Below are some special events that do not have their own web page. Naturalists to Speak on Invasive Species at Burnet Library How did we come to run down large hogs on our roads at night? Or come back from gardening with welts from fire ants? And what should we do about it? Robin W. Doughty and Matt Warnock Turner, authors of Unnatural Texas? The Invasive Species Dilemma, will answer these and other questions February 13th at the Herman Brown Free Library. The presentation is part of the library's free lecture series, Coffee Talks. Coffee Talks brings authors like Doughty and Warnock to the library in Burnet to speak on topics related to their books. The talks take place the second Thursday of each month in the meeting room of the library. The event starts at 1:30 PM with refreshments, followed at 2:00 PM by a presentation and questions. Unnatural Texas? written with co-author Matt Warnock Turner, is one of over ten books Doughty has published on wildlife and its interaction with human culture. As a biogeographer, a teacher at the University of Texas for forty years, Doughty has looked deeply into landscape and environmental change, and how humans and animals have affected each other. Some of his books explore the mockingbird and the purple martin, the armadillo, the eucalyptus, the feather trade, and efforts toward the recovery of the whooping crane and the albatross. Unnatural Texas? continues that exploration as it looks at how such invasives as the feral hog and the fire ant came to enter Texas and how Texans are responding to them. The naturalist Matt Warnock Turner brings a second perspective to the question of invasive species. A past president of the Austin Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Austin and a star on the PBS documentary “Wildflowers: Seeds of History,” Turner is concerned with the plants of our Texas landscape. Turner is author of the book Remarkable Plants of Texas: Uncommon Accounts of Our Common Natives and articles on natural history and native plants. Landscaping and farming— past and very much ongoing—have created pressing problems in the plants we live among. The question of invasive species is a difficult one. Which importations do we label invasive? Harm and benefit can mix in unforeseen ways in the situations of feral hogs, fire ants or salt cedar. Doughty and Warnock profile controversial importations—feral hogs, for instance—tracing how the invasive came to enter the Texas landscape and what we have tried to do about them. Eradication is not always possible or desirable (as we see in the sparrow and the cat), so what do we do instead? Doughty and Turner's presentation kicks off the second half of Coffee Talk season. Some of the upcoming presentations include a mystery series, the photography of abandoned buildings in Texas, and Texas story telling. Coffee Talks is made possible by support from The Friends of the Library and the Coffee Talks hostesses and volunteers. Coffee is provided by Michelle Devaney of Hey Diddle Diddle Catering. The Herman Brown Free Library is Burnet’s public library, located downtown on the Square. for further information, contact Sarah Webb, 512-755-3398 On select Saturdays: T he Upper Highland Lakes Nature Center is offering talks approximately every other Saturday at Numinous Coffee Roasters in Marble Falls. It is located on RM 1431 one block east of US 281 on the north side. These are not presentations but casual discussion tables for visitors to stop and get info and ask questions. They will be there between 9 and noon so please drop by. The dates for upcoming discussions are listed below. March 7 - Trees March 21 - Balcones Canyonlands Wildlife Refuge April 4 - Invasive Species April 18 Geology May 2 - Birds of Texas |