FIELD TRIPS
Information about the upcoming field trips is below. As space is limited, field trips are only available to those who previously registered.
For both field trips, we recommend participants bring sunscreen, water, comfortable walking shoes, a hat, and anything else you might need to be comfortable moving around outside. We will be providing light snacks.
OFF-SITE FIELD TRIP
The off-site field trip will take place Tuesday March 5, 12:30 PM – 5:00 PM.
The field trip will start and end at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We will use a shuttle bus to take us between three different pollinator sites in Austin, which are Waterloo Greenway, Pease Park, and Trinity Episcopal School of Austin.
The schedule for the off-site field trip is as follows:
12:30 PM: Depart from Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. There will be signs directing you towards the shuttle.
1:00 PM – 1:30 PM: Tour of Austin Trinity School pollinator garden
2:00 – 3:00 PM: Tour of Waterloo Greenway
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Tour of Pease Park
4:30 PM: Depart from Pease Park and head back to the Wildflower Center for the opening reception.
Waterloo Greenway is a 1.5 mile urban ecosystem designed to unite the Austin community and facilitate authentic and enriching experiences with the arts and the environment. Composed of a diverse array of natural and cultural fixtures such as pollinator gardens, walking paths, and a restored creek ecosystem, this project is a partnership between the City of Austin and the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy to help communities connect and to support biodiversity in a heavily urbanized area.
Stewarded by the Pease Park Conservancy, Pease Park is Austin’s first public park and celebrates the diverse ecology and history of the land it rests on. Featuring native wildflowers like spreading aster and Texas bluebonnets, in addition to a varied tree canopy of oaks, cedars, and sycamores, Pease Park is a haven for native pollinator species in central Texas and is a place of refuge and play for the Austin community.
Austin Trinity is a K-8 day school where students have helped plant different pollinator habitats across the school grounds and have tagged monarch caterpillars and migrating monarchs as part of a population monitoring project. Featuring a garden center and pocket pollinator gardens, Austin Trinity models how landscapes can be used for multiple purposes and exemplifies the importance of education in conservation spaces.
ON-SITE FIELD TRIP
The on-site field trip will take place from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM. Please plan to meet at the courtyard outside of the auditorium building (see the sitemap here for directions and locations of the different buildings).
There will be an on-site tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a 284-acre botanical garden with landscapes and buildings that reflect the Center’s purpose of advancing conservation and sustainability.
The Wildflower Center encompasses both classical horticultural fixtures, such as the Texas Arboretum and the Central Gardens, and innovative research initiatives, like the Hill Country Trails where Center researchers are studying the effect of different land management techniques on the growth of native grasses and wildflowers.