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Curtis Hoagland, Mussel Project
Thomas Lubbert Superior Achievement Award |
2008 PAST EVENTS
Annual BioBlitz - June 13-14, 2008
On the Friday the 13th, evening seminars will be held from 6 to 9 pm at the Big Thicket Field Research Station in Saratoga.
On the Saturday the 14th, each participant should report to the visitor center at Big Thicket National Preserve. There will be a check-in table and volunteers helping to direct participants. This year we will have most of the exhibit boothes under a large tent adjacent to the visitor center, as well as booths under a tent at the Kirby Nature Center. All field trip participants will board the shuttles from the visitor center and be transported to the trail to meet the TWIG Leader.
Wilderness Pow Wow - April 25-27, 2008
The 29th annual Wilderness Pow Wow will convene April 25-26-27, 2008 in Big Thicket. Sponsored by Texas Conservation Alliance and other conservation groups, the event is usually held in national forests, but in 2008, the venue is Big Thicket and the site is Village Creek State Park. BTA anticipates that local conservation groups will join in planning for the event - especially the Golden Triangle Sierra and Audubon groups.
2007 PAST EVENTS
Gulf States Mycological Society Mushroom walk - November 24, 2007
Gulf States Mycological Society will host a Mushroom walk in the Big Thicket National Preserve, Lance Rosier Unit, on Saturday, November 24, 2007. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the Field Research Station (FRS) in Saratoga, Texas. The FRS is on the west side of FM 770 and is marked with a brown National Park Service sign. Greg Mueller, Curator of Botany/ Mycology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, his wife Betty, Clark Ovrebo of the Univ. of Central Oklahoma, and Jay Justice, well known and popular fungi identifier, will be there to assist David Lewis, ATBI TWiG group leader. Contact David Lewis at plewis@jas.net or Linda Brindle at director@bigthicket.org for more information.100,000 ACRES AND BEYOND - Big Thicket Day, Saturday, October 13, 2007
BTA troops and friends will gather Saturday, October 13, 9:00-3:00, at the Field Research Station in Saratoga for Big Thicket Day. The theme for the day is "100,000 Acres and Beyond!"
The day begins at 9:00 with a general membership meeting, followed by a program at 9:30 that includes reports and updates from BTA President Bruce R. Drury as well as Big Thicket National Preserve Superintendent Todd Brindle. The Lubbert and Jackson Awards will be presented.
After a break, a panel at 10:30 will focus on the Thicket of Diversity (All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory), moderated by Dr. Jerry Cook, Thicket of Diversity Executive Council, President. The panel includes Dr. Dale Kruse of Texas A & M who will cover "Taxa Working Group Achievements"; David Lewis, President, Gulf Coast Mycological Society, "Fungi in the Big Thicket"; and Dr. Gillian Bowser (Coordinator, NPS-CESU-TAMU), "ATBI Goes National".
A second panel at 11:00 is a get-acquainted session with our new neighbors. Bob Cassell, Western Region Manager, will represent Hancock Forest Management, and a representative from the Campbell Group will be announced later. Julie Shackelford, who manages the Conservation Fund's new East Texas Field Office, will discuss "Saving Threatened Habitat."
Dr. Pete Gunter, former BTA president, and now Chair of Texas Conservation Alliance, will launch the third session at 11:30 by reviewing a "Short History of a Long Journey to 100,000 Acres." Rep. Kevin Brady has confirmed that he will attend and will discuss "The Big Thicket and Southeast Texas Prosperity." An NPS official has been invited to review the proposed "Centennial Challenge: 1916-2016."
RUSH CREEK FIELD TRIP - October 14, 2007
Sunday, October 14, you are invited to visit one of the most extraordinary areas proposed for addition to the Preserve: Rush Creek in Tyler County. The former owner, Louisiana-Pacific, set aside 1400 acres as Rush Creek Ravines in its "Living Legacy" program (now protected by Hancock Forest Management), but a much larger area is needed to protect the three converging creeks that empty into Steinhagen Lake. If you can hike (read climb/descend - read strenuous) through this magnificent area without blowing your mind, we may need to check your pulse.
Field trip leaders are two Lamar professors - Dr. Jeff Pittman (Geology) and Dr. Randall Terry (Biology). Bob Cassell and Lee Wise of Hancock Forest Management will also participate. Call 936-262-8522 or e-mail johnmx@quik.com if you plan to join us.
The BTA Strategic Plan for the Preserve recommends acquisition of lands that complement the Preserve. Some of the recommended acreage is on the market because of timber company divestitures and land resales. Following the Temple-Inland announcement regarding sale of over one million acres, the BTA board had a called meeting in March to discuss additional areas that should be acquired. Rush Creek is a priority! Come see - then tell everyone you know!
OUR 2007 AWARDS - HOAGLAND AND ROBERTS
The Awards Committee recommended that the Thomas Lubbert Superior Achievement Award be conferred to Curtis Hoagland, former Chief of Resource Management at the Preserve. The committee further recommended that the R. E. Jackson Conservation Award should honor Ann Roberts, former board member, now BTA Administrative Assistant.
Thomas Lubbert Superior Achievement Award:
After a vacancy of two years in the position of Resource Management Chief, Curtis Hoagland served from 2004-2007 in the position and worked hard to get programs back on track. Among his achievements are restoration of 100 acres of longleaf pine in the area beside the Visitor Center, a productive bird banding program, reintroduction of approximately 800 Texas Trailing Phlox, and strong encouragement of research.
His most outstanding contribution was committing the Preserve to an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, the Thicket of Diversity. He worked with BTA leaders, the scientific community, conservation groups, museums, and observatories to launch the project. Some fifteen taxonomic working groups (TWiGs), led by scholars recruited by Curtis, are now involved in identifying and recording life forms in the Thicket. The Lubbert Award will be conferred in absentia, since Hoagland is now working for the US Corps of Engineers in Kansas City.
The R. E. Jackson Award:
This year the Jackson Award recognizes an individual whose services to Big Thicket have quietly but indelibly made an imprint on Big Thicket conservation for thirty years. Ann Roberts came to Big Thicket in 1972 as a Big Thicket Museum Volunteer. She became a member of the BTA board of directors in 1973 and served twice as secretary of BTA, twice as treasurer of BTA, and also served as secretary of the Big Thicket Conservation Association. She has "folded-stamped-labeled" thousands of newsletters and mail-outs to BTA members and served as co-editor of the Big Thicket Reporter. In addition, she has walked a few hundred miles of Thicket trails. As a "pupil" of Harold Nicholas' and through self-study, she became knowledgeable about Big Thicket wildflowers.
Ann volunteered in many capacities over the years, including one day per week at the Information Station working with visitors to the Preserve. In addition she manned exhibit / information booths at the Texas Expo in Austin, Houston's Astrodome, and numerous state and local festivals. She also produced a Preserve Staff newsletter, Volunteer Vista. Ann received the J. C. Penny Golden Rule Award in 2000, and the President's "Call to Service Award" in 2005 for working over 4000 volunteer hours for Big Thicket National Preserve. Indeed, she has a drawer full of letters, certificates and plaques from two Superintendents (Switzer and Peterson), Governor Rick Perry, and U.S. Representative Nick Lampson.
Roberts is also an award-winning office manager for the Kountze Chamber of Commerce, and in February 2007 she accepted the position of BTA Administrative Assistant.
CONSERVATION OUTLOOK
THICKET OF DIVERSITY COUNCIL MEETSThe Executive Council, Thicket of Diversity met August 20 with Dr. Jerry Cook, presiding. The Committee heard committee reports that included approval of a TWIG (taxa working group) proposal for volunteers to distribute traps to collect Arthropods. Specimens will be sent to Sam Houston State University for identification and curation. Katie Winsett (University of Arkansas) was designated co-leader of the slime mold TWIG. A proposal by Michael Black to establish a Photography TWIG was also approved.
At the previous meeting on July 28, the Council approved TWIG funding for Dr. Larry Brown (Spring Branch Environmental Science Center), and Michael and Barbara McRoberts (Bog Research) to survey vascular plants of the Beech Creek and Loblolly Units.
Diversity InternationalThe Thicket of Diversity attracted a Russian scientist, Dr. Larissa Vasilyeva, Institute of Biology and Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, who conducted a survey of pyrenomycetous fungi in the Preserve from Aug. 2-13 for preliminary documentation of species on different kinds of substrate (dead branches and trunks of trees and shrubs) in a variety of vegetation types.
On another front, The London Telegraph on July 8, 2007 reported on the Big Thicket biodiversity Inventory, including 11 pictures. The story begins:
An ambitious attempt is being made to chronicle all forms of life in a vast [sic] North American nature reserve. Scientists and volunteers say it could take years to prepare the inventory of all life on the near 2000-square mile Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas. ... It is at the confluence of south eastern swamps, eastern forests, central plains, and southwest deserts and contains pine and cypress forest, hardwood forest, meadow and blackwater swamp.
It has been described as an American ark and the biological crossroads of North America because of the huge biodiversity it contains.
THE CONSERVATION FUND LAUNCHES EAST TEXAS FIELD OFFICE
Nacogdoches, Texas (August 17, 2007) - The Conservation Fund, a national conservation organization, has opened a new East Texas field office in Nacogdoches. Julie Shackelford, The Conservation Fund’s Texas Programs Director, runs the new office. She has worked in the Fund’s Texas State office in Austin since 2003.
The group works with local, state and federal partners to conserve land for public use. Together with its partners, the Fund has protected over 55,000 acres of land in East Texas since 2003, much of it located along the Neches River. Andy Jones, the Fund's Texas Director, noted that in the last several years, over three million acres of commercial Texas forestlands have been sold. This sell-off is rapidly changing the forest and economic landscape of East Texas, Jones said. The Conservation Fund is committed to working with its partners to protect properties with strategic conservation value.
“Our East Texas office gives us the ability to respond even more quickly to conservation opportunities as they arise and to support the Texas Pineywoods Experience,” added Shackelford.
The Conservation Fund’s new office is housed at the Forest Resources Institute of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus at 2900 Raguet Street, Nacogdoches, TX 75962, telephone number (936) 468-5490.
STATE PARKS AND PROP #4
The Texas Legislature made progress on increased funding for state parks although short of the funding requested by the State Parks Advisory Committee and conservation groups. However, on Nov. 6 Texans will have a chance to ad¬dress the backlog of major park repairs by voting FOR Proposition 4. Passage of that constitutional amendment would provide bonds payable from the general revenues that could result in $52 mil¬lion for 2008-2009. Battleship Texas needs $25M to construct a dry berth, thus avoiding the recurring problem of corrosive effects. Other parks that will benefit are Bastrop, Buescher, Davis Mountains, Goliad, Inks, Palo Duro and Sea Rim. Funds are also provided for repairs in other state parks.
PRESERVE ROUNDUP
by Ann Roberts
NPS Centennial Challenge, 1916-2016BTA President Bruce Drury triumphantly reports that our Thicket ATBI project, "Creating Environmental Stewardship Through Discovery," was selected as a project for the Centennial Challenge of the National Park Service! "This is not quite the final step," he says, "as congress has to appropriate the funds for the Challenge, but it means that out of over 2000 projects initially submitted, that we are one of the finals selected for funding in FY2008. The proposal was written by Thicket of Diversity Vice-President, Dr. Gillian Bowser.
The National Park Service certified 116 parks and their partners in 40 states as eligible for funding in fiscal year 2008. Between park-specific proposals and a national effort to inventory all living things in the parks, every state with national parks benefits.
International Visitor: Numerous foreign visitors sign the Visitor Center guest book, thanks to the Preserve's status as an International Biosphere Reserve. This week, Frances Stanley from London's Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew came to Big Thicket with Minnette Marr and Rosanna Ohlsson-Salmon of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Their seed collection project is a joint effort of the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew, the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation at Fort Collins, Colorado, and the LBJWC in Austin through cooperation with Nature Conservancy.
NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY OF TEXAS
The Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) is holding its 2007 Symposium on Oct. 18-21 in Georgetown. Co-sponsored by the Native Prairies Association of Texas, the program focuses on "Blackland and Grand Prairies and Grasslands of the Edwards Plateau; Efforts to Identify, Restore, Conserve, and Celebrate a Natural Treasure." Field trips and area tours offered include 10 on Friday afternoon and 14 on Sunday.
NPSOT will hold its 2008 Symposium in October in Beaumont and will focus on Big Thicket.
Sept. 15, Trail Between the Lakes, Workday, GT Sierra, Bill Tetley@ 409-722-8974
Sept. 18-19-20, Pineywoods Experience, Jefferson-Lufkin-Beaumont [713-523-3302]
Oct 12, Thicket of Diversity, Executive Council, 1:00 PM, Field Research Station, Saratoga
Oct. 13, Big Thicket Day
Oct. 14, Rush Creek Field Trip Phone/Fax 936-262-8522 / johnmx@quik.com
Oct. 27, Jack Gore Baygall, Old Wagon Road Trail, BTA Workday and Big Thicket Weekend, Forestry Group, Houston Sierra Club; Phone/Fax: 936-262-8522 / johmx@quik.com]
Nov.2-4, Artesian Lakes, Camping Weekend / Retreat, GT Sierra, Bill Tetley@ 409-722-8974
Nov. 10, Operation Green Streets
Marysee Prairie workdays scheduled 1st Saturdays, Oct.-May
