The class field trip to the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA) is always a highlight of training for the Elm Fork chapter of Texas Master Naturalists, with a tour of the facility including a walk into prairie land that has been in the process of restoration for almost 20 years. Richard Freiheit, Associate Director and Conservation Manager, has led the work at LLELA since July 2004.
The land below the Lewisville Lake dam is where the Eastern Cross Timbers, ancient dry upland forests, intersects with the Blackland Prairie.
The Elm Fork of the Trinity River and its flanking bottomland forests meanders among these two ecosystems. This landlocked urban wilderness in the heart of Lewisville makes LLELA a perfect place to find and study a diversity of wildlife and plants.
Richard grew up in Fort Worth, and from an early age loved prairies, even though he admitted he didn’t know what they were. “I’d go pick prairie beardtongue (Penstemon cobea) for my mother on Mother’s Day,” he relates. “I loved roaming the open fields.”
Richard recalls how in 3rd grade he’d walk to school past a large field of bluebonnets and other wildflowers. “At the time, I believed it was illegal to mow bluebonnets. Then, later that year, the field was bulldozed and being developed. I remember thinking they cheated. They did it when they weren’t in bloom.”
Richard’s route to LLELA took a few turns before landing his current position. “I went to UTA to study electrical engineering,“ he recalls. “I took one biology class because that’s where they told me the cute nursing students would be.”
He didn’t graduate at that time — marriage, kids, and life became a priority. He worked various jobs and excelled in the direct mail printing and mailing industry, learning project management, production control, and logistic skills that he uses at LLELA. When the parent company of the place he worked sold it, he received a retention bonus to stay on during the transition. That allowed him to return to school to finish his degree, this time in biology and chemistry.
So, how did he get to LLELA in its infancy?
“I got lucky,” Richard admits with his characteristic grin. He goes on to explain. “UNT was a partner in LLELA and was responsible for research and restoration. I had a professor who was on the LLELA advisory board. I pestered him for a few months before I finished my BS degree. They hired me one month before Dr. Ken Steigman, who was the LLELA director from 2004 to 2021.”
Richard asked this professor if they had any jobs at LLELA, and he learned an opening might be coming up. “I went into his office about every two to three weeks asking if anything was happening,” he remembers. “Finally, one day he said they had an opening.“ Leadership at LLELA was changing. At first, most of what Richard did was “grunt work:“ “I moved a lot of gravel and filled in a lot of ruts.”
Richard also researched signage content and helped manage the bison herd’s rotational grazing. His skills and responsibilities grew over time. “It was all on-the-job training,” he said.
Richard believes the Master Naturalists have played an enormous part in making LLELA what it is today. Dr. Steigman had worked at the Heard Museum, understood the value of trained volunteers, and helped bring the Texas Master Naturalists into the program. Richard’s initial reaction is amusing in retrospect. “I couldn’t believe anybody would come out here and work for free,“ he laughs. “I am still amazed at the level of devotion to this place and the environment from some of our volunteers.”
The most significant shift in the volunteer program came when one lady wanted to come to LLELA and volunteer at the same time on the same day of the week to accommodate her work schedule. “That was the beginning of the Wednesday workday,” Richard recalls. “We started the nursery in the parking lot of the Corps of Engineers headquarters on Mill Street.”
It was not an ideal location, but the first volunteers were motivated because prairie restoration needed plants, and funds were few. They began with pots on the ground under a cottonwood tree. Eventually, they bought nursery tables at a big box store that was closing. The nursery expanded and moved to several locations, including LAERF, until it was established in its current location by the offices and the Blackjack Trail trailhead.
LLELA also received several portable classrooms, now used for offices, classrooms, and the visitor center. Things were coming together. “At one time, we had no office, so I worked out of the trunk of my car. I still have a ring on my bumper where an herbicide lid melted it,“ Richard remembers with a laugh.
When Richard started at LLELA, there were only three trails — Cicada, Cottonwood, and Redbud. They added the Blackjack, Green Dragon, and Bittern Marsh trails. In 2015, the City of Lewisville came on as a partner and took over operation of the gate access. This allowed LLELA to have the public portion open seven days a week.
Prairie restoration had its challenges, not the least of which was the herd of bison that was there when Richard started. “They were eating the stuff we were trying to preserve,“ he explains. “Plus, it was a huge amount of work moving them around out there. Bison aren’t as easy to move as cattle. Cattle will follow a truck with food in it. Bison will stop and eat the first thing they see that they like. Little bluestem is an ice cream plant to bison. It was a real challenge. Plus, we had to haul water out there for them.”
The herd left around 2012, opening the opportunity to remove more invasives and replace them with native plants that belong in this ecosystem. Now, the focus is on removing invasives and planting prairie plants native to this area, many of which have grown in the greenhouse area.
Initially, volunteers propagated plants from ones dug up elsewhere, which were nurtured and divided for replanting. “Now we can harvest seeds,” Richard said. “We want diversity, but we also want it to look pretty. We want it to pop in pictures.”
Removing invasive trees is also an ongoing effort on the prairie. While trees like hackberry, honey locust, cedar elm, and mesquite are native, they don’t belong on the prairie because they’ll turn it into a forest. Privet is also a problem. Richard is proud that his privet removal methods have caught the attention of cities and landowners, and he frequently provides training in removing this exotic invasive plant. “Converting more areas back to a natural state will augment surrounding areas,“ Richard explains.
Among his many projects at LLELA, Richard has about 3,500 7th-grade students from LISD planting wildflowers and other native plants on prairie areas every fall. He also provides regular volunteer projects for high school students to work alongside UNT students doing research onsite.
Richard would like more certified volunteers to work on controlled burns and would even consider hosting some fire schools for fire departments and volunteers. “Fire ecology is fascinating as we learn more about fire in nature, and volunteers need to be certified.”
When asked, Richard says he’s most proud of the progress in the Barn Owl Ridge area. Once wooded, it was the first area added to the bison grazing area. Over the years, trees have been removed, and prairie plants are now thriving there. It was a struggle. In 2005, they planted 70 acres of native grass and flower seed mix. Despite cycles of extreme drought and rainy years, there are now 25 species growing there.
Everybody who’s spent time with Richard has seen him get emotional about some aspects of his work. He related one story about how working on ecological restoration can change people’s lives. “I worked with an Eagle Scout candidate who had recently moved here from California. This kid didn’t want to be here and was unhappy about his conservation project,“ Richard begins. “He wasn’t into planting stuff.”
But something clicked. After becoming an Eagle Scout, the young man started a nonprofit and raised $20,000 to restore prairies. His nonprofit connects scouts and high-school students to projects that restore natural ecosystems. Years later, Richard attended a conference, and this young man was leading the conference.
Richard choked up a bit when relating, “He talked about how his work at LLELA inspired him to make a career of prairie restoration. I realized I was part of that, and it really hit me.”
Richard praises the partnerships that keep LLELA thriving while admitting they can be challenging. However, he thinks the involvement of the City of Lewisville will be key to sustaining the work done at LLELA over the decades. “At some point, I’ll probably retire or go elsewhere. UNT or another partner could bow out, but I believe Lewisville is committed to the long haul, and that makes me confident this work will continue.”
Richard loves his job and believes the Elm Fork Chapter has been essential to his success. “Volunteers can promote change. The city listens to them.”