Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge

Today we took our first field trip to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. I had very low expectations coming to the center, as I have been underwhelmed by the “nature” in Texas my past three years at TCU. This is solely because I have had an incredibly fortunate childhood and young adult life living in Washington state, where greenery is plentiful and clear blue waters are never far away. This expectation for beauty leads me to feel like Texas is less beautiful and has less wildlife, when in reality, it is just a different kind of nature. I drove myself and three other classmates to the center, where we were instantly greeted by our classmates, professor, and two staff members that work at the center. During our drive I noticed the dusty gravel road and the way that cars driving over it pushed the dust up into the air. The whole center felt dusty, and some of the students were joking that we all looked like we had tanner skin from the layer of dust and dirt that covered our legs.

After our orientation at the center, we split up into our groups and went to our assigned trail to do some trail cleaning and maintenance. My team accidentally passed our trail at first, however this ended up being a blessing in disguise! A little bit past our trail were the buffalo. It was so fun to see these giant creatures right in front of our eyes. We even saw what appeared to be a mother buffalo and her baby. The animals appeared peaceful, moving slowly and eating some grasses and plants behind the fence we were standing at. I wish we could have spent more time looking at the buffalo, but we needed to get to our assigned trail, so we hopped back in the car and found our location. Our trail did not appear particularly beautiful to me, however we did not have time to explore very much of it. I look forward to making our way further down the trail and seeing more of what the nature center has to offer at our next meeting there.

We spent the last hour or so of class chopping down bushes and weeds that we had been instructed to remove. The staff at the center had shown us pictures of plants they wanted removed from the trails, so we removed just those plants! Our trail was about three feet wide, full of rocks, roots, and hard brown dirt. I could tell just by looking at the dirt that it had not rained in a long time, and the dirt did not look particularly fertile. I was amazed that any foliage was able to grow in it, as it did not look like it could sustain life! We proceeded with our task, trying to make a fun get-to-know-you game at the same time in order to learn a bit about each other and become a cohesive, productive group. Nathan and I became the choppers. We had the biggest tools, so we tried to cut down the unwanted plants while the rest of the group members took turns with the small clippers and formed a big pile of our debris off to the side of the trail. One of my group members was determined to find a good spot to put a bench. We did not find a great place during this visit, but maybe once we make it further down our path there will be a better place.

I look forward to getting to know my group more and hopefully providing helpful service to the nature center. I was not sure what to expect during our visit to the nature center before arriving today. I hope our hard work will contribute to the beauty of the center and allow the staff there to put in a bench, sign, or something else that will be beneficial to the park.