Category: Native Plants

Posted on

Charles Newsom receives the Nancy Benedict Memorial Award

** ARCHIVED POST – LINKS AND IMAGES MAY NOT WORK**

image of person

— by Randy Pensabene
Congratulations to our own Charles Newsom for winning the State NPSOT Nancy Benedict Memorial Award.  The awards ceremony will be held online on October 24 at 7 pm, when Charles and the recipients of other State awards will be honored.  See all the awardees in this State announcement.

We welcome our members and the public to attend this presentation and to reach out and personally thank these fine folks for their work and passion. You must register in advance.  After registration you will receive an email with instructions.  You can register at this link: Register here

Nancy Benedict Memorial

The Nancy Benedict Memorial Award is given to a person for an act of conservation or public service in the field of Texas native plants. This year’s recipient is Charles Newsom for leading and organizing volunteer efforts to remove invasive plants from the Berry Springs Park and Preserve in Georgetown. This ongoing effort, which has spanned several years, has increased the native plant diversity, improved wildlife habitat, and greatly improved the aesthetic beauty of Berry Springs Park and Preserve for our human eyes.

Congratulations, Charles!

** ARCHIVED POST – LINKS AND IMAGES MAY NOT WORK**

Posted on

Online Chapter Meeting Oct 8: “Native Plants for Birds” with Jane Tillman

** ARCHIVED POST – LINKS AND IMAGES MAY NOT WORK**

[Post updated Sep 29 with registration details. Post updated Oct 2 with links to handouts. PD]

Join NPSOT-Wilco’s online chapter meeting on Thursday, October 8, 2020, at 7:00 pm, when guest speaker Jane Tillman will present Native Plants for Birds.

You must register in advance to attend the meeting.  See instructions under How to Attend, later in this post.

image of person

About Native Plants for Birds:  Your plant choices have an impact on birds. Find out what you can do to increase your yard, greenbelt or park’s appeal to migrants and resident species. Choosing native plants will bring your landscape to life.

Our guest speaker, Jane Tillman, was recognized as the National Wildlife Federations’ Volunteer of the Year in 2011 for her work with their Habitat Steward program, training people to create wildlife habitat in their yards and parks. Jane is a past president of the Native Plant Society of Texas, Austin chapter. She was part of the team that developed the new NPSOT Native Landscape for Birds NLCP Companion class. As an active Travis Audubon Society member and Capital Area Master Naturalist, she gives talks and teaches classes about Central Texas birds and gardening for birds to garden clubs, neighborhood associations, lifelong learning groups, bird festivals, and libraries. Her yard has a Best of Texas Backyard Wildlife Habitat certification. Jane travels around Texas to see birds and the different ecoregions they inhabit, participating in the Century Club challenge to see 100 species in 100 Texas counties – 89 down with 11 to go. She loves for people to tell her what they have seen birds eating.

Two handouts from Jane are below, from the Travis Audubon Society. As with all plant lists, please verify that any non-natives included are not invasive before planting. You can determine if a plant is invasive by going to TexasInvasives.org.

How to attend

  • You must register in advance to attend the online meeting.
  • After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar on the day of the meeting.

Please register for our Oct 2020 Monthly Meeting at the following link:

link removed

NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public. In this time of public health risk, our in-person meetings and field trips are canceled until further notice.

Check our blog announcements, calendar and Facebook for developing plans for virtual meetings and virtual field trips.

** ARCHIVED POST – LINKS AND IMAGES MAY NOT WORK**

Posted on

Volunteer for… Invasive Plant Removal!

** ARCHIVED POST – LINKS AND IMAGES MAY NOT WORK**

Looking for some outdoor exercise?  Volunteer to join Charles Newsom tackling invasive plant removal.  To contact Charles, complete the form at this link.   NPSOT members and non-members are welcome.

Working as a volunteer, chapter member Charles Newsom leads projects in local parks, preserves and recreation areas that help land managers deal with invasive plants by figuring out what can be done and then leading teams to do it.  If you’ve ever been to Berry Springs Park and Preserve in Georgetown, or Miller Springs Nature Center in Belton, you’ve enjoyed a couple of examples among the public spaces that benefit from Charles’ volunteerism.

Current and upcoming project locations include preserves owned by the Texas Land Conservancy (2.4 acre Berry Creek Preserve and 6 acre preserve along the San Gabriel River), Georgetown’s Garey Park, and Williamson County’s Berry Springs Park & Preserve.

The project at Berry Creek Preserve, owned by the Texas Land Conservancy (TLC), can use volunteers now.   TLC’s Berry Creek Preserve is in Georgetown just off Shell Spur Road.

Mindful of safety concerns for social distancing, Charles says any number of volunteers from 1 to 6 would be safe working at Berry Creek Preserve.  The work site is adjacent to the parking area so it’s a short walk and easy for you to stop at any time.  You will need to complete a TLC release form in advance.

If you need tools, Charles can provide 4 pairs of loppers and 2 hand saws.  You need gloves and closed toe shoes.  Long pants are best.  Tights should be avoided as there are scratchy branches everywhere.  Everyone should bring their own water, and bring a hat since not all work is in the shade.

Charles described the project:

“It is an area of 2.4 acres and is adjacent to Berry Creek. It is forested and rocky in spots.  It is also fairly pristine.  I have already removed about 70% of the invasives and will finish the rest (the largest trees) when it is cooler.

It has a significant number of downed Ashe junipers that make exploring the area difficult as well as creating eyesores.  Volunteers could saw off and/or lopper off the many small limbs on each tree and I could cut up the trunks.  We could make a nice pile of cut pieces and then all of it could then be used for firewood or for woodworking.

The trees are not very large so we don’t have that to deal with.  They are also well-separated so one person per tree at any given time would nicely space out the work.   It is probably less than a dozen trees but it would open up the area quite nicely.

The last step would be in putting in a trail.  The trail-making consists of minor brush clearing (easy) using hand clippers or loppers and removing any trip hazards such as small rocks. “

Charles also shared the following about this preserve: “There is little poison ivy (I have not seen any yet) to worry about.”   That’s welcome news!

Contact Charles (contact link at the top of this article) for more information about any of his projects.

** ARCHIVED POST – LINKS AND IMAGES MAY NOT WORK**