Wildflower Enthusiasts Sow Seeds Of Interest

COUPLE WILL SPEAK ON EARLY SPRING FLOWERS OF REGION AT HOBBS STATE PARK-CONSERVATION AREA

Bill and Emily Robertson both hasten to say they are not scientists and not even professional photographers.

But the Bella Vistans both grew up loving the outdoors and, since their marriage in 1980, they have accumulated some 55,000 photos - most of them, Emily Robertson said, of “birds, bees, flowers and trees.” They’re also Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists, they added proudly, and spent 10 years as the volunteer coordinators of the Tanyard Creek Nature Trail in Bella Vista.

Drawing on their 13 years of experience in Northwest Arkansas, the couple will speak on early spring flowers of the region at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area near Rogers. They don’t expect to impart the passion they feel, just encourage people to look up from their smartphones and see what’s around them.

“There’s so much beauty in our own backyard,” Bill Robertson said. “We just want to acquaint people with that idea.”

The “Wildflowers 101” discussion, which will be accompanied by the Robertsons’ photos, will help participants identify native spring wildflowers and some of their traditional uses.

“But it’s not so much a matter of identifying what they are,” Bill Robertson said. “It’s just encouraging people to get in touch with nature.”

“And appreciate it,” Emily Robertson added.

Bill Robertson credits a childhood friend for teaching him to love the outdoors. They bonded over a horned toad in first grade, grew up “bird dogging” for his dad during deer hunting season - flushing deer out of their cover - “and it just became a way of life for me,” he said.

Emily Robertson said she was “my dad’s little boy,” camping and fishing with both her father and her grandfather.

“As I got tired of fishing, I’d start walking the stream banks to see what was growing,” she remembered. “I’d find little flowers and little bugs, and I’d take them home to try to figure out what they were.”

Her husband considers them “star-crossed,” saying their paths intersected many times before they finally met. But when they did, he said, the relationship blossomed like their native desert around Reno.

“Have you ever seen a desert in bloom,” he wondered. “It’s beyond anything you can imagine!”

Although they’ve trekked the outdoors in Nevada, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas and Alaska following their careers, the Robertsons agreed it was after retiring to Northwest Arkansas they developed their passion for wildflowers - and for sharing the “leave no trace” philosophy. Bill Robertson pointed out that even picking one flower in a public area can have a devastating impact.

“If there are five flowers along the path, and five people each pick one, the sixth person will never know there were flowers there,” he said. And if the flowers haven’t had a chance to pollinate, they may not be there at all the next year.

Further, he and his wife agreed, it’s important not to wander through the forest without paying attention. Walking through a patch of wildflowers can compact the earth and change water channels in ways that damage the plants, just as stomping through a pile of leaves under a tree can destroy the flowers like jack-in-the-pulpits trying to push their way through the leaf litter.

“We want to teach people to have a little respect for Mother Earth,” Bill Robertson said. “Just observe, enjoy, photograph and walk away.”

This time of year, the couple are taking their own advice seriously: They’re out in nature on a spring quest. Last year, they found prairie grass orchids near Chesney Prairie Natural Area in Benton County, and this year, they’re hunting lady slipper orchids.

That’s what they hope their program Sunday inspires - the desire by participants to open their eyes and look.

“I hope they say, ‘We saw your program and by golly, we went out and found an Indian pipe and a jack-in-the-pulpit and a trillium, and it was really exciting,” Bill Robertson said.

And if one generation inspires the next, so much the better.

“We love the outdoors so much because our parents introduced us to it,” he said. “If young parents take their children out in nature, they could find a whole different direction in life.”

Life, Pages 8 on 04/24/2013

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