The Fruit Savers project seeks to locate and identify hardy local fruit producing specimens, for the purpose of protecting, harvesting, and propagating these resilient trees for current and future generations! Specifically we're looking for trees that are surviving and thriving with minimal human intervention, whether that's an ancient forgotten pear tree on the site of an old homestead or a feral peach growing on a fence-line.

Our first BioBlitz of 2026 focused on identifying fruit trees by their eye-catching early spring blooms. Mid-summer to early fall presents our next great opportunity to track down fruit-bearing trees, as their mature and ripe fruit makes them more conspicuous.

A BioBlitz is an event where everyday volunteers work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms as possible within a specific area. We are using iNaturalist to track observations in our BioBlitz. For each iNaturalist observation, please include images of the tree's FRUIT, LEAVES, TRUNK, and FULL PROFILE (along with any other identifying features you notice).

The Fruit Savers are a working group of Central Texas Seed Savers, a project of Fruitful Commons. Funding for this year’s BioBlitz comes from the City of Austin’s Urban Forest Grant. To learn how to use iNaturalist and participate in our Fruit Tree Bio Blitz, click the button below.