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Wild Resources

Activity

Living Off the Land

Find out what native people in this area needed for survival – food, water sources, medicine, and tools. Identify as many as you can in the Park. Pick one natural item and tell someone you are with how you would use it if you were living here several thousand years ago.

Science Seed

Traveling with the seasons between Galveston Bay and Buffalo Bayou, the Akokisa people were some of the first to live in Houston. They carved cypress or cedar trees into canoes for fishing transportation, and made tools from rock. One excavation even revealed a flute, which was crafted from the leg bone of a whooping crane! Pine, dwarf palmetto and willow trees offered materials for tools and shelter, while reeds and grasses were used for thatching roofs and weaving. Their diets consisted mostly of fish, shellfish, and wild plants such as dandelions, cattails, and blackberries, although they did grow corn and later began to hunt deer and bison. They also used many native plants like yarrow, mullein, echinacea, pokeweed, sassafras, pecans, persimmons, and mulberries for medicinal purposes. The Hercules’ club or ‘toothache tree’ is one of the most famous examples of traditional medicine — the bark has mild numbing properties!

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earn Badges

Badges can be earned through hands-on experiences within each of the 16 branches of science, or “Science Slices.” You can earn a badge in each branch of science by doing four activities in these categories. We also encourage participants to keep a Nature Journal to record their memories, and to express themselves creatively through writing or drawing after each activity. We recommend that each child (and parent if they’d like) write or draw in a journal after each activity, with expectations of your children that match their age (the goal is self-expression, not perfection).

Explore the Memorial Park Conservancy

The mission of Memorial Park Conservancy is to preserve, restore, and enhance Memorial Park for the enjoyment of all Houstonians, today and tomorrow.

join Families in Nature

It is our vision to inspire all families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists. Becoming a member of Families in Nature will give your family the opportunity to have adventures in nature, experience field science, develop as youth conservation leaders, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Memberships are free for everyone.

Who are we?

Families in Nature works to create opportunities for nature connection with the purpose of sparking a deep love and desire to protect, conserve and restore the environment. Our mission is to connect children and their families to nature and to each other through time spent learning, playing, and volunteering outdoors. It is our vision to inspire ALL families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists.

This project was made possible by