Newsletter title

March 2009

In This Edition

Tallgrass Docents Winter Meeting Summary

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Dennis Bires convened the Docent Winter Meeting on Saturday, 21 February 2009 at 3:00 p.m. in room 203 of John Rogers Law School at the University of Tulsa. Twenty-three docents attended.

After we introduced ourselves, round-robin, Dennis reviewed the Docent Events page of the web-site:

We reviewed the docent schedule and Dennis invited us to sign-up now. Someone asked if it is still possible to stay in the docent apartment when signed up for two days in a row. Dennis said that those who work multiple successive days should request use of the apartment by sending an email to Kay Krebbs at the Pawhuska office; either that or speak with her by telephone. Kay’s email address is kkrebbs@tnc.org.

Dennis explained the new docent training arrangments. This year docent training will be one day duration instead of two; the idea is to make the training less daunting to new docents. Since most people can be available for one day, our hope is that we can attract a larger class. New docent training will occur before docent reorientation so that the new docents can attend, meeting us all for the first time. Barbara Bates is reorganizing the training curriculum.

For docent reorientation, Dennis encourages us to invite friends who have an interest in conservation and who would like to know more about what we do. This year Jenk Jones will be our guest speaker. Jenk said that he will be talking about the tallgrass, the prairie and why it is important.

Andrew Donovan-Shead said a few words about the newsletter, indicating that he will continue to publish in electronic format and has no plans to make any changes to the current layout. He said that the Tulsa office of The Nature Conservancy prints copies and mails them to the few persons who don’t have access to the Internet.

Andrew mentioned that the Holland Hall students working on the Visitor’s Center kiosk will be giving a presentation of their work during reorientation and plan to install the system. We expect Karen Moore and her students to be with us on April 18th, as well as some press coverage of the event.

Dennis opened a general discussion of ways and means to improving the docent program. He explained that the docent program is entirely informal and self-organizing. He said that we can create new docent coordinator positions if a person is keen to pursue a particular interest; for example: some mention was made of having more docent group activities, in which case we can create an Activities Coordinator to that end. We need volunteers to put these ideas into effect.

Someone asked about helping researchers with their field research. Dennis said that anyone interested in being another pair of hands for research projects should give him their contact details for him to pass along to Bob Hamilton.

Attendees offered the suggestions listed here:

  1. Institute September New Docent Training in addition to spring New Docent Training.
  2. Create an Apprentice Docent classification, so interested candidates need not wait until next training to begin volunteering. Provide written guidelines and instructions. Must serve with a regular Docent. Encouraged to participate in work days, Cookout and Hike, Docent Recognition Luncheon, other docent activities.
  3. Host a wildflower walk for general public as a recruiting event.
  4. Have a docent-only prescribed burn observation day. Not a work day.
  5. Have a docent-only prairie-chicken-booming observation day. Reservations required. Foreman’s House accommodations. Not necessarily annually.
  6. Use Oklahoma Chapter display materials to recruit at outdoor-expo-type events.
  7. Offer tour guided by Jenk Jones and one or two other docents to new outdoor editor of Tulsa World. Suggested by Jenk Jones.
  8. Approach Prof. Kerry Sublette about recruiting students for Docent Program.
  9. Encourage retired docents to enroll with RSVP for liability coverage.
  10. Stock a defibrillator in Visitor’s Center.

Dennis closed the meeting at 4:15 p.m.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

The total number of visitors signing in during November was 560. There were 31 states (549) represented with the highest counts after Oklahoma (389) being Kansas (24) California (19) and Texas (17). There were five foreign countries with a total of 11 people.

Not surprisingly there was a big drop in number of visitors signing in during December to 111. There were visitors from 15 states and no foreign countries. The highest counts after Oklahoma (62) were Arizona (19) and Virginia (5).

The total number of visitors signing the book for 2008 was 5,459. There were representatives from all 50 states (5144). After Oklahoma (3,185) the highest numbers were from the states of California (194), Kansas (191) and Texas (187). Forty-four countries were represented by 315 people. The countries with the highest number of visitors were Germany (57), England (38) and France (27). Just for a comparison there were 5,553 visitors in 2007, so there wasn’t much difference this year despite the high cost of gasoline for part of 2008.

TGP Visitors by State

Docent Spring Schedule

—Dennis Bires

Saturday, March 28: New Docent Training. Chief educator Barbara Bates will let you know if your help is needed.

Saturday, April 4: Corral Painting Work Day. Some bison have complained about the aging paint job. Put on your most disreputable old clothes for a fun and productive day. Meet at the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 a.m. Lunch break is at noon — bring your own. Quitting time is 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 18: Docent Reorientation. Always illuminating, always enjoyable. This year new docents will have trained prior to Docent Reorientation, so this will be a good chance to meet and welcome our newcomers. 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Ecological Research Station. Bring a lunch, and be prepared for a possible nature walk.

Saturday, May 2: Docent Road Crew, Cookout, and Hike. A morning of light work from 10:00 to noon, then a barbeque cooked by Preserve staff. The afternoon hike will take us somewhere on the Preserve not open to the general public. Meet at the Visitor’s Center. Departure by 4:30 p.m. Don’t forget a hat, sunscreen, and walking shoes suitable for off-trail trekking.

See you in the Tallgrass!

Cooper’s Hawk

—Van Vives

I took the picture of the Cooper’s Hawk in my back yard through two panes of glass and was amazed at how well it came out. I isolated the hawk with Photoshop by removing the background in the second picture.

Cooper’s Hawk by Van Vives

Back Issues

Back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black 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.