By The Public Communications Office
In this episode of “What’s Up, College Station?” Marketing Coordinator Grace Hallowell and Recreation Supervisor Laurie Brown discuss tree planting and other upcoming events at Lick Creek Park and the Gary Halter Nature Center.
Transcript
Grace Hallowell:
What’s up, College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and today my guest is Lori Brown from our Parks and Recreation department. Hi, Laurie.
Laurie Brown:
Hi. How are you, Grace?
Grace Hallowell:
I’m doing well. It is springtime. The weather is, knock on wood, hopefully kind of leveling out and being on the warmer side of things now. And you over at Lick Creek Park and the Gary Halter Nature Center are busy, busy, busy.
Laurie Brown:
Oh my goodness, yes. Obviously the groundhog did not see its shadow. Spring us here early.
Grace Hallowell:
Right. It is here now.
Laurie Brown:
Yes. Yes. Very cool, very cool. Well, there’s a couple of things I do want to start with before we jump straight into all the wonderful stuff that’s going on at the Gary Halter Nature Center in Lick Creek Park. And those are that we have two city plantings for our native trees that we’re working in partnership with the Texas A&M Forest Service Department to plant a little over 100 trees in two of our princess parks here in College Station. We’re going to be put Lansing over about 40 trees in Bee Creek Park next Tuesday from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. If you want to join us there, meet us at the arboretum and we’ll get you signed up and gloved up. And even if you just want to come hang out and see the trees and take a look, they’re going to be close to the arboretum. They’re on the berm next to the cemetery. You’ll see them and you’ll see us. And then in Taro Park, we’re planting a little over 70 trees.
Grace Hallowell:
Wow.
Laurie Brown:
That’s going to be a pretty awesome project that’s going to happen on Thursday from 3:00 to 6:00. Come on out, join us to plant a tree. It’s a great way to get connected with the city and with parks.
Grace Hallowell:
And a fun way to jump into spring.
Laurie Brown:
Oh my gosh. Nothing is better than planting your trees. And if you are planting trees, you’ve got to get it done before March.
Grace Hallowell:
Right.
Laurie Brown:
We’re heading off and getting it done right.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. Well, what else is going on?
Laurie Brown:
Oh my goodness. Lick Creek Park and Gary Halter Nature Center are going to be host to a variety of different activities this year. This spring we have a new fly tying class, which is good for ages eight on up. And that’s going to be every fourth Thursday at the Gary Halter Nature Center where you can learn how to tie those little fly ties. And it is a fun class for kids and adults alike. It’s an artistic form all in its own.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes, I can imagine. I have never been fly-fishing, but I’ve watched it.
Laurie Brown:
It is cool. It is definitely an amazing thing.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
Definitely an amazing thing. We also have our Junior Master Naturalist program, which is going to be on the last Sunday of each month for February, March and April. And that class is taught by our Brassus Valley Master Naturalist chapter and some of our camp staff that work this summer that are amazing, that are teaching children about the wonders of wildlife, going outside and doing experiments and using scientific equipment and getting really involved in nature. And it’s only a $5 entry fee for a two-hour program. It’s pretty wonderful. We’re trying it as a testing out phase to see if people like it. If you want to come to February or if, Hey, we’re not able to make it till March, and so you can sign up as you need to. That’s what we’re looking at there with Junior Master Nat. And then of course we have our very popular Texas Hunter Safety course.
Our last one for spring, it’s going to be March 16th. If anyone is interested, sign up before all the spots fill up. We still have some spots left, so get on out and get that one done. You can do your hunting license this year. And that is taught by John Pelosic, who is a long time hunter safety course trainer. He’s pretty awesome.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. And while it’s a safety course, it’s in a fun way of how to be safe when you’re hunting.
Laurie Brown:
It is.
Grace Hallowell:
It’s not boring.
Laurie Brown:
Yes. Oh, it is not a boring course. John is a very entertaining instructor, so even if you have your young hunters going out, this is a good course for them too. I would recommend John. I’m not a hunter myself, but I’ve watched the safety course and it is, it’s wonderful.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
Wonderful. Watch other safety hunters courses and oof, not as good as John. I’m making sure you guys know that one. The other one that we have, we have a bunch of adult programs that are starting up. We have a monthly, or excuse me, a weekly Sunday meditation meetup group that meets at the Gary Halter Nature Center from 11:00 to noon. And it’s free to the public. If anyone wants to come zen out and be around nature, this is a great group to get started with. And totally free. Along with our Shinzen meditation motion classes, which we have a Monday class and a Wednesday class that kind of rotate through where you’re going to walk through a walking and movement meditation group with therapist Lizette Templin, which is pretty awesome. Those are in there too. And then we have brand new for us is our Fix a Leak workshop. It’s going to be taught by Jennifer Nations from our water department. She’s our water resources [inaudible 00:05:40].
Grace Hallowell:
Our water chick.
Laurie Brown:
Yeah, she’s our water gal.
Grace Hallowell:
She’s known on the show as the water chick.
Laurie Brown:
She is the water chick. She’s one of our favorite people. And she’s going to be teaching that on World Water Day, which is March 22nd from noon to 1:00 at the Nature Center. Bring your lunch, jump on in. It’s totally free to the public as well. If you’re learning to learn how to fix a leak in your water systems that you have for your plants at home, this is a great time to get hooked in and figure out how to do that. It’s a pretty neat thing.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. And Jennifer definitely knows her stuff.
Laurie Brown:
Oh my gosh, she’s wonderful.
Grace Hallowell:
I know. I’ve had issues with a leak and I was like, Jennifer, I need you to help me. And she helped me very, very… She was a very big help to me.
Laurie Brown:
She is. She’s a woman of power in that world, that’s for sure.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
Water powered, I love it. Our other programs that we have that are all ages that are welcome that we have is next Monday at 10:30 will be our grand ribbon cutting for our two new bird blinds at Lick Creek Park, which is pretty exciting. We’re meeting at the bird blind at Tarot Park. They’re open now. If you want to go birding and get a sneak peek before the day, go for it and take a look at them. And they’re absolutely wonderful. And these couple really well with our first Saturday of month birding 101 classes.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
If you’re looking to join people and birding, this is taught by our Rio Brazos Audubon chapter, and it is a pretty wonderful group that comes out. You get to meet the Audubon folks and they bring you around the park and show you all the birds of the park, which is pretty fun.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. Especially even if you don’t know a whole lot about birding, they’re a very welcoming group and will teach you everything you need to know.
Laurie Brown:
Everything you need to know. Do not need to bring your own binoculars. We have plenty. If you don’t have them, you’re just trying to test out to see, hey, maybe if birding is for you, then this is a great class to give it a shot with. Very welcoming and happy community.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
Which is incredible. Now we do have some returning favorites to the nature center, and most notably is coming up on March 1st is the Nature Center Star Party.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
Free to the public. Hopefully it’ll be a clear sky. But we have the Texas A or the, excuse me, the Brazos Valley. The Brazos Valley Astrological Association, not astronomy. That’s a totally different… Astronomy association, not astrology. My goodness. That’s a different group. But so we have the Brazos Valley Astronomy Association that’s going to be coming out to show people the stars and the moon with their big old giant telescopes, which is absolutely beautiful night.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes.
Laurie Brown:
Plus fun games for the kids and families. Activities from our local conservation organizations that are going to come out and talk to everyone about the wildlife at night. Things that you can do to help wildlife, like migrating birds and turning off lights at night and how you can garden for wildlife and make your yard and place and spaces at home and apartments wonderful places for wildlife as well.
Grace Hallowell:
We’re definitely going over a lot of information. There’s so much going on.
Laurie Brown:
Oh my gosh.
Grace Hallowell:
There’s not an excuse to be bored this season.
Laurie Brown:
There is not. And so if you guys are looking for something to do and looking for a way to find all this information, I’m literally reading almost verbatim from our spring guide. If you want to come pick one up. We have tons at Central Park. We have tons at Lick Creek, Southwood Community Center, the Lincoln Recreation Center, and the Meyer Community Center. If you guys are wanting to take a look at them, feel free to pop on in and grab one of these guys. We’ve got our invasive plant pools coming up. Our volunteer days for invasive plant pools. We’ve got our camp outs, we’ve got our Monarch events, our bio blitzes, our City Nature Challenge, and everything else coming up.
Grace Hallowell:
Anything you can think of, it’s in there.
Laurie Brown:
It’s in there. Come on out and join us and pick up your guide and we will have all these great things for everybody to do.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. And if they’re looking for a little, just more specifically information on Lick Creek or the Gary Halter Nature Center, where can they find out more?
Laurie Brown:
They can find out on the Gary Halter Nature Center webpage, or they can always shoot me an email at lbrown@cstx.org.
Grace Hallowell:
All right, well thank you for joining me today, Laurie. It’s always fun when you’re here.
Laurie Brown:
Awesome. Well thank you.
Grace Hallowell:
And that’s what’s up.
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