Join NPSOT-Williamson County on Thursday, January 8, 2026, when our featured topic will be Protecting Dark Skies for Plants and All Living Things with Cindy Luongo Cassidy. Free and open to the public. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM. The guest presentation begins after a short business meeting.
About our topic: Cindy’s talk will explore the natural world and the processes that depend on the absence of artificial light. It will include a number of species but will emphasize issues that plants have with artificial lighting. Issues of navigation, reproduction, circadian rhythms, photoperiodism, competition, predation, and general habitat protection will be covered. Cindy will also touch on some issues that humans have with artificial light at night. The talk wraps up with a review of what each of us can do to protect living things during the nighttime.
About our speaker: Cindy Luongo Cassidy is the leader of DarkSky Texas, formerly known as The Texas Chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association, a founding member of several night sky groups, and a Hays County Master Naturalist. She has twenty-five plus years of experience as a lighting consultant and dark sky advocate, was the key player in positioning the City of Dripping Springs to receive the prestigious International Dark Sky Community designation (the first in Texas), and has assisted numerous other International Dark Sky Place applications in Texas. In 2019, Cindy was awarded the Crawford-Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor that DarkSky International bestows on individuals who, during their lifetime, have contributed an extraordinary effort to light pollution abatement. Cindy lives in Driftwood, TX and was the creator and Executive Director of the hugely successful Texas Night Sky Festival®.
==> This month’s in-person location is the Georgetown Public Library, 2nd floor, 402 West 8th St, Georgetown, TX 78626. Come early (6:30 PM) for expert advice, to check out the seed swap board, or just to visit.
==> To attend via Zoom, register at https://npsot-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/qpHlGSlPQ0qrEpf2lq1VkA#/registration
Can’t attend? The guest presentation will be recorded for YouTube.
At every meeting, we give away a book — about native plants or the meeting topic — to one randomly chosen in-person attendee!
If we have permission from our guest speaker, we record the presentation for our YouTube channel. (See a list of past topics at this link.)
Have an idea for a speaker? Let Program Leader Susie Hickman know via email to wilco-chapter@npsot.org.
NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public. We hope you attend! Meetings may be in person, virtual, or both, so be sure to check details in the meeting announcement. Meetings are announced on our website, our calendar and Facebook. See upcoming topics on our Home page or on the Calendar.