Embracing nature: Chandor trail allows native flora and fauna to flourish

Apr. 16—WEATHERFORD — Walking a trail with plant and nature enthusiast Christie Tull is an experience like no other.

"Look up there!" she said excitedly, pointing to about a dozen cedar waxwing birds sitting among some nearby tree tops before a tour of the nature trail at Chandor Gardens recently. "Those birds are an important part of the trail because this is a dark zone.

"Dark zones are really important, especially during migration ... their GPSes can get messed up by light. A dark zone allows them to rest, to eat ..."

With Tull, you never know what kind of knowledge you'll pick up along the way, from what the smallest of green leaves popping up out of the ground is to a nesting bird flying overhead.

It's a testament to her work as a member of the Cross Timbers Chapter of the Native Plant Society and a member of the Friends of Chandor Gardens. Oh, and she's also a certified Texas Master Naturalist through the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

Now, she's thriving in her role as a coordinator of the Chandor Nature Trail, which celebrated its official ribbon-cutting with the community in February 2022.

Much work has been done since then — and since the trail's construction in 2020 — with volunteers from Cross Timbers and even a trail construction firm coming in to clear the land and invasive plants to help nature's beauty — and the vision of Douglas Chandor — fully emerge. The extension of Chandor Gardens is crucial, given that Texas only has about 1 percent of its native prairies left, Tull said.

Recent work by the trail construction firm, paid for through grants, revealed a grove of rusty blackhaw viburnum, Mexican plum and Eve's necklace.

"Just stuff even we didn't know was there because it was buried," Tull said, pointing to a clump of invasive ligustrum as the culprit.

Like nandina (also known as bamboo), the evergreen shrubs, commonly used for hedges and screenings in many landscapes, are known for their hardiness, but can easily take over and become a hassle to remove, often requiring the use of a backhoe or skid steer in order to dig up the root ball.

Skid steer work also helped to widen the trail enough that people can cross paths, with their leashed canines in tow.

A few yards out from the trail's entrance — which houses a demonstration garden chock full of pollinator-loving plants for Monarchs and the like thanks to grant monies — one might find a stray purple iris or two across the drive from the back of the Chandor house.

"Someone threw their iris over the fence," Tull pointed.

Further down, a trail walker enters the riparian zone, the interface between land and stream known for its extremely loamy soil.

"This is where you see a lot of the big trees, good habitats for lots of nesting birds," Tull said.

Both she and longtime Native Plant Society member Libby Afflerbach stopped to admire a huge American elm standing tall just above a flowing creek bottom.

Nearby — and frankly everywhere — dainty white flowers from rusty blackhaw shined through pockets of sunshine amongst the trees. The evergreens produce berries that are enticing to birds and pollinators and their blooms resemble snowballs.

"This is where I saw flocks of butterflies and red admirals were feeding off of it," Tull said.

Walking up out of the loamy bottom land leads to noticeably firmer soil, and with that, a change in native plants.

"There's [pale leaf] yucca that's endemic to 11 counties in the world," Tull pointed. "You see them in lots of abandoned fields with sun and caliche."

Wild prairie onion, four-nerve daisies, bush honeysuckle and wild sumac provide a dizzying array of aromatics to a vista sure to have inspired Chandor.

"When you walk through here and all of this is in bloom, it's really pretty," Tull said. "It changes every time you come."

Aside from letting the native flora and fauna flourish, the goal is to let people know the trail exists, Afflerbach said.

Numerous studies have shown that spending time in nature is linked to both cognitive benefits and improvements in mood, mental health and emotional well-being.

"It's important, I think, to get young people on the trail," Tull added. "They don't have to identify this stuff. Just take note and appreciate it for what it is."

While it may still be reasonably new, word of mouth marketing seems to already have begun, as Tull and Afflerbach encountered a plant enthusiast from the east coast on the trail recently.

"Clearly, a lot of work's been done," said Jill Rowen, who was referred to Chandor by a Fort Worth botanist friend. "There are wildflowers here I've never seen before."

Rowen, who said she spends half her time in Maryland and the other half in Florida, pointed back up the trail to an area where she'd identified some fringed puccoon thanks to an app on her phone.

Coincidentally, the Cross Timbers Chapter of the Native Plant Society will be hosting a how-to clinic June 8 on using the iNaturalist app, which provides "nature at your fingertips" with a network of naturalists, citizen scientists and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. The app can also help users identify birds, amphibians, plants and even fungi.

Hours of operation for the nature trail are the same as those of Chandor Gardens: Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free for the trail, and $5 for ages 13 and up to Chandor Gardens.

Cross Timbers is also holding a number of upcoming spring events: — April 23: Monthly meeting at the Raymond George Schoolhouse from 6-8 p.m. featuring Terri Walker on wildscapes. — April 28: Monthly trail spruce-up from noon to 2 p.m. at Chandor. — May 4: Native Plant Society Sale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at First Monday grounds. — May 19: Trail walk with Native Plant Society of Texas President Rickey Linex from noon to 2:30 p.m.

More about Chandor:

Chandor Gardens is owned by the city of Weatherford, and administered by the Weatherford Department of Parks, Recreation, and Special Events. The Chandor Gardens Foundation is a separate, non-profit organization formed by local citizens who work with the city and parks department as an advocacy and steering committee.

A number of other organizations are involved in the activities at Chandor, including Parker County Master Gardener volunteers who help with the greenhouse and plantings; Theatre Off the Square, which has a yearly outdoor Shakespeare play there (Merry Wives of Windsor will be April 19 and 20); and the Cross Timbers Native Plant Societ, which stewards the nature trail and the native plant pollinator garden for Monarch butterflies at the trailhead. Chandor nature trail volunteer hours are approved for Texas Master Naturalists.

For more information, visit https://weatherfordtx.gov/170/Chandor-Gardens