Happy Bearthday From The Tandy HIlls BioBlitz

A Happy Earth Day message from Don Young and the Tandy Hills....

Talk about Cosmic Convergence! 

On this day in 1960, the land now known as Tandy Hills Natural Area was purchased by the City of Fort Worth. That was exactly ten years to the day before Earth Day was founded in 1970. 

And on THIS day, today, the Tandy Hills BioBlitz is born. Starting at 6am and running until 6pm Saturday, Tandy Hills is truly a living laboratory. Stop by and see science and nature in action.

Read more about the Amazing convergence here:

Happy 54th bEarthday Tandy Hills

Does A Tandy Hills BioBlitz Earth Day Weekend Come With No Prairie Fest?

I am more than a little tired. Have been up since before five. Have been having trouble sleeping.

But, enough about my litany of woe.

I needed to take care of something which could only be taken care of directly at the U.S. Post Office this morning.

I opted to use the Handley Post Office, which is the one I have been used to using for quite a few years.

But, it has been a couple years since I had the direct, in the Handley Post Office, experience.

Yikes!

Long line. One postal worker working slow. Real slow. She was working on one customer when I joined the line, eight people back. 37 minutes later the line finally moved. Eventually a second postal worker opened a second window. From that point the wait was not too much longer.

After finally getting my postal business taken care of, since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to drive to View Street, for a short jaunt on the Tandy Hills. I can't remember the last time I jaunted on the Tandy Hills, but it has been awhile.

Upon arrival I saw the sign you see above, advertising the upcoming Tandy Hills Natural Area BioBlitz on Earth Day, 6 a.m. Friday, April 22, til Saturday, April 23 at 6 p.m.

I have been asked by more than once by more than one person when this year's Prairie Fest was taking place. Additionally asking if I'd noticed any promoting of the 2016 Prairie Fest.

Well.

This Earth Day weekend is the usual time the Prairie Fest takes place.

I do not know what has become of the Prairie Fest. I've heard nothing. I suspect it has been replaced by this BioBlitz event.

I usually check out the Prairie Fest each year. I don't know if I will be checking out this BioBlitz deal. Pretty much ever time I've gotten blitzed the next morning I wake up with a splitting headache. I do not like waking up with a splitting headache....

A Happy Tandy Hills Earth Day With Fort Worth's Beatnik Loving Mayor

Fort Worth Mayor, Tom McCann signing
"National Beatnik Week" proclamation, 1960. (from LIFE magazine)

Or as the Tandy Hills Godfather, Don Young, put it today in an email's subject line:

Happy Triple bEarthday to Tandy Hills 2015.

According to Olive the Prairie Dog's parental unit, way back on this current day of April 22, in 1960, Fort Worth's beatnik-loving mayor, Tom McCann, and the Fort Worth City Council made the momentous decision to spend $138,250 for the 160 acre chunk of land now known as the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

As for the other parts of the triple part of today's bEarthday and the Tandy Hills.

Ten years after Fort Worth's beatnik-loving major decided to buy the Tandy Hills the first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970.

And then, 40 years later, on April 22, 2010, the Friends of the Tandy Hills Natural Area began a partnership deal with the City of Fort Worth where the city joined in the efforts to protect and restore the Tandy Hills.

The most interesting, to me, part of today's Earth Day Tandy Hills information is the fact that, apparently, way back in the 1960s, Fort Worth had itself a progressive mayor who liked the precursors of hippies, that being beatniks.

How did Fort Worth go from having a progressive beatnik-loving mayor to the era of mayor entities like Kay Granger, Mike Moncrief and Betsy Price? Can you picture any of those three signing a "National Beatnik Week" proclamation?

Well, okay, to be totally fair, which I always am, I guess I can see Betsy Price signing such a proclamation. There is something about Mayor Betsy that makes me think she could easily have been an active hippie during the hippie era. It would not shock me to learn that Mayor Betsy was at Woodstock being a Grateful Dead groupie.

Then again, I am not at all sure the Grateful Dead were at Woodstock....

Celebrating Earth Day At Quanah Parker Park With A Green Trinity River & Plantains

For my Earth Day commune with nature I decided to burn some gas driving to Quanah Parker Park's parking lot to take a walk by the giant pecan trees while listening to the symphony of tweeting birds.

That greenish body of water you see in the picture is the Trinity River, looking west from a Quanah Parker Park overlook.

I am fairly certain the green tint to the river is not the result of any sort of Fort Worth Earth Day celebration where Mayor Betsy Price has dyed the river green in an emulating homage to her predecessor, goofy Mike Moncrief, and his attempt to dye the Trinity River purple with a cup of grape Kool-Aid.

As I took the picture of the Trinity River I looked down to see a lizard looking at me. Lizards are reptiles. So are snakes. Why do I find lizards to be cute and cuddly while snakes I find to be the opposite of cute and cuddly? It's a conundrum.

As part of my ongoing Earth Day celebration I am cooking Plantains for the first time. Miss Puerto Rico gave me a Puerto Rican cuisine cookbook the last time she returned from her home island. Most of the recipes in that cookbook involve frying in way too much corn oil.

I Googled for health friendly variations as to what to do with Plantains, which is what I am about to attempt.

But butter is involved. Wish me luck....

Celebrate Earth Day Today Followed By Celebrating Prairie Fest On The Tandy Hills On Saturday

It seems like only yesterday the world had its first Earth Day.

April 22, 1970.

A time when Americans were walking on the moon, a time when Americans were dying in Vietnam, a time when America was adding Cambodia to its invasion to do list, a time when students protested while the National Guard shot and killed them, a time when Richard Nixon was president before anyone had heard  the word Watergate.

Incoming email from Don Young this morning regarding Earth Day and this coming Saturday's 2014 Prairie Fest on the Tandy Hills....

On April 22, 1960, the Fort Worth City Council made their most inspired decision, ever, when they agreed to purchase the land now known as Tandy Hills Natural Area for the sum of, $138,250. With more than 500 native plant species, that works out to $276.50 per species. What a deal!

The story of how Tandy Hills survived the plow, grazing, development and gas drilling in the heart of the third largest city in Texas is an amazing but true story. By this resolution, the city inadvertently preserved a prairie wonderland for future generations. 

Ten years later to the day, Earth Day was founded in 1970. 

Come wave your green flag in celebration of the wild and natural world at Prairie Fest, this Saturday, April 26.

Looking At The Village Creek Wildflower Area Thinking About Going To Earth Day In Dallas

A lot of people were with me today having a natural, historical walk in Arlington with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

The burst we got, a few days ago, of energizing H2O, via a sky delivery, seems to have jump started the Texas Wildflowers which have been dormant for too long.

As you can see, the designated Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Wildflower Area is showing a little color among the carpet of green foliage.

Speaking of green. This morning I was asked if I wanted to go Fair Park in Dallas on Saturday, April 20, for some sort of Earth Day event. I am awaiting further details before agreeing to go. The plan would be to take the Trinity Railway Express to Dallas, then the DART train to Fair Park.

Sounds like an adventure to me.

Everyone knows I am adventure averse.

Speaking of adventure, this morning I had myself a real fine time swimming in the cool pool. The outer world at my location was heated to some temperature in the 60s by the time the sun arrived to amp up the heating to its current 67 degrees.

Currently clouds are between me and the sun. I had planned on an afternoon swim and doing some poolside lounging to work on my tan in preparation for swimming with the South Padre Island dolphins.

Maybe by the time lunch is done the sun will make an appearance....

Fort Worth's First Earth Day April 22, 1960 Saving The Tandy Hills For The Future

I did not realize til I got incoming this morning from Fort Worth's Top Watchdog, Don Young, that today, April 22, was Earth Day.

I worded that poorly. I knew April 22 is Earth Day, but today, that fact failed to register til Don Young reminded me.

Okay, that was worded slightly better. I'm losing my ability to communicate, apparently.

I wish I could have celebrated Earth Day with an early morning swim. But, my pool lost all its water.

The first Earth Day was on April 22 of 1970. It was a BIG DEAL. Protesting was very popular back in those days. If I remember right, on the original Earth Day, some very bad Viet Nam War news hit the public, as in Nixon had expanded the war into Cambodia.

I wonder if Steve Doeung remembers when the Viet Nam War came to Cambodia?

The Cambodia expansion caused all sorts of protesting. If I'm still remembering right, these were the protest episodes that saw the murder of 4 Kent State students by National Guard troops.

We live in such calmer times these days, though the naysayers don't seem to realize it.

Don Young's incoming had a very interesting bit of history in it.

On April 22, 1960, 10 years before the first Earth Day, the Fort Worth City Council, led by Mayor Thomas A. McCann, agreed to purchase the land now known as the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

From the city record..."a resolution enacted by the City Council of the City of Fort Worth, Texas, at a meeting regularly held on the 22nd day of April, 1960, does promise to pay, $138,250..." for the Tandy Hills land.

I don't know what $138,250 is worth in 2010 dollars, but it sounds like Fort Worth got a super bargain back in 1960.

Who knew Fort Worth was so Progressive, so Green, so long ago? The foresight of Fort Worth's 1960 City Council and Mayor preserved a prairie wonderland for generations to come.

Which will be celebrated this coming Saturday at the 2010 Prairie Fest.

See you there!

Living With The Trinity On The 40th Anniversary Of Earth Day

No. That is not an artist's rendition of what Fort Worth's Town Lake and Canals will look like if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle ever gets built.

The picture is one I extracted from a very good video about the history of the Trinity River and how Fort Worth and Dallas started building their towns on what they did not realize was the Trinity River's flood plain.

After a few flood disasters, corrective measures were undertaken. In Dallas a mammoth relocation of the Trinity to a new channel away from downtown Dallas was built under the direction of a man named Stemmons, who later had a freeway named after him.

Speaking of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. There are some people in Fort Worth who think nothing can be done to put a stop to this ill-conceived project. There are also some who think something can be done.

Some think that ordinary citizens have no chance when it comes to taking on powerful political interests in Texas.

I beg to differ.

There was a time in the 1960s when Texas politicians had a different Trinity River Vision, with that vision attempting to turn the Trinity River into a Barge Canal connecting Dallas and Fort Worth with the Gulf of Mexico.

Many ordinary Texans thought this was nuts. They fought the project.

And won.

In 2010 there is no Barge Canal connecting D/FW to the Gulf of Mexico.

On Tuesday, April 20 at 8pm, KERA-TV will air Living with the Trinity, a one-hour documentary that chronicles the history of the fight to save the Trinity River. The one hour documentary airs statewide on public television stations as part of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.

The documentary revisits the period from 1965 to 1973 when U.S. Congressman Jim Wright of Fort Worth, working with the Johnson Administration, was able to win Congressional approval of nearly $1 billion for what would become a highly controversial project. Seventeen counties in the river basin voted on a bond issue to supplement the federal funding. The bond issue failed by just 20,000 votes and the barge canal was never built.

Jim Wright was the Kay Granger of his era. Key difference between Jim's vision and Kay's is the voters voted on Jim's vision. Interesting that both Trinity River Visions have $1 billion price tags. Of course, in 2010 a billion dollars is not worth nearly what a billion dollars was worth in 1965.

A new radio series updating the Dallas and Fort Worth Trinity River projects will air April 13, 14 and 15 on KERA-FM.