Julie Thibodeaux

Native plants have been touted for their water saving properties and importance to pollinators in recent years but a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology says the need for native plants is more dire than many experts have let on.

While the year ended with a fossil fuel-loving president-elect and cabinet waiting to take office and threatening to rollback environmental progress, locally there was much to rejoice about in 2016. For North Texas, the year was packed with pioneering achievements from local activists, entrepreneurs and other greenies.

A new nature documentary Seasons, directed by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, the French filmmakers who made Winged Migration and Oceans, offers animal lovers an emersion into a world where wild things rule.

They didn't venture into Cowtown, but PETA recently placed a pair of PETA billboards promoting kindness to cows in Dallas – and just a stone's throw from two McDonald's restaurants. It was a nervy gesture in a city known for its steaks and barbecue.

Wendel Withrow at Green Source DFW Sustainable Leadership AwardsEnvironmental activists, eco-preneurs, solar advocates and bee huggers came together Dallas Arbortum's Rosine Hall to honor local eco-heros at the Memnosyne Institute’s fifth annual Green Source DFW Sustainable Leadership Awards on Thursday.

A new coworking space in Dallas is in the works that aims to be the greenest flexible work space in North Texas. GoodWork, the brainchild of Amy King, a Dallas-based creative consultant, and Steve Kinder, founder of LOFTwall, is set to open late 2017 at 1808 S. Good Latimer Expressway in Dallas.

Join Green Source DFW and the Memnosyne Institute for North Texas' green Oscars – the Green Source DFW Sustainable Leadership Awards Dinner on Nov. 3 at the Dallas Arboretum. This year, organic gardening pioneer Howard Garrett will receive the Lifetime Achievement award and will also be speaking at the event.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is known to wax poetic about his favorite composers during concerts. But lately there's a new topic you'll hear the extroverted orchestra leader proselytizing about, one that his fans couldn't have foreseen: compost.

The Fort Worth City Council is considering an entrance fee for the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to fund infrastructure repairs and enhancements. The garden faces financial challenges, with $1.5 million unmet operational needs yearly and $15 million in capital repair delays.

In September, the heat subsides and in North Texas fall can be as invigorating as spring. It’s also when another round of green festivals crop up. Here’s a list of the some of big eco-friendly events on the calender in the coming months.

There's plenty of Texas lore to read in The Texas Landscape Project: Nature and People but environmentalists, Texas history buffs and geography lovers alike will enjoy just perusing its maps, aerial views and historic photos. The richly illustrated 500-page environmental history atlas was published by Texas A&M University Press in June.

Last Tuesday, the Allen City Council unanimously voted to keep its restriction prohibiting solar panels on the front of homes. City council members cited concerns about aesthetics and fear that trees would be cut to make way for solar panels as reasons for prohibiting street-facing solar.