Family Friendly

The combination Arbor and Earth Day event features green vendors, tree and plant sales, gardening products, along with family friendly activities. 

The city of Plano hosts this eco event held at the Plano Centre, 2000 E Spring Creek Pkwy, featuring booths, kid’s activities and animal adoptions. 

Highlights include New York-based Bash the Trash, which builds, performs and educates with musical instruments made from reused and repurposed materials. Sign up for the instrument-building workshop.

This community-wide clean up and fair hosted by Keep Flower Mound Beautiful is held at the Flower Mound Home Depot, 852 Long Prairie Road. Be sure to stop by the Trinity Forks Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas plant sale from 10am-1pm, featuring hard-to-find native plants.

Residents can also drop off paper for shredding  and as well as housewares and electronics. 

This neighborhood Earth Day celebration held in Lake Cliff Park, 1200 N Zang Blvd, features 100-plus vendors, animal adoptions, food trucks, electronic recycling and a dog parade

The popular Arlington nature center presents nature walks, camping classes, story times and crafts at the River Legacy Living Science Center.

Event goers can enjoy hands-on environmental demonstrations, education booths, kid’s crafts, live music and an organic plant sale at Town Center Plaza, 255 Parkway Blvd.

On your way, drop-off your usable household goods; household documents for shredding; and bulky trash items at Town Center Elementary parking.

The city of Irving hosts its annual green film fest as an alternative to the outdoor fairs. Three venues are showing 19 environmental films with something for everyone. Movies include the classic Revenge of the Electric Car, American Made Movie and several nature family films. See website for complete schedule. 

The festival has a new location at the Dayspring Nature Preserve, 622 Rainforest Lane, and will feature exhibits, an eco-lab trail, kite flying and a wildflower seeded Easter egg hunt.

Participate in restoration and management activities at this rare blackland prairie remnant. We’ll multi-task with a boundary walk, litter pickup and watching for spring wildflowers.  Photo and birding opportunities too. 

What & why a boundary walk? Since we have battled with invasive trees and shrubs on the west side of the preserve for over 10 years, but the east, more impacted side of the site has remained mostly untouched. As a major step in managing the entire site for restoration, a mowed perimeter has been suggested to allow better access for walking and equipment (if needed) and easier management of wind-dispersed invasive plants. As part of our March Stewardship Day, we’ll walk the preserve’s boundaries and assess what’s needed to establish a perimeter. 

Please wear sturdy shoes or boots and long pants. Weather forecast includes precipitation, so an RSVP is appreciated in case of cancellation due to weather, etc.  

Information, directions, to RSVP: info@theprairie.org.

Native Prairies Association of Texas director Pat Merkord will be giving workshop on “Native Prairie Indicator Species: Signs Prairie Hunters Seek.”

Find out what the top 10 indicator grass and wildflower species for Dallas area blackland prairies are and have hands on opportunities to identify selected grasses and forbs.

This workshop will help those interested in looking for prairies or those who want to learn more on how to identify prairie indicator species an opportunity to expand their prairie knowledge.

Schedule:

10-10:30 – Set up

10:30 to 11:30 – Introduction to top 10 Prairie Indicator Species for Blackland Prairies

(Includes tips on ID with actual specimens)

11:30 to 12:00 – Lunch – Please bring your own brown bag lunch on site

12:00 to 1:00 – More in-depth view of Prairie Indicator Species using nearby prairie site walk and field specimens

1:00 to 1:30 – Presentation Wrap-up on some North Texas Prairies