Newsletter title

March 2014

In This Edition

Docent Reorientation

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Twenty-two docents attended the reorientation on Saturday, 22 February 2014. Anita Springer opened the meeting at 10 a.m. with introductory remarks and asked that each person stand and, round-robin, introduce themselves. Anita yielded to Bob Hamilton who remarked that he knows Spring is soon here when the docents return to the prairie.

Bob’s slide presentation is reproduced here by slide number, with editorial embellishments. I did make an audio recording of the proceedings, but succinct reporting seems to be a better way to go than verbatim transcription or a blind kitchen-sink audio recording — we can safely omit the naughty bits; for that enjoyment you must be present in person.

  1. Bob started his presentation with a slide showing the Osage and Flint Hills area of approximately five-million acres, extending from the southern edge of Osage County to north of Manhattan Kansas, an area of conservation interest to The Nature Conservancy. He said that we should keep this in mind while he discusses the specifics of conservation efforts focussed in and around the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
  2. Originally, The Nature Conservancy raised $15,000,000 that it used to buy the 29,000 acres Barnard ranch in the fall of 1989. Since then, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve has grown to 39,640 acres, plus 6,153 acres of conservation easements and deed restrictions.
  3. The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. A principal reason for the purchase of the Barnard ranch is that in doing so, the Conservancy acquired an entire watershed. 1989 was the first year that The Nature Conservancy moved into landscape-scale conservation, gaining control over both land and water.
  4. Heterogeneity is the main tool used to conserve the landscape, which means promoting variability in vegetation stature, composition, density, and biomass; this is the complete opposite of homogeneity as practiced by traditional land management techniques that strive to reduce everything to a uniform sameness, the idea being to make management easier by reducing the number of variables. Unfortunately, homogeneity reduces biodiversity which is fundamentally important to landscape function through its interconnectedness. A heterogeneous, biodiverse landscape is healthier and more resilient to variations in climate.
  5. The natural forces we need to consider to maintain diversity in the Great Plains are climate, grazing, and fire. Historically, the linkage between grazing and fire is what promotes landscape heterogeneity.
  6. Slide-6: Heterogeneity Paradigm The management model applied to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve consists in patch burning, patch-burn grazing, and pyro-herbivory, illustrated by a photograph of the slide reproduced here via the magic of a perspective transformation — I was sitting far-left-front. This is a neat slide that deftly illustrates several closed loops. Our Earth is home to millions of similarly closed loops that sustain Life. In this micro-environment the heterogeneity of the standing biomass depends on the interactions between grazing and fire behavior.
    1. Fire razes the woody old-growth vegetation, exposing the soil.
    2. Sunlight warms the soil, promoting new growth from the root-stock protected from fire below the surface. Fire usually burns rapidly and doesn’t raise the sub-surface temperatures to root-killing levels.
    3. Depending on the moisture available, nutritious new grasses sprout, attracting the bison and insects. Bison provide manure and urine fertilization; their hoof impacts help to break through capped soil, allowing water to be absorbed instead of running off. Bison wallows create micro-aquatic environments where new closed-loop processes develop. Insects attract birds; birds attract predators; life in all its variety burgeons.
    4. Recently burned areas are more resistant to fire during regrowth. Bison eat about 35lbs of grasses each day and they prefer to graze on tender new growth. While they are doing so, other less well attended areas are growing older and more woody.
    5. Eventually, Pyro-Bob and his crew randomly select an old growth area for a fresh burning and the cycle begins again at step-a.
    The heterogeneity of the standing biomass is improved thus promoting a more vibrant functioning of the ecosystem and greater biodiversity. All of this happens within the managed area without the need for fencing, bison-cattle drives, or supplementary nutritional inputs.
  7. Grassland birds have evolved to depend on a heterogeneous landscape. Bob illustrated this dependency with the summary slide for breeding birds, below left. Species evolve to exploit small niches within an ecosystem. An homogenous parking lot supports far fewer species than a richly heterogeneous landscape. Slides 7 & 8: Winter and Breeding Birds
  8. During winter the Preserve is home to an entirely different set of bird species, see the slide above right. Birds serve as a useful metric for the indirect measurement of biodiversity: the more bird species supported by a prairie landscape then the greater the overall biodiversity. It is a good health check.
  9. Slide 9: Greater Prairie Chicken A marker of the general health of the prairie grasslands is the Greater Prairie Chicken, once numbered in millions when the settlers first arrived here. Today, the Greater Prairie Chicken is extremely diminished. through homogenization, fragmentation of and vertical growth both natural and artificial on the landscape. Life-cycle of the Greater Prairie Chicken has evolved to depend on the patch-burn process at work on the landscape:
    1. During lekking, the males need open areas of high ground that allow them to swagger about, booming, and challenging each other to prove their fitness as a mate to the onlooking females.
    2. While brooding, Greater Prairie Chickens need some cover for shelter, not too far from new growth where there are plenty of insects for the brood to feed upon. Too much separation between these areas will cause the chicks to die of exhaustion.
    3. Nesting areas require more mature growth to provide the security of vegetative cover.
    Greater Prairie Chickens have a constitutional aversion to vertical structures. Through the ages, the birds have learned that a predator could be perched on high waiting to swoop down upon them. Trees, fence posts, utility poles, turbine towers all drive away the Greater Prairie Chicken. Research shows that a 350-foot wind turbine will scare away these birds up to a 1 kilometer radius.
  10. At this point, Bob turned to a discussion of Bison with an introductory picture to remind us what bison look like close-up.
  11. Slide 11: TNC Bison Herds as of 2012 The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is one of twelve Conservancy locations hosting herds of bison, as you can see from the 2012 summary of bison herds. Note the extent of the Great Plains bioregion identified by the thick brown border. The green areas are untilled landscapes.
  12. At the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, the bison herd is productive. In 2013 it produced 637 calves. Long-term, it produces a 71-percent weaned calf crop annually. Since the herd is so large and spread over a large area, counting newborn calves is impractical.
    • Management waits until the annual November round-up, about five to six months after the calving season, to estimate the number of newborns. At this stage they are being weaned naturally and are known as the weaned calf crop.
    • The annual percent weaned calf crop is determined by dividing the number of fall bison calves by the number of females that were of calving age (3yrs old and older) for that summer. The annual weaned calf crop has ranged from 58- to 80-percent, with the long-term or overall average being 71-percent.
    Females don’t produce offspring unless they are ingesting adequate nutrition. For example, excessively wet weather will reduce the nutritional value of the grasses and unburned areas have less nutritious vegetation than recently burned areas. So, some years will be better than others for producing calves, but overall the nutritional value of the Preserve is high, as measured by the weaned calf crop. Not every female produces offspring every year, but a high percentage do. It’s another metric for measuring the worth of conservation practice and one that can be used to compare Conservancy to traditional range-management practices.
  13. At the fall 2013 annual roundup, November 6 through 12, the Preserve staff worked 2,642 bison through the corrals, giving each animal its annual veterinary treatment and recording its vital statistics. As usual the herd was culled; from this culling, 507 head were sold live in the fall 2013 and another 128 were sold during the summer. Wm. Spear Design: Bison pin
  14. 2,135 bison overwintered from 2013. 600 to 700 new calves are expected this spring. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is home to one of the largest conservation-focused bison herds in North America.
  15. Changing the subject, Bob talked about fire on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, summarizing the fire program activity from 1991 through 2013 thus:
    • 598 prescribed fires on the Preserve with a total burned area of 312,596 acres.
    • Assisted neighbors in burning 422,871 acres.
    • 58 wildfires on the Preserve, 9 of them were set by lightning.
    • 106 neighborhood wildfires were controlled.
  16. Bob displayed Tony Brown’s compilation of the Preserve burn history from 2005 until 2013, below left. Slides 16 & 17: Preserve Burn Summaries
  17. Recent history for the Bison-Fire Management Unit was shown on the slide reproduced above right.
  18. Patch-burn grazing with bison is a strategy using fire-induced rotation to move the bison across their unit. They follow the burns through the seasons and the years to eat the nutritious new growth grasses.
  19. An ecological threat arises when much of the landscape is managed for uniformity, homogeneity, reducing the biodivesity. Since the 1980s, Intensive Early Stocking (IES) combined with annual spring burns has become extremely popular in the Flint Hills. IES is popular because it doubles the stock density for half the growing season thereby improving the rancher’s return on investment for a successful season.
  20. Slide 20: OSU-TGP Research Partnership In 2001, The Nature Conservancy and Oklahoma State University entered into an applied research partnership to investigate the feasibility of patch-burn grazing with cattle as an alternative to traditional grazing strategies like IES. Bob’s slide shows the growth variation in times since burn.
  21. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve has approximately 11,000 acres allocated to experimentation with patch-burn treatments using cattle.
  22. Results show that cattle gain between 300 to 400 lbs when grazed on the experimental patch-burn areas. These gains are consistent results measured between 2008 and 2013.
  23. Interest in patch-burning continues to grow. There are about twenty-two study areas located up and down the central plains of North America.
  24. Results from the research into patch-burning are being exported to ranchers. Patch-burning can help reduce supplemental feeding and fencing.
  25. Greater Pairie Chickens have become a conservation strategy through their use as a restoration target.
  26. By protecting/maintaining habitat necessary to sustain greater prairie chickens, the habitat needs of most prairie species in the area will also be protected.
  27. Greater Prairie Chicken distribution in Oklahoma is illustrated by the blue areas in the slide below, left. The green area is the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Note that the Preserve is on the eastern boundary of the largest area supporting chickens; west of the Preserve is where wind energy is beginning to be extracted with turbine towers three hundred and fifty feet high. Net result is that Greater Prairie Chicken habitat will be further fragmented, putting an increased downward pressure on bird population numbers. Slides 27, 28, & 29: Greater Prairie Chicken Survey
  28. A Greater Prairie Chicken observation team has been established by:
    • Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (OWDC)
    • United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)
    • Sutton Center for Avian Research
    • Oklahoma State University (OSU) Wildlife Society
    • Osage Nation Environmental & Natural Resources Division (ENRD)
    • The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
    As shown in the slide, above center, they cover fourteen survey routes in Osage and Kay counties in Oklahoma, which represents 203 survey points along 189 miles. Bob said that it is a tedious process of driving one mile at a time, stopping the vehicle, alighting, walking clear of the vehicle, and then listening for the characteristic sounds of booming chickens, making note of the result, returning to the vehicle, driving the next mile to repeat the process.
  29. Results of the Greater Prairie Chicken surveys are shown in the slide above right. Whereas, once upon a time, the Great Glains were home to millions of birds, the Greater Prairie Chicken now struggles to live in much reduced circumstances.
  30. Bob turned to one of his favorite topics, the invasive plant Sericia Lespedeza.
  31. Each year, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve spends a significant amount of time and money roving the landscape on a seek and destroy mission to prevent Sericia Lespedeza from crowding out the native plants and grasses. Each plant discovered is sprayed individually with herbicide. Fire helps to keep Sericia under control by burning off the woody material. Grazing helps to check the young growth, which is nutritious. Any plants that survive fire and grazing become enriched with tannins that cattle and bison dislike, making use of herbicide necessary. Sericia Lespedeza was introduced to the United States as a forage crop and its use is still officially supported, especially in other parts of the country.
  32. Energy extraction has strong negative effect on Nature Conservancy efforts at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
  33. Industrial wind farms are a threat to intact native prairie landscapes through the fragmentation they cause to the ecosystem.
  34. Prairie chickens are predicted to abandon an area of 2,000 acres around each turbine tower, represented by a circle of one mile radius. Each 350-foot tall tower supports a generator capable of producing 1,500,000 Watts of electricity. Mostly, the effect will be on nesting and brood rearing acivities. Prairie Chickens aren’t the only species affected by wind power. Bats are dying when they approach too close to the turbine blades and suffer collapsed lungs when caught in low-pressure air turbulence. Eagles are at risk too, mainly from getting brained by turbine blades. Theory is that since Eagles are at the top of the food-chain with no predators, they are naturally not on the look-out for threats to their existence; they spend most of their time looking down for their next meal and don’t see the blades in time.
  35. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) has developed a spacial planning tool for the Greater Prairie Chickens in Oklahoma. You can find out more about this by opening this link in another browser window or tab:
    http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/grpcdevelopmentplanning.htm
  36. Renewed exploration for oil and gas has resulted in undesirable activity on the Preserve. Horizontal drilling with fracking requires a larger surface footprint. Fracking requires large volumes of toxic water and special sand, seventy barrels a minute according to one geologist. Not only does fracking have a negative effect on the Preserve, it also has a negative effect on the places where the sand is extracted from the ground, and on the fresh water used to hydraulically fracture the rocks.
  37. In order to pump at these volumes, large capacity electric pumps are used instead of the single cylinder pump-jack engines that run on caisson gas. Electricity must be delivered by wire strung on utility poles, further degrading the prairie chicken environment.
  38. On the Preserve, the fracked wells produce a lot of hydrogen sulfide that can’t be used and must be flared off. These flares are fatally attractive to the American Burying beetle, an endangered species that has or had a significant presence on the preserve.
  39. Oil and gas exploration brings air quality risks to humans. Hydrogen sulphide is toxic and has a smell of rotten eggs in small concentrations. Unfortunately, in high concentrations it will overpower our olfactory sense so that we can’t smell it. High concentrations of hydrogen sulphide are lethal. Oilfield workers wear sensors that warn the presence of the gas. When hydrogen sulphide is burned off, it converts to a precursor chemical that transforms to sulfuric acid on contact with moisture, like that in human mucus membranes.
  40. In recent years the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve has suffered an ecological setback. Luckily, the oil and gas exploration on the Preserve hasn’t yielded great results; output from most of the new wells has declined. Ultimately, change is inevitable. Gas and oil will be depleted and when the landscape is quiet again it will recover aided by the efforts of The Nature Conservancy and staff of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Slide 40: When the landscape is quiet again

Bob answered questions and then yielded to Anita who closed the meeting.

On-line with the Docent Manual

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Beginning this year, we are putting the Docent Manual on-line. Note the entry in the index at the top of this page. Going on-line will be a work in progress due to the volume of information. You will see that the table of contents of the manual becomes progressively live each month, until it is complete.

Putting the Docent Manual on-line will make it easy to revise old and add new materials like text, audio, and video. As of this date, we have the table of contents and sections A & B active.

Spring Work Days in the Tallgrass

—Dennis Bires

All Tallgrass Prairie Docents and friends who have experienced cabin fever during this cold winter will want to come out this spring for our optional outdoor work days. There is no need to bring along bottled water and granola snack bars, as those will be provided.

Merlin, (Falco columbarius)

—Nicholas DelGrosso

The Merlin is the avian equivalent of a fighter pursuit plane. They are small, fierce falcons that use surprise attacks to capture their prey of small songbirds and shorebirds. They catch their prey at high speed, Merlins have been clocked at 30 m.p.h. and during a determined chase they are probably exceeding this speed. They don’t swoop on birds from great heights the way Peregrine Falcons do, the Merlin attacks its prey horizontally or even from below, chasing the prey bird upwards until it tires.

Merlin squabble

Merlins utilize several different hunting tactics, like most raptors they will hunt from a perch and on the wing. Surprise is the chief weapon in their hunting arsenal; they are masters of concealment often using hills and other landscape features to hide their approach from prey. The best time to watch Merlins hunt is in the early morning or late afternoon.

Merlins have a long history of human interaction. In medieval times Merlins were considered a lady’s gaming bird, they were called Lady Hawks and noble women used them to hunt Skylarks. It has been historically documented that both Catherine the Great and Mary Queen of Scots used Merlins in pursuit of Skylarks. Even today both European and North American falconers hunt with Merlins.

The name Merlin does not come from Arthur’s sorcerer Merlin; rather it is a derivative of its French name for the species esmerillan. Colloquially, the Merlin is called a pigeon hawk not because it feeds on pigeons, which it does, but because in normal flight it looks like a pigeon. Even the Merlin’s Latin name Falco columbarius can be roughly translated as pigeon falcon.

Merlins are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Worldwide there are nine recognized subspecies, three are found in North America, and six are old world subspecies. In Oklahoma and the interior of western North America we are seeing the Merlin subspecies Falco columbarius richaedsoni. The other two subspecies Falco columbarius columbarius is an east coast resident while Falco columbarius suckleyi is a west coast resident. They do not migrate through the interior of North America. However, Falco c. richardsoni does migrate from its central Canadian breeding grounds. These Prairie Merlins are partial migrants. Many migrate to the southern United States and Central America, but others, especially individuals breeding in urban areas, where songbird prey is common in winter, remain on their breeding grounds. Here in Oklahoma and especially at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve we are most likely to see the Merlin during its migration. E-bird has documented Merlins at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve starting in November through the end of April. Typically you will see Merlins perched on the power lines along preserve roads. Scanning treetops and low perches at forest edges and grasslands will also turn up Merlins, but remember not every small falcon is a Merlin. The American Kestrel, a year-round Oklahoma resident, and the Prairie Falcon, another migrant which can be seen from November through the end of March, are both similar in size and shape.

Kestrel at left : Merlin at right : both male

Color patterns are the best identifying feature, remember that the male Merlin has a blue-gray back, and its underparts are buff to orange-tinted and heavily streaked with black to reddish brown with narrow black tail bands, while the male Kestrel has a reddish-brown back and slate gray wings and two fore and aft vertical eye lines and a black tail band at the end of its tail.

Prairie Falcons have a variable banned brown back wings and tail. The head has a brown crown and clear white eyebrows and white underparts. The Prairie Falcon can be confused with female and juvenile Merlins, which both lack the male’s state gray back. This color difference between males and females of the same species is called sexual dimorphism. The key to distinguishing female and juvenile Merlins from the Prairie Falcon is the heavily streaked underparts on the Merlin and the complete brown bands on the Merlin’s white tail. In flight the Prairie Falcon has distinct dark armpit patches underneath its wings that are lacking on Merlins. If you keep these differences in mind and remember the species overlap appearance times you will increase your chances of making a correct identification. Merlins are not common on the Preserve, this past years Christmas Bird Count only listed two Merlins and the fifteen year average is 1.6.

Female Merlin at left : Male Prairie Falcom at right

Merlins mainly prey on small ground birds to include larks, sparrows, finches, ptarmigans and grouse. It has been estimated that they consume 900 birds in a year. About 80-percent of the Merlin diet consists of birds, insects make up 15-percent of its diet mainly composed of dragon flies and grasshoppers, while 5-percent of its diet is made up of small mammals, lizards and snakes.

With the ban on DDT insecticides the Merlin has made a significant recovery from their declines in the 1960s and 70s. Merlins are now considered stable or increasing throughout their range. They have been able to adapt to decreasing habitats by populating suburban and urban habitats taking advantage of the large number of House Sparrows and European Starlings as a food source.

Keep an eye out for Merlins as you go to and from your docent shifts in November, December, March and April. If you are lucky you may see a Merlin performing some magical aerial displays.

Prairie Watching: Visitors, (Homo sapiens sapiens)

—Dwight Thomas, Ph.D.

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve hosts about 6,000 visitors each year. While the majority of visitors come from Oklahoma and surrounding states, a surprisingly large number come from almost all of the other States of the Union and from Countries all over the World. The Preserve is not on many people’s normal travel routes, so those who come must come because they have heard about it from some source. They must want to see the prairie at its finest — the way it was before most of it was turned into farmland and cities. They must want to know more about it; to know why having a preserve is important; and to support the idea of preserving fragile and declining ecosystems. The Docent’s role at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is to greet those visitors and relate the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Story to them. The interesting part is that as we try to educate and assist the visitors, we find that they are, in turn, educating us. I have encountered hundreds of visitors, and each of them has an interesting story. Let me share some of the stories that I have heard or experienced.

One not so busy day at the Preserve, a Toyota Prius drove up to the Visitor’s Center, and three older men extracted themselves from the small car. I greeted them as they stepped onto the porch and found out that they were from Connecticut and were on a Prairie Bucket List trip. They had a list of all of the prairie parks, study areas, and preserves from throughout prairie country and were on a trip to visit as many of them as they could. They already knew about the prairie vegetation, the Bison, and the decline in the Prairie as an ecosystem, but they were interested in how the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was being managed. They shared some of their experiences in finding the prairies and what they had seen at these other prairies, so as is usual, I learned from our visitors. From the Preserve, their next destination was the Tallgrass Prairie National Park in Kansas. I was impressed by their knowledge and willingness to undertake such a journey.

Fran & Roman from Switzerland

On another day, Fran and Roman drove up in a 20-year-old Buick station wagon. They were from Switzerland and had flown into the United States, bought the car, and began touring the U.S. They planned to end their trip in Denver in about a month. There, they would sell the car and fly back to Switzerland. I don’t remember where they had been in the U.S., but they were very interested in the Tallgrass Prairie. They knew about the Preserve before they came and had purposely included it as a stopping point on their trip. They spent the day, driving around, hiking the trails, and marveling at the Bison and the wide-open spaces. They seemed to be having a great time and said that they had learned a lot as well as enjoyed the day. They were a breath of fresh air in that they were so eager to see and learn about the prairie. And I learned a little about Switzerland from them.

Then there were the four high-school boys that were on a road trip from Chicago — no parents, just the four teenagers. They were all science types and were very knowledgeable about ecology and had come to the Preserve on purpose to see the last remnant of the once extensive prairie ecosystem. I was fascinated with their interest in learning, but I couldn’t help being concerned about them. They seemed to be confident in their ability and had no concerns about their safety. After all, they had gotten from Chicago to the Preserve without incident. I am sure they had the experience of a lifetime.

Matt gathering seeds

And speaking of science types, we have had a steady stream of college students, mostly graduate students, who are at the Preserve working on research projects. One in particular stands out. Matt was here most of the summer in 2012 and was out every day collecting seeds for a project to preserve native plant seeds for the future. That summer, almost every day the temperature was above 100°F, but he was out there finding the plants, harvesting seeds, and keeping records. Not only was he persistent and thorough, he was always cheerful and pleasant.

The Preserve attracts naturalists, both amateur and professional. They come from far and near to see the prairie — often looking for specific items such as the Henslow’s Sparrow. They often have lots of questions, but they also have lots of information to share.

Motorcycle visitors to the prairie

A high percentage of our visitors are relatively local people out for a day’s drive in the country. They come in all manner of cars and trucks, and occasionally on a motorcycle; I learned that the gravel roads — especially with fresh gravel — are treacherous for motorcyclists. A typical profile might be a couple in their 60’s with two grandchildren along with them. Their main interest is in seeing the Bison, but the children often had a great time looking at the exhibits in the Visitor’s Center. They usually leave with several items purchased from the Gift Shop.

On another quiet day, a large pick-up truck arrived and the lady driver got out. I greeted her on the porch and we visited for a while about the prairie and the preserve. As we were visiting, we heard a loud question yelled from the truck, Where are the cows? I saw an older man sitting in the truck and told him that we had no cows but we had about 2,500 Bison. He responded that we should be using the land for cattle. He then got out of the truck, hobbled into the Visitor’s Center, and settled into one of the wooden chairs that we had in the book corner. We proceeded to visit for about an hour, talking about why and why not the preserve needed to be here and why and why not we needed to have Bison rather than cattle. It turns out, he was a fairly well-known actor known for playing grumpy old men in movies. He was in the area to be in a program at Bartlesville, and he and his wife were just out for a drive before the program. I think that without the soothing effect of his wife, he would have been difficult to get along with. Ann Whitehorn was in the Visitor’s Center that day, and before long she and the actor were in a detailed conversation about various people that both of them knew and had known. I was glad that she was there. I don’t know whether we ever were successful in convincing him that the Preserve was a good thing, but we tried.

School group on the prairie

Another category of visitor is the tour group. They may be school groups, scout groups, garden clubs, photography clubs, birders, native plant societies, and even some foreign tourist groups. They usually come with cameras and walking sticks and are bound to see the prairie close-up no matter what the conditions are. I have found these visitors to be eager to see and learn (well maybe not all of the school groups). They are usually interesting to interact with, and we get to spread our knowledge and enthusiasm with lots of people.

Well, I am looking forward to a new season and a whole new set of visitors. No telling who will show up and what kind of stories they will have.

The Docent Newsletter

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Primary purpose of the newsletter is to keep the docent community informed about activity at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Via the Internet, readership of the newsletter has broadened beyond the small group of docents. Another aspect of The Docent News is to engage readers with the prairie, and conservation generally, through storytelling based in fact and fiction. All forms of writing are about the telling of a story, whether that writing is a scientific paper or whimsical fiction.

Once upon a time, the docent newsletter was delivered to the docents by the postal service. When email became prevalent, it transitioned to distribution as a file in Portable Document Format (PDF). Beginning in December 2007, we changed from PDF to delivery of the newsletter as a web-browser link in an email, so that anyone with a connection to the Internet could read the news on-line in full color with, on occasion, audio and video. Through electronic distribution, we conserve resources. reduce costs, and have the potential to reach a global audience.

The newsletter consists in static web-pages maintained on George Pierson’s www.oklanature.com web-site. These pages are built by hand using a context sensitive text editor. If you want to see what the raw hypertext markup language (html) looks like then select the view source option in your web-browser pop-up menu that should appear after right-clicking on this page, or press Ctrl+U, if you are using the FireFox browser.

The newsletter depends on its contributers. Everyone is a potential contributer to The Docent News. If you think you have something to say then put the plain text in an email and send it to me at awd.shead@gmail.com, attaching any digital pictures to the message. Pictures should be as they come from your camera or phone; emails at least 20-Mbytes in size should pass unmolested. All pictures included in the newsletter are manipulated; it is easy to discard information and impossible to restore missing information. If the pictures you send are too low-quality, I won’t use them and then will need to go looking for an unrestricted replacement.

My experience is that people are reluctant to contribute because of their fears of appearing foolish or because of some other psycho-drama playing in their heads. My job as editor is to make you look good in print. As editor, I will try to retain your distinctive voice and meaning while making small stylistic changes and corrections to spelling where needed.

Every person has a unique history, experience, and interests. If appropriate, consider sharing with the rest of us. Long time readers will know that the newsletter is open to anyone with an interest in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. You can see the range of interests listed in the Selected Topics Index.

Even if you have nothing to say, you can help by looking through the Back Issues, backwards from July 2006. Let me know of any articles in those back issues that you think would benefit from being listed in the Selected Topics Index.

When you meet visitors, some of them will be more than usually interested in the Preserve and the work in progress. When this happens, I sometimes ask if they would like to receive The Docent News and solicit their email address for addition to the distribution list. You can do the same, sending me their address for inclusion. I have added several interested visitors to the distribution.

One interested visitor by telephone is Caryl Pearson who lives in California and contributed her essay on coyotes to The Docent News last month. This month we are going to try something different with a short fiction of hers for younger readers. Read on below about The Coyote Who Wouldn’t Eat Meat.

The Coyote Who Wouldn’t Eat Meat

—Caryl Pearson

We’re trying something new for younger readers with this short fiction. We have a venerable precedent in the tales of Beatrix Potter who supported early efforts in conservation. —Editor.

Carlos and friends make tracks

Carlos the coyote trotted along the meadow trail one fine fall morning, enjoying the sounds and smells. The beautiful golden grasses with their scattering of purple asters danced in the cool breeze. A flock of geese flew honking overhead, signaling that winter was on its way. Carlo’s sharp eye spotted a young ground squirrel, sunning herself on a flat rock.

Good morning! he shouted to the startled creature. Wait, don’t run away!

The ground squirrel said, I have to run away, ’cause my mamma says coyotes have ground squirrels for breakfast.

Carlos replied, Well, I don’t — why would I, when my favorite food is all around on easy-to-reach bushes?

The ground squirrel, curious, asked, What is your favorite food?

Carlos answered, Why, berries, of course. He sat down with a smiling face and ears perked up as the ground squirrel considered his reply.

She said, I didn’t know coyotes like berries — that’s very odd, isn’t it? She sat up on her hind legs on the rock.

Carlos said, Not really — my whole family and most of my friends are big berry lovers.

Well I do declare! By the way, my name’s Greta, what’s yours?

Carlos, and I’m very pleased to meet you. I’m just on my way to look for some berries now — would you like to come along?

Greta said, Yes, that would be fine, and Carlos took the lead as they headed off down the shining morning trail.

In a little while, Carlos, being taller and able to see over most of the meadow grasses, spotted a handsome young jackrabbit. At almost the same instant, the jackrabbit saw Carlos’s pointed ears and shiny nose, looking at him. The rabbit tensed the muscles of his powerful hind legs, ready to run away. But just then Greta stood on her hind legs and peered over the waving grasses at the rabbit. The rabbit did a double take and said, And just what might you two be up to on this beautiful autumn morning?

Carlos cordially replied, We are going to look for berries for breakfast.

And right away Greta said, Would you like to come with us? The more the merrier!

The rabbit replied, Yes I would actually… but say, don’t coyotes sometimes have jackrabbits and ground squirrels for breakfast?

Carlos quickly replied, I don’t, I only like berries, mesquite beans, and prickly pear apples, when I can get them.

Do you mean to tell me you are a vegetarian coyote? said the astonished rabbit.

Well, said Carlos, puffing out his chest, I guess I am.

In that case, I’d be happy to join you. By the way, my name is Jacob.

As they all exchanged names, the warm sun smiled down upon the unusual trio of animals. As they trotted, hopped, and trundled down the trail together, their flanks were tickled by the plants they knew so well.

Soon they came to a patch of juniper berries, and Carlos began eating them with gusto. Greta and Jacob watched in amazement as the coyote deftly plucked berry after berry from the twigs and chewed them briefly before swallowing. They decided to try some too, and were surprised at the tangy yet delicious taste.

Wow, these are really good! exclaimed Greta.

Not bad at all, agreed Jacob.

After munching the juniper berries for awhile, Carlos said, I know where we can find our second course — follow me. And once again, Carlos led the way as the three animals trotted, hopped and trundled through the meadow, over some rocky ground, through some scrub oaks, and onto a sagebrush flat. Suddenly Carlos made a left turn and headed into a ravine. Look, he shouted happily, here are some lote berries.

Greta and Jacob looked at each other and both said at the same time, Lote berries?

Yes, try some, these are my mom’s favorite. And once again Carlos began merrily plucking the juicy morsels with his sharp teeth and swallowing them with a contented look on his face. As the three animals enjoyed this unusual treat, they noticed a crow flying low overhead, looking down at them with a curious expression on his face. Jacob shouted up, Hey Crikey, good morning to you. The crow immediately wheeled and landed on a boulder in the ravine. And a good morning to you. Just what are you three up to?

Greta replied with her mouth somewhat full, Carlos is showing us his favorite berry bushes. His family and friends all love to eat berries.

Jacob nodded happily in agreement, his mouth stained a bit blue with the juice from the berries.

Crikey said, Well, I heard these lote berries were good — mind if I join you? and they said of course, please do., and they all introduced themselves.

As the nimble crow moved here and there, nipping the berries off the stems, he sometimes stood on Carlos’s back to reach one he particularly wanted. After awhile Greta said she should probably get back home because her mom might be wondering where she had gotten to. The four critters decided to meet on the grassy meadow again the next morning and go on another berry-picking adventure.

Over the next few weeks brisk mornings and warm afternoons, Carlos, Greta, Jacob and Crikey became great friends, and had many wonderful times searching out berry bushes and enjoying breakfast together. Other animals would sometimes join them on their little journeys; it was quite a sight to see the friendly four accompanied by one or two deer, a raccoon, or perhaps an opossum. Sometimes a tree squirrel or even a badger would come along. One lovely afternoon as the group was feasting on some particularly delicious loganberries, Crickey cocked his head and said, Listen! Hear that noise? and the others stopped in mid-chew, ears up…they could hear the sound of an old truck in the distance, grinding its gears, on a dirt road not far away. Crikey exclaimed, I think that might be the watermelon truck. He became very excited, jumping up and down and flapping his wings.

Jacob said, what is a watermelon? Carlos and Greta stepped nearer to hear what Crikey had to say. Crikey looked at them all in astonishment. I can’t believe you guys don’t know what a watermelon is.

lt’s like the biggest berry on earth. But you have to peck through the hard green outside to get to the pink inside; that’s the part you eat.

Carlos said, My dad used to eat them — he said they were delicious. But he said sometimes it’s hard to get through to the inside.

Greta said, If one of these giant berries fell off a truck, maybe it would break open.

Jacob said, Let’s see if we can catch up to the truck, in case one falls off.

Everyone loved this idea. Carlos said to Greta, Why don’t you ride on my back? Then we can go really fast. So, while Crikey flew ahead to see if he could spot the truck, Greta climbed on a rock and jumped onto Carlos’s back, and held onto the long guard hairs on his shoulders.

OK, here we go. Jacob took off like a rocket, and Carlos began to lope swiftly after him, Greta hanging on like a little rodeo rider. Crikey soon came zooming back to them, and swooping low, shouted, it’s not far, this way. They slowed down as they came to a small hill overlooking the road, and sure enough, there was the old truck lumbering along, loaded with gorgeous green watermelons.

Jacob said to Crikey, Do you think you can land on top of them, and push one off?

Crikey considered this, saying, I don’t know, they’re pretty heavy. Greta piped up and said, maybe there’ll be a bump in the road and one will bounce off the truck.

Carlos thought for a moment and a gleam of intelligence began to sparkle in his eyes. Maybe we can make a bump in the road. All of the animals said How? and Carlos replied, I can drag a big stick with my teeth, and put it in the truck’s path.

Crikey said, Hey, that’s a great idea. We’ve got to get ahead of the truck — let’s go. Crikey pushed off and began flying low over the ground, the others following him 1ickety-split. In a few minutes they found a place where branches were lying around near the road. Carlos said, OK, Greta, jump off now and I’ll make our bump, and he layed down so the ground squirrel could easily slide off. Quickly he grabbed a medium-sized branch in his strong jaws, and backing up, dragged it into position while the others watched intently.

Carlos leaped back across the road and all four animals hunkered down behind a boulder to await the coming of the truck. They jostled each other and whispered their excitement, and in no time at all the heavily loaded truck rounded the bend, bumped over the log and continued on its way — but not before a nice plump watermelon fell off the top of the load and rolled to a stop right in front of them.

Wow, it worked. shouted Carlos, and they all joined joyously in congratulating each other on their success. They quickly gathered around the beautiful fruit, and Jacob said, Look, there’s a crack in it — it must've happened when it fell. Crikey said, this is awesome, it’ll be so much easier now to get to the good part and he began pecking at the crack with his strong beak to enlarge the opening. Soon Carlos was able to get a grip with his teeth and tear off a big piece of the rind, exposing the bright pink interior. Carlos, Greta and Jacob then took their first bites of the succulent, ripe watermelon, while Crikey watched with approval. All of them closed their eyes in bliss as they chewed. Well, what do you think? he demanded, his beak full. Was I right? Isn’t it fantastic? All three nodded happily, and Carlos, swallowing, said, This is the best berry I’ve ever eaten.

The End.

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Docent Coverage of Season Days Docent Coverage of Season Days Summary

Other Places to Visit

Here we provide some links to other places worth visiting.

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.

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.

2014January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2014
2013January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2013
2012January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2012
2011January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2011
2010January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2010
2009January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2009
2008January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2008
2007January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2007
2006—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2006
2005January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2005
2004—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2004
2003—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2003
2002—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2002
2001January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2001
2000January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2000
1999January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1999
1998January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1998
1997January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1997
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

Selected Topics Index

This persistent index of selected topics should make finding articles of interest easier. The list will grow as I move further into the past and it will grow as I add interesting topics from each new newsletter. Iris McPherson lent me the paper copies of the newsletter from the very early years of the docent program; I ran them through a scanner equipped with a document feeder, saving them as PDF files, then added them to Back Issues section above. Let me know of any dead links that you discover. Also, please lend me any paper copies of the newsletter that are missing so that I can scan and add them to the list of back issues.

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.