Announcements from the October General Meeting

October Announcements

The announcements for October chapter meeting are attached. Included in the announcements are details of the events discussed below with links to websites and email addresses.

Finding Common Ground and Advancing Positive Conservation Outcomes in Environmental Issues
This program is given in Boerne on October 6 with 5 hours of AT. We are making the streaming video of this program available for members on Friday, October 6, starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Meadows Conference Center on Live Oak in Dallas.

Sam Kieschnick will lead discussion of the presentation so we can share the experience of our group. We will bring a brown bag lunch and should finish by about 1:30 p.m. Attendees will get 4 hours of advanced training (AT) for participating.

There are more details about the presentations in the announcements attached below.

Dallas Park and Recreation BioBlitz at Kiest Park
In  2009 the Friends of Oak Cliff Parks obtained “Loving My Community” grant, and started working on restoration of old trails.  In 2015, in recognizing how unique this area truly is, the Dallas Park and Recreation Department renamed this portion of the park Kiest Conservation Area.  In 2017, Friends of Oak Cliff Parks partnered with Groundwork Dallas to ensure that trail restoration efforts were done to current trail standards and in a sustainable manner. Much of this work was done by NTMN chapter members.

There will be a dedication of the restored Kiest Conservation Area at 10 a.m. Saturday, October 7. There will be a BioBlitz conducted by Brett Johnson and Sam Kieschnick using iNaturalist at 10:30 a.m.

Because we only began to publicize the BioBlitz the Wednesday before the event we encourage you to come help with the BioBlitz. We will need the help. Get iNaturalist on your smart phone and we will get you up to speed on it.

 More details and the flyer for the event are in the announcements.

Support for Wildlife Effected by Hurricane Harvey
The NTMN board decided in September to assist wildlife displaced by hurricane Harvey. At the Octdober board meeting we discussed the possible recipients of our donations and felt that we needed to look more closely at the agencies that we were considering the following: a Texas connection, impact on wildlife, and somebody who could use the infusion of cash.  We will make a decision at the November board meeting and report back to you at next chapter meeting.

You may still make a tax deductible donation as follows: e We resolved to do the following:

• Use the DONATE tab on the home page of the NTMN website to contribute using PayPal. You will use your credit card to pay, but as always PayPal will receive the money and deposit in the NTMN account and we will never see your credit card number.
• You may send a check via the US Mail to our mailbox at the AgriLife Office.
  • 10056 Marsh Lane
    Suite B-101
    Dallas, TX
    75229-6066

Thanks in advance for your generosity. We will keep you posted and at the next chapter meeting share with you the outcome of this effort.

The 2018 Meeting Calendar
We are working on the 2018 schedule of board meetings and chapter meetings. In 2017 we had planned to alternate the meetings between the auditorium at the AgriLife Research facility on Coit Road and the Meadows Center. Without a lot of notice we were informed that we would not be able to use the AgriLife auditorium because the construction of a new building there reduced the size of the parking lot and made it unsafe.

This is what we are planning for 2018:

• Five meetings in the north Dallas area – hopefully the AgriLife auditorium later in the year will be available when construction there is completed.
• Five meeting in the south Dallas area.
• Two meetings at Texas Discovery Gardens: July Summer Social and December Award Banquet
• Meetings will be on the first Wednesday of each month except when there is a conflict with a holiday. So the the July meeting won’t take place on Wednesday, July 4, but the Summer Social will be the next week on July 11.
• Board meetings will float to accommodate the chapter meetings on the first Wednesday.

Wild Texas Film Tour
Check out the Wild Texas Film tour which will be shown in Dallas (Texas Theater) and Fort Worth (Amon Carter Museum). There is a link to an interesting trailer for the films.

More information and the trailer for Wild Texas File Tour is here: wildfilmtour

October_2017_Meeting_All_Announcements

Thank you for your participation,

Bruce Stewart
President
North Texas Master Naturalist