Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

In 1982 former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and the actress Helen Hays founded an organization to protect and preserve North America’s native plants and natural landscapes. Renamed the Lady Bird Wildlife Center in 1997, this special place exists to introduce people to the beauty and diversity of wildflowers and other native plants. Since its inception, the Center has become one of the country’s most credible research institutions and effective advocates for native plants. In 2006, the Center became an Organized Research Unit of the University of Texas at Austin. The Center’s magnificent gardens display the native plants of the Central Texas Hill Country, encouraging people to use, protect and promote native plants. The Center has a number of important research programmes including: The Plant Conservation Program, which protects the ecological heritage of Texas by conserving its rare and endangered flora; The Native Plant Information Network, a database of more than 7,200 native species available online; and Landscape Restoration, Fire Ecology and Native Green Roof initiatives. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is the first non-governmental organization invited to participate in the Millennium Seed Bank Project, a global plant conservation effort aiming to conserve seeds from about 10 percent of the world’s plant species by 2010.

Lord Cultural Resources was contracted by Xibitz to provide Interpretive Planning services for the exhibits located in the Visitor’s Gallery. Our role included the facilitation of a Creative Workshop, Thematic Framework development, Interpretive Planning and Research Plan advice. The new exhibits in the Gallery explore three core concepts: Ecological Heritage, Ecological Sustainability, and Ecological Citizenship.