Volunteer for the second annual Parks and Trails Foundation of Cedar Park’s Earth Day Celebration, on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at Lakeline Park. The celebration focuses on the environment, sustainability and conservation, with local nonprofits, food vendors, arts and crafts vendors, and local business sponsors celebrating our community for Earth Day. NPSOT-Wilco will be promoting the benefits of native plants, providing a fun interactive learning activity and wildflower seed giveaways.
The event is from 12:30pm to 4:30pm including set-up and take down. We’ll have 2 shifts: 12:30-2:30pm and 2:30-4:30pm. You can volunteer for the whole day, or for either of the shifts. Details are in the sign up form.
Join NPSOT-Williamson County on Thursday, May 8, 2025, when our featured topic will be “Insects to Watch For and How to Report Them” with Wizzie Brown. Free and open to the public. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM. The guest presentation begins after a short business meeting.
Please note: this month’s presentation will NOT be recorded for YouTube.
==> 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.
About our speaker: Wizzie Brown is a Senior Extension Program Specialist- IPM with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. She works to educate others about insects and integrated pest management and hopefully succeeds in teaching that insects have their place in our world. Wizzie is a Board-Certified Entomologist specializing in urban and structural pest management, but also covers landscapes, gardens, native pollinators, insect identification as well as other topics. She received her Bachelor of Science in entomology from Ohio State University and a Master of Science in entomology from Texas A&M University.
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.)
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 page Wilco Home or on our Calendar.
Have an idea for a speaker? Let Program Leader Susie Hickman know via email to wilco-chapter@npsot.org.
A warm, sunny day greeted the dozen NPSOT members and guests who met at Tejas Park on April 12, 2025, the western-most park in the Lake Georgetown Corps of Engineers complex.
The hike began at the parking lot and campground where a mowed meadow had a surprising number of flowering forbs. The lack of rain and temperature fluctuations in the past month have delayed flowering, but the group was able to identify Berlandier’s Yellow Flax, Texas Paintbrush, Texas Bluebonnet, Williamson County Winecup, Carolina Woolywhite, and Prairie Verbena just in the meadow.
Following a trail behind the campground, the group observed Indian Breadroot, Liatris, Elbowbush, and Gum Bumelia. A spur off the trail following a firebreak revealed both Lindheimer’s and Texas Paintbrush, including a yellow variant of the Texas Paintbrush, as well as Artemesia, Gumweed, Little Bluestem, and more winecup.
Returning to the main trail, the group descended to the North Fork of the San Gabriel River and found large stands of Bushy Bluestem, several species of sedges, American Water Willow, and Late Boneset. The trail back to the parking lot was a shady avenue of Cedar Elm, Texas Ash, and Hackberry adorned with vines of Saw Greenbriar, Grape, Pitcher’s Leatherflower, and Snapdragon Vine.
Back at the parking lot, we realized we had time to caravan to another entrance to Tejas Park to view a small meadow of Bluebonnets. This “secret” entrance is an unmarked gate with a pedestrian entrance. Although the Bluebonnets had peaked, it was the largest collection of flowers. We had time to visit a riparian site of a seep that feeds into the San Gabriel River and found Sycamores, Inland Sea Oats, and Rough-leaf Dogwood. The cool shade was welcome relief from the rising heat.
The trip concluded at the pedestrian gate, with hope to return to Tejas Park in the coming weeks to enjoy more flowers as they reach their peak later in the season.
Texas Paintbrush
Photos by Cindy Chrisler
————– See photos from this trip and others in our album =>
