Carter Smith, Executive Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to receive BRIT’s conservation award FORT WORTH, Texas – Carter Smith, executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and BRIT’s 2016 recipient of the International Award of Excellence in Conservation, is passionate about the great outdoors. He’s championed the Children & Nature Network movement in Texas, and he’s been extremely active in the realms of private lands stewardship, invasive species issues, coastal conservation, and acquisition of new park land for state parks and wildlife management areas. As executive director of TPWD, a position he’s held since 2008, Smith is responsible for overseeing an agency of 3,100 professionals in 11 different divisions, including Wildlife, State Parks,...

FORT WORTH, TEXAS, May 1, 2016 — The Nature of Things: Daphne Prairie , an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Texas artist Deborah Paris, will give the Fort Worth public a rare opportunity to see depictions of the untouched and historic Daphne Prairie. The exhibition will pop-up September 10–October 20 at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). An opening reception with hors d’oeuvres and libations will be held on Fall Gallery Night, Saturday, September 10, from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. A gallery talk by the artist will take place September 10 at 6:00 p.m. The show will include twenty-five oil paintings that reveal the open yet intimate space found in North Texas’ Daphne Prairie—one of the state’s largest remaining tallgrass prairies. The pieces range from large-scale landscape...

TxDOT will use maps to find, protect rare plants along Texas highways FORT WORTH, Texas – The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT®), Tarleton State University, and the Texas Department of Transportation are teaming together to document rare plant species that may potentially exist within TxDOT rights-of-way in 23 counties in the Waco and Austin districts of Central Texas. Through a TxDOT grant, Tarleton and BRIT will research and build habitat maps for 57 of the 81 Edwards Plateau rare plant species. The work includes identifying, documenting, and mapping areas where these rare species most likely occur. TxDOT will use these maps to improve the department’s ability to protect the rare species, which grow along Texas highways. For several of these species, roadsides represent a sign...

Seven Additional Wineries from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and the U.S. Receive Medals for Their Outstanding Ground-to-Glass Sustainability Programs FORT WORTH, Texas – The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT®) is pleased to announce the winners in its 2017 International Award of Excellence in Sustainable Winegrowing competition. The platinum medal goes to Yealands Family Wines (Yealands) of Marlborough, New Zealand, based on the winery’s on-going programs that address the three elements of sustainability: environmental, economic, social – and of course, how well the wine itself tastes. Yealands’ achievements in sustainability include being the world’s first winery certified carboNZeroCertTM as well as operating New Zealand’s largest solar array: generating over 411 kilowatts o...