Dream.”

Tuesday, August 16, 7-9 p.m. at Wild Basin Preserve, 805 N. Capitol of TX Hwy (Loop 360), Austin 78746.

 

Thu 9 Jun 2011

Chapter Meeting: June 21, 2011

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Beyrl Armstrong

How do we manage our land with rising temps and little rain?

Beyrl Armstrong, a principal and co-founder of Plateau Land & Wildlife Management, Inc., will tell us at our next meeting when he presents “Managing Land to the New Realities of Global Climate Change.”

Beyrl will discuss projected models of future weather patterns and the implications for land management practices here in central Texas.

Addressing the difficulties in planning for a “no-analog” future, he will suggest management methods for projected rising temperatures, increased aridity, and desertification.

Beryl has extensive experience in land and wildlife management, including running a 10,000 acre ranch on the Frio River, managing and protecting 24,000 acres for the Nature Conservancy of Texas, and restoring wildlife habitats, prairies and wetlands with the Environmental Defense Fund.  He has also worked to encourage landowner associations and cooperative management programs on more than 100,000 acres throughout the Hill Country and Lost Pines areas.

This chapter meeting will be preceded at 6:00 p.m. by a gathering of the Rare Plant Rebels (rare plant & seed exchange group).

 

Mon 2 May 2011

Chapter Meeting: May 17, 2011

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Hooker's palafoxia (Palafoxia hookeriana) - photo by Bill Carr

Think you’re pretty familiar with natives in the garden?  Are you getting ho-hum about red yucca and blackfoot daisy?

Join us as Andrea DeLong-Amaya, Director of Horticulture at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, presents “Lesser-Known, Garden-Worthy Native Plants,” respresenting some of the recent success stories they’ve had at the Wildflower Center.

Andrea’s going to wow us with the latest native flora that’ve passed muster at the Center, including palafoxias (see left), plumbagos, globemallows and grasses, to name a few, that deserve more attention in our landscapes.

Tuesday, May 17, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Wild Basin Wilderness meeting room, 805 N. Capital of Texas Highway.

 

Sun 1 May 2011

Fieldtrip to Willowbrook Reach & Mueller Prairie – May 14, 2011

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Tour of Willowbrook Reach

Who knew about these backyard gems?

Willowbrook Reach, a half-mile stretch of Upper Boggy Creek in the Cherrywood neighborhood of East Austin, offered a great example of what a community can do to restore habitat along a creekbed.  David Boston, of Friends and Lovers of Willowbrook Reach, and Staryn Wagner of the City’s Watershed Dept., met about 15 NPSOTers for the low-down and tour.

Remember the old airport?

The pond at Mueller Prairie - onetime parking lot for Austin's old airport!

We then had a great visit to Mueller Prairie, just a few blocks away, to see a larger-scale, work-in-progress in re-establishing short and tall grass prairies right here in the city.  Janelle Dozier, of Friends of the Prairie, as well as many prairie birds–meadowlarks, scissortails and snowy egrets–were there to greet us.

 

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