May 2008

In This Edition

Oil-field Cleanup & Hike
by Miya McKim
Bison
by Sarah Walker
Visitor’s Center Interactive Kiosk
by Andrew Donovan-Shead
Back Issues
Newsletter Publication

The April 26th Tallgrass Prairie Preserve cleanup under the direction of Dennis Bires proved to be a privilege and a delight. Picking up garbage a delight? Well the satisfaction in doing something with purpose and obvious results makes one feel good. The environmental locale was the privilege. The beauty of Nature’s display was the complete package.

The newest section annexed to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve yielded quite a truckload. In order to prepare the century old oil field safe for future Bison rangeland entailed the removal of a cornucopia of materials. The volunteers collected everything from beer cans to rusty old pump-jack parts found strewn about. Our energetic motivated crew was thrilled to be a part of the cleanup at this particularly beautiful portion of the preserve. The wildflowers were blooming and contrasted strikingly with the green grasses and redbud trees.

The items removed from the oil field posed a danger to the bison that will eventually be released to this section of the preserve. Rusty barbed wire, metal shards, broken glass all pose a threat to the health of bison especially the young calves that are dropping during the springtime. This truckload of refuse was taken to the local dump.

I hope in the coming months more docents will be able to join in to groom our prairie treasure.

Wildflowers literally carpeted the countryside. Especially beautiful were the Prairie Iris’s.

The May 3rd Tallgrass Prairie clean up, BBQ and hike was a great success! With a turnout of at least 22 people the difference made on the roads the public sees was phenomenal. Trash cleanup is a Never Ending Story here on the preserve. The crew battled wind gusts strong enough to knock this writer off her feet and onto her face! Thankfully no one saw me! I am sure each of us had a close call of some sort. Truly, the symbiotic blend of dedicated volunteers and the prairie make for a satisfying experience. Now, if we can just get the people that travel the roads to stop littering we could all focus our time and effort on other projects. But, alas I am certain we will continue for a very long time getting to develop our personal relationship with a diverse scattering of garbage on our beautiful prairie.

We all worked up an incredible appetite that was satiated by a real ranch-hand style feed. Hats off to the cooks, planners, preparers and staff cleanup crew. The menu consisted of Barbecue free-range chicken and franks perfectly prepared by Matt Poole who also led a hike after the meal. With side dishes of potato salad, baked beans, chips and a desert of cake and ice cream we needed to take a hike!

Matt is an excellent naturalist to lead us on a carefully selected sojourn into the heart of the Bison Loop area. We saw a number of calves recently dropped and at some point when we were not aware the number increased before our eyes! Nature is pretty slick! As our group headed out along a stream bed Matt informed us of efforts to restore the prairie to pre-industry changes wrought by roads, bridges and the like which had a detrimental affect on the aquifer and subsequent erosion. He explained that making a change such as a bridge which requires digging into the stream bed causes the entire level of the stream to change all the way back to the headwaters. This results of the restoration process will not be seen in the near future, it is expected to take upwards of decades to revert back to the natural state. Matt’s knowledge and willingness to share it with us was appreciated. We quizzed him about flowers, insects, snakes, birds, geology, and a multitude of other questions. If he didn’t know the answer he was honest and forthright. The destination when reached was an old cistern fed by a natural spring on the side of a hill above the creek. A number of the hikers clambered to the mouth of the spring but were not tempted to follow Matt in sampling the fresh water. Matt said it was delicious, but the rest of us were worried about becoming intimate with an outhouse — Matt, were there any giardia organisms in that water?

Sorry you missed out? The interaction of like-minded people makes docent activities a wonderful experience. I encourage all who were unable to participate this go round to clear your calendars for upcoming activities. The rewards of giving and learning are well worth the effort.

Bison

—Sarah Walker

The wonderful part of being a docent at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the opportunity to see the prairie and see it all seasons. Each time I am there it is such a thrill to see the bison and the new growth of grasses and flowers and what other wild life one is lucky enough to view. These pictures were taken on Saturday, May 3rd, when I was out for the workday. On my way home, as I always do, I stop to watch the bison I see. I am always in awe of the babies and one was very near the road. He just kept coming closer to the car like he wanted to have a good look at me too. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is such a priceless gift we have to experience.

Visitor’s Center Interactive Kiosk

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Although our meeting time is limited, we continue to move forward with the kiosk interactive content. You can find our latest iteration at the end of this link:
http://www.oklanature.com/kiosk/Topic-Index.html
The bullet items should be active links to the underlying pages. When you get to the pages, switch your browser into full-screen mode by pressing the F11 key. Press F11 again to return your screen to normal operation.

Back Issues

Back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to April 2008, can be found in the two green and one blue zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.