Talks & Walks Calendar

May 11 Sat – 11:30 am to 1 pm

World Migratory Bird Day

Trinity River Audubon Center, 6500 Great Trinity Forest Way, Dallas, TX 75217

Discover why the watery bottomland hardwood forest environment of the Great Trinity Forest supports a diversity of bird life. This walk-and-talk for World Migratory Bird Day recreates the TRAC chapter walk in Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth with Marcus Cole and Jake Poinsett.

Author Amy Martin, will share her insights info bottomland forest ecology that aids birds and point out plants that provide food or foster insects. Christian Roberts, master naturalist and Birding with Christian blogger, will guide our attention to the birds — forest, grassland, and water — and help us learn what constitutes a good nesting site, while sharing tips on how to get the most from your birdwatching time.

May 12 Sun, 10:30 to 11:30 am

sermon as part of hour service: The Nature We Call Home

Westside Unitarian Universalist Church, 901 Page Ave, Fort Worth, TX  76110

Possessing a deep attachment to the land that shines through Wild DFW, Amy will bring insight into how to appreciate and explore our North Texas nature. The talk pairs radiant photographs of the outdoors and poetic passages from the book with her own profound experiences, including how hiking trails helped her heal from a near-fatal spinal injury. Discover the passion of the prairie, nurturing bottomland forests, soaring escarpments, and cast-iron Eastern Cross Timbers, all bound up with our river, the elusive Trinity.

Friends of Piedmont restoration day
May 19 Sun. – 9 to 11 am
2725 N Jim Miller Rd Dallas TX 75217 (softball field parking lot)
Google map marker: https://maps.app.goo.gl/gPxboJEQMsraCUBz9

Our focus will be on the Lacywood Overlook Trail, and then if we have energy the Scyene Overlook Trail. Piedmont Ridge is one of the adventure chapters in Wild DFW.

For this restoration day we’ll:
<> Pick up trash as needed.
<> Cut privet and photinia away from the trail.
<> Re-mark the trail with biodegrable marking tape.
<> Use the Extractigator to yank up small privet and nandinas.
<> Drag cut brush and fallen timber to block eroding trails sections

Please register so we can notify you if the date changes due to weather: https://volunteersignup.org/99ETT

Wear:
<> Sturdy closed-toe shoes
<> Leather or garden gloves
<> Long pants

Bring:
<> Trash bags & grocery sacks
<> Garden loppers if you have them

Other tools graciously provided by Trinity Coalition.

Friends of Piedmont is a casual group that loves the ridge. Joe, Kristi, Linda, Sharon, and I would love for you to join us! It’ll take a while, but trail signs are underway.

After a break, if we’re not too tuckered we may hike the JJ Beeman Trail that connects to Scyene Overlook.

Photo of Scyene Overlook by Stalin SM.

The Nature We Call Home

May 30 Thur, 10:45-11:45

Network of Community Ministries
1500 International Pkwy #300 Richardson, TX 75081

Photo of Connemara Meadow in Allen by Karin Saucedo.

Possessing a deep attachment to the land that shines through Wild DFW, Amy will bring insight into how to appreciate and explore our North Texas nature. The talk pairs radiant photographs of the outdoors and poetic passages from the book with her own profound experiences, including how hiking trails helped her heal from a near-fatal spinal injury. Discover the passion of the prairie, nurturing bottomland forests, soaring escarpments, and cast-iron Eastern Cross Timbers, all bound up with our river, the elusive Trinity.

Wild DFW: Questas, Cross Timbers & More

June 1 Sat. — 10 am to noon

Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve

5201 Bowman Springs Rd. Arlington TX 76017

https ://www.facebook.com/ FriendsofSCNP/

Come re-create the adventure chapter on Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve from Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth (https://Wild-DFW.com/) with members of Friends of Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve. You’ve read about Eastern Cross Timbers in Wild DFW, Now experience the finest remnant of it in North Texas. The geology chapter of Wild DFW talks extensively about how our tilted layers of bedrock shape the landscape. Now walk that as you explore a cuesta limestone formation. The prairies will be in flower. The blackjack and post oak leaves will be fresh and luminous green. Warm weather will have all the lizards skittering about. Songbirds will be fledging their young. What a grand time we will have! 

A journalist and writer for over 40 years, Amy Martin is the author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth (Wild-DFW.com), and Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (Itchy.biz). She is currently senior features writer for Green Source DFW (GreenSourceDFW.org). Her current project is Ned Fritz Legacy (NedFritz.com), a biographical website of Ned Fritz, Texas’ most famous environmentalist. For twelve years, she managed wildlife habitat rehabilitation on a private nature preserve in northeast Texas, including converting fifteen acres of pasture into tallgrass prairie. Find her writings at Moonlady.com.

Wild Lands of Denton County

June 8 Sat – 2 to 3:30 pm

Lewisville Public Library
1197 W. Main St. | Lewisville, TX 75067

Denton County is home to three of the five largest—ranging from 2600 to 3700 acres— nature parks and preserves in North Texas: Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center (Denton), Ray Roberts Lake State Park (Pilot Point), and Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area, called LLELA. That’s bragging rights!

Amy Martin, author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth, will share excerpts and photos from those chapters in the book, woven with the dramatic story of recovering from a traumatically broken neck by walking dirt trails at these and other locations.

A journalist and writer for over 40 years, Amy Martin is also the author of Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (Itchy.biz). She is senior features writer for Green Source DFW (GreenSourceDFW.org). A current project is Ned Fritz Legacy (NedFritz.com), a biographical website of Ned Fritz, Texas’ most famous environmentalist. Find her writings at Moonlady.com.

Photo of LLELA’s Bittern Marsh by Daniel Koglin.

June 15 Sat – 12 to 1:30 pm

Wild Birds Unlimited: East Dallas https://eastdallas.wbu.com/
5708 Abrams Rd, Dallas, TX 75214

A Deep Dive into the North Texas Ecotone & its Natural Wonders

Why is North Texas an epic ecotone and how is that special? What is the Great Trinity Forest the easternmost example of? How do tilted layers of bedrock shape our three ecoregions, foster a plethora of soil types, and lead to our plant and wildlife diversity? From the ancient inland ocean and melting ice caps that forged North Texas, to the goliath creeks and many forks of the Trinity, get clear on how water shapes our local landscape.

Discover places to experience these tenets firsthand. Enjoy astounding photography by skilled naturalists of hardwood bottomland forests and Eastern Cross Timbers, soaring limestone escarpments, lush wetlands, and rare remnants of Blackland and Fort Worth Prairies. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

Get your rock nerd on! From the geology/paleontology chapter of Amy Martin’s Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth.

Coppell Nature Park: Full Strawberry Moon (walk & talk)

June 20 Thur at 8 to 9:30 pm

Coppell Nature Park https://www.coppellnaturepark.org/

345 Freeport Pkwy, Coppell, TX  75019

Attendance limited. MUST REGISTER: link TBA

Take a walk in the Full Moon light with Amy Martin, the Moonlady and author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth/ We’ll take breaks for short raps ranging from Moon-Earth synchrony and the formation of life on our planet to the qualities of moonlight.

The walk will feature material from the book on nocturnal denizens, their use of Moon phases, and how urban nature turns to darkness for safety and adaptation. Plus plenty of Moon-shadow dancing, Moon song singing, and howling at the Moon.

Nature Expo

July 6 Sat – 1 to 4 pm Expo with Wild DFW booth / talk at 2 pm: Never See North Texas Nature the Same Way Again

J. Erik Jonsson Central Dallas Public Library
1515 Young St. Dallas, TX 75201
free parking underneath – access off of Wood

A free, family-friendly event, Nature Expo features local nature groups, exhibits, live animals and kids activities. It will be held in the Community Showcase area on the first floor.

Includes a series of talks in the library auditorium. Wild DFW will present the photo feast, “Never See North Texas Nature the Same Way Again,” at 2 pm. Wild DFWs will be for sale and signing.

Never See North Texas Nature the Same Way Again

A photo-filled tour of 25 top nature spaces in North Texas from Amy Martin’s Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth (Timber Press).

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. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

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. 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.

For more information visit: http://dallaslibrary.org/pond/.

OLLI at UNT: Nature of the Moon

July 9 – 10-11:30am.

CC Young Senior Living — The Point
4847 W Lawther Dr #100, Dallas, TX 75214

Known by many as the Moonlady, Amy Martin, author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth, merges fascinating nocturnal nature insights from the book with her deep knowledge of the Moon. After this talk, you’ll be a pro-level Moon watcher able to predict where it will be at any time. Understand synchrony which creates tides and causes us to only see one side of the Moon. Discover how the Moon led to life on Earth and stabilized the planet to enable human life to evolve. Discover how darkness and the Moon impact plants and wildlife, especially in urban areas. Learn how to live in tune with the Moon with gardening based on the lunar phases.

OLLI at UNT
CC Young Senior Living

13 Things You Need to Know About the Poison Oak and Ivy Rash

July 11 – 6:30 to 8:30 pm, speaker at 7:30 pm

Gulf Coast Texas Master Naturalists
Zoom only for North Texans; Zoom link tba — event page

Live for Houston area
Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, 120 W 610 Loop North, Houston

In this subversively funny and yet deeply informative talk, learn why soap is terrible for removing the allergen urushiol from the skin. Discover poison ivy barrier creams that actually work. You’ll hear how humans are the only animal allergic to poison ivy, why your immunity to poison ivy can change at any time, and that you respond to its allergen depends on a number of factors. It’s an entertaining talk that will leave you itching for more.

Learn more with the book Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant by Amy Martin.

Coppell Cozby Library and Community Commons 177 N Heartz Rd, Coppell, TX 75019 – Meeting Room AB

Wild DFW – Author Talk – Saturday, July 13th, 2-4 pm

Amy Martin will be revisiting us in July to give an author talk on her latest book, Wild DFW. In this talk, she will take us on a A Deep Dive into North Texas Ecotone & its Natural Wonders. Why is North Texas an epic ecotone? What is the Great Trinity Forest the easternmost example of? How do tilted layers of bedrock shape our three ecoregions, foster a plethora of soil types, and lead to our plant and wildlife diversity. And why did it tilt? Learn of places to experience these tenets firsthand from the book’s 25 hiking adventures.

There will be an author signing post the presentation, so bring your copy of Wild DFW to get it signed or get one there. This program is for ages 11+. Participants under 16 must be accompanied by a caregiver. Registration is required for all attendees.   

Deep Dive into North Texas Ecotone & its Natural Wonders

Sept 4 Wed at 11 am to 1 pm

North Haven Gardens
7700 Northaven Rd, Dallas, TX 75230

Sponsor: Garden Masters

Why is North Texas an epic ecotone and how is that special? What is the Great Trinity Forest the easternmost example of? How do tilted layers of bedrock shape our three ecoregions, foster a plethora of soil types, and lead to our plant and wildlife diversity? From the ancient inland ocean and melting ice caps that forged North Texas, to the goliath creeks and many forks of the Trinity, get clear on how water shapes our local landscape.

Discover places to experience these tenets firsthand. Enjoy astounding photography by skilled naturalists of hardwood bottomland forests and Eastern Cross Timbers, soaring limestone escarpments, lush wetlands, and rare remnants of Blackland and Fort Worth Prairies. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

Get your rock nerd on! From the geology/paleontology chapter of Amy Martin’s Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth.

Sept. 7 Sat, 11 am to noon

Dallas Public Library – J. Erik Jonsson Central Library
1515 Young St, Dallas, TX 75201

by Amy Martin & Kristi Kerr Leonard, Ned Fritz Legacy 

Lawyer and activist Ned Fritz was responsible for three of Texas most important nature groups, a savior of East Texas forests by establishing five wilderness areas and the Big Thicket National Preserve, and the leader who kept the Trinity River from being straightened and turned into an industrial barge canal. He was also the first in the state, and possibly the nation, to garner huge news headlines in defense of native plants. For this he was given the Charles Leonard Weddle Memorial Award in 2000 from Native Plant Society of Texas. 

Ned and Genie Fritz had purchased land off Bachman Creek in 1952 and built a home. He kept the yard wild like a prairie. But as the street gentrified, not all neighbors approved. In 1970, the city weed inspector was called and called and called. Each time, Ned beat it back on technicalities. The city threatened to take him to court. What a mistake that was. The trial, called Great Weed War, gained nationwide press. Learn how he won.

Presented by the team creating Ned Fritz Legacy, a biographical website about Ned. 

The Moon & Nature at Night

Mansfield Garden Club, meeting at Chris W. Burkett Service Center, 620 S. Wisteria St, Mansfield

Known by many as the Moonlady, Amy Martin, author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth [Wild-DFW.com], merges fascinating nocturnal nature insights from the book with her deep knowledge of the Moon. After this talk, you’ll be a pro-level Moon watcher able to predict where it will be at any time. Understand synchrony which creates tides and causes us to only see one side of the Moon. Discover how darkness and the Moon impact plants and wildlife, especially in urban areas. Learn how to live in tune with the Moon with gardening based on the lunar phases.

A journalist and writer for over 40 years, Amy Martin is also the author of Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (Itchy.biz). She is senior features writer for Green Source DFW (GreenSourceDFW.org). A current project is Ned Fritz Legacy (NedFritz.com), a biographical website of Ned Fritz, Texas’ most famous environmentalist. Find her writings at Moonlady.com.

Art of white cats leaping at the Moon by Hiromi Nishizaka. 

See less

Sustainable Horizons Does Spring Creek Forest Preserve: Ranger Unit

Sept 12 Thurs from 11 am to 1:30 pm
Halff Park Trailhead, 4695 Ranger Drive, Garland TX 75040

Are you a homeschooling family or considering it? Join Sustainable Horizons, a dynamic homeschoolers co-op, as we experience Spring Creek Forest Preserve in north Garland.

We’ll explore the wild Ranger Unit of the preserve, going through deep forest with immense trees on a trail that often swings very close to Spring Creek. If we’re lucky, we’ll find the route down into the creek. This is a very quiet and untamed section of the preserve.

Text Marcie at 214-545-8154 to join.

Spring Creek Forest Preserve is one of the 25 adventure chapters in Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth https://Wild-DFW.com/ (Timber Press).

Why is North Texas an epic ecotone and how is that special? What is the Great Trinity Forest the easternmost example of? How do tilted layers of bedrock shape our three ecoregions, foster a plethora of soil types, and lead to our plant and wildlife diversity? From the ancient inland ocean and melting ice caps that forged North Texas, to the goliath creeks and many forks of the Trinity, get clear on how water shapes our local landscape.

Discover places to experience these tenets firsthand. Enjoy astounding photography by skilled naturalists of hardwood bottomland forests and Eastern Cross Timbers, soaring limestone escarpments, lush wetlands, and rare remnants of Blackland and Fort Worth Prairies. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

Get your rock nerd on! From the geology/paleontology chapter of Amy Martin’s Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth.

Blackland Prairie Chapter

Goat Island Preserve: Hike North Texas with Dallas Sierra Club & Wild DFW

Sept. 28 Sat – 9:30 am to 2 pm

Goat Island Preserve
2800 Post Oak Rd, Hutchins, TX 75141

Enjoy long-distance hikes through fascinating large preserves and parks — without leaving DFW. Dallas Sierra Club joins with Amy Martin, author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth, to offer quarterly hikes on trails as wild as North Texas has to offer. Explore these places with naturalists and others that know them the best.

Fall offering: Goat Island Preserve, part of the Dallas County Open Space system. A gorgeous slice of Great Trinity Forest fronting the Trinity River. Bottomland forest with some huge trees. Hike route will include birdwatching trails on Goat Island itself and a hike down Joe’s Riverside Trail to a picnic area for a break, and then further down the trail, and back up the interior trail. Hike length: apx 7 miles

Points-of-interest naturalist mini-breaks: birdwatching across from Southside Water Treatment Plant… multiple river overlooks… viewing and history of Lock & Dam #2.

We hope these hikes will help Dallas and surroundings develop a mindset of embracing its nature with a deep sense of pride. From that will arise more trails and greater land preservation.

Donations for hike leader thank-you gifts and park/preserve donations appreciated: TBA.

Wild DFWs available for purchase. Book info.

Hike North Texas Specifics
<> Typical hike length: 4 to 7 miles. Options for additional miles provided.
<> Typical hike time: 4 to 5 hours.

This will be unfettered nature, so keep in mind:
<> Terrain will frequently be rugged with some elevation changes.
<> Trails narrow will always be dirt and usually narrow, but with some easy sections.
<> While we’ll go at a good pace, there will be stops for exceptional naturalist points of interest.

Come prepared:
<> Wear closed-toed shoes and long pants.
<> Pack multiple water bottles (24 oz. recommended.
<> Bring a bag lunch, snack bars and such for our mid-way break.

Friday, October 18 at 7 to 9 pm

Twelve Hills Nature Center https://twelvehills.org/
817 Mary Cliff Rd, Dallas, TX 75208

Take a walk in the Full Moon light with Amy Martin, the Moonlady and author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth. We’ll recreate the hike from Wild DFWs’s After Dark chapter with Marcie Haley and Kristi Kerr Leonard.

But first, let’s talk poetic about Moon, how the lunar phases affect our mood and shape wildlife’s activities. Attendees acting as the Sun, Earth, and Moon, attendees will embody the lunar phases to show how they’re created as Amy explains the pertinent points of each one. Plus why life on Earth owes its existence to the Moon and synchrony.

Then off on a night hike with breaks for discussing the qualities of moonlight and why the Moon moves us so deeply. Plus plenty of Moon-shadow dancing and Moon song singing. Bring ultraviolet lights to see lichens glow!

Twelve Hills Nature Center

October 26 Saturday – 1 to 3 pm

North Haven Gardens, 7700 Northaven Rd, Dallas, TX 75230

A breathless and breathtaking photo-filled tour of 25 top nature spaces in North Texas from Amy Martin’s popular Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth (Timber Press).

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. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

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. 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.

In honor of Native Plant Month, Martin will precede the talk with a few minutes of her favorite native plants from the book’s field guide and share which of the 25 places in the book’s hiking adventure section has the richest diversity of native plants.

Photo of wildflowers in Oak Point Nature Preserve in Plano by Carol Clark.

Monday, November 4, 2024 — 10 am to noon

AARP 3880 Casa Linda Dallas

Casa View Assembly of God

9949 Ferguson Road, Dallas, TX 75228

Wild DFW: The Nature We Call Home

Blending poetic passages from the book Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth with her own profound experiences, and illustrated with the book’s astounding photographs, Amy Martin will inspire about the nature we call home and how it helped her heal from a near-fatal spinal injury. The passion of the prairie, the nurturing bottomland forest, the elusive Trinity River, the soaring escarpments, and the survivor Eastern Cross Timbers, Amy will bring insight into how to appreciate and explore our North Texas nature.

Piedmont Ridge: Hike North Texas with Dallas Sierra Club & Wild DFW

Nov 9 Sat – 9:30 am to 2 pm

2725 N Jim Miller Rd Dallas TX 75217 (softball field parking lot) Google maps

Enjoy long-distance hikes through fascinating large preserves and parks — without leaving DFW. Dallas Sierra Club joins with Amy Martin, author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth, to offer quarterly hikes on trails as wild as North Texas has to offer. Explore these places with naturalists and others that know them the best. 

First up: Piedmont Ridge, part of the Dallas parks system and the northernmost section of the Great Trinity Forest. Best place to experience fall foliage in Dallas. We’ll hike every trail there. Two sections of soaring limestone escarpment with unique upland woods (Scyene/Lacywood Overlook Trails and Piedmont Ridge Trail), connected by a long stretch of lush bottomland forest (JJ Beeman Trail). About 5 miles.

Points-of-interest naturalist mini-breaks: 4 overlooks that afford views of the Great Trinity Forest (in autumn colors!), downtown and across the county to Cedar Hill… historic Comanche eastern red cedar lodgepole woods… historic settlers’ black walnut grove… ridgetop Blackland Prairie.

We hope these hikes will help Dallas and surroundings develop a mindset of embracing its nature with a deep sense of pride. From that will arise more trails and greater land preservation. You don’t have to travel far for great nature.

Donations for hike leader thank-you gifts and park/preserve donations appreciated: TBA. 

Wild DFWs available for purchase. Book info.

Hike North Texas Specifics

• Typical hike length: 4 to 7 miles. Options for additional miles provided. 
• Typical hike time: 4 to 5 hours.

This will be unfettered nature, so keep in mind: 

• Terrain will frequently be rugged with some elevation changes. 
• Trails narrow will always be dirt and usually narrow, but with some easy sections.  
• While we’ll go at a good pace, there will be stops for exceptional naturalist points of interest. 

Come prepared: 

• Wear closed-toed shoes and long pants. 
• Pack multiple water bottles (24 oz. recommended.
• Bring a bag lunch, snack bars and such for our mid-way break. 

Lawyer and activist Ned Fritz was responsible for three of Texas most important nature groups, a savior of East Texas forests by establishing five wilderness areas and the Big Thicket National Preserve, and the leader who kept the Trinity River from being straightened and turned into an industrial barge canal.

He was also the first in the state, and possibly the nation, to garner huge news headlines in defense of native plants. For this he was given the Charles Leonard Weddle Memorial Award in 2000 from Native Plant Society of Texas.

Ned and Genie Fritz had purchased land off Bachman Creek in 1952 and built a home. He kept the yard wild like a prairie. But as the street gentrified, not all neighbors approved. In 1970, the city weed inspector was called and called and called. Each time, Ned beat it back on technicalities. The city threatened to take him to court. What a mistake that was. The trial, called Great Weed War, gained nationwide press. Learn how he won.

Presented by the team creating Ned Fritz Legacy, a biographical website about Ned.

Texas Woman’s University, Ann Stuart Science Complex (ASSC) Room 259. Park along Old Main Circle (employee parking) on the west side of the building or in any other nearby lot.

More about the host: Trinity Forks chapter Native Plant Society of Texas  

Trinity Forks