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August 11-14 at the
Basin in Big Bend National Park Triple your enjoyment this year, thanks to a collaboration with Big Bend Park’s nearby communities expanding the Nature Festival from four to ten days, and featuring activities in the Park, as well as in Marathon and Ft. Davis.
BASIN The 2nd Annual Big Bend Nature Festival on August 11-14 in the Park will feature four days of jeep tours, nature hikes, evening socials, and afternoon lectures about birds, bugs, mammals, geology, paleontology, and reptiles. Big Bend is one of the premier birding destinations in North America. The first part of the Festival will be headquartered in the Basin, and is sponsored by the Big Bend Natural History Association in collaboration with the NPS and Forever Resorts/Chisos Mountains Lodge (which will offer reception space, meals, and discounted room packages for the weekend). A Saturday night gala dinner concludes the Park-based portion of the Nature Festival. Tickets are $85 for individuals, and $140 for couples, and can be ordered here. Proceeds benefit BBNHA. For information, call BBNHA at 432/ 477-2236. MARATHON Festival-goers will enjoy three days of tours and workshops on "Living with Nature" in ecologically sustainable ways on August 15-17 in Marathon. Located just 70 miles north of the Park, Marathon Texas is the "Gateway to Big Bend." As festival-goers will discover, Marathon is also a community that is working to make itself an ecologically sustainable town. Sponsored by the Marathon Chamber of Commerce, the August 15-17 portion of the Big Bend Nature Festival will feature well-known speakers, workshops, and nature tours highlighting the theme “Living with Nature” through eco-construction techniques, sustainable ranching practices, small-footprint development, landscaping with native plants, etc. Keynote speakers are John H. King, superintendent of Big Bend National Park, who will speak about the natural characteristics of Chihuauhan Desert ecosystems; Andy Wasowski, author, photographer, and “botanical missionary” will speak on “The Landscaping Revolution,” through which native plant species are finding greater use in landscape architecture; and Robert Wood, assistant commissioner for rural economic development, Texas Department of Agriculture, who will speak on sustainable economic development for the Big Bend. A Wednesday evening dinner concludes this portion of the Festival. Tickets are $75 for individuals, and $130 for couples (proceeds benefit Friends of Big Bend National Park and Marathon-area parks). For a complete schedule of events, to order tickets, and for links to Marathon lodging places, visit www.marathontexas.com/naturefestorder.htm, or call 432/ 386-4257. FT. DAVIS Next, they can take in the Davis Mountains Hummingbird Festival on August 18-20 in Ft. Davis. The Davis Mountains Hummingbird Festival will take place on August 18-20, in Ft. Davis. The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and Fort Davis Merchants Association are Festival sponsors, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Birds in Flight, and the Fort Davis Chamber of Commerce. The event features lectures (including a keynote address by New Orleans cardiologist and renowned bird photographer Dr. Lawrence O'Meallie), nature tours, and a street festival. Net proceeds from the festival will support the programs of CDRI. For information, visit www.cdri.org or call 432/ 364-2499. Whether you plan to attend one, two, or three of the Festival venues, you can count on daytime highs in the upper 80s and nighttime temperatures in the upper 50s. For summertime comfort, there's no better place to be than the mountains of Big Bend!
Click here for local accommodation options
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