Talks & Walks Calendar

Fall Foliage Hike on Piedmont Ridge
November 15 Saturday – 2 to 4 pm
Parking lot at 2725 N Jim Miller Rd, Dallas, TX 75227

With luck, on the ridgetops, the brilliant red of Buckley’s oaks will be right in your face, while the overlooks reveal the northern Great Trinity Forest in glorious yellow, orange, and bronze.

You can learn much about Piedmont history and ecology on this naturalist tour led by Amy Martin, author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth. Or just enjoy the fresh air and views.

Two trail lengths to choose from:
• Lacywood Overlook: 1.25 miles round-trip, moderately strenuous.
o Or continue to:
• Renda Meadow (southern half) and Scyene Overlook: 2.5 miles round-trip, flat and then lightly strenuous.

While we walk, please share your thoughts of where trailhead and wayfinding signs should go. And also, your ideas of how to raise funds to cover sign costs.
• Big trailhead signs with maps at Scyene/Lacywood Overlooks, JJ Beeman, and Piedmont Ridge (south of the golf clubhouse), plus Comanche Storytelling Place.
• Wayfinding trail signs on all the trails above.

There are kiosks at JJ Beeman and Piedmont Ridge trailhead signs, but the rest will need to be purchased.

We get a lot of feedback from hikers who keep getting lost. Let’s get more people happily on the trails!

Newly formed nonprofit, @Friends of the Forest: Dallas, 501c3 application pending.

Bring:
• Water
• Snacks

Wear:
• Sturdy closed-toe shoes
• Long pants

The Flora, Fauna, and Fantastic Nature of Wild DFW

Nov. 20 Thurs – 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Dallas Co. Master Gardeners

Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center
Water, Land & Resources Building 1
17360 Coit Rd, Dallas, TX 75252

Texas nature is anything but average! The area has astounding diversity, frequently landing in the top 10 of iNaturalist competitions worldwide. Drawing from her popular book, Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth, learn from author Amy Martin how that diversity arises from our unique tilted layers of bedrock and discover the plants and animals that live here.

Get to know the ecoregions that shape the area and why we serve as an integral ecotone linking east and west. Journey through the wonderfully wild areas of North Texas via incredible photos from the book. Meet the courageous volunteers who preserve these precious places and derive deep healing from them, a gift of nature available to us all.

Get to know the ecoregions that shape the area and why we serve as an integral ecotone linking east and west. Journey through the wonderfully wild areas of North Texas via incredible photos from the book. Meet the courageous volunteers who preserve these precious places and derive deep healing from them, a gift of nature available to us all.

Wild DFW & Firefly Lullaby at Vector Brewing Holiday Market

November 29 Saturday
11 am to 5 pm

Lakeridge Village Shopping Center
9660 Audelia Rd, SE corner of Walnut Hill, Dallas, TX 75238

Come visit me at the Vector Brewing Holiday Market in the pretty greenspace of the Lakeridge Village Shopping Center. Buy a copy of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth. With its 350 color photographs and arty layout, it makes a great gift.

Also available:
<> Wild DFW stickers
<> Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant 
<> Holy Smoke: Loose Herbs & Hot Embers for Intense Group Smudges & Smoke Prayers 

Sharing the space is Karen Weiss and her wonderful Firefly Lullaby book with MP3 soundtrack. Boldly colorful drawings and gentle magical rhyme delight ages 2 to 7 with the magic of nature.

We’ll be with a couple dozen vendors in the landscaped interior area of Lakeridge Village Shopping Center. Santa will be walking around. Games galore. And much more fun.

Start out at Vector Brewing & Pizza, get a beer or bite to eat, and pick up your game card. Visit every space and get a free nosh.

Wild DFW at Old Lake Highlands Jingle & Mingle

December 6 Saturday from noon to 3 pm
400 block of Parkhurst, Dallas

Join the festivities celebrating the fun and nature-loving Old Lake Highlands neighborhood east of White Rock Lake. Wild DFW will be one of a couple dozen vendor booths from area enterprises.

Come buy a copy of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth. With over 350 color photos and an incredibly artistic layout, it makes a great gift book for nature lovers.

Also available:
<> Wild DFW stickers
<> Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant
<> Holy Smoke: Loose Herbs & Hot Embers for Intense Group Smudges & Smoke Prayers 

Family fun like bounce houses, face painting, and photos with Santa. Live music and food trucks.

Event details.

Wild DFW at 5th annual Eustis Sip & Shop

Dec. 7 Sun. – 2 to 5 pm
8700-9000 blocks of Eustis
park at Casa Linda Park, 1500 San Saba Dallas, TX 75218

Walk the tree-bedecked blocks of Eustis in Little Forest Hills. Shop from vendors offering funky hand-crafted wares. Enjoy free wine and non-alcoholic drinks to help enliven the experience.

I’ll be at part of the clan at Honeychild Naturals, Julie Whitmire’s wonderful line of honey-based personal care products. Come hang with us at 8919 Eustis!

This was immense fun last year. I loved my vendor crowd at Julie’s and all the customers who dropped by. Great conversation — tipsy people can be fun! Bring your dog on a leash and amble the fun and funky Little Forest Hills.

Also available:
<> Wild DFW stickers
<> Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant 
<> Holy Smoke: Loose Herbs & Hot Embers for Intense Group Smudges & Smoke Prayers 

Never See North Texas Nature the Same Way Again

Rockwall Butterfly Brigade
https://www.facebook.com/RockwallButterflyBrigade/

March 3 Tues – 6:30 probably, exact TBA

location TBA, private residence

Author and naturalist Amy Martin nearly died four years ago from a severely broken neck. She learned to walk again by hiking natural trails. Those hikes are an integral part of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth. Hear her inspiring story woven with rhapsodic passages from the book.

Learn how a little knowledge about natural history and ecology can transform your perception of North Texas nature. Astounding color photos bring alive peak experiences from the 25 featured hiking adventures through hardwood bottomland forests and Eastern Cross Timbers, soaring limestone escarpments, lush wetlands, and rare remnants of Blackland and Fort Worth Prairies.

Wild DFW is Martin’s way of facilitating others to find the healing power of nature and the natural wonder she felt as a child. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

Photo of Sunset Cove at Ray Roberts Lake State Park by Denise Thompson.