Patsy Glenn Refuge
In partnership with Wimberley Birding Society this pocket park in the heart of Wimberley currently has a bird blind and trails. Dr. Alice Le Duc heads up the Hill Country Chapter’s participation calling for workday volunteers as design, installation and maintenance opportunities come up.
Festival Outreach Tables
Hill Country Chapter sets up outreach tables at several Hays County festivals yearly – San Marcos Discovery Center Spring Plant Sale and Fall Monarch Fest, EmilyAnn Butterfly Festival, Earth Day Fest at Charro Park, Heritage Museum Dinosaur Days. A two hour shift with other chapter members at our festival table is a fun place to pass out native plant information and talk to people who really want to plant natives in their yards.
Website Newsletter & Social Media
Hill Country Chapter updates our website monthly with program news, events and chapter business. The website has just been revamped on the new state NPSOT WordPress platform that is expanding with a native plant information database. We also publish a monthly newsletter on a Robly platform with activity information and educational native plant news to our members and over 200 subscribed non-members. With over 2700 Facebook members on our group we are actively sharing questions and information with each other.
Monthly Native Plant Presentations
At quarterly meetings in several Hays County locations the Hill Country Chapter provides in-person presentations about Texas native plants in a healthy wild environment as well as in your home landscape. We spread our core message through local experts who educate and share what works here in our Hill Country region. Our meetings are free and open to the public.
NICE! Native Plant Partners
The NICE Native Plant Partners program is a collaboration between the Native Plant Society of Texas and local nurseries around the state to offer natives that are right for the local environment. Texas is a large, diverse state and plants that work for one region may not always be the best choice in a different region. Native Plant Partners committees run by our local chapters create a list of Plant of the Month plants (in some areas a Plant of the Season) in cooperation with participating local nurseries and wholesalers in order to assure availability. The Native Plant Society chapter then helps promote the Plant of the Month through its website and newspaper articles, signs at the point of sale and other means. Often an information sheet on the plant is available at the nursery. Hill Country Chapter is developing a NICE team to start work with Hays County plant stores and nurseries.
Native Landscape Certification Program
Our Native Landscape Certification Program (NLCP) is a series of day-long classes highlighting best practices for native plant landscaping, including wildlife habitat gardening.
Each class consists of an indoor training session and a plant identification session. We show you plants native to the local ecoregion and illustrate their use in the landscape.
In each level you are presented with 45 native Texas plants recommended for your area, and 5 non-native plants to avoid.
Goals of the NLCP classes are to (a) educate NPSOT members and the general public about the value of natives, (b) how to use native plants in home, public and commercial landscapes and habitat restorations, and to (c) provide native landscape education, CEUs, and credentials to landscape professionals, developers, and nature-oriented groups.
- Level 1: Introduction to Native Landscapes – Class & Plant Walk
- Level 2: Design and Development with Native Plants – Class & Plant Walk
- Level 3: Installing and Maintaining Native Landscapes – Class & Plant Walk
- Level 4: Stewardship of Native Plant Communities (under development) – Class & Plant Walk Visit Native Landscape Certification Program