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March 2011

In This Edition

Docents’ Workday: Return to Florence Jones Homestead

—Dennis Bires

On Saturday, April 30, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., interested docents will return to the Florence Jones homestead, also known as the Buck Ranch, near the southern boundary of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, for another work day. Last spring a large crew of volunteers rounded up debris around the house and barn, and began removing fences. This year docents will attack the remaining ranch fencing.

What to bring: lunch, water, sunscreen, work gloves, tough work clothes and footwear, and any tools that might be useful, like pliers, wire cutters, T-post puller, etc.

Veterans of last year’s project will be amazed at the job Preserve staff have done to return the old homestead site to a state of nature. They will be challenged even to find the precise location of the old ranch house, barn, chicken coops, and railroad boxcar that stood there only months ago. See the May 2010 issue for a report of our last visit.

During the lunch break, the volunteer crew will take a stroll to the nearby John Joseph Mathews cabin, where the Osage historian, novelist, and Tribal Council member wrote his endearing memoir, Talking To the Moon, among other works.

There are two options for meeting at the Preserve on April 30: assemble at the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 a.m. to caravan to the work site, or meet at 10:15 a.m. at the gate on the west side of the road from Pawhuska just a couple of hundred feet south of the cattle guard at the south entance to the Preserve.

Docent Reorientation

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Agenda for Docent Reorientation

Anita Springer convened the 2011 Docent Reorientation at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, 26 February. About thirty-five docents attended. Refreshments were provided by Anne Whitehorn and Tawnda Hopper; it was a damp, gray day that made the hot coffee and cookies especially welcome. Anita relinquished the floor to Harvey Payne, who gave us an overview of The Nature Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy:

Harvey said that The Nature Conservancy is the largest private organization dedicated to conserving nature. It is represented in every state of the union as well as thirty foreign countries. This year, 2011, is the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was the first attempt to preserve a landscape, encompassing an entire watershed; prior to this only small areas were being preserved. Formation of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was the beginning of The Nature Conservancy’s radical change in philosophy to landscape-scale preservation. The Nature Conservancy is the world leader in grassland management programs.

Last year was the twentieth anniversary of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. In honor of this, Jenk Jones is writing a history book that is about to be published; it will be available in the Visitor’s Center. Jenk had been working on this project with Deborah Batson, the State Director of Philanthropy; last year, around Christmas time, Deborah died suddenly of a stroke.

John Boxall asked about the book Big Bluestem. Harvey said that 10,000 copies were printed by Council Oaks Books and that the print-run is sold out and has been so for several years. Copies are available on the used book market quite cheaply.

Harvey said that 450 acres have been added to the south end of the preserve that were once the Bill Finn tract. Joe-Bob Briggs had the honor of demolishing the old sign offering the land for sale at the outrageous sum of $2,000 an acre. Harvey said that it is an important acquisition as it unites the preserve and makes land management much easier.

Filming took place in Pawhuska last year. The movie is still unnamed but should be in theaters by 2012. Film makers got to see 2,000 bison in the 1,500 acres of the Marielle Pasture under perfect weather conditions. Unfortunately, none of the footage was used.

Harvey urged all docents to treat every visitor like a potential donor. As docents we are the face of the preserve and interact most often with the visiting public.

Bob Hamilton was struggling with a spare projector and the computer and signaled Harvey to keep talking. Harvey asked if there were any questions. I think it was Rebecca Renfrew who mentioned getting into a discussion with a visitor who thought that the preserve would have been better managed by the Government instead of a private organization. Rebecca asked Harvey’s opinion of the matter.

Harvey said that Good and Bad are subjective terms. However, the attempt to establish a government-run national grassland park failed whereas the private attempt succeeded. Now the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is on a sound financial base. The Nature Conservancy preservation policy is established on sound scientific principles that should endure into the future whereas government Parks Service management would be geared more towards tourism. Unlike a government operation, The Nature Conservancy bureaucracy is negligible whereas the government’s can be Byzantine. If the preserve was run by the government then it would be subject to political maneuvering and reductions in funding, making long-term planning difficult if not impossible. In addition, government bureaucrats would have difficulty interacting with local people in this part of the world. As things stand today, good relations exist between the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and its neighbors. With this in mind, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is better served by being privately owned by The Nature Conservancy than it would be as a national park.

Bob Hamilton got his projector working and Harvey ceded the floor to Bob.

What’s New:

Bob said that The Nature Conservancy manages 60,000 acres in the Osage & Flint hills. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve consists in almost 40,000 of those 60,000 acres; it is the Barnard portion of the old Chapman-Barnard ranch holdings; Lee Bass now owns the Chapman Ranch. 2,098 bison over wintered on the preserve and this spring 600 to 700 new calves are expected to be born. During the cull last year, very small yearlings were retained in the spring pasture where they are held separately and given feed supplements to increase their weight for sale at an improved price. The herd is one of the largest maintained for conservation purposes. The herd is vaccinated and the corrals are maintained ready for emergency veterinarian purposes; out of cycle round ups have been done for health reasons at the cost of a few animals lost due to the stress involved with round-up and being corralled.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve cowboys are organized as a rural fire department. Using government surplus equipment, they build their own fire trucks and assist neighbors fighting fires. Prescribed burns can be up to 2,000 acres at a time in size, but no less than 200 acres. Traditionally, grassland prairie is managed for uniformity, which reduces biodiversity and the quality of the land. Plowing the prairie releases huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. How much carbon is released per acre through plowing is not known at present. In general, prairie grassland locks a vast store of carbon in the ground. Bob presented data showing that the heterogeneous management practices on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve boost biodiversity and are comparable to traditional practices when measured against weight gained by grazing cattle on both systems. Although the majority of the Preserve has bison, some parts have grazing rights leased to cattle ranchers who are bound by their lease agreement to participate in comparative experiments of the two grazing regimes.

It is true that once you get Bob going on the fine details of patch burning and heterogeneous prairie management he gets a manic gleam in his eye and his auditors, becoming nervous, start edging away for the door. . . . Joking aside, Bob is well aware that managing prairie grassland for increase in biodiversity is more complicated and labor intensive than just putting a match to the upwind grass in spring and razing the entire landscape in a fast moving blaze of flame, sparks, and smoke. A concise explanation of patch burning benefits is impossible without using a lot of ten-dollar words accompanied by vigorous gesticulation. Luckily, there is a much simpler indirect way of promoting biodiversity on the prairie.

You have heard of the proverbial canary in the coal mine. That's the bird coal miners used to take with them into the mine. They would keep an eye on bird while working and when it fell to the bottom of the cage unconscious with it's legs in the air, the miner knew that dangerous levels of methane gas were present and that it was time to get out in a hurry without creating a spark.

Like the miner’s canary, Bob has the chicken on the prairie. No, not a rubber chicken, but the Greater Prairie Chicken. It is a metric for biodiversity and, at one time, used to be an abundant game bird that suffered a precipitous decline in its numbers as a result of traditional range management practices. The Greater Prairie Chicken thrives on landscape shaped by patch burning. By counting the numbers of Prairie Chickens you can measure the heterogeneity of the landscape. The more Greater Prairie Chickens there are the better. Prairie Chickens need woody cover in which to nest not too far away from recently burned areas that support populations of insects on which they and their young feed; if the feeding areas are too far away from the nesting sites then the chicks die of exhaustion trekking between nesting site and feeding ground.

If a rancher manages for increased numbers of Greater Prairie Chickens by patch burning then, since these are game birds, the rancher can sell hunting rights to wealthy hunters each year, similar to what landowners in Britain do with their grouse moors. Hunting can be a profitable business.

In the process of managing land for the Greater Prairie Chickens, the landscape becomes ideal habitat for Killdeer, Lark Sparrows, Upland Sandpipers, Grasshopper Sparrows, Eastern Meadowlarks, Dickcissels, and Henslow’s Sparrows. Look after the Greater Prairie Chicken and you end up with a livelier prairie.

Wind power has now been added to the problems of the Greater Prairie Chicken. Industrial scale wind farms cause behavioral fragmentation of the chicken population, essentially denying territory to the chicken because of its in-built aversion to vertical structures, which could have predators perched on top. A 350-foot high, 1 mega-Watt, turbine tower will scare away Greater Prairie Chickens within a 1 mile radius. The Nature Conservancy supports renewable energy and is working with industry in an effort to ensure better siting of wind farms. Like the real estate business, wind power is all about location.

Patch burning throughout the year also helps to control invasive species such as Sericea Lespedeza, which has become so bad that infestations can reduce the value of land when appraised by banks. A combination of fire and grazing throughout the year helps to reduce Sericea Lespedeza to manageable levels, it being palatable to livestock only during its early growth phases before it accumulates bitter tannins in its foliage. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve spends $100,000 of its annual operating budget on spot spraying of S. Lespedeza.

Bob relinquished the floor in favor of lunch.

What is a Volunteer?

After lunch, Teresa Mandevill gave a presentation entitled What is a Volunteer which was divided into three parts.

  1. In the first part, Teresa grouped us in fours and had us draw a tree; any old tree would do and it only needed to be a rough representation of roots, trunk, and branches. The idea was to use the tree as an overall representation of the person’s life. We then labeled the roots to indicate our antecedents: where we came from, who influenced us most, and what made us into the persons we are today.
  2. We then each explained our tree to the others in our group.
  3. Lastly we divided into pairs and then Teresa went around the room to each pair in turn and asked each person to introduce the other person to the room at large.

Object of this exercise was to promote the art of listening, which is something we should do as docents when meeting the public. By asking some leading questions and listening to what the visitor says in answer, we are able to adjust our replies in response to what we hear. This is better than acting like a data dump. It is almost always better to listen to what people say or don’t say.

Thrust of Teresa’s presentation was that our job as docents is to interpret the prairie for visitors. As an example, Teresa pointed out that the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the largest remaining protected prairie grassland. People think that 40,000 acres is a lot, but in fact it is a microscopic portion of a grassland that stretched from Canada to Mexico in the central plains states. To interpret what this means, Teresa said that the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the end of one’s finger tip relative to one’s entire body.

This kind of exercise isn’t quite my cup of tea, but I do see the benefits. I noted that Jenk Jones was very good; he gave a succinct summary of his partner’s path to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and I remembered that Jenk has spent his working life as a newspaper reporter, so it was no surprise that he was very good. Dave Dolcater made an impression by standing to speak his piece beside the person he was introducing whom he indicated by laying his hand on the person’s shoulder. Betty and David Turner are good informative speakers who I seem to remember were part of the Toastmasters organization. As you can see from the foregoing, I remember more about the introducers than the persons being introduced. Generally, when interacting with the public it is easy when you are well prepared. If you don’t know, say so immediately. It is far better to admit ignorance than to waffle or resort to invention.

Teresa presented these six founding principles of interpretation:

  1. To spark an interest, interpreters must relate the subject to the lives of the people in their audience.
    • People will baulk on being given an earful about the dynamics of rangeland grass management for heterogeneity, minimizing habitat fragmentation and maximizing biodiversity with concomitant reductions in uniformity across landscape-scale grasslands through the use of patch burning. On the other hand, conserving the Greater Prairie Chicken as a game bird is much easier to understand; it’s the chicken-in-every-pot political equivalent of prairie conservation, a message with greater reach.
  2. The purpose of interpretation goes beyond providing information to reveal deeper meaning in the truth.
  3. The interpretive presentation — as a work of art — should be designed as a story that informs, entertains and enlightens.
  4. The purpose of the interpretive story is to inspire and to provoke people to broaden their horizons.
  5. Interpretation should present a complete theme or thesis and address the whole person.
  6. Interpretation for children, teenagers, and seniors — when these comprise uniform groups — should follow fundamentally different approaches.

Teresa, quoting Tilden, said that interpretation is an educational activity which aims to reveal meaning and relationships through the use of original objects by first hand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than to simply communicate factual information. Interpreting Tilden for us, Teresa said:

Why is that last bullet important? In answer, Teresa used a quotation from the poet Baba Diourn to interpret the interpretation for us: In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.

Teresa yielded the floor to Anita Springer.

Before we move on, it is worth noting that this newsletter is an act of interpretation and communication. At the beginning of her presentation, Teresa pointed out that we docents are a diverse group of individuals with a collectively wide variety of experience. As editor, I encourage all of you to contribute your relevant stories to the newsletter. I would very much like to publish stories of Osage Nation history and their interactions with the landscape. We have been enjoying Nick Del Grosso’s articles on birds. Butterfly season is approaching; it would be good to have some articles on butterflies. I know at least two docents who have been thinking about writing for us, but haven’t done so yet. If you have something to say, please try saying it for us.

Docent Stuff, Final Messages, & Adjournment:

Anita reminded us to complete new Liability Release forms, returning them to her or to Kay Krebbs. You cannot be a docent without having first signed a Liability Release form, agreeing to the terms associated with volunteer work on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Anita reminded us that Dennis Bires is leading the first 2011 Roadside Cleanup scheduled for 5 March.

Anita closed the meeting at about 3:30 p.m.

White-throated Sparrow

—Nicholas Del Grosso

White-throated Sparrow by Nick Del Grosso

The White-throated Sparrow is another visitor from the boreal forests of the north. This Canadian snowbird proclaims its allegiance to Canada through its song which sounds like sweet, sweet, Canada, Canada, Canada! It primarily breeds across Canada and the northern border states of the United States east of the Rockies. The White-throated Sparrow is easy to keep in captivity and because of this and its relative abundance it is one of the most studied birds in North America.

This 6½- to 7-inch sparrow will fly south in small groups sometime in September. I usually start seeing this bird in small flocks in October feeding on the ground in my yard. They are easily identifiable, with their gray streaked breast and white throat patch. Yellow spots on either side of their beak draw your attention to their head which also has two black streaks on either side with a white streak down the center.

During our recent bout of snow I had some White-throated Sparrows visiting my feeder. This bird is also a visitor to the Tallgrass Prairie and it can be found in edge habitat like thickets and brush. They will usually be seen foraging in the leaf litter. Last year’s Christmas bird count at the Prairie turned up four White-throated Sparrows, but the ten year average is eight. This is certainly not a common bird on the prairie yet it does show up. The Backyard Bird Count in February listed 345 White-throated Sparrows seen statewide in Oklahoma. This higher number in the Backyard Bird Count reflects this bird’s habit of visiting backyard feeding stations which make them easier to spot.

The White-throated Sparrow is a habitat generalist and will tend to be found in shrubby edges or early succession stages or openings in the forest. It forages for seeds and insects on or near the ground and in the early spring it will also feed on buds. By the end of March they tend to be gone from Oklahoma, winging their way north to breed. As they disappear from Oklahoma I miss their early morning choruses and evening songs. At the end of a short winter’s day the white-throats gather for the night in evergreen hedges and you hear their distinctive chinking chorus at dusk. So this month say good-bye to the White-Throated Sparrow until next fall.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Other Docent Programs

Here we provide some links to other docent programs.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

Over time, a matter of several weeks continuous operation, I have noticed that calibration of the touch-screen drifts away from the initial set-point. If you notice that the cursor isn’t under your finger when you touch the screen then restart the kiosk by unplugging it from the wall, waiting a few moments and then re-inserting the power plug. It will restart and recalibrate.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Some printed 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.

All back issues are available electronically via the links shown below. All newsletters prior to December 2007 are available in Portable Document Format (PDF), which means that you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these files. All newsletters from December 2007 onwards are in HTML format that is easily read using your web-browser.

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1996—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1996
1995—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1995

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.