Ten Eyck Featured Speaker for 2014 FlorFEST at UTEP

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Pre-eminent landscape architect, David Cristiani, principal of Quercus and author of It's a Dry Heat blog, says of the FloraFEST Lecture: "A must-attend for anyone into better public spaces, native plants, and water harvesting. The UTEP plant sale following on Saturday and Sunday is good too."

Ten Eyck is simply one of the best designers in North America.

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Be sure to take advantage of the native plant sale at the Centennial Museum that weekend as well. Renowned Chihuahuan Desert Garden Curator, John White, manages the event and will be on hand along with Master Gardeners to answer any question that you might have. "As a lifelong area resident, John has lived and worked in the Texas/New Mexico area writing gardening advice columns for the area newspapers, co-hosting the PBS television series, Southwest Yard & Garden, developing gardening classes such as the SunSCAPE program and the Extension Master Gardener Program, as well as numerous television and radio programs." - from UTEP's Centennial Celebration

Super Athletes of the Sierra Madre to Show at UTEP

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Photo-journalist Diana Molina says:"The book and film are in partnership with the Centennial and the Penn Museum in Philadelphia showing my new exhibit.

FloraFEST Speaker April 27 with Native Plant Sale April 28 and 29

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

18 April 2012

Museum Contact: John White, Curator

Email: jmwhite@utep.edu

Phone: 915-747-5335

Dr. David Anderson to Speak at Annual Native Plant Sale, FloraFEST

El Paso, Texas – Area gardeners are awaiting the chance to purchase plants for desert landscaping naturally.  FloraFEST, the annual plant sale, features hundreds of plants native to the Chihuahuan Desert or plants that are desert adapted.  Proceeds from the annual sale support the operation of the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens.  This botanic collection, displaying some 700 different species and horticultural cultivars, is dedicated to the flora of the Chihuahuan Desert region.  The collection represents the largest public assemblage of Chihuahuan desert plants in the world.

Guest speaker, Dr. David Anderson will be featured at this year’s FloraFEST Lecture Series.  David Lee Anderson is Land Manager and botanist at White Sands Missile Range since 1990.  He completed his PhD in Range Ecology in 1989 at New Mexico State University.  Prior to that, he worked in Argentina as national coordinator of range research for 20 years. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho, Utah and New Mexico on and off between 1956 and 1963.

Dr. Anderson will speak on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 7 pm in Room 116 of the Undergraduate Learning Center on the University of Texas at El Paso campus.  A reception will follow at the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens located at the corner of University Ave. and Wiggins Rd. on the UTEP campus.  The El Paso Native Plant Society, The West Texas Urban Forestry Council, and the Centennial Museum sponsor this event.

Regular museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. For more information, contact the Centennial Museum at 915-747-5565 or www.museum.utep.edu.

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UTEP Campus Map

Nabhan Speaks at UTEP at 5PM Today

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Ethnobotanist, conservationist, farmer, essayist and internationally-celebrated nature writer, Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, will lecture and sign his new book, Chasing Chiles, this evening in Room 116 at the Undergraduate Learning Center on the UTEP campus. A reception will follow at the Centennial Museum. (Map)

Nabhan was the Founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University. He co-founded Native Seeds/Search, a clearinghouse of native varieties of agricultural seeds of the American Southwest and northwest Mexico, and founded RAFT (Renewing America's Food Traditions), "an alliance of food, farming, environmental and culinary advocates who have joined together to identify, restore and celebrate America's biologically and culturally diverse food traditions through conservation, education, promotion and regional networking."

Mother Earth News has called Gary (an orchard-keeper and wild forager) "the father of the local food movement."He is also an Ecumenical Franciscan brother.

Chasing Chiles is co-authored with Kurt Michael Friese and Kraig Kraft. "Chasing Chiles looks at both the future of place-based foods and the effects of climate change on agriculture through the lens of the chile pepper - from the farmers who cultivate this iconic crop to the cuisines and cultural traditions in which peppers play a huge role."

Celebrate Native Plant Week

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High and Dry at Centennial Museum

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Over the past decade, the International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies (ICASALS) at Texas Tech University has created an annual exhibit of photographic images of desert lands. The UTEP Centennial Museum is honored to present a stunning collection of sixty images from the current and past shows, featuring landscapes, people, flora and fauna of North American dry lands.

Marshall Carter-Tripp of the Centennial Museum says: "Please join us for the opening reception from 5 to 7 on Thursday, February 11.

Wildscape for Wildlife

Imagine landscaping your yard to be a wildscape oasis that supports wildlife. We can do it here in El Paso using native plants adapted to our arid conditions. We can provide all kinds of animals with food, water and shelter. What is required, according to Scott Cutler the Curator of UTEP's Centennial Museum, is diversity - diversity of plants, diversity of hardscape.

In his talk to members of El Paso's Native Plant Society last evening, Dr. Cutler said that creating a wildscape for wildlife means knowing that diversity is the key. Diversity creates food chains that nourish birds, reptiles, insects and mammals.

We are all familiar with various bird feeders. Dr. Cutler mentioned plants such as sunflowers (even and especially the smaller varieties), sumacs, wolfberries, the New Mexico olive, grasses, ocotillos, mesquite and other native plants as well.

Animals also need water which, as we all know, is in short supply here in the El Paso southwest. All yards should have a birdbath and perhaps another water feature in the yard. Water sources should be kept shallow and provide a place for escape from prey. Even old milk jugs can be devised to let water slowly drip into a pan for thirsty animals.

Diversity in habitat and shelter is also vital. Different plants and rocks allow for places to hide, perch and nest. Birds need trees and brush for nesting. Big rocks are helpful especially in winter. Reptiles can absorb a little extra energy in evenings and can, therefore, forage longer. Cutler recommended keeping a brush pile that helps animals escape a predator in an open area. He suggested bat houses as well as bird houses and bee condos.

He singled out specific strategies for attracting hummingbirds. They like a variety of different colored flowers: penstemons, Indian paint brush as well as desert willow, trumpet vine (not a native) and honeysuckle. He suggested that hummingbird feeders be changed every two days. A bacterial build-up can be deadly for the birds. Hot water and vinegar followed by a thorough rinsing is key to a good cleansing of your hummingbird's feeder. The simple formula for feeding is 4 parts water to 1 part granulated sugar. It is the red flowers on the feeder that attract the bird - not a red colored liquid. Red dye is just as bad for the hummingbird as it is for us.

If you want to see about certifying your backyard as a wildlife habitat in the State of Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife has the information that you need here.