Law Man Walking: Nature Treks With Bill Holston

This week, our man Bill Holston goes for a stroll in the Connemara Conservancy.

Of Monarchs and Dragonflies
By Bill Holston

Saturday I headed for a wildflower walk to Connemara Conservancy. Connemara is a special place for me. When I was a student at UTD in the late ’70s, my great friend Scott Hudson lived in a ranch house in Allen. At that time, it was an operating ranch. I loved to drive up there and visit. It was pretty primitive. I recall one winter when the water in the toilet bowl froze solid. The land was surrounded by fields and was filled with tons of wildlife. Scott and I used to take dates for cookouts in those fields. Yeah, I was a cheapskate. But, hey, I was working my way through law school parking cars.

My favorite memory, however, was the night before Scott got married in 1985. We drove up to the area and down dirt roads, planning to camp there and cook breakfast the next morning. It began to rain about midnight. We managed to get our car totally stuck in the mud and walked to the nearest house to call Scott’s sister Nancy to come get us. Of course it was a morning wedding. We rolled into the parking lot of First Presbyterian downtown, totally exhausted, about five minutes before the time of the wedding. It was 15 years before Scott’s wife, local artist Jimmie Hudson, even smiled during the retelling of this story.

Luckily for all of us, this land was the Montgomery Farm, owned by Frances (Montgomery) Williams. Mrs. Williams watched the development all around her land and decided to conserve this land for future generations. She began the Connemara Conservancy with the creation of a land trust and the donation of 72 acres. According to Connemara, a land trust is “a nonprofit organization governed by citizens concerned with the need to conserve open space — undeveloped lands with significant ecological, scenic, recreational, agricultural, cultural or historic values — within their community.” In exchange for certain tax benefits, a conservation easement restricting the use of the land is given to a public agency or nonprofit. According to their website: “Connemara is now one of over 40 land trusts working to preserve natural lands throughout Texas. It is also the only regional land trust focusing solely on North Texas preservation.” After being set aside for preservation, Connemara was the site of an international outdoor sculpture show.

My wife, Jill, and I would take our kids there for picnics and look at the fun outdoor sculpture. The very first time I carried my now 23-year-old son in a backpack was at Connemara. The Conservancy later determined that the sculpture shows became too hard on the land, and now the place is dedicated to preservation and nature tours. Access to Connemara is limited to members and to events like the one on Saturday, a guided hike. There are also lots of volunteer opportunities.

Our walk was led by Master Naturalist extraordinaire Jim Varnum. Jim has been studying all of this for about 20 years. He seems to be able to name everything we pass as we cross that meadow. He donates hundreds of hours every year to leading nature hikes and is happy to answer email questions for people as well. He always leads great hikes. Unfortunately, there was very little blooming in the meadows this day. Jim told us there was likely more to bloom in May. Still we saw quite a bit in our two-hour ramble through the meadow.

About 25 of us met in the parking area and were greeted by the booming voice of a bullfrog in a pond. Then we walked down the old ranch road, crossing Rowlett Creek. As we made our way across the meadow, two red-tail hawks (Buteo jamaicensi) soared above us. It was a warm overcast morning, so walking was quite comfortable. The primary blooming plant we saw was green milkweed (Asclepias viridis), favored by monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippuson) on their migration from the Oyamel Fir Forests of Central Mexico to Canada. Jim explained that the monarchs make their path north along with the blooming times of milkweed. As the butterflies die, their offspring continue the journey north. Milkweed is essential to this whole process. I’ve planted milkweed in my yard and often see monarchs and other butterflies.

We saw blooming showy primrose (Oenothera speciosa), the colorful blooms that are covering roadsides and yards in North Texas right now. Although not blooming, the meadow was full of fascinating things. We found crawfish holes and learned that there are dozens of different species of crawfish. One local naturalist determined that the holes can be as much as 6 feet deep, in order for the crawfish to find the water table. I was unable to determine if our local crawfish generate tails sufficiently large to satisfy hungry lawyers.

We watched both brilliant blue damselflies and dragonflies hover overhead. You can tell them apart, because dragonflies perch with their wings extended. Both are from the order Odonata, which is subdivided into suborders: Anisoptera (dragonflies) and Zygoptera (damselflies). The prairie was filled with various legumes and vetches, which are all introduced species from the era when this was ranchland. As we crossed back across the meadow, we entered the edges of a Pecan grove, which borders Rowlett Creek. There are lots of lovely trees there, including our native maple, ash leaf maple (Acer negundo ), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), one of my favorite small trees, Eve’s necklace (Sophora affinis), and possum haw holly (Ilex decidua), our native holly tree. One of the really exciting projects is the rescue of some big bluestem grass sod, which was transplanted in the meadow. This will hopefully produce a reintroduction of some of the millions of acres of tallgrass prairie that we have lost as a result of development. We saw some areas where buffalo grass (Bouteloua dactyloides) has been established. This is a great grass for landscaping.

There is an abundance of plants here. Jim says that there are about 300 species of plants in this marvelous preserve. Every time I go on one of these hikes, I’m struck by a couple of ideas. First, I’m really thankful for the government officials and private landowners who had the wisdom to preserve these spaces. Texas has precious little of its natural areas set aside for preservation, and it continues to disappear. We’ve all watched patches of wild spaces get scraped clean for another parking lot. Preserving these spaces is important for a lot of reasons. It creates green space, which reduces runoff into creeks and therefore reduces erosion. It provides habitat for wildlife. The green plants actually reduce CO2. Finally, they are places for us to get away from the stress of urban life and to recharge our batteries. I really can’t emphasize enough how important these spaces are for us as a community, and for me as an individual. In many ways these places are as spiritual as any cathedral. Without Mrs. Williams’ foresight and the cooperation of her family, this whole area would be houses, concrete, and parking lots. Instead they have given a remarkable gift to future generations.

My second thought is just how much I have to learn. Jim gave us some excellent advice: learn one thing a day. He also suggested to take something you know already, sit down with field guides, and study it, learning all there is to know, and in the process learn how to identify new things. For a field guide on Texas wildflowers he suggested Wildflowers of Texas, by Geyata Ajilvsgi. I spoke to an older gentleman as we walked across the meadow. We both remarked how much we have to learn. I smiled at him and said, “Thankfully this is a lifelong project.”