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— by Sue Wiseman
River Ranch County Park is currently closed while it is under construction. It opens to the public in 2021.
This summer, in addition to filming our virtual plant walk (see it on YouTube), we also updated our River Ranch County Park Plant List. NPSOT-Wilco’s history with River Ranch County Park, Williamson County’s newest recreation area, goes back more than a decade!
The plant list for River Ranch County Park, originally called the Williams Tract, was started in late 2009. It was the idea of the first Williamson County Parks and Recreation Director, Jim Rodgers. Jim contacted me and asked if NPSOT would be willing to do a plant list for the future park.
The NPSOT Williamson County Chapter tackled the project by surveying at least once during each calendar month over a three-year period. Once we had accomplished this, with the help of Marshall Johnston, co-author of the Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas, we went on to do plant lists for each of the remaining Williamson County parks. However, our mission for River Ranch is not complete; when we started this project there were 1,011 acres in the park, we have since gained around 350 more acres, so once the park opens and Covid declines we will be able to go into the newly acquired areas to complete the project.
The Friends of River Ranch County Park are now accepting memberships. “Our mission is to advocate and support River Ranch County Park by providing information, interpretation, and assistance in the maintenance and conservation of the park.” Folks that are interested can go to The Friends of River Ranch County Park Facebook page for information.
I was able to see the Interpretive Center last week and was thrilled with the facility and to find lots of bookcases built into the new conference room. They have a long counter and sink on one wall of the meeting room. In normal times, it would fit about 30 people classroom style. When things get finished, I think everyone will be pleased with results!
P.S., The chapter’s River Ranch work helped to start the field trip committee that we know today. We did have field trips previously, but this effort inspired us to plan a trip a month through the year. Also, we sometimes did two park lists at the same time but usually stuck with one park, and then went other places during the rest of the year. These photos are of some of us at River Ranch near the end of our project in October 2010, mostly chapter members but also some Austin members.
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