Conservation

Now visualize Communities in Schools (CIS) students assisting UWP with the planting of unusual and in some cases rare useful plants of the Edwards Plateau at a Native Plant Sanctuary in Zilker Park. Students in this field class are given specific instructions about the growing conditions for each species and its preferred community. This planting will be a new nature trail for school children and Austinites to see for the first time many plants impossible to see otherwise. Plants occurring infrequently or rarely in the wild will be preserved in this setting for future study and research. UWP is in the process now of developing a joint program with the Zilker Garden Council and Austin CIS to teach students about their environment as part of the installation of the Zilker Sanctuary Project, now in development. Perhaps the most important focus of UWP is in the development of sanctuaries in each of the eleven different regions of the state and surrounding states of the U. S. and Mexico. UWP has been participating in the development of three other native plant sanctuaries across the state for over ten years and there are several others on the drawing boards. It is important, we think, to begin environmental education about conservation at a very early age. If you believe something is important, stewardship begins to take on its own energy. When more staff are available UWP also plans to expand consultation services for conservationists and landowners so that they can evaluate their plant resources to establish appropriate stewardship practices.