Talks & Walks Calendar

February 27 Thursday — Room opens at 6 pm CDT.  Social time 6:30 pm, Chapter Meeting 7 to 8:30 pm

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. Parking restrictions end at 5 pm.

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.

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

The Nature We Call Home 

Grace United Methodist Church, 4105 Junius St, Dallas, TX  75246

March 7 Friday – 7 pm, socializing at 6:30 pm

Enjoy an intimate talk by Amy Martin that blends poetic passages from the book Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth with her own profound experiences. All of it  illustrated with the book’s astounding photographs. 

Amy will inspire about the nature we call home. The passion of the prairie the nurturing bottomland forest the elusive Trinity River the soaring escarpments and the survivor Eastern Cross Timbers — she will bring insight into how to mindfully appreciate and adventurously explore our North Texas nature. 

Wild DFW at Garden Day: Flora and Fauna of Wild DFW

CC Young Senior Living Community
4847 West Lawther Drive, Suite 100 Dallas, Texas 75214

Friday April 4 from 3 to 5 pm

The Flora, Fauna, and Fantastic Nature of Wild DFW

Enjoy a talk with plenty of beautiful photos.Then we’ll amble the lovely grounds of CC Young, check out their garden projects, and learn about the native plant landscaping.

North 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.

Photo by Carol Clark.

Twelve Hills: The Moon & Nature at Night (talk & walk)

Friday, October 4 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!

Photo of Full Moon rise at Twelve Hills by Stalin SM.