Nature Tourism Development
Attention Guides
Reminder, Tuesday September 27th is the workshop for guide training.
More details are listed under the workshops page however you can go to
https://agrilferegister.tamu.edu
search events for wildlife guide training
This workshop can be combined with the online training and testing which will allow you to be eligble for Guide Certification by the Corpus Christi CVB and their marketing services. Take a look at http://www.visitcorpuschristitx.org/listings_certified_all.cfm
Moody Creek, Welder Wildlife Refuge by Anna Livia
By Anna Livia
(Walk on September 7th, article written over the past few days)
September 10, 2011
Habitat. What is a habitat and why is it cool? My understanding of it is that it’s a “community.” It revolves around supporting a certain community of wildlife and offering certain conditions to live in with basic life needs being met by a certain set of animals for whom that set of conditions and provisions meets their requirements for living. It consists of a water supply, soil, plants, insects, birds, fish, mammals, whatever life the water and vegetation have the ability to support.
What is cool about habitats from my perspective has never been from a survival point of view but an enjoyment and comfort level point of view. Does it offer me shade where I can hang out and watch lots of really cool wildlife? If yes, then it’s “cool” habitat and I’m all about that. I will spread my quilt, take out my journal and lean back on my backpack and we’re good. “Good, habitat, that’s a good little habitat.” I didn’t really get to ever think about it much before but I like creeks. I guess if I was an animal I would probably head for the creek. There is a canopy of tall trees. I have shade. I can conceal myself, got privacy, cover that is. If it gets night time and I have to make a place to sleep I feel more protected here. I could bathe if I had to and get water. If I had to do like Man Vs. Wild and just survive out in the wild, I think a creek is generally a pretty good idea.
But that’s not the mostest reason I like creeks. I like creeks because they are pretty and offer lots of solitude, where I can get good quality R & R. I wonder if the Green Kingfisher has found it’s little niche the world, just like I would if I were a bird. Sea Shore, are you kidding? Too much activity, too much going on, too much competition, too many unpredictable circumstances and conditions. Wide open spaces? Ott ahh, nope. Not me. Large lakes and marshes where there are huge amounts of wading, fishing birds, nah. I would be a minority there. No, if I were a bird I would like to be a Green Kingfisher and I would find a place like Moody Creek pretty agreeable.
It appears to me that the Green Kingfisher has found a little niche in the world. A place it can fish to its heart’s content. A place it can both retreat to and dominate. I don’t know its preferred habitat. But I saw these champions in action on Moody Creek and they seem to be in their element so to speak. There is no other bird the size of the Kingfisher there that likes to hunt fish and it does not have to compete with other birds that have similar food and habitat requirements in this cozy little situation. I mean it might have a large bird come through the narrow, slow, eeky creeky little river bottom from time to time and feast of some fish, bathe in the sun, but these large birds have other places they are well suited for.
Do you remember my recent post “Where the Wild Things Are At Welder? Where I told you all the wildlife Dan and I have seen, and gave a list of we haven’t yet seen, but have hopes of seeing? Remember how I talked about going to Moody Creek because according to the refuge literature it had some very promising features. The description of forest, a creek merging with a river, riparian forest, tall trees, hackberry mottes. I mean next to the boring chaparral (that fancy word for mixture of annoying, thorny, plants that are good for the wildlife, but not very hospitable to people) brushland, dried up drought ravaged pottery looking wetlands in waiting, and manicured lawns of the Live Oak Community we walk across every day to get to the study hall and library, next to all that for the last three weeks, some riparian forest sounds good even if I don’t know what it is per se. It says “forest.” It says, “River.” It says possible alligators. Are you kidding, it’s the first slight relent to the assault of Texas’ summer of un-relent, the hottest summer in recorded history in the nation, I think. Anyway, you better believe first chance I got, and the pamphlet’s honest but teasing note that Moody Creek is good Bobcat habitat. I know that’s not happening right? But what if I see an alligator? Or an angel of flight? What if just over the hill from this punishing dry, hot, blinding daylight, is a refuge of relief, comfort, nature’s relent, natures nurturing arms just waiting to take our weary selves into her arms and soothe us with an oasis of rejuvenation , sightings of delightful wild animals in their undisturbed and private territory, going about life without notice of us. WAKE UP! We are not taking a nappy boo by the side of Lake Happy Ever After.
No this is reality, but we are going to test the boundaries a little and see if there just might be some nature nurture over there by the river and creek, because believe me we were in need! Nothing against the refuge, or the dormitory, or the Live Oaks and Javelinas but a body has to change scenery, experience a little variation in surrounding and routine or they will not be studying birds anymore, they will just turn into one, a cuckoo to be exact.
So, come folks, this way, follow me. To tell you the truth, though my hopes were high for some kind of enjoyable nature trail, I had doubts because of how thoroughly the drought has killed most of the outdoors we’ve seen this summer, or at least made it drab, often just inhospitable and too bare, dead, dry and stripped of the qualities we as humans seek in a nature retreat.
I took faith and Daniel joined me with his trademark good attitude and stubborn, march of smiles and optimism, never letting on to a doubt if he had one. The first thing we did was follow the River Walk key to view the first 10 or 12 plant species which were marked by numbered posts. But soon I put my River Walk key back in my bag and never took it back out for the rest of the walk. Because the wildlife was so captivating! The experience being in a riparian forest was storybook scenery and fairytale laden. Seeing our second coyote, listening to an owl and seeing an impressive and startling treat, an Anhinga.
An Anhinga? What the heckoly is that? I had no idea what it was and I wasn’t the first one to see it. Daniel was a little ahead of me and we were simply inexperienced at this live wildlife viewing. I didn’t realize what was really going on at the time. Suddenly he threw his arm down repetitively in a commanding gesture. I got it the first time, it means stop and look. That’s cool. But he was so excited and didn’t seem to think I would respond quickly enough to see what he was seeing. He was making these huge gestures in an effort to get my attention, but not make any noise to startle the bird. Only problem was the gestures were big enough to startle a deaf person all the way across the river! This was a mute point since the bird noticed this emphatic danger signal immediately and did what any dignified creature of its size would do if it were to see a 6 foot man slapping his arms back and forth to communicate some matter of urgency to the agitated lady by his side. It flew away! Of course it flew away, if I didn’t know him like I do, I would have flown away had I been a bird.
“Yes, I saaaww him, I know.” I was irritated but suppressed it because I knew he had the best of intentions. But this bird was simply stunning and my intrigue was immediately aroused, with a real disappointment that I didn’t get to see it a little longer before it flew off. I got over it, though. I thought then, for a second, “I hope we will learn how to do this wildlife watching a little bit more successfully with some more experience.” And it occurred to me, that we naturally wouldn’t do that again. This is not like when we used to go beachcombing and we could separate for a while, then upon finding something cool just holler as loud as we could to tell the other to come hither and see! That was all very exciting and vocal, but this is not a method of enjoyment when trying to watch birds!
I think it is great I missed seeing more of the Anhinga after all. I learned that I love my partner and my friend very much, because taking a walk together that day I realized I had more tolerance for his blunder than I would normally have afforded even myself. I would have gotten upset, but with my bestest friend in the wide, it takes no time to laugh and enjoy the fact that he wants to share the experience with me and his blunder was evidence of the excitement he felt about doing so. This was even cooler than the Anhinga.
A few days ago I thought the highlight of the walk was supposed to be the Green Kingfisher, but then I saw an Anhinga first and it took all my attention, there wasn’t enough capacity to take in both of their beauty at the same time. I guess I just haven’t learned that skill yet? Not sure. But once I saw the Anhinga, I couldn’t “take in” the experience of seeing the female Green Kingfisher.
After several days of contemplating the highlight of the walk, I realize that the most important part of the walk was not another animal to check off my list, but the joy of remembering our beachcombing together and realizing wildlife viewing is a whole different sport and we will learn to stick together and sharpen our communication skills in this whole process. That is ALL cool stuff, not to mention I am learning that I need to let nature teach me more and abandon the books for now. They are a distraction at this point for me. If anything, they would influence a person to want to abandon the subject of nature due to over-exposure and life-threatening boredom.
You’re still wondering what is an Anhinga? The best way I can explain, it is a CREATURE, a bird. It looks pre-historic, ancient.
The bird caught me off guard and I am starving for more. I want to see the creature again. It was magnificent and I can’t get over it. But I will not forget this lovely, dynamic, strong, gorgeous creature. If I had seen a Mountain Lion, at least I would have been prepared. This took me completely off guard, hello!
So what in the world was it I loved so much about this bird? One thing its large size its graceful, commanding presence. I felt like I got a tiny glimpse of a world that existed so long before me, a world that existed before people. For a brief moment, I was in prehistory and this whole world of civilization and humans didn’t yet exist! Why the bird caused this sensation in me I will probably never know. It fascinates me. I might as well have been Alice falling down into Wonder Land, talking to dodo birds and caterpillars with pipes. It conjured up mystery, curiosity and fantasy all at once. So I searched through some books in our dormitory room, the library and the internet for some information. Here are some of the things I found:
The word “Anhinga” is derived from a Tupi (Brazilian) Indian name, anhingá or anhangá, for the devil bird, an evil spirit of the woods. I’m not sure where they come up with “devil bird” deal, but maybe it’s the snake-like neck sticking out of the water as it swims and hunts for fish, spearing them in their side. While the bird is swimming on the surface, its body is usually submerged, with only the head and snakelike neck visible.
While resting ourselves along the bank of the river, Dan spotted a gar. It was visible through the water. These are large fish. I had read that they were in Moody Creek, but I didn’t expect to be able to see one. I thought they would be below the surface. I didn’t ever think of a fish as being one of the animals we could see on a walk. Once we spotted one, it was easy to spot others, they were quite common languidly moving about through the slow water. We also heard them when they would catch something on the surface of the water, it would make a loud kerplunk noise.
We resumed walking and thoroughly enjoyed the Sabal Palm tree which we saw shortly before coming to the confluence of the Aransas River with Moody Creek. The Sabal Palm trees make me think of the Karankawa Indians for some reason. Maybe it’s the coastal ambiance paired with its spot in the shaded woods by the hidden, slow moving river. It just made me feel like I was stepping back in time again. The quietness, the stillness and the mood were appropriate for the name “Moody Creek.” Karankawa Indians did live in this area and excavations have been done along Moody Creek here on the creek at Welder by an archaeologist upon several Karankawa campsites. I will be doing some reading on this topic as soon as I get my hands on it, the papers about these particular excavations are presently loaned out from the refuge’s library. Once they are back, I will investigate.
Let’s keep moving along to the next spot where Dan and I sat down to rest and observe, it was at the convergence of the river and the creek. A dramatic and beautiful spot to spread a quilt and eat a picnic if one came prepared for such an outing (which we didn’t, but intend to very soon.)Here, we lingered watching the gar and a school of minnows.
Once Moody Creek meets the Aransas River, where we were resting, wishing we had brought a quilt, it flows 12 miles to Rockport where it flows into the Copano Bay.
Moving right along on our walk, we went through riparian forest, now walking along the Aransas River, seeing some large trees, one was huge, but it had fallen to the forest floor. We walked through Hackberry Motte. Hackberry can be about 60 feet tall. Most of the Hackberry along the River Walk are Sugar Hackberry and Netleaf Hackberry. Several species of birds including mockingbirds and cardinals eat the fruit of the Sugar Hackberry. Raccoon, deer and coyotes also enjoy the fruit. In fact, we saw a raccoon (big surprise) climbing a Hackberry tree there. These very tall white trunked trees are used by 23 species of birds and butterflies. The entire time we walked here we were well shaded and could only see the sparkling rays of scattered sunlight. It was a great place to walk in the heat of the day.
Soon we reached an opening, a place where the forest, canopied by Mustang grape and tall trees, let us out into the open again, the “prairie” I suppose they call it around here. In the field before us we saw a large number of deer, 15 to 20. As Dan made remark of, they were less afraid of us than the Brahma cattle are here.
By this time I was tired and wishing I had brought something to snack on, take note for the next walk out there, right? We pushed on for the last mile. We were only yards from the gate where our van was waiting for us, when we saw about half a dozen peccary having their evening meal in the shaded thicket.
Keep in mind that when I went on this walk it was my great hope to see a Green Kingfisher and I did. However, the Anhinga with its large and dramatic presence captured my attention so much as to steal the show. This does not lessen the impact of seeing the female Green Kingfisher, instead it necessitates another post and yet another walk to Moody Creek. The next day we did take another walk along the same route and we were happy to be the guest of a male Green Kingfisher that kept us his audience for the better part of a half hour, as we watched him doing what he does best, fish! I will share this with you in another post.
Until then, keep it wild!
Moody Creek where we saw Alligator Gar and Spotted Gar by Anna LiviaDan Beckendorf next to a really big tree, Riparian forest at Welder Wildlife Refuge along Aransas River by Anna LiviaAnna Livia next to Sabal Palm tree along bank of Moody Creek (Karankawa Indian sites were excavated along Moody Creek at Welder) by Dan BeckendorfMoody Creek In The Afternoon by Anna Livia
Landscape Scenery, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Anna Livia at ANWR Volunteer Day
September 14, 2011
By Anna Livia
Last week a former Welder Wildlife fellow called Selma Glasscock here at Welder. He has recently been hired as the Biologist at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Austwell, about an hour from here. He needed some volunteers to help with a Whooping Crane counting experiment to take place on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. They needed some volunteers to take Whooping Crane decoys to exact coordinates which are mapped out and stake these decoys in various habitats where cranes are commonly found. Then the biologist (who has no knowledge of where the decoys have been placed) is flown over the refuge early the next morning in a plane to make a count of the cranes. Knowing the exact number of decoys, the experiment is to test the accuracy of the present counting method.
Dan eagerly volunteered for this opportunity to help with a Whooping Crane project, a bird he is particularly fascinated with. Since we got here to Welder, he has checked out all the books from Welder library which were about these endangered birds and has focused many evenings reading on them. This is because he is anticipating doing whooping crane tours for a guide service out of Rockport this whooping crane season and he has been attaining all the knowledge he can in order to make his tours educational and fun. For several days before we were scheduled to go to Aransas, we would be working and I would see this smile randomly spread across his face and he would say “Whooooping crrranes!” These were random expressions of satisfaction and excitement which reminded me of how a kid anticipates an upcoming field trip to the zoo, or better yet, an amusement park.
At 4:45 AM Dan and I got up to get ready to leave Welder and go to Aransas, day before yesterday. We were on the road driving out of Welder and saw our first Gray Fox on the refuge. One of the animals on my “Where The Wild Things Are” wildlife checklist, remember? So the day was off to a pretty good start.
We arrived to the Wildlife Refuge in Aransas at about 7:30. This is a National refuge run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a pretty elite conservation organization, as I understand. The volunteers are treated quite well. There is a Volunteer Building located behind the visitor and employee complex. They will put volunteers up for the night in one of their RV trailers or offer them campsites. There are laundry facilities, kitchen, showers and an ice machine. If needed, they will provide the volunteers with mosquito jackets and bug spray, sunscreen, water, and other items you might have forgotten to bring. They provide the waders (tall boots equipped for walking through marsh and swamp). On Saturday they will be holding a Barbeque for the volunteers who helped.
There were several teams of volunteers which were lead by refuge staff. Dan and I just happened to be chosen to work with the manager of the refuge, Dan Alonso. It was our job to go out on a boat through the Gulf Intracoastal waterway out to the bay. This of course was very exciting initially. Between meeting and getting to work an entire day with a refuge manager of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the subject matter being Whooping Cranes, the anticipation was exhilarating. We got to ride with Dan Alonso in his truck to the location and help load up the boat with the crane decoys. On the way to the boat, while we were driving in the truck the refuge manager was very personable and forth coming with interesting information about the cranes and his experiences with them since his becoming manager of the ANWR in 2008. He says 2008 was a really crazy year, the cranes were at risk due to the conditions caused by drought and salinity and they were worried about losing cranes. He said that they had to make the decision to feed the cranes which is a last resort and even then meets controversy from the experts and powers that be. He said he nearly lost his job over the whole ordeal. He predicts that due to this year’s severity of drought, he may be facing the very same predicament.
He made the whole thing fun, going out for the day to do this very physically taxing work in the blazing Texas sun. He gave me a cap, which was his daughter’s. I’m glad he did. The sun was pretty bad and I didn’t have one with me. He put Dan in charge of the GPS (the gadget I am going to call our compass). It digitally determines the exact coordinates (latitude and longitude) of your location, so you can find predetermined locations, but also so you can know exactly where you are located. I was basically riding along and fetching things as they were needed. I felt only occasionally useful. But that’s okay. I didn’t really want to be as useful as Dan was anyway. He had to wade through oyster reefs, cord grass, marsh, bay bottom and basically do what is really hard work. The Texas sun is already hard work, when you’re standing still, never mind navigating through habitat people generally avoid, unless they are there for some really good reason.
The ride out to our work area took about 35 minutes. Dan Alonso drove the boat very fast and the wind ripped by our faces. You didn’t turn you head to the side much or it would puff your cheeks up like a chipmunk’s. It took a little getting used, but then I started seeing the coastal waters, bayside of the coastal barrier island (Matagorda), and the shore birds that we so often talk about and romanticize about. These were the exact places that 2 years ago I read about after Dan brought me to visit the refuge for the pleasure of a day trip to get “off the island” where we lived (Port Aransas.) After I read about the Whooping Cranes, Aransas Wildlife Refuge and the uninhabited Matagorda Island I had wishes of maybe someday being able to visit Matagorda Island, which you can only see from the refuge, not visit, unless you have official business or research there. But, here I was, this day actually on a boat with the refuge manager, on a trip giving me full view of the island and its wildlife! It was like a dream come true.
Great Blue Heron, ANWR
We saw Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Caspian Terns, White Ibis, Brown Pelicans and even some Osprey. The Brown Pelican is a very large bird. I have seen lots of Brown Pelicans before when I lived in Port Aransas. Seeing them again, I remarked that this is a very large bird indeed. I believe it is so large that it might be as large (or at least in the ball park) as a Whooping Crane. It is not rare or endangered like the Whooping Crane. If it was, it would be just as exciting to see one, as they are very interesting looking creatures. Its size and prehistoric appearance make it just as intriguing to watch as a Whooping Crane. But there are only something like 270 Whooping Cranes in the world, so they are much more sought after by birders. Great Blue Herons are very large birds as well, and interesting to watch. We saw a lot of them. One in particular, we caught sitting in a statuesque way on a post. I didn’t recognize it right off, as it had itself arranged in a peculiar stance and appeared to be in a “ticked off” mood. I was taken aback by its strange demeanor and I pointed it out to Dan asking what it was. He nodded as if he understood why I didn’t recognize it and said, “Blue Heron.” I asked if it was just me or did he look agitated, and Dan agreed the bird looked disgruntled to him too. If a bird can be that unrecognizable when it is in a bad mood, imagine how unrecognizable some of us people can be when we are in a bad mood!
There are only several places Whooping Cranes live in the world. There is only one self-sustaining population which survives in the wild and they spend the winter (November – March) on the Texas Gulf of Mexico at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and migrate every summer to their territory in Canada. Year after year these birds migrate twice annually.
They are a fascinating bird. They can live to be up to 40 years old, about 25 in the wild. They mate for life. The adult males establish their own territory. Males and females bond and have elaborate courtship rituals. The famous “dancing cranes” are named such for their courtship behavior. Both birds flap their wings, bow their heads, leap into the air and make loud vocalizations. Once they become a “couple,” they stay paired for the rest of their lives. They re-mate only after the death of their mate.
Once they are a pair, they do not lose interest in courtship rituals, these are still repeated every year. The rituals which precede mating, are an amazing amount of “foreplay” as they don’t have actual mating down here in Texas, they save that for after the migration and perform more dance rituals on their trip up north. It’s not until they reach Canada that they get started with baby making. They waste no time once they reach Canada. Because they are on a tight schedule, to mate, raise the chick to be large enough and strong enough to make the journey back down to Texas before the deathly Canada winter sets in. The behavior of these birds has been studied extensively over the years. They have very interesting patterns in addition to their mating: their migration, their territorial behavior, the way they raise and teach their young and their hierarchy. Deference, in terms of territory is always given to adult birds with chicks, then adult male with a mate, with sub-adults (single, non-mated adults)being at the bottom of the hierarchy.
When they day was over, Dan and I were both exhausted, totally whooped actually. Of the two trailers left available to volunteers, the air conditioners in both had quit. We attempted to set up for the night in a screened in structure at the youth campgrounds, overlooking the bay, but the heat, the still air and the mosquitoes (that got through the cracks in the door)forced us out. We didn’t know where we were going, we just knew we had to go, it didn’t matter, anywhere else would have done. The end of the pier would have been more suitable with at least some breeze to fight the mosquitoes. On the way back to the refuge complex, we saw a Cottonmouth right in the middle of the road. We stopped and took pictures as close as we could get without being stupid.
Cottonmouth Politely Lets Us Know To Back Off, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
We ended up going back to the Volunteer Building, which is not exactly set up for overnight guests but it had A/C and a floor. We threw our camping mattresses down, with sleeping bags and went straight to sleep!
Today, I stayed behind while Daniel went out for the day again with Dan Alonso to recover all the decoys and move them to new locations. From what Daniel told me locations were harder to get to today, the mosquitoes were twice as bad and he was glad I hadn’t gone with them. He said that there was only one thing I missed which he wished I could have seen. It was a couple of White-tailed Deer swimming across the channel from the wetlands to the island! Apparently there are animals (including Javelina) which Dan, the manager of the refuge has seen doing this from time to time. Deer, swimming at all, is something I haven’t seen before. But taking the Intracoastal waterway, wow! That must have been cool. But, just the same, I’m glad I stayed behind.
Despite the drought and its effect on the habitat and wildlife, and despite the temperature being above normal for this time of year, we enjoyed our two days at the ANWR. What I learned out of this experience was that for any given animal that conservationists and scientists work hard to protect from extinction, there is also a great deal of work done by volunteers who do the work for their love of nature. It is those that do this work for no pay, those who do the work regardless of how dirty, or sweaty or “pooped” they are going to be at the end of the day, that I gained a great deal of respect for over last couple of days. These volunteers are a very important and a vital part of the conservation efforts that work religiously to keep the endangered Whooping Crane from extinction. Moral of the story: nature can be a lot of fun, but for those who participate in its preservation it can be a lot of hard work! Nature can for all its beauty and adventure, can test your endurance and be a lot of work!
We hope to go back on Saturday to the barbeque and have some time getting to know the others that volunteered for this effort in the larger journey to save this very noble and famous bird, the faithful Whooping Crane. We are now back at our dorm at Welder, which is our “home sweet home” at this point in time, physically exhausted, but inspired in spirit! Happy to be home! But glad we went.’
Here are some more pictures:
Whooping Crane Decoys Being Placed on Oyster Reefs, Aransas National Wildlife RefugeNice View, at sunset by a pier on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
By Anna Livia
September 8, 2011
Javelina, Feral Hog, Wild Pig, European Wild Hog… Which one does not belong? A, B. C or D?
ANSWER: The anser is (A) Javelina.
Javelina is the only one that does not belong in that list. Why? The Feral Hog is the same thing as a wild pig (it’s literally a domestic pig gone wild.) And the European Wild Hog (nick name “Boar”) is a true “wild pig,” native to Europe. One that has not been domesticated. They are ALL three pigs. A pig and a hog are the same thing, just domesticated animals from the same family. The Pig Family (Suidae).
Not the Javelina. The Javelina is not even in the pig family. It is not a pig. It is not a hog. It is not a “boar”. It is a Javelina. That would be the Tayassuidae family. It has its very own family.
Apparently this animal which is native to Texas is truly misunderstood. After publishing the post “Where The Wild Things Are at Welder,” it was brought to my attention that there is still some confusion. I was asked in a text if the Feral Hog was just a cross between a pig and a Javelina and when I answered it was replied, “We were always told that was where the wild hogs came from.” (In reality wild hogs come from Europe, they are a European animal altogether and we have no native hogs on this continent. But we’ll get to that next.) The answer to this question is no. But this is an excellent question and it really draws attention to how misled people are about what a Javelina truly is.
You see, Javelina and pigs (hogs) are such totally different species that they can’t breed at all. They are not just different species, they are completely different families. A Javelina has no more in common with a pig than a cow does with a horse, and I mean this scientifically, not just as an expression. That is how little a Javelina has to do with a pig. You can’t breed cows and horses. You can’t breed hogs and Javelinas, they are that unrelated.
Another example: A dog is a domesticated version of a wolf. When domesticated dogs escape back to the wild, their off-spring might be a “wild dog.” Cats are domesticated version of wild cats. When domestic cats escape back into the wild their offspring become “feral cats.” They will never be mountain lions again. The wild dogs will never be wolves again, though they came from wolves.
On the other hand, a Feral Hog is merely the animal which results when an every day domestic pig (the farm animal) escapes from the farm and remains in the wild long enough (one generation). It will revert back to its ancestry and start to reclaim the traits of the animal it was before it was domesticated. A pig’s ancestor is the wild European Pig (Sus scrofa). When pigs escape they will once again become “wild” and that is the Feral Hog. Just a domestic pig going back to being a “wild boar.”
A wild pig, a feral pig and a domestic pig can all interbreed, yes. They are all pigs regardless of their degree of “wildness.” A wild European hog for instance is a true, undomesticated hog. When wild European hogs came to Amerca and mixed with domesticated pigs that had escaped back into the wild, the result was the Feral Hog. There are no pigs native to America, this continent, that’s why here they are just “Feral Hogs.” They are not native here, they are native in Europe, where they are simply “Wild Hogs.”
Anyhow, the words boar, pig, hog, wild boar, wild pig, wild hog etc. just means they are all some form of a pig (Sus scrofa) domestic, wild or feral. Just the same a pig. They are all the same animal varying only in the amount of wild in them.
Javelinas are not related to pigs at all. Javelinas are very different biologically. They also have never been domesticated and therefore there is no feral version of them.
In conclusion, a Javelina can’t cross with a pig, why? Simple, because it’s not a pig.
Hopefully this will put to bed any common myths, misconceptions, false assumptions, confusion, and misunderstandings about this animal being a pig or breeding with pigs. Not only do the Javelina get mistaken for pigs, they are also behaviorally very misunderstood as ferocious and agressive. Our beliefs about gorillas 50 years ago are drastically different now after we have learned more about them. Gorillas were believed to be monsters of a sort, like “King Kong.” Today we understand that gorillas are big, yes, vicious monsters, no. Our fears about them were merely a result of ignorance. The Javelina, similarly, misunderstood simply because of our lack of education on their biology. Refer to my article, “Where The Wild Things Are at Welder” and you can read about why.
I welcome and enjoy answering these kind of questions. I learned this only because you asked, then I asked a biologist. When you learn the answer to some long eluded vague question, things just come together and start to make sense. Or when we dispell some long misguided belief, it is a liberating experience. Keep those kind of questions coming! You helped me learn and understand something I didn’t know before you asked!! Thanks and join me for my next article which will be posted over the next few days. I am writing about my walks to Moody Creek at Welder, and we’re going to keep our minds open to learning, finding, discovering and enjoying, always, Mother Nature. Until the next time, stay wild!
By Anna Livia
Live Oak Sunset at Welder Wildlife Refuge by Anna Livia
September 5, 2011
When I was a kid one of my favorite night time stories was “Where The Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. I remember the kid in the book had been misbehaving so he was sent to his bed without dinner. He went in his room and shut his door with a most ornery scowl. But soon his little room with its simple and scant furniture started to grow! The bed posts grew into trees, the floors grew up into grass and walls were hanging with vines, exotic fruits, animals and birds until you could no longer see the bed, or the chair, or the dresser, or the room, anymore. It was the boy’s dream come true and he was off on an adventure, soon sailing the world to visit “where the wild things are.” When he got there, they “roared their terrible roars, gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes.” The wild things were the wildest ones in the “whole wide.” But not for long, because the boy showed them how he was truly the wildest of them all. After he got done displaying how wild he was, all the wildest things made him their king and they chanted “let the wild rumpus begin!”
White-tailed Deer at the Cone Garden (Hummingbird Garden), Welder Wildlife Refuge by Anna Livia
Let’s go back to childhood for a moment and remember what intrigued us about wildlife, animals, forests, the woods and our own back yard. As a small child, the woods were my preferred playground because it was there I could best daydream about fairies, elves, and the wonderful world of make believe. Big rocks were my castle, the likens and moss were my carpet, the trees were the houses for all my imaginary friends, the nuts were my food, the flowers were my magic wands, the butterflies were fairies. Life was great and needed no improvement whatsoever. Nature made the best playground and it engaged the power of imagination completely. Combine nature, children and the imagination and magic happens! So let’s have a little fun, go back to being a kid for now and think of what got you excited about nature. ANIMALS! Animals were always at the top of my list!
A wildlife refuge is an enhanced nature experience and I am asking you to come play in the gardens of nature, with your imagination! When I was a kid it would be fun to contemplate who was the “mightiest,” the “coolest” or the “wildest” animal of all.
So here at the Welder Wildlife Refuge what are the creatures that we are most likely to see and which of them are the “wildest” ? Is it the cunning Coyote? How about the elusive Bobcat? The husky, tusky little Javelina (these misunderstood little beasts are not at fault for their reputation as “ferocious” pigs, because they are in reality neither one, by the way.) Or is it the sly Gray Fox? Could the mostest wildest beastiest one of all be the Feral Hog? How about the mighty Alligator or the Great-Horned Owl? Or is it the unknown but deadly Common Bladderwort, a carnivorous (eats animals) plant of the wetlands? Don’t forget the venomous snakes such as the Diamondback Rattlesnake and the Texas Coral whose venom is the same kind a cobra uses (neurotoxin).
Most of these animals, earn their reputation and there is something to back up what is said about them. The exception is the Javelina, the Collard Peccary. I will tell you why shortly.
Of course, Dan and I would love to see all of these during our stay here! Maybe if we were in one of Maurice Sendak’s children’s books then viewing wildlife could be as easy as getting sent to bed without any supper. Ah, but that is not how nature works, usually anyway. In real life we have to seek, look, study, wait, stalk, take many walks and be patient. Sightings of the wild things are sometimes rare, unexpected, and always treasured moments: lots or walking and looking and moments of excitement when we see them.
So of the 10 species of “wild things” I list above, how many have Dan and I been able to see since we got here two weeks ago to the Welder refuge?
So far we have heard the calls of the Coyote nightly. That has been a treasure and always is, I don’t care if it’s every night I enjoy it just as much as the first time I ever heard a Coyote. It’s always a nearly spooky, eerie kind of peace in their emotional chorus. It sets the mood and as a group I love to hear them. Sometimes their night time voices are even humorous, with one of them having the last word trailing off at the end as if he’s finishing the sentence, as if begging the most sympathy of his audience.
We have heard the Coyotes, but we have also already been lucky enough to see one, in the daylight, by the road as we drove past Pollita (Little Chicken) Wetland. So that was major cool. You don’t see a Coyote every day.
The next day on the same road closer to Big Lake, we saw Feral Hogs. Not pretty creatures, and of course dreaded by everyone as they are an invasive and a non-native species.
We have also seen quite a few Javelinas (I will say this again, they are not in the pig family). We have seen their little herds near our dormitories, several times by the dormitories in the Live Oak community. By Live Oak community I mean literally a community of these trees in impressive numbers. They are their own habitat, they support a community of animals, like Fox Squirrels, White-Tailed Deer, Rio Grand Turkeys and of course one of my personal favorites, Javelinas. The dorms and headquarters are situated amongst the Live Oaks, some 200-250 years old. The Javelina want for the acorns I guess. I heard that others have seen them at the water spout at the Cone Garden, which is where Dan and I have been doing our evening Hummingbird watching. In fact, it was in search of the Javelina that we first discovered the great Hummingbird watching over there. (See my previous article on Hummingbirds.)
The first night we ever spent on the refuge, Selma Glasscock, the Assistant Director of the Refuge, warned us not to try to be friendly to the little white- collared rooters, since it’s a drought they have become quite “aggressive” because they are very hungry. It was also that very first evening, almost no sooner Selma left, that we saw some. Excited about arriving at the refuge, I opened the curtain in our room and lo and behold, it was crazy, I saw a Nine-Banded Armadillo, a White-tailed Deer and in the background a Javelina. None of them were having anything to do with each other. It was just funny having all three in sight right outside my window!
Nine-banded Armadillo doing dinner in the Live Oak community surrounding Welder Wildlife Complex by Anna Livia
This was my first time seeing a Javelina. When we went outside, we saw more, a herd of them, about 10 or so, rooting about 50 feet away. They didn’t run from us. Due to their reputation and what Selma had said I half way expected them to start charging us or at the very least to check us out. But they didn’t. I saw a youngster among them, with its little short legs trotting along in step with his family. I dare say, I thought he was cute and I started with, “Aww, look at the little tiny, widdle cutie one.” After observing their behavior as non-threatening, I sent Daniel out after them with a camera. He didn’t have to get much closer before they could see him and they started running as a group the other way, their little short, steady trots. They were pretty fast actually and they had absolutely no inclination to come chasing after us.
Let’s talk about the Javelina’s reputation now. First off, they are mistaken for pigs, more often than not. Actually they are not even related to the pig, they are a family of their own and there are only three species of Peccary in the world. The Collared Peccary is the only one we have in Texas. It is considerably smaller than a pig and one reason it can’t be classified as pig is because of its anatomy. Pigs have four toes on their hind hoof, Javelinas have only three. Javelinas have 38 teeth, pigs have 34 or 44 teeth. The tusks on the Javelina are straight and they curved on pigs. Javelinas have scent glands but no sweat glands. Pigs have no scent glands but they have sweat glands. Javelinas have no tail, pigs have a tail.
The Javelina has a reputation for being ferocious and aggressive. In reality, they are not aggressive to people and though highly capable of doing some serious damage (aggravated assault is an understatement I would image). Have you seen the teeth on those guys? I have, not on a live animal, but on several skulls here at Welder. The “tusks” are quite seriously sharp too. I ran my finger along one to check. Yup, that would be some serious business and I’m sure potentially life-threatening if a person were to get attacked by a wild thing with wild “toofers” like that, buddy! I can see why people might assume something that bears teeth like that would also be dangerous. But it is not their nature to be aggressive unless cornered. They would much rather go their own way and you go yours.
As one TPWD writer puts it, “Most stories of charging javelina stem from the habit of
javelina, which are extremely nearsighted, scattering in all
directions when an alarm is sounded by one of the herd. With
20 javelina going in all directions, at least one is bound to be
headed for the intruder, and even the bravest of souls is
certain the beast is out to do him bodily harm.” And, “They will stay in the area until the cause
of the alarm is found, often making the intruder, who sought
safety aloft, feel “treed.”
The problem arises when hunters come upon Javelina with their dogs. Javelina can’t stand dogs, they are (like Coyote) a threat to their young. Javelina have a justifiable reason for their prejudice toward dogs. But since so many people are quite attached to their hunting companions and pets, they don’t “like” animals that will whoop or kill them the way a Javelina will. It is in this limited situation that the Javelina becomes aggressive and at that time can also be a threat to a human, hence the reputation and the belief by some that these are vicious animals.
In reality, they are surprisingly low-key and mind their own business. I know this for a fact because, being here on the wildlife refuge I have had occasion to see them in herds quite a few times now. Only yesterday, when Dan and I were on our way back from a walk I saw medium-sized black creatures (about half a dozen of them) rooting at a relaxed pace through a thicket. I stopped dead in the path, since we were so close. We stood there quietly in awe and in caution. The Javelinas took notice of us and the one closest to me was looking straight at me and lifting his nose to smell me. None of them were alarmed they just kept doing their thing. Once I felt safe I went forward a little bit to get a closer look, they were just fine with that. We observed them eating their dinner (roots and insects I guess) and pawing at the ground with their hooves from time to time. This was really cool. I was just glad I didn’t have a dog with me is all.
Back to my earlier list of 10 species of “Wild Things”we hope to get lucky enough to see during our time here at Welder. So far we have seen the Coyote, the Javelina, Great Horned Owl and whether we liked it or not the Feral Hog. These are the “mostest wildest” things we have seen so far. That’s four of the ten. That leaves us yet to see the: the Bobcat, Gray Fox, American Alligator, the carnivorous wetland plant and two poisonous snakes!
Bobcat skin from Welder Wildlife Foundation Mammal Specimen Collection by Anna Livia
Dan Beckendorf identifying an Eastern Hognose snake at Welder Wildlife Foundation Headquarters by Anna Livia
Coyote Skin from the Welder Mammal Specimen Collection by Anna Livia
Of course you will be the first to hear of it, if we see any of these! Also, a Belted Kingfisher is on my personal list, as I have never seen one. They say Moody Creek, here on the refuge is good for many of these on the list. We have read that Moody Creek is good habitat for alligator, Belted King Fisher, and even Bobcat. So as soon as I am done writing this, we are off for a three mile hike called the River Walk which will take us by Moody Creek as it converges with the Aransas River. We will be going through Riparian Forrest with excellent chances of seeing something cool we’ve not seen before! I can’t believe how excited I am getting about going on this walk. I have been studying for the past few days about birds and plants I might see there that I’ve never seen before. I have really built my anticipation up about this walk and I can’t wait! I will let you know what happens.
Bird in back, Green Kingfisher, Bowman Bird Collection at Welder Wildlife Foundation (Sinton, Texas) by Anna Livia
Collard Peccary (Javelina) from Mammal Specimen Collection at Welder Wildlife Foundation by Anna Livia
Cone Garden at Welder Wildlife Refuge Where Hummingbird Feeders Attract Up To Thirty Hummers In The Evenings
By Anna Livia
September 2, 2011
Dan has loved birds since he was a kid. When I say he loves birds, well, it’s like this, he gets excited, I mean excited about birds. So we’ve been here for over a week at Welder, living in the dorms. So we have this new found daily ritual that we have started to do every evening, about 30 minutes before dark. We take a nice little stroll, through the grounds and around the back of the lecture hall and student study hall building. We go to the Cone Garden to sit on the little wooden bench at the edge of the garden and watch hummingbirds. It’s an everyday thing and proof of the fact that Dan does not tire of watching these birds. Every evening brings a new wave of enthusiasm for this hobby of bird watching! I respect bird watching and I enjoy becoming more familiar with the birds of the region, don’t get me wrong. But I have started to wonder if I enjoy watching the birds or do I just enjoy watching him watch the birds? Actually watching him watch the birds is pretty entertaining in and of itself, if you know what I mean.
Check it out, though, before sunset we headed over to the Cone Garden and I had no idea that I was about to witness behavior, by these innocent, sweet little birds (or so you might think they are), the infamous darling hummingbird, right? Behavior, that was humorous in its own way. For instance, here are these huge (relative to the size of the bird that is) feeders full of nectar. Enough nectar to keep these little buggars happy for quite some time, I would imagine. Enough for all of them, times ten. But lo and behold here these little torpedoes are darting after each other, in what appears to be an attempt to protect their own claim on the supply, more of the time than they actually spend eating the sweet nectar they covet! Yup, that’s right, the greedy little tyrants! I caught myself laughing once I saw one of them stake his ground by chasing another one clear across the garden. If he could have I think he would have also wrestled him to the ground. Though the hummingbird is king of many acrobatic feats, I think he wants to add wrestling to his list! This was just plain funny, seeing how absolutely no logic was part of the equation. For some reason he favored that ONE hummingbird to pick on, to dart after with zealous emotion and what Sibley would name as a “chase call.” It’s the bird’s version of hollering I guess. It seemed to say, “Get away from MY feeder this instant!” The funny thing, what made me laugh out loud was the little bird being so concerned with that ONE other bird, the one he seems to have decided is the thorn in his side. “If I can get rid of this other guy, life is good, never mind the 12 other hummingbirds feasting at the feeders that I have to share with”, he seems to think.
Literally I have to ask you to imagine, we really saw so many hummingbirds at the Cone Garden tonight. There must have been a dozen to fifteen of them. When we were at the Y.O. Ranch, I think we were doing good to see two or three at a time at the feeders. Not sure why, but these were more like bees swarming around a hive. I mean there were a lot of little birds running around in the Cone Garden tonight! A hive of hummingbirds, a small hive any way. Dan, has looked at hummingbirds all his life, but this is the first time he has seen this many hummingbirds in one place.
Dan’s Hummingbird Biology. A hummingbird’s flight, the way it flies and moves about is solely its own. It flies up, down, backwards, sideways, even upside down. Have you ever seen a hummingbird fumble? They are nimble, graceful and perfect. That is all you can say. Hummingbirds don’t make mistakes.
Tonight, by the way, after we got back from the hummingbird watching, I asked Dan to give me some hummingbird biology.
I asked about the Hummingbirds what do they eat and how often do they eat? Approximately once every ten minutes they have to have nectar (sugar). Hummingbirds are migratory. They are here in South Texas spring, summer and fall. Other than that they are in Central and South America. In other words, when you need nectar every ten minutes you follow the flowers, buddy! Imagine the metabolism of a creature that has to eat every 10 minutes! Add to that it has to eat pure sugar every ten minutes. I dare say, this explains their aggressive behavior. They are hungry and they are on a sugar high 24-7, so to speak. There are two basic parts to the hummingbird’s diet, protein in the form of insects which processes through the stomach, and sugar in the form of nectar, which bypasses the stomach and goes directly into their system.
Back to how humming birds fly, divine engineering, no other bird or instrument of flight is able to perform these feats. In terms of physics there is no other creature or machine that can do what this bird does. What is their secret? Their secret is that they tread air the same way we tread water. When we tread water we don’t beat our arms up and down the way most birds do, we swing our arms back and forth in a shallow figure eight. That is what the hummingbirds do.
Hummingbirds tend be fearless. This is because nothing can catch a hummingbird.
These birds are nimble. They have instantaneous velocity. This means they go from zero to full speed with no acceleration. I said to Dan, “so they are like a cat?” He answered, “They put cats to shame. Have you ever seen a cat bring home a hummingbird?” The last thing he told me, and I don’t know why he didn’t mention this earlier. A hummingbird eats ten times his weight in nectar daily. Imagine that.
The hummingbird species that we see in our nightly visits to the Cone Garden are about 90% Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds and about 10% Buff-Bellied Hummingbirds. We see other birds like night hawks, doves and even a great-horned owl. But we’ll save those stories for another day!
What I have learned about bird watching this past week just hit me last night. What makes bird watching interesting is not just sighting and identifying them, but watching what they do. Once you do this more regularly you start picking up on the “cool” stuff, that is learning more about their behavior and even watching individual birds you get familiar with seeing on a daily basis. This makes bird watching fun, as you look forward to what they will do next. One last notable bit of biology here: these birds tend to be territorial, claiming their own perches around the feeders and defending them. They even take it as far as fighting for their “spot” at the feeder. So this in effect is the hummingbird drama I will be fully expecting to see during our evening hummingbird watching in the Cone Garden.
That’s all folks!
White-tailed Deer In The Hummingbird Garden (Cone Garden) at Welder by Anna Livia
Hello, We are pleased to announce that we have a new volunteer with the nature tourism program! Anna Livia. She will be reporting from “the field” on the Guide Blog http://agrilife.org/naturetourism.
You can read about her in her first post.
This is actually just one of many things she is helping to accomplish. Welcome Anna!
We are pleased to announce that the nature tourism program has a new team member. Dan Beckendorf was hired to assist with the Texas MarketMaker program for coastal fishing guides and support other nature tourism program elements. He is based in Sinton and the Welder Wildlife Refuge. Welcome!
Anna and Dan Summer 2011, Y.O. Ranch
August 23, 2011
Written by Anna Livia from Welder Wildlife Refuge (Sinton, Tx)
INTRODUCTION to our Coastal Texas Wildlife Adventures (“The Miles Files”)
We just left College Station and the office of Miles Phillips. Our mission for the day is to reach our destination, Welder Wildlife Foundation and get settled into the dormitory housing on the wildlife refuge where Dan and I will both be volunteering for an undetermined amount of time.
Before I tell you what Dan and I are doing for Texas A & M, let me just dive into telling you a little bit about who we are. That always helps, right? I hope to answer the question, “Who are you and why do we care?”
Dan and I are both “wild” and passionate about nature, in love with wildlife and just plain obsessed with the great outdoors. Many people who have an intimate connection with nature, have their childhood to credit for this (or to blame for this, which ever way you wanna look at it. Being a nature nerd is not always the easy life, right?)
My own experience with nature began when I was a young child. It was a bit extreme from time to time actually. I wouldn’t change it for the world though. At two years old my parents traveled India by train and by foot with me on their hip. We ate lots of rice and little else, occasionally oranges, hiked in the mountains of Nepal, camped with the locals who insisted if we didn’t we’d be subject to tiger attacks and, of course, got attacked by monkeys who envied my stash of sesame candy. You get the picture.
Dan grew up on a 600 acre ranch, his life was connected intimately with nature. Because his little sister couldn’t digest cow’s milk the family got a couple of goats, and the kids, mainly Dan, would have to milk them for the family’s milk supply. Of course, this perspective is a little bit different from his mom’s. She seems to think she did all the work. Alas, the unbiased and reliable nature of the human memory! As far as nature experiences go, it doesn’t get more intimate than drinking milk freshly taken, of the morning, from your goats!
As a child, Dan was obsessed with learning everything he could about nature. He literally studied books, magazines and everything he could get his hands on about it. He liked to identify everything. When we were kids, most of us, and we stayed home sick from school, we’d just watch a little T.V. or hang out with mom, not Dan, he’d immerse himself in encyclopedias and read about plants, animals and birds! When he was a teenager he would set off with his buddies into the woods to camp for days at a time with nothing more than a fishing pole and a shot gun. They would make dinner by cooking a rabbit or fish, with side dishes of berries, bull nettles, wild grapes or passion fruit, depending on what was in season. Dan studied the local plants for foraging and eating.
At the young age of three or four, my parents settled down in Kentucky, where my life with nature wasn’t much less adventurous than it was in India. We lived in the woods in a teepee made by my mom and dad. On the edge of Kettle creek with hundreds of acres of wilderness to explore, we grew our food, washed our clothes in the stream, hung them to dry on a string tied tree-to-tree, cooked over a fire and nestled together at night and through the cold months (mom, dad, me and little brother, Uncas.) Nature was a way of life, the only way of life.
My parents were back-to-nature, flower-children of the 60’s. If we were to assign stereotypes to me and Dan. Dan would be the country boy, a true Texas cowboy and I would be a “hippie kid” from Tennessee and Kentucky. But these are just that, stereotypes. On the surface, one might say we are of different backgrounds, but in actuality we are from the same background, nature. What brought us together and much of what writes the pages and the chapters in our lives together is our intrigue and enthusiasm for nature and making nature itself,both our pursuit and our destination in life.
Dan and I have traveled together. We’ve gone from the Texas coast to the West coast and back east again, to Tennessee, never staying in a hotel room. We camped and cooked our meals on campfires, every night and every morning for weeks at a time. Our travels have taken us through the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, the Sierra Nevadas, northern California and southern Oregon sea shore and the redwoods. But we met on the Texas coast and lived in Port Aranas, where we began our occupation as nature guides.
Currently we are working with Texas A & M University on some projects to promote ecotourism on the Texas coast which brings me to our Welder Wildlife adventure. Through Texas A & M we are currently residing at the Welder Wildlife Refuge in Sinton, Texas, where we are actively volunteers-in-training this week.
To finish up about who we are and why you might be interested in what we are doing at Welder: Dan is a 35 year old wildlife biologist. He went straight from highschool in rural east Texas, where his graduating class was 24 students, to the Navy where his new world spanned oceans and countries. 3 of the 14 years he served in the Navy, were spent attending the University of Houston where he majored in biology, minored in chemistry.
When I met Dan, he had only 2 weeks left in the Navy. He had chosen to get out after 14 years of fixing aircraft and working on Naval vessels, to finally pursue a career doing what he has wanted to do since childhood, a career based in nature and wildlife conservation. Or, as his country-boy self used to refer to it, “get paid to get chased by bears.” Awkward, but captivating that he would refer to a career in biology this way. I loved him for it and still do.
That tells you who Dan is. Me? I have three years of college, no degree. I would call myself an amateur seaside naturalist and student of nature and wildlife, especially of the Texas coastal habitat and native plant and animal species. When I first met Dan, when he was stationed at Ingleside, Texas, I lived in Port Aransas. My seashell collection was so extensive it literally paved a way up the stairs, onto my patio and dominated the entrance and living room of my home. He was intrigued and though he had never paid attention to shells much before, he helped me identify and expand my collection. Within 6 months our beachcombing, collecting, and identification of coastal molluscs grew into a collection of over 150 shells (mollusc species) which we displayed in a deserted gift shop space loaned to us by the Beach Lodge, literally facing the Gulf on the beach of Port Aransas.
It is through Miles Phillips, professor in the Texas A & M Department of Ecotourism at the Agriextension Office in College Station, Texas, that Dan has begun working to assist with some of Texas A & M’s current projects which promise to infuse the Texas coast with exciting ecotourism opportunities. Professor Phillips hired Dan, as an intern and arranged housing for us through the Welder Wildlife Foundation in Sinton, Texas on the Welder Wildlife Refuge.
The experience here at Welder is going to be rich and exciting and I am going to keep journal of it which will enjoy a spot on this blog! I hope you will follow our adventures at the refuge by visiting us each week to view new posts about our experiences here.
Anna Livia
Dan and Anna Summer 2011, Y.O. Ranch Last Day of Adventure Camp
Texas Parks and Wildlife is seeking input form the public. This news release explains the effort and includes a link to a survey you can use to provide your input until Sept 26
AUSTIN – What do citizens think of the park systems in Texas? What kinds of outdoor recreational opportunities do they want? The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is seeking input from local stakeholders about the future of park systems in the state.
“We want to know more about Texans’ recreational habits, what’s working and areas where we could improve,” said TPWD Recreation Grants Program Manager Dana Lagarde. “Citizen input is vital in our development of the Texas Outdoor Recreation Plan (TORP) for 2012-2017.”
Lagarde said survey results will help TPWD identify outdoor recreation needs and guide funding opportunities through the federal Land & Water Conservation Fund and other grant programs. Examples of activities to consider for local parks include nature trails, splash pads and ball fields. State parks such as Government Canyon and Garner have been able to add acreage thanks to public needs assessments like the TORP.
Anyone may complete the survey on the TORP survey website from now through Sept. 26.——
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20110815b
Dana Lagarde
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Recreation Grants Branch
Local Park Grants Section Manager
(512)389-8175
