Texas Master Naturalist Program (Part 3 of 3)

 
Yellow flower, yellow butterfly…the quest begins for identification and information…books, internet, experts until the yellow has been named. Native? Beneficial? Is this a common sunflower? I have been challenged by yellow.

by Crystal Allbright

Entities were on the move the second weekend in October. Tarantulas cross the road, butterflies dart from flower to flower, and vultures wait for that first cold front. And those of us in the Texas Master Naturalist class cover ground in Big Bend National Park and Alpine.

This male tarantula (Family Theraphosidae) was in a determined search for a mate and his fate. If he is not eaten by a female, he will die a few months after mating.

Don Corrick, BBNP Geologist, led a driving tour from Persimmon Gap to Panther Junction, unraveling some of the earth’s formation mysteries and organized the park’s mountains, valleys and flatlands into four historical chapters while explaining how some of the chapters are presently being rewritten…how advances in research technology have added a new theory to the evolvement of Goat Mountain.

Patt Sims (Shafter) on left and Steve Elfring (Alpine) on right, hold the world for Don Corrick (BBNP) as he explains shifting masses of lands that were formative to the park’s landscape.

We wandered all over Rio Grande Village and Boquillas Canyon Trail with Jeffery Bennett, BBNP Hydrologist, while he covered the basics of aquatic and wetland ecology and the significance of a river’s highs and lows.

“There is nothing linear to energy, it flows in all sorts of circles and eddies,” comments Jeffery Bennett (Alpine/BBNP) as he explains how the river channel has changed in over fifty years. River regulation has been a factor in eliminating the extremes of scouring floods and dry, stressful times. This has allowed invasive plants to move into the flood plain creating a smaller channel and consequently habitats are altered.

An afternoon of meandering through a substantial archeology site was spent with Dr. Stephen K. Mbutu, Assistant Director at the Center of Big Bend Studies in Alpine. As we gawked at rocks, he explained evidence of human occupation: metates, wickiups, and tools.

Proximity to water, excellent vantage points, and defensible outcroppings were factors for various cultures to spend time at the archeology site shared with us by Dr. Stephen K. Mbutu. (L to R) David Mainz (Ingram), Mary Baxter (Marathon), Dr. Mbutu (Alpine), and Roger Siglin (Alpine).

Dr. Joe Sirotnak, BBNP Botanist, clarified conflicts with invasive plants in the area. How they arrived, why they are problem, and methods of removing them.

BBNP Wildlife Program Manager Raymond Skiles exhibited methods to work out conflicts between humans and animals (everything from rodents in employee housing to mountain lion or bear encounters on the trail) while giving an overview of the diverse mammalogy in the park.

Hundreds of turkey vultures Cathartes aura were recently swirling upward over the Rio Grande in formation for migration. We will herald their return in March.

Our final day was spent driving to Alpine for an enthusiastic presentation by Dr. Cathryn Hoyt, Executive Director of Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, on naturalists from the past including ideas on how Native Americans studied nature.

“Museums do not teach by rote, but rather by imagination,” states Larry Francell (Fort Davis)

The closing hours of our 40-hour class time were spent with Larry Francell, Director of the Museum of the Big Bend. He stressed the importance of museums and how a child’s wonderment in learning and understanding is the basis for such a foundation. Francell’s ideas were with me recently as I watched a father with his two young sons. We were on a bike tour and had been exploring in a creek. The kids asked why aren’t they fish here? Where did the crystals come from? And as we strolled through a blanket of purple-pink Nama flowers, the father said “Stop, listen…do you hear that?”

“They’re bees,” the older boy commented. We stood and just listened to the bees getting ready for winter. Kids are such natural naturalists.

Tornillo Creek spins its enchantment on Donna Greene (Alpine).

Chisos  Mountain view from Panther Junction

So now our class of adult kids will be deemed Texas Master Naturalists with 40 hours of volunteer work and 20 hours of continuing education. We’ve been informed of many volunteer options so you’ll probably see us out there helping Bennett and Sirotnak replacing native plants near the Boquillas Canyon entrance, or clearing brush on Fort Davis Nature Conservancy land, or cleaning congested waterways of invasive plants at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

The first fifteen to complete Tierra Grande Chapter’s Master Naturalist Program…now the work begins. (Photo courtesy of Debra J. Sanders)