A Day to Serve and Explore

For the MLK holiday, the carful of kids join other volunteers for a service project with the Centex Chapter of the Native Prairie Association of Texas. But first we take a short hike.

Not far from our home base is Granger Lake and Dam, managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, where we join in on a hike to look for mammals and birds. Kirsti Harms, a volunteer naturalist with a passion for birds, organized a bird walk along the San Gabriel River below Granger Dam.

For close to two hours we explore along the river, listening for bird calls and looking for scat. Along the way, we see several birds and my boys find skeletons in the knee-high grass, along with discarded shot gun shells and an arrow.

With a bag of trash that we find along the river, we meet more volunteers at the Blackland Prairie Replication Site. First task, the carful of kids help unload little bluestem plants that were rescued from a construction site along I-35, north of Temple, Texas, last May.

After the plants are unloaded, we grab a shovel and start digging holes. With a hole deep enough, the carful of kids transplant the clump of little bluestem. After several pots, the carful of kids are experts at backfilling the dirt around the plant.


The Native Prairie Association of Texas helps in conservation, restoration and appreciation of native prairies and grasslands around Texas, and help manage this area of restored prairie.

Up next, the carful of kids return to their East Coast road trip in North Carolina, exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park.