Chapter Meetings – Page 53 – NPSOT-Williamson County Chapter

March 28, 2019May 12, 2023

Program Summary: March 14’s Travis County Floodplain Reforestation Program: A Natural Solution to Contemporary Problems

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— by Gary Bowers

Collin McMichael, Education Coordinator of TreeFolks, presented our program entitled Travis County Floodplain Reforestation Program: A Natural Solution to Contemporary Problems. Quite a mouthful and quite an amazing program. In case you are not familiar with TreeFolks you can find out more at www.treefolks.org.

The mission statement of the organization is:

Our mission is to empower Central Texans to build stronger communities through planting and caring for trees.

Aha! It says “Central Texans.” Maybe it’s not limited to Travis County. In fact, there was some discussion about expanding into Williamson County. This group has been dedicated to urban forestry since 1989 and has helped reforest the Lost Pines area following the 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire, and in Blanco County following the terrible flooding in 2015. Collin’s program instilled hope in those of us concerned about insidious carbon in our environment. See his presentation (available below) for a full understanding of the fabulous work that Tree Folks is doing.

Collin’s full presentation can be found here in PDF format.

You can see the March 14, 2019 business presentation slides here.

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March 22, 2019May 12, 2023

On April 11: “Promoting Habitat Restoration in Urban Areas” with Cheryl Lewis

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(Please note, tonight’s meeting is at the Cedar Park Recreation Center, not at the Georgetown Library. See info at the bottom of this post.)

image of GT library garden — Library demo garden. Photo by Agnes Plutino.

Join us at NPSOT-Wilco’s chapter meeting on April 11, 2019, for our program topic “As it was in the beginning, it shall be again: Promoting habitat restoration in urban areas” with Cheryl Lewis.

Cheryl Lewis, from the Brazos Valley, will explain the importance of native plant communities and the ecosystem services they provide. The current plight of insect pollinators will be explained and information provided on how using native plants in urban landscapes can help restore their habitat, health and numbers. Cheryl will discuss ways to engage the public, including newspaper articles, social media, plant sales and demonstration gardens.

Cheryl grew up in the Pineywoods and Coastal Prairie ecoregions of Texas. She comes by her love of plants from an extended family in which at least one household always had a vegetable garden and seasonal canning was routine. She graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Science in Range Science and a Master of Agriculture in Horticulture. On becoming a Texas Master Naturalist, Cheryl has focused on habitat restoration and landscaping with native plants. In addition to serving as a master naturalist, Cheryl is also president of the new Post Oak Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas in College Station.

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NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public.

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February 22, 2019May 12, 2023

On March 14: TreeFolks, “Travis County Floodplain Reforestation Program: a natural solution to contemporary problems”

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Join us at NPSOT-Wilco’s chapter meeting on March 14, 2019, for our program topic by TreeFolks on “Travis County Floodplain Reforestation Program: a natural solution to contemporary problems” with Collin McMichael. (Please note, we meet in Cedar Park this month, not at the Georgetown Library. See the bottom of this post.)

Collin McMichael is Education Coordinator at TreeFolks in Austin, a nonprofit where the mission is “… to empower Central Texans to build stronger communities through planting and caring for trees.”

From Collin: “As Austin pushes eastward, the degraded creeks and streams of the Blackland Prairie ecoregion find themselves in developers’ cross-hairs. The goal of TreeFolk’s newest program, the Travis County Floodplain Reforestation Program, is to reforest the riparian corridors east of Austin and protect imperiled streamsides. Through our successes in previous reforestation efforts we have designed a pilot program to reforest 50 private and 5 public tracts of land with the hopes of generating carbon credits on each site. This program will improve stream quality, improve air quality, reduce energy consumption, and offset carbon emissions regionally. Carbon offsets are being sold to the Austin’s Office of Sustainability in order to help meet their 2020 goal of carbon neutrality. TreeFolks’ TCFRP is a novel, scale-able solution to global climate change that will increase resiliency at the local level while addressing global problems.”

TreeFolks and its volunteers work with communities planting trees in parks, preserves, at schools, and other places. They provide education about trees and urban forests, and restore forests in Central Texas after natural disasters. Collin will tell us more about TreeFolks, its projects, and its regional plans. Don’t miss it!

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NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public.

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