Big Bend Gazette :: “Oh, my gosh!” – The Eureka! moment for two botanists in the Trans-Pecos

Many years later, some inspiring teachers, the beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert and the wonders found in a flower brought both women through the graduate biology program at Sul Ross State University and into professions that champion the natural world and native plants.

Manning was born in Dallas but credits the years her family spent in Connecticut while she was a child with opening the natural world to her. Here she explored woods and brooks, collecting small reptiles and amphibians and spent a lot of time at swimming holes.

Back in Dallas as a teenager, Manning remembers her mother and grandmother gardening, family fishing trips to the country, and a growing love of being outdoors “in the field.”

At Baylor University in Waco, Manning earned a BFA in drawing and painting and became fascinated with the countryside in that part of Central Texas.

“I think that part of Texas is so beautiful,” Manning said. She spent as much time as possible “in the field” there, and when her family moved to Norway while she was in college – her dad was an engineer with Mobil – she spent two summers “in the field” again – this time the Norwegian woods.

Manning continued her art studies in Denton working on a Masters in printmaking with a focus on etching at (then) North Texas State. Here the art world and the natural world began to connect in her life.

“My thesis project was drawing different forms of wildlife around Denton for etched plates,” Manning said. “And since I lived in the countryside outside Denton, my subjects were right there.”

Back in Dallas, expecting to live the life of the starving artist, Manning started a lawn care business to supplement her income.

“I met great people and learned a lot. And I loved mowing – instant gratification. But after a while I began to tire of looking at plants as a commodity – plant pansies, three months later, rip them up – and I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

When a friend from North Texas told her how great the hiking was around Alpine, his home town, Manning came out to hike the Big Bend and, as has happened to so many before and after her, the desert cast its spell.

“I wanted to learn all about the desert,” Manning said.

At the time, Manning was part of a therapy group under the direction of Tigie Lancaster. Lancaster, who now lives in Marfa, knew the Big Bend and suggested that Manning go to the biology field school at Sul Ross.

That was October of 1990. Shortly thereafter, Manning made an appointment with Sul Ross botanist Dr. Mike Powell and by January 1991, she was a Sul Ross graduate student.

“I entered grad school not for a degree but just to learn about the desert,” Manning said.

Although she was in the biology program, Manning found herself leaning more and more on the plant side as she got into her course work.

“The plant diversity was intriguing, and when I found Dr. Warnock’s book, I said ‘Oh, my gosh!’ and never looked back,” she said.

Manning credits Powell as a “wonderful mentor.”

“What I learned from Dr. Powell was that his passion for the plants out here is very contagious. He is passionate about his work and makes you feel that what he does is the most exciting thing you could do. He knows so much, has spent so much time with his subject and his enthusiasm for his work never stops,” Manning said.

Manning’s love for field work was furthered by “great plant classes” with Sul Ross biologist Dr. Jim Zech and field work they did together.

By the fall of 1991, Manning had decided to go for the Master’s degree, but when she took a two-year job as a biologist with the Texas Department of Transportation, she decided not to do a thesis.

“I regret not doing a thesis,” Manning said. “I feel as though I copped out, sort of, but I learned a lot of plants and habitat because I went places all over the Trans-Pecos for TxDOT.

When the botanist’s job became a full time Engineer I job with TxDOT, Manning stayed only a few months – “I was not good at road inspections” and it wasn’t working with plants.

Fall back position: back to art for a short time until Sul Ross biologist Jack Brady needed some help installing the Sul Ross Cactus Garden, the creation of Dr. Powell that contains a specimen of every cactus found in the Trans-Pecos.

At the end of this project, Brady left Sul Ross and his position, Environmental Science Technician, opened up. Manning succeeded to this position in June 1996. The core of the job entails supervising the Sul Ross native plant greenhouses, the cactus garden and the experimental vineyard located on Hwy. 90 east.

The greenhouses have grown plants for the local, state and national parks in the Trans-Pecos, the CDRI plant sale and the Sul Ross campus.

Manning is also the illustrator of Dr. Powell’s book Grasses of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas.

But Manning has also made time for her first love – working in the field. As part of the Millennium Seed Bank Project (See the Gazette story July 2006) as well as collecting seed for the greenhouses and plant specimen for the Sul Ross Herbarium, Manning has seen almost every part of the Trans Pecos.

“Growing from seed never gets boring. I love field work – looking for, finding, collecting. You can’t overlook anything when you’re out with plants,” Manning said.

“The more I go out and about, the more I see and want to see,” Manning said. “It’s not just the rare things. A morning glory is not ‘just’ a morning glory – they are all different; they occur at different places and bloom at different times… the interaction of all the (plant) families, and then seeing something new whether it’s rare or not, it’s just the gladness in your heart.”

The tall, slender blonde woman explaining the Sul Ross Cactus garden to a group of Native Plant Society member knows what she’s talking about – as a Sul Ross graduate biology student she helped to plant it.

The assurance, organization and skilled presentation, however, come from a number of years in the corporate world BBB (before the Big Bend).

Linda Hedges was born in Independence, Missouri to a family of camping, canoeing conservationists. Armed with a full set of Golden Books of Nature, she explored the countryside near Kansas City where her parents has a small country place. Her first achievement was a “yard list” of the birds in her back yard and when she wanted to see a bird not on the list, Hedges and her dad would go “exploring” until they found the bird they needed.

Hedges found inspiration in her high school honors biology class teacher, Oneida Beeman.

“She was well-versed and had the uncanny ability to infect her students with passion for her subject,” said Hedges.

Oddly enough, years later in Alpine, Hedges learned that her Sul Ross biology professor, the late Jim Richerson, was also from Independence and had also been inspired by “Ms. Beeman.”

Hedges worked her way through the University of Missouri at Kansas City, earning a degree in liberal arts before she entered the corporate world of insurance.

It wasn’t until her husband retired in 1991 that Hedges hung up the briefcase and pantyhose and headed out in an RV to explore the country and find a place to call retirement home.

Three years later, they found Fort Davis and proceeded to build a home on the side of a mountain and create a garden that has been featured on the cover of Dr. Mike Powell’s Native Plants in Landscaping and in numerous articles and presentations for the Native Plant Society of Texas.

After years indoors, Hedges decided it was time to get back outdoors and her love of birds led her to the biology department at Sul Ross for a master’s degree.

And while her thesis focused on the migration of songbirds, she was finding an increasing interest in native plants.

“I noticed plants but never took the time to learn them,” Hedges said. “I could never figure out the system. It wasn’t until Dr. Powell’s plant taxonomy class that I looked at the blossom of a silverleafed nightshade and said ‘Oh, my gosh!’ and realized I could learn family characteristics of plants at the micro level.”

Now Hedges finds herself infected with what a biology colleague calls the “native plant disease.”

Hedges entered the biology graduate program both for her head and her heart she said.

After short stints working for Sul Ross in the biology department, Hedges went to work for Texas Parks and Wildlife in July of 1996 doing inventory work on plants and animals in various state parks for six years while based in Fort Davis.

In 2002 the position of Interpretive Specialist for Parks and Wildlife came open and Hedges felt it was time to do something different. Interpretation strives to explain to the public the significance of the presence of particular plants or animals, the history of geological formations, the impact of various cultures on a particular place and so forth.

“The interpretive work combines the natural world with the historical and cultural worlds. It has helped me understand more about how archeology, history, culture and the natural world are integrated,” Hedges said.

Hedges travels a great deal and calls the traveling part of her life an opportunity to recharge while also being difficult when it takes her away from her life in Fort Davis.

But she thrives on the variety and new situations that it presents.

“I love projects in which I can do interpretive writing that connects people in a concise brochure or exhibit panel. I enjoy working with graphic designers and seeing project through from conception to completion.”

“I’m planning to retire from this job in six years and eight months,” Hedges said.

But in the meantime she counts herself as lucky.

“I live where I choose and have a job in my chosen field.”

Dallas Baxter writes about native plants and their habits and habitats.

Patty Manning teaching in the greenhouse.

Patty with two of her favorite things: lots of plants and coffee.

On a Saturday in mid-February, Linda Hedges (second from right) tells members of the Native Plant Society how the cactus gardens at Sul Ross came to be.

Linda, exuding warmth and knowledge, as usual.