Ned Fritz: Founder of Nature Preservation in Texas
Amy Martin & Kristi Kerr Leonard, Ned Fritz Legacy Project: NedFritz.com
Sept. 7 Sat, 11 am to noon
J. Erik Jonsson Central Library 1515 Young St, Dallas, TX 75201, 6th floor
Tune in for an inspiring presentation about Ned Fritz, Texas’ greatest environmentalist, woven with excerpts of his nature poetry and photos of places he protected. No one had a more significant impact on Texas nature than Ned and his wife, Genie, who were steadfast supporters of the Dallas Sierra Club. He built a coalition that defeated the Trinity River barge canal and brought initial attention to the Great Trinity Forest. Ned added crucial organizational and legislative acumen that led to the creation of Big Thicket National Preserve.
As the first acquisitions chair of The Nature Conservancy Texas and co-founder with Genie of what became the Texas Land Conservancy, Ned started the state’s land trust movement. With his powerful group Texas Committee on Natural Resources (now Texas Conservation Alliance, also co-founded with Genie), he fought clearcutting in East Texas national forests—in the process saving the red-cockaded woodpecker from extinction—and shepherded 30,000 acres of wilderness areas into being. His fight to keep his naturalistic lawn, called the Great Weed War, garnered the first national media attention for native plants.
These are just a few of his accomplishments. Learn how he used alliances and coalition building, expert testimonials and policy papers, media outreach and letter-writing campaigns, lawsuits and legislation to achieve his goals.
Presented by the team creating Ned Fritz Legacy, a biographical website about Ned.
