The Landscape Committee of Marshall Ridge

08/01/2026

07/31/2026

07/31/2026

Mark your calendars for August 3rd! Our fall Native Landscape Certification Program opens for registration that day and classes fill up fast! See our fall offerings here: https://www.npsot.org/our-work/class-schedule/

07/15/2026

Most landscapers know little about plants. Remember that.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EpLKphWy5/?mibextid=wwXIfr

07/15/2026

Recharging our aquifers!

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BWQTv4Z8J/?mibextid=wwXIfr

06/28/2026

Ever wonder how wetlands act as nature’s ultimate water purification systems?

The infographic breaks down the incredible Anatomy of a Wetland Rhizosphere & Reed Interface, showing exactly how plants like cattails (Typha) work overtime beneath the surface to clean our waterways.

Here is how this natural filtration engineering works:
• Internal Oxygen Transport: Reeds use specialized, gas-conducting tissue called aerenchyma like internal straws, pumping vital oxygen from their aerial leaves all the way down into the suffocating, anaerobic mud.
• The Rhizosphere Micro-Niche: This oxygen leaks out of the root hairs via Radial Oxygen Loss (ROL). This creates localized, oxygen-rich pockets in an otherwise oxygen-depleted environment.
• Microbial Superpowers: These oxygenated zones support a thriving community of microbiota (bacteria and fungi) that actively break down organic matter and process dissolved nutrients.
• Sediment Trapping: At the same time, the dense physical web of adventitious roots and rhizomes slows down rushing water, causing suspended silt and sediment to settle safely out of the water column.

Wetlands aren't just soggy marshes… they are highly sophisticated, biologically engineered wastewater treatment plants built entirely by nature!

06/27/2026

The red-shouldered hawk was featured in the field guide section of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth (http://wild-dfw.com/).

Message from Guardians of Nature:

You know my brother. The Red-tailed Hawk. Big. Obvious. Sits on highway light poles and screams at the sky. Every sports team wants his silhouette. Every movie uses his call.
- I'm the Red-shouldered Hawk. Smaller, quieter, and I live in the woods behind your house instead of on an open pole over the interstate.
- My call is a rising kee-AH kee-AH — sharp, insistent, repeated. You've been hearing it every March morning for years without knowing what it was.
- My brother hunts open fields. I hunt your creek bed. The strip of trees between the subdivision and the retention pond. The woodlot nobody walks into. I take frogs, crayfish, snakes, mice, and chipmunks — the animals that live in wet edges where Red-tails don't bother going.
- I'm the reason the frog population in your neighborhood creek stays balanced. - - - The reason the chipmunk numbers in your garden don't climb. I do this from a perch high in a tulip poplar that you drive past every morning.
- My nest is about two feet wide. I've repaired it every February for years. My mate and I raised three chicks here last season. Two survived. They're hunting their own territories now, within a few miles of here.

How to find me:
- Listen for the kee-AH call in March mornings — it's sharper and more repetitive than a Red-tail's scream, and it comes from inside the tree canopy, not above it
- Look along creek corridors, pond edges, and wooded wetland strips — any place where water meets trees is Red-shouldered Hawk territory
- If you see a medium-sized hawk flying low through the woods instead of soaring over open fields, that's likely me — I hunt under the canopy, not above it
- My nest is usually in a main fork of a tall hardwood near water — once you find it, I'll be there every year. We reuse the same nest for as long as the tree stands
Red-tails get the documentaries. I get the work done