I give talks across Texas on native plants, water in the urban landscape, and reconnecting with the places we live.
Every talk serves the same mission as the rest of my work: helping Texans find out where they live. The more you know about a place, the more you care about it. The more you care, the more you act on its behalf. I build talks that move a room through that chain. Stories from Texas yards, creeks, growers, and land stewards.
Talks
(Both talks customized to the audience and the place. That's the point of the work.)
Make Room for the Pollinators (and Pretend)
The rewilding movement doesn't need more facts. It needs a better story.
Most conservation messaging runs on guilt: humans are the problem, minimize the damage, keep your hands to yourself. That story has a ceiling. It converts some people and quietly repels the rest. This talk makes the case for a different one. Abundance over scarcity. Invitation over credential. A yard so alive people slow down when they drive past.
Audiences leave with:
- Why beliefs, not facts, determine what people see in a landscape, and what that means for how we advocate
- Where guilt-based conservation messaging hits its ceiling, and what replaces it
- What a beautiful solution looks like, from the Tobin Land Bridge to a half acre in San Antonio
Delivered at Texas Wildflower Day 2026, Texas Woman's University, Denton (April 2026).
Water Harvesting in the Urban Landscape
"Save water." Technically correct. Completely uninspiring.
Texas is running out of water and being destroyed by too much of it, at the same time. Flood and drought are two symptoms of the same broken cycle, and the fix starts on private land, because that's most of what there is. That's your yard. This talk covers the science of the small water cycle, the Triple-S strategy, and case studies from Tucson, Medellín, and my own half acre in San Antonio. Attendees leave knowing exactly what to do the next time it rains.
Audiences leave with:
- Why flood and drought are the same problem, and why every yard is part of the solution or part of it
- The Triple-S strategy: slow it down, spread it out, sink it in
- Where to start this week: the water walk, the first berm, the first basin
Delivered at Naturalists at the Ney, Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin (June 2026).
Moderating
I also moderate panels and live conversations. This year that's included the San Antonio Book Festival, the Full Circle Texas Circular Economy Summit, and Creative Futures. I co-host and executive produce bigcitysmalltown, San Antonio's top civic podcast, so a live conversation in front of a room is home turf.
If your event needs someone to make a panel actually worth sitting through, I can help.
Who I speak to
I've spoken to rooms of Master Naturalists and rooms of engineers, architects, and sustainability practitioners. Book festival crowds, botanical garden members, university audiences, city departments. The talk changes with the room. The mission doesn't. If your audience lives in Texas and you want them to see the place differently, that's who these talks are for.
I partner with institutions doing this work at scale, including Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, the City of San Antonio's World Heritage Office, and the San Antonio Botanical Garden. My field stories on YouTube have been watched more than 3 million times.
Recent appearances
- Texas Wildflower Day 2026 — Texas Woman's University, Denton · April 2026 · speaker
- Naturalists at the Ney: Saving Water in Urban Landscapes — Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin · June 2026 · speaker
- Full Circle 2026: Texas Circular Economy Summit — Trinity University, San Antonio · February 2026 · moderator
- Creative Futures — San Antonio · 2026 · moderator
- San Antonio Book Festival 2026 — San Antonio · April 2026 · moderator
Booking
Speaking is paid work, and my calendar fills around field production across Texas, so the earlier you reach out the better. Send me an email with the event, the audience, the date, and the budget you're working with. If your event is doing something I believe in and budget is a genuine constraint, tell me that too, and we'll figure out what makes sense.
Please fill out the form below: