There is no more beautiful area than North Texas. The LBJ National Grasslands is one of my favorite places. I started looking at birds and my interest has grown to everything in nature. I have conducted plant, bird, and GIS mapping surveys as a volunteer and contractor with the U.S. Forest Service on the LBJ/Caddo National Grasslands. I founded the monthly “First Wednesday” nature walks at the LBJ National Grasslands in 2004, which still continue currently. I was joint recipient of the National Grasslands Prairie Partner Award in 2003 and the winner of the Carroll Abbott Memorial Award in 2016 by the Native Plant Society of Texas for my book North Central Texas Wildflowers (paper copy – Amazon, free electronic copy – see My books for links to get the pdfs). The second edition of North Central Texas Wildflowers was released on Amazon in December 2023. In 2024 I was awarded the NPSOT Shirley Lusk Memorial Award. The award honors a community scientist for collecting and preserving Texas native plants for public education by providing outstanding contribution of herbarium vouchers.