Back Talk Lake Highlands

More lights no good for White Rock Lake

The latest National Geographic features a piece about light pollution and its toll on wildlife, pertinent to the situation we have here with the proposed White Rock Lake lighting project (more here, and here). The aforementioned article backs up the idea that by making do without all the artificial lighting, we will not only preserve energy, but also protect animals whose biological rhythms can get screwed up when you pollute the night with that “luminous orange glow”.

"Wildlife species have evolved on this planet with biological rhythms—changing that has profound effects," said Travis Longcore, a biogeographer with the Urban Wildlands Group in Los Angeles, who with colleague Catherine Rich, co-organized a conference last year on "Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting."

Since the nights have started falling earlier, I’ve gone out running around the lake in the pitch dark. I can understand the idea behind installing lights — you have to smartly navigate the roadways and paths at night to avoid collision with fellow pedestrians, cyclists and cars. But that’s doable if we just use common sense (I know, it’s a lot to ask for some of us).

The atmosphere at the lake in the dark with just the moon’s glow spilling onto the glassy water — well, it’s just irreplaceable especially here in the city. It was the other night out there in the dark —even as I was forced into a muddy roadside pit by a non-observant motorist —that I decided how I felt at lights around the lake. And that was before reading the National Geographic story. I know the lights advocates have good intentions, but we are already doing so much out there to make it more user friendly. Let's let nighttime be nighttime.

Artists studio tours Saturday, Oct. 18

The White Rock Lake Artist Studio Tour happens this Saturday, Oct. 18, at studios all around the White Rock area. Now in it's 16th year, the tour is chock-full of funky and fabulous participants — 45 of them. Here is the official list along with a bit about the studio tour tradition, details on this weekend's event and a lot about local art, in general. A must-see on this year's tour: Studio Arts Dallas on Shoreview.

Speaking of neighborhood artists, many of the same artists involved in the studio tour are also part of an awesome art garden at the State Fair this year — the organizer of the State Fair show, Lottie Minick, maintains an informative and spirited blog that follows the art/gardening/etc. scene around the 'hood.

By the way, don't forget that the State Fair ends Sunday, Oct. 19. If you haven't seen Big Tex yet, you'd better get there in a hurry!

Barkitecture Dallas 2008

Listen up dog owners! I’m speaking to those of you who shamelessly pamper your furry friends. You know who you are — you shop at Haute Dog; you’re a regular at The Petropolitan; you watch “Groomer Has It” (yes, it is actually a show). This is for you. And if you just like putting super cool-looking stuff in your yard, well … OK, this is for you too.

BARKITECTURE, the quintessential parade of doggie homes, makes its Dallas premiere this Saturday, Oct. 18, at Boy Scout Hill near the White Rock Dog Park. Although Saturday is the official showcasing of canine home design, it’s essential that you get a look at the entries here, now. Purchase a raffle ticket (or several) for a chance to take home your favorite designed-to-the-(K)nines doggie domicile.

Even if you don’t nab your pet’s dream den, your bucks serve a worthwhile purpose — According to the official site, “This year's project focus will be to raise funds primarily to address the flooding that closes the park each spring for periods of up to two months.”

Recall the so-called DOG BOG of last spring? Yeah, let's fix that. 

Day of the Dead show opens this weekend

Night is falling earlier, the air is cooling and Halloweeny-season is nigh, and it is that time of year for the Day of the Dead exhibit at the Bath House Cultural Center. The exhibit opens this Sunday with a reception from 5-7 p.m., and it will run through Nov. 8. Every year, the Day of the Dead Exhibit at the Bath House seems to get better. The gallery walls are increasingly colorful and rich with skeletons and specters, sometimes smiling or dancing and sometimes just spooky. It’s a celebration of the dead and death and what happens afterward — a tough concept for me to grasp, honestly, as I tend to be very saddened by death (weird, I know). But that’s what I love about Day of the Dead and the festivities surrounding it — it challenges what we think we know about the unknown.

Lots of local artists participating in this show, see the list here.

It's just a broken sprinkler

Tonight, from a parking lot at Casa Linda Plaza (where I was standing around with some running buds following a workout) I noticed a geyser of sorts shooting out of the grass in front of Doctors Hospital at White Rock Lake. Initially I thought, oooh pretty …  like a Dallas version of the water show outside the Bellagio in Vegas. But then my left brain kicked in and I thought of those City of Dallas water restrictions we run in the magazine every month.

“What’s up with that?” I asked no one in particular, and a fellow member of the group says, “yeah, we have a water show every night for weeks now”. Apparently when the automatic sprinkler system turns on appropriately at sunset, this one spigot goes haywire blasting untold loads of precious H2O into the air and most of it appears to hit the parking lot rather than the grass. Another person confirmed that it's been going on a while and added “seems like a hospital ought to be able to fix something like that pretty easily”. I agreed and made a mental note to write about it here (and what do you know I actually did). So if anyone over at Doctor’s Hospital (the birthplace of my two children and a place I’m pretty fond of overall) is reading, can we get that sprinkler fixed? 

$16.7 million White Rock Spillway repairs begin

It has been 2 1/2 years since the White Rock Lake spillway was damaged during flooding; it will be 2010 before the spillway's rebuilding project is completed. The DMN reports that construction begins this week on the $16.7 million redo, which will add balconies, a walkway with separate pedestrian and bicycle trails, and lots of new landscaping. In the meantime, the Winsted Drive parking lot will be closed and there will be periodic traffic disruptions on Garland Road. Several trails in the area also will be closed from time to time.

White Rock Spillway project update

Following an informational meeting last Monday, For The Love of the Lake volunteer BJ Ellis reports some of the ways that wildlife as well as us humans in the neighborhood will be affected by the White Rock Lake Spillway project. Looks like we’re in for some growing pains before we see a final product:

Stinky, trashy shoreline mud will be the biggest environmental effect humans are likely to notice when lake levels are lowered during certain construction phases.

Runners and headphones: what do you think?

I saw a friend when I was running around White Rock Lake last night — this is one of those pull no punches, tell-it-like-it-is sort a friends. As usual I was wearing my iPod nano with the ear buds, and he says, “What are you doing wearing headphones out here? You’re going to get run over.” Oh, here we go, I thought.

I explained to him that I keep my headphones low enough (usually I keep only one ear in) that I can hear passing cyclists, etcetera, and that it really doesn’t hinder my ability to stay safe. But he (who unlike me actually passes people when he’s running) has experienced big problems, especially as the park draws bigger and bigger crowds, with runners who “are completely oblivious, lost in iTunes or whatever".

We agree to disagree in the end, I guess, as he runs off saying “just concentrate on your running and save the ear buds for the gym,” or some self-righteous nonsense of that nature. (I mean that in the friendliest way.) So have some of us runners been so reckless as to warrant the boycott of earphones on public trails? I have to admit, I've seen headphone-wearing runners nearly flattened by cyclists shouting in vain that they are passing. What do you guys think? And remember, if you comment, be nice to each other.

Tour Des Fleurs Saturday

The race that promises to be the next big thing for White Rock area runners — Tour Des Fleurs at the Dallas Arboretum — is this Saturday, Sept. 20. Organizers are smart in that they’ve planned an event whose date and distances (a 10K and a 20K) coincide with White Rock Marathon and half marathon training. Smart because there are hundreds if not thousands of folks in this area training to run The Rock. Plus, Tour Des Fleurs kicks off the Arboretum's famous fall season, so it’s fun for all—even those who couldn’t run from a fire.

White Rock Lake projects progressing: spillway meeting this month

There’s been some progress on the trails along the northwest corner of White Rock Lake and it’s great. For a few weeks there, I met with a cloud of dirt and dust under the bridge at Mockingbird near Lawther every time I went running along that route. But now there is a sidewalk—a real, smooth, wide sidewalk. What appears to be a stone enclave complete with water fountain is almost finished just north of the bridge too.

As for the other side of the lake, the spillway project is slated to begin this October and will take about two years, according to plans. On Sept. 22, For The Love of The Lake will host a neighborhood meeting to "Environmental Impact of the White Rock Lake Spillway Re-Design".

According to BJ Ellis, who sent us an e-mail about the upcoming meeting, speakers include: White Rock Lake resident naturalist and wildlife biologist Becky Rader, aquatic biologist Rafe Brock, fish biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept., City of Dallas project manager Cassia Sanchezand City of Dallas Councilman Sheffie Kadane. The meeting is free and open to the public.