By Brandt Mannchen Boy did I overestimate my ETA! I was driving to the Geraldine Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve, just south of Warren, Texas, from Humble. I thought it would take 2.5 hours. But that, in my hazy memory, was the time it...

By Tom Douglas This outing was originally planned for Champion Lake, which is about 3 miles west of the Trinity River, opposite the town of Moss Bluff. But on May 25, the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge’s Champion Lake Public Use...

By Brandt Mannchen It was nice to roll out of bed knowing that I was only 15 minutes away from the outing I was leading. I was selfish and had scheduled the June Houston Sierra Club outing at East End Park, a wonderful almost 160-acre park...

By Tom DouglasOur group of 12, paddling both canoes and kayaks, met up at Cedar Hill Park. With sunny skies and a forecast high temperature in the mid-80s, we were thinking about finding shade.... (Read more)

By Brandt MannchenThe parking lot was filled with cars. Over 20 by my last count. There is no doubt that the beautiful weather, sunny and in the 60’s to 70’s, and the lure of a great wildflower display had done the trick. There were 22...

By Brandt Mannchen I am retired and you would think that I have plenty of “free time”. However, looks are deceiving.... (Read more)

The long delayed Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP) Longleaf Pine tree planting event, rescheduled due to the federal government shutdown, finally occurred on February 8th, in the Turkey Creek Unit next to the visitor center and head-quarter’s...

Since moving to Humble, Texas, my drives to the outings that I lead are much longer. I left my house at 7 am on Saturday morning (February 16th) to drive to the Indian Grass Prairie Preserve that the Katy Prairie Conservancy owns in Waller County...

The weather was spectacular, and the water level in the cypress swamp was high. Just two days before our December 1 outing, the US Geological Survey’s monitoring station at Liberty, TX (about 27 miles upriver from where we were) had ended a period...

Mother Nature smiled on us. First, there was the beautiful setting. Bates Allen Park, where our group met up on November 17, is located just south of the town of Kendleton and adjacent to one of the units of the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge...