Stumped by Nature

Welcome to this issue of Stumped by Nature, where we notice nature lurking just beyond our screens, curate a list of outside-y events in Austin, and build community with other folks in the thick of the startup ecosystem.

In this week’s issue:

🌱 Invasive Species, Part Two: The Reckoning

🌤️ Upcoming outdoors events

🚙 Adventures just beyond Austin

Let’s dig in!

-Nicole

PS. Our first ATX Outsiders event is happening March 3 (!), and you’re invited to celebrate this community launch. We’re a batch of Austin business leaders and creatives who get outside together.

For this event, we’re stirring in a throwback to the very first issue of Stumped by Nature: we’re going to meet the 2008 Large Tree of the Year.

Register for the March 3 event here.

NATURE SPOTLIGHT

I have some good news: my plant blindness is slowly dissipating as I’m getting to know the names of more plants.

I have some bad news: writing about invasive plants last week + the dissipating plant blindness = Saturday existential crisis

My Saturday started innocently enough. To the back yard to snip some anemones from my bursting beds. Feed the girls, grab a blue egg from Daisy.

But, egg in hand, fistful of flowers, I looked more closely at the cluster of trees shading the chicken coop.

The bark first—plausible deniability.

Then the leaves. Quite glossy.

A flash of memory of NPSOT’s invasive plant mugshots:

You know that sense of dread, the dawning realization-type? It starts at the forehead and runs cold down your body?

Mine was prompted by several key ingredients slotting into place:

And so a tight little crisis spiral.

First was denial. Maybe they’re not really privets. Egg to pocket. Phone to hand. PictureThis to photo ID.

And then a belly dropping sense of helplessness.

This is truly everywhere along my favorite trail.

Next was bargaining. Are invasive species really so bad? Surely glossy privet is just misunderstood. It's a tree! Trees help with carbon! Trees offer shade!

Then different bargaining: really, aren’t there worse problems in the world to be focusing on than this? They’re not poison berries, like nandina, which also is growing on the other side of my fence. And for those, cedar waxwings could just chill their binging, and is it really my place to interfere with nature? Isn’t someone else taking care of this problem? The problem is so incredibly big, what do these three trees really matter in the whole scheme of things.

So some mid-yard research:

Glossy Privets, and why they’re a scourge on the Central Texas ecosystem

Name: Ligustrum lucidum, aka large leaf ligustrum, large-leaf privet, waxleaf privet

Description from NPSOT:

Was I convinced? Yes, but still I googled if privets were at least decent pollinators.

The answer: maybe for temporary comfort, but it’s at the cost of native pollinators whose diversity is tailored specifically to nourish locals.

Grasping for acceptance, I swapped my phone for my pocketed egg, walked back to the house, and, dumbly, looked at the English Ivy creeping along my other fence.

Intellectualize through the crisis, amirite?

So what’s within our realm of control, competence, capacity, sanity?

This is a conversation I have pretty frequently, most recently on my no-to-coffee, yes-to-hike stroll with a new BFF. How do we make an impact when we get deeper into the work and realize how much more work there is to do?

And one answer there is that this is all incremental, day-by-day, month-by-month, year-over-year type work. We show up consistently and chip away.

And we have to take care of the core first—our energy is a finite resource, and we’ve gotta protect it for our priorities, get clear on our values, and dig in sustainably. The world needs us to be rested and ready to think and do. Depleting ourselves by over-giving is a disservice.

So I did what I could this weekend: I noticed. I got help chainsawing the eff out of three privets. I let the vitex stand (for now—will research more to decide its fate). I said some sharp words to the ivy to let it know it’s about to exit my little sphere of backyard influence. And I lobbed off the berry heads of a handful of nandinas creeping over my fence line.

I had lots of questions: does putting this invasive plant in my green compost bin mean I’m spreading even more seed? Am I allowed to enact invasive plant warfare on my favorite greenbelt? Does this need to be paired with fire mitigation? Who do I contact for a more widespread, community-based bioblitz? Who else is actively working on this?

So far, one partial answer, aiming for C+ level of perfection:

It’s a small step, but it’s a shift from being an active contributor to the privet problem to being a passive consumer of the privet problem.

And now I have a patch of sun. I have space to plant more nutritious, native-friendly pollinators, who share the understory, who feed the species who were downstream in the food chain, also getting choked out by the monoculture.

I scooped up a beauty berry bush from my Buy Nothing group, and plopped it into the soil. I got more precise on key next steps for my beekeeping project.

My spiral’s current status is a soapbox landing: invasive plants are not just causing harm, they're actively blocking the path for an ecosystem that's more rich, diverse, purposeful, and sustainable.

And so at school drop off Monday, I ran into a neighbor buddy who overheard my weekend chainsawing and asked WTF was going on. In return, he told me about his several year quest to eradicate the roots of the vitex in his yard.

How encouraging to know we don’t have to spiral alone. That other people are doing the work. And that we can use power in numbers, year-over-year, to affect change.

Related: Nature-literate pros who read this--feel free to toss resources my way to help me wrap my head around what can be done/who to talk to/the Pareto principal of this invasive plant situation.

ATHENA ALERT

VOTING SEASON

Early voting is happening now for the primaries. You’ll want your voice in the crowd—you’re the three-privet-removal voting equivalent. Find polling information here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

🗓️ February 26: Paleo Perspectives: Like, with paleontologists

🗓️ February 26: Natural Rope Making Workshop: Make plants differently useful

🗓️ February 27: Walnut Creek Greenbelt Invasive Plant Workday: Radicalize yourself with a firsthand look at how big this problem is + have some hope in the efforts to reclaim the understory

🗓️ February 28: The Big Knit: Birding + your knitting/crochet/sewing project. Sit down. Listen for birds. This. is. the. life.

🗓️ February 28: Day of Bonsai : Learn and look with the pros

🗓️ February 28 TreeFolks Tree Giveaway: We like native trees

🗓️ February 28: STEM Girl Day: with ammonites and mathematical patterns on the docket

🗓️ February 28-March 1: Lunar New Year at Mozarts

🗓️ February 28: Plant Walk in the Park: Get to know your flora friends

🗓️ March 1: Plant + Specialty Cut Flower Sale at Braven’s Backyard. Like, actual backyard. This is my mom group currency for celebrations/grief.

🗓️ March 1: Floating Yoga: Incentivize your balance with water stakes

🗓️ March 1: Walk & Talk: Deep Conversations in Motion: people thinking together and moving their bodies

🗓️ March 1: Foraging for Native Edibles: If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, I bet you can name the plant in the event photo

🗓️ March 1: Heart of Texas Regatta: Watch folks capture the wind

🗓️ March 3: Wonderful World of Color: Natural dyes chat with the Austin Herb Society.

🗓️ March 3: ATX Outsiders Kickoff/Meet the 2008 Large Tree of the Year: meet readers of this newsletter and gawk at an oak tree

🗓️ March 3: Floating Sound Bath : Maybe the thing you need is a watery rest

JUST OUTSIDE OF AUSTIN

🚙 February 28: Evening Explorations-Stars and Moths: pop over to Jacobs Well for a Star Party + nighttime natives

🚙 February 28: Golfing with a Ranger: you have to be older than 10, but you can be exactly as old as you are

🚙 February 28: Mountain Biking for Beginners: Lockhart State Park is not messing around with their programming. Some mountain bikes available to borrow.

🚙 February 28: Star Party: If you need an excuse to visit Inks, we’ve gotcha covered here

🚙 Through March 8: Tulip Festival & Baby Animal Days: Easy yes for a day in Georgetown

LOCAL FARMERS’ MARKETS

👩‍🌾 Arboretum Food & Artisan Market Saturdays 11am-3pm

👩‍🌾 Barton Creek Farmers Market Saturdays 9am-1pm

👩‍🌾 Domain Farmers Market Sundays 12pm-4pm ←new to the list!

👩‍🌾 Lakeline Farmers Market Saturdays 9am-1pm

👩‍🌾 SFC Farmers’ Market Downtown Saturdays 9am-1pm

👩‍🌾 SFC Farmers’ Market Sunset Valley Saturdays 9am-1pm

👩‍🌾 Texas Farmers’ Market at Bell Saturdays 9am-1pm

👩‍🌾 Texas Farmers’ Market at Mueller Sundays 10am-2pm

That’s all for this week! 

In the meantime, I hope your understory is thriving in freshly claimed sunlight.

-Nicole

OPTIONAL SIDE QUESTS

🪵 Are you sitting on a misogi-esque story? Spill.

🪵 Do you need to commission a writer? I’m happy to discuss projects that might make me cry in public/funnel my experiential/existential dread into essays like this one.

🪵 Is this newsletter not your vibe? Forward it to your enemies to make them suffer too.

💰It’s safe to assume there are affiliate links, and I’ll monetarily benefit from any purchases you make. Hooray, capitalism! So far, this newsletter has generated $3.46 of cold hard cash. 💸