I’ve worked at the Wildflower Center with dozens of my plant-nerd colleagues for over 20 years. We steward about 300 acres of blackland prairie in South Austin where this ecoregion meets the Edwards Plateau, atop the Edwards Aquifer filled with its caves and karst features.
Each year, we welcome over 200,000 human guests, alongside millions more resident and migratory plants and animals. We conserve this land for enjoyment, study, and teaching about how the plants of this region are interdependent with the animals, soils, rain, pollinators, and fire here. We are connected with Austin’s green spaces by the violet crown trail corridor and our city’s water quality protection lands; and underground, via the Swiss cheese-like network of limestone that transports the rainwater that infiltrates here, down to the Colorado river.
My own naturalist journey began climbing trees, collecting fireflies, and hoeing up potatoes. It was shaped by science teachers, family, mowing lawns, and working in retail nurseries. It’s grown into a passion for helping others find wonder and a love for nature. I’m currently working on deepening my own understanding of indigenous culture and plant reciprocity, and looking forward to sharing what I’m learning with conference participants. As Proust noted, the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.