Tallgrass Prairie Docents and their guests will assemble for the annual Docent Recognition Luncheon on Saturday, October 11, at 12:15 p.m., at the Ecological Research Station on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Docent shift milestones will be recognized by service awards immediately after the catered lunch.
This year’s Fall Field Day will follow the award presentations at about 1:30 p.m., led by Preserve Science Director Bob Hamilton. This observational walk will end by 4:30 p.m. The Field Day will proceed drizzle or shine, so rugged informal attire and fall outdoor gear is in order.
Docents may make a Luncheon reservation for themselves and a spouse or guest by calling Dennis Bires, 918-341-3908, or by email dennisbires@lycos.com
Interested Docents are encouraged to join the first Fence Removal Work Day on Saturday, October 18, from 10:30 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. Meet at the Visitor’s Center, and please bring a lunch for the noon break. The work site will be near the low-water crossing on Hickory Creek, on the Bison Loop, which was the starting point for the Docent Hike last May.
This will not be back-breaking work, as the staff cowboys will provide a fence jack, something like a car jack, for removing steel T-posts. Fence wire must be taken off first by bending off the clips at each post. Volunteers should bring a tough work jacket, leather gloves, and pliers.
The pay-off is a bison range cleared of internal fencing, an important aspect of The Nature Conservancy’s ecosystem restoration at the Preserve.
The total number of visitors signing in during July was 629 and in August there were 436. In July there were 37 states (583) represented with the highest counts after Oklahoma (296) being Texas (47), Kansas (22) and Missouri (18). There were 13 foreign countries (46) represented with the highest being Germany (13) and Australia (11). Albania was added to the list of foreign countries. In August there were 33 states (404) represented with the highest counts after Oklahoma (251) being Texas (21) and Georgia and Kansas tied with 12 each. There were 13 foreign countries represented by 32 people.
So far this year there have been a total of 3,576 visitors with 3,352 from the U.S. and 224 from other countries. There have been 48 states and 39 countries represented. The missing states at this point are Delaware and Hawaii.
Please remind people to sign the visitor’s register.
This year, for the second time, Holland Hall 6th Grade will be conducting a field excursion to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve on Thursday, 18 September as part of their School Without Doors. Last year this proved to be a very successful event that developed into the Kiosk Project. If you would like to help guide the approximately sixty students, please contact Van Vives by email at vcarlv@aol.com
A prototype kiosk is installed in Karen Moore’s classroom at Holland Hall. Our development team continues to work on finishing the interactive content, formatting and correcting the material. Though it has proved to be a slow process, it has been a valuable experience for all involved. We had hoped to have the system deployed before this year’s 6th Grade visit to the Preserve, but we were overtaken by events. If we are lucky, we should get it installed before the Visitor’s Center closes for the year.
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.
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.