Newsletter title

January 2015

In This Edition

Docent Council Meeting Minutes

—Bill Alexander

We convened a Docent Council Meeting on Friday, January 9, 2013 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the LaFortune Community Center, Tulsa, OK. We were: Bill Alexander, Kathy Alexander, Barbara Bates, Kiplin Cowan, Karen Cruce, Mary Ann Davis, Dave Dolcater, Nancy Hatfield of The Nature Conservancy, James Holland, Tawnda Hopper, Nancy Irby, Kay Krebbs, Harvey Payne, Carol Ann Petricek, Richard Petricek, George Pierson, Evelyn Roberts, Anita Springer, Dwight Thomas, and David Turner.

Welcome

Anita Springer opened the meeting by welcoming all the docents attending, thanking those present and those unable to be present for all they do to make the Visitor’s Center a success for the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Preserve Enlargement

Harvey Payne added his appreciative thanks to Anita’s, then reported that 320 acres had been added to Preserve from an original Osage Tribal allocation to John Joseph Matthews. The potential acquisition had been under discussion for years, finally reaching completion in December 2014. The acreage contains the Matthews’ cabin where, Harvey noted, Frederick Drummond had been an occasional dinner guest.

Docent Scheduling

George Pierson reported that the docent scheduling program is replaced by Team Up, an on-line scheduling application; George said it is more flexible, allowing other events to be shown on the same calendar. The old system is now disabled; docents will begin to get their links to the new scheduling software in the near future. Docents can find instructions for using Team Up on the docent website at this URL: http://www.tgp-docents.com/docent/docent_calendar.html.

Docent Communications

We maintain a list of all docents that we use for broadcast messages and for distribution of the docent newsletter that is published on the 15th, or thereabouts, of each month. If you change your e-mail address or stop getting the newsletter for some reason, please send a note to tallgrass.docents@gmail.com that includes your current e-mail and name; you will be reactivated on the newsletter distribution. You may access any current or past newsletter on the docent website by clicking on the newsletters link on the left side of the website page; also, all back issues of the newsletter are accessible via the Back Issues section of every edition.

Speakers Bureau

Barbara Bates distributed applications for the Speakers Bureau and forms to request speakers from the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve; anyone interested in helping by being a speaker can find the forms on the docent website. In September, some speakers will be taking the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve message to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. During our discussion, we received these suggestions:

  1. Provide a docent training on how to be a speaker for those interested in participating.
  2. Create a prepared talk that speakers can use for a general presentation.
  3. Create some posters and brochures that can be displayed and provided to interested people at community events.

Education Committee

Reporting for the Education Committee, Barbara said that Bob Pickering, Tulsa University Professor of Museum Science and Curator at Gilcrease Museum, will offer a course in designing an interpretive center using the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center as a model. From this, a plan will be developed for the Visitor’s Center within the next 12 to 18 months.

Large Screen Committee

With the decision to have a formal plan developed for the Visitor’s Center, the Large Screen Committee work to install a large video screen this March has been suspended until the plan is in place for the educational part of the Visitor’s Center. A sincere thanks to all of the people who have diligently worked on this project over the last several months.

QR Codes

David Turner substituted for Betty Turner who was unable to attend our meeting today; he demonstrated QR codes for use in the headquarters area. These scannable data matrices should be in place by February 1st. QR codes will be useful when the Visitor’s Center is closed, for those visitors with smart-phones who know how to use them. The only areas where phone reception is unavailable is in the lower area of the nature trail where the kiosk is by the parking area, and the first five or so interpretive stops. David also went through the presentation slides and videos that Betty developed for information sessions.

Calendar Committee

Kathy Alexander, Calendar Committee Chair, said that she expects to have 2016 calendars for sale in the Visitor’s Center sometime in March, containing scenes from the Preserve taken by Harvey Payne. Docents should collect their photos throughout the year for the docent calendar planned for the following season; this will give all docents a chance to take some choice shots for selection and inclusion in the 2017 docent picture calendar that will go on sale next year in the Visitor’s Center.

New Docent Training Committee

David Turner presented the work of his Training Committee concerning the new docent training planned for the first two Saturday mornings in February. The training is scheduled to take place in Bartlesville, a location where weather is less of a concern for drivers. New docents must attend both sessions, one of the docent re-orientation meetings with a briefly extended time for the new docents that day, and at least two internship days with a mentor at the Visitor’s Center. Any docent who would like to have some additional training may take advantage of the internship process to get some effective on-job training with someone who is more experienced with the program. With this new approach, we anticipate that some of the new docents will be ready to schedule themselves at the Visitor’s Center as soon as May; new docents, though, have a year to complete their minimum of two internship days.

Mentors

We need mentors to help with the new training program. Anyone who is willing to work with new docents should contact David Turner by telephone at 918-527-9560 or by email at drenrut@cableone.net. If you intend to be a mentor then please attend one of the two new docent training sessions on February 7th or 14th, to become acquainted with the new people before they schedule their intern days. This new program should increase the number of docents available to staff the Visitor’s Center; docent availability declined during the past two years due to a reduction in the number of active docents.

Tawnda Hooper graciously volunteered to be present at the Visitor’s Center for opening and closing on new docent internship days, so she can help with any issues or questions that might arise. If the new docent feels comfortable being on their own once the two intern days are completed, then the mentor will notify Kay Krebbs. Kay will email the scheduling link to the new docent, granting access to the scheduling calendar; prior to this, the new docent must contact a mentor to have their name or names placed on the schedule along with their mentor’s name for the day.

Compliance Training

David Turner discussed compliance training, briefly. He is still working to see what will be included in the new docent training and docent reorientation sessions.

Docent Reorientation

Karen Cruce discussed the reorientations scheduled for February 21st and 28th at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Research Station. Attendees should bring their own lunch for this event. New and returning docents need attend only one of the two sessions. Content of each session is the same, except that Bob Hamilton is doing the morning program on the 21st and Harvey Payne will be speaking on the 28th.

Field Trip Committee

Kay Krebbs brought up the subject of hikes to be planned for 2015 and also the possibility of a Field Trip Committee to work with volunteers who would be willing to take groups on Tallgrass Prairie Preserve field trips. If someone would be willing to chair this committee, please contact Kay by email at kkrebs@tnc.org.

Conclusion

Anita Springer thanked everyone for their participation in the meeting. Docent Council Meetings are open to all docents, we encourage you to participate.

There being no further business, we closed the meeting.

2015 New Docent Training

—David Turner

This past year revealed to us that we need more qualified docents in order to remain open every day throughout the season. As a result, we are trying a slightly different approach to new docent training this year in hopes of compressing the time from recruitment to availability as a qualified docent. We are also planning to start new docent training quite a bit earlier this year for the same reason.

Because we are starting training in early February instead of in the spring we have decided to hold the classroom training in the meeting room at the Bartlesville branch of Arvest Bank, in order to minimize travel time for trainees as well as the potential adverse effect of the weather on traveling to the training. We also are shortening the classroom training to no more than four hours each of the two days we have reserved for it.

All prospective docents will attend both morning sessions in Bartlesville on February 7th and 14th which will last from 8:30 to 12:30.

All prospective docents will be asked to select one of the docent reorientation sessions to attend which are currently scheduled for February 21st and 28th and are being planned by Karen Cruce. We also plan to extend the training for prospective docents on those days beyond what Karen Cruce is planning.

Finally, we are asking the prospective docents to intern a minimum of two shifts with experienced docents before we graduate them to working on their own. This is where I need your help. I feel it is imperative that the prospective docents have an acquaintance beforehand with the docent or docents who will serve as their mentor. Therefore, I am looking for current docents who would be willing to serve as mentors for our prospects on their intern days. If at all possible, I would like for you to attend one or both of the classroom sessions to meet the prospects and get acquainted. Of course I expect you to attend one of the docent reorientation sessions. If you are interested in doing so, please contact me at 918-527-9560 or by email at drenrut@cableone.net.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide. I am looking forward to yet another good year of training and service to The Nature Conservancy.

[See the Monday 5 January 2015 article in the Tulsa World. Editor.]

2015 Docent Reorientation

—Karen Cruce

Docent reorientation days are scheduled for two Saturdays in February: February 21st & 28th at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Research Station. All docents should plan to attend at least one of these meetings to learn what is happening at the Preserve before the start of the new season. Bob Hamilton will be our morning speaker on the 21st and Harvey Payne will speak on the 28th. Pack your own lunch and come join us starting at 10:00 a.m. Light refreshments will be served starting at 9:30 a.m. We plan on concluding around 4:00 p.m. Please RSVP by email to Karen Cruce at karate4kix@yahoo.com for either session or both, so we have an idea of how many will attend each day. Please join us and get reacquainted with all the old and new docents.

Docent Scheduling Application

—George Pierson

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Docent Program will start using a new scheduling application when we open the Visitor’s Center on March 1st, 2015. The new application is named Teamup; it will give us more flexibility and require less time to support. First use of this flexibility will be to show docent related activities such as meetings, volunteer work days, etc. on the same calendar as the docent schedule for the Visitor’s Center.

Teamup is unique in that there are no user-ids or passwords. Each person needing access is given a unique link, URL, to the calendar that identifies you to the system. Documentation on the Teamup calendar can be found at www.teamup.com.

Here is a link to the a read only version of the Teamup docent calendar: http://teamup.com/ks2a0051fe60161df7/

Each docent will receive a unique link early in 2015 that will allow them to schedule work days at the Visitor’s Center. This link is how you are identified by the system. You should bookmark the link for future use. If you do lose your link, send an email to tallgrass.docents@gmail.com to retrieve it.

When you click on the link, you will get a calendar that looks very much like the old scheduling application. To schedule a shift at the visitor center, follow this procedure:

  1. Click on the day you would like to schedule as a work day.
  2. A pop up box will appear.
  3. Put your name in the title field.
  4. Check the all day box.
  5. Click on Save.

Your name will show up in the calendar on that day. If you need to cancel that work day, go to the calendar, click on your name and you will get a pop up box. Click delete and your name will be taken off the calendar.

If you have any questions, send an email to tallgrass.docents@gmail.com.

Docent-Visitor Interactions

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Denise Gibbs was a special visitor to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in August 2010. Since her visit, she has been receiving our newsletter every month. In December 2014, I received email from Denise expressing her appreciation for The Docent News. It is nice to receive positive feedback from readers farther away. Denise gave me permission to reproduce her email for you to read.

I was a visitor to the preserve and a participant in the annual butterfly count a few years back, and afterwards I sent a letter of thanks to the staff and docents for all they do to preserve and protect the prairie. Some kind person added my name to your newsletter mailing list, and I have enjoyed reading every issue since then. Thanks for keeping me on the list. The contributors to the newsletter have enlightened and educated me, and now I can’t wait to visit again.

As a (now retired) Park Naturalist for the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and as the editor of our nature center’s Nature News and the Volunteer Newsletter for many years, I know how much time, research, and coordination goes into publishing a quality newsletter. I also appreciate the archives of back issues — I frequently refer to them on grey winter days when I need a dose of sunshine and wildflowers. I wanted to thank you and all the contributing authors for sharing your knowledge. Your passion for the prairie shines through in every issue. Well done!

Denise Gibbs,
Monarch Conservation Specialist.
www.monarchwatch.org

Every September-October, Denise collects data on the fall monarch migration along the Virginia coast and posts her observations on the Monarch Watch list server. She says that the Black Hill Regional Park’s Visitor Center is worth a visit if you happen to be in the area; their web-site is www.blackhillnature.org. There is a map with directions at the top right-hand corner of the web-page. The park is about thirty minutes drive NNW of the Capital Beltway. For visiting nature lovers, the checklists that she did on butterflies, dragonflies, and birds of the park can be found at this link.

Christmas Surprise

A package arrived in the mail on Christmas Eve, forwarded by Kay Krebbs at the Pawhuska office of The Nature Conservancy, it contained a small book by Caryl Pearson: Tedward. Here we need full disclosure before I go any further: The Docent News, the Docent Program of Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, and I appear in the acknowledgments of this book.

If you are among our faithful readers each month, you will remember Caryl’s coyote articles; the links to them are in the miscellaneous section of the Selected Topics Index below. Caryl’s inscription inside the cover of her book reads:

Andrew—thanks for encouraging me to get off my keister and write. Merry Christmas 2014, Caryl.

One day when I was on duty at the Visitor’s Center, I answered the telephone and spent some time conversing with a woman who showed more interest than usual in the activity on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. As I do in situations like this, I said that if she gave me her email address then I would add it to the distribution of the newsletter; I was quick to say that we wouldn’t use her email for anything other than distribution of the newsletter and that she could have it deleted at any time.

Her email contained the words wolf-coyote-deer-elk, prompting me to ask if she would like to write on these subjects since she appeared to know something of interest to us all. This is how we found out that coyotes aren't just varmints.

Tedward

Tedward is a memoir self-published through Outskirts Press. I can honestly say that the press did Caryl proud. They produced an attractive book that sets off her prose nicely. Caryl is strongly influenced by James Herriott and Farley Mowat, both of whom are entertaining authors worth reading. Caryl is an adept raconteur, a storyteller you would enjoy listening to around a campfire, or reading at home while seated in a comfortable chair with your feet up . Caryl has clearly been fully present while living her life. Tedward was quite a character!

On Being a Docent

As docents, we never know what effect we have on the people who come to visit us. We are often catalysts and as Van Vives our retired chemist will affirm, the very small presence of a catalyst can provoke a much stronger reaction. A glance through the Selected Topics Index shows the widening circle of influence that the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Docent Program has on visitors. Anyone who wants to visit the Preserve must make a big effort to do so across fourteen miles of dirt road, after having found the way to Pawhuska. Our visitor counts maintained by Iris McPherson show that people find their way to the Visitor’s Center from all over the world.

Here’s the challenge, a thought experiment: Imagine that you are a visitor from a far-away country on the other side of the planet. You’ve got a burning urge to see the tallgrass prairie and decide that you’re going to visit the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. You make plans, travel and accommodation arrangements. You arrive in Pawhuska and get directions to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve headquarters. It’s August in Osage County. You bounce and jounce your way across those last fourteen miles in a cloud of dust. On the way you see a bison with a white bird standing on its back—Mein Gott! Was ist das? You reach the Visitor’s Center intending to ask what a bird is doing standing on the back of a bison, only to discover that the place is closed. How would you feel?

Our job as volunteers is to be available ready to engage in conversation with the visitors, make them feel welcome, find out what they are interested in, and answer their questions as best we can. We are successful in our endeavors and have been so for more than twenty years. We touch people in surprising ways. For most of the twenty years, we have a record of our activities. Somehow, there is a magic at work that has enabled the docent program to be self-sustaining. A small part of the magic is our monthly communication by newsletter; a big part consists in the enthusiasm of our docent volunteers.

Yes, you can

The Docent News would be nothing without its contributors. Feel free to become an author. Encourage others to write, whom you think might have something to say. Share the newsletter with those visitors who display a more than average interest in the Preserve. Try to maneuver some of the visiting scientists into writing about their work, pitched for general interest readership of our newsletter; they can use as many words as they need, but a short summary of their research would be of interest to us all.

Prairie Watching: Biodiversity of the Tallgrass Prairie

—Dwight Thomas, Ph.D.

Over a lifetime of exploring the prairies, I have learned that there are more prairie plants than I can recognize and remember. This has become painfully obvious to me in leading tours along the trails of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. I don’t know how many times I have had to respond to a question about a plant with, I don’t know what it is. I can usually place it in a family correctly, but sometimes that is all. And this is in an area that I have explored repeatedly and studied intensely. The prairie’s diversity is a challenge to me every time I visit. If I knew more about the other prairie organisms, I am sure that I would be overwhelmed by their diversity as well. In the photograph below, taken at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in August 2013 at the far southwest corner of the Preserve, you can see a number of species of plants flowering at that time.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Plant Diversity by Dwight Thomas

The Nature Conservancy’s information on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve website lists 1,575 species of plants and animals that can found on the Preserve.

However, these numbers do not include microbes that live in the soil, water, and on other species. They do not include all insect species — listing only butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies. These total 469 species of insects, but remember there are grasshoppers, aphids, bees, beetles, flies, etc. that are also insects. Some of these insect families, such as beetles, may have hundreds of species present in the tallgrass prairies. And there are spiders and ticks and their relatives. So a complete list does not exist and if it did, it would likely contain thousands more species. In the photograph below, you see Bison grazing in a grassland, but behind them is a wooded area. This photograph was taken at the south end of the Preserve in June 2013. Each of these plant communities will have its own set of plant and animal species; added together the species count indicates that the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is a complex and diverse ecosystem.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Ecosystem Diversity by Dwight Thomas

The goal at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is to manage the preserve so that the tallgrass prairie ecosystem remains healthy. If an ecosystem is healthy, there will be species occupying every environmental niche and the ecosystem diversity will reflect the environmental complexity. A diverse ecosystem is important because it creates the ability to withstand changes, though probably not disastrous changes such as a comet hitting or a volcano erupting, but gradual changes such as climate changes or species invasions can be accommodated for a while at least. The photograph below shows one of the 94 species of butterflies on one of the 761 species of plants.

Butterfly on Butterfly Milkweed by Dwight Thomas

Scientific literature indicates that the tropical rain forests are the most diverse ecosystems. Tropical rainforests have thousands of kinds of plants, animals, fungi, and microbes living on the ground, at every elevation of the forests, and in the soil and water. The information posted on the National Park System’s Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve website states: Prairies began appearing in the mid-continent from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago and have developed into one of the most complicated and diverse ecosystems in the world, surpassed only by the rainforest of Brazil.

The Tallgrass Prairie evolved quickly using species from the surrounding ecosystems that could withstand the prairie environment, especially fire. It has always required the intervention of fire and grazing to remain a prairie, but with the extent of human intervention over the last 150 years, it’s diversity has suffered along with its dimensions. The map below shows the historic range of the tallgrass prairie; I found this map on Google prairie photos, so I do not have documentation of its accuracy, but I have no reason to question it.

Prairie Map via Google

The Tallgrass Prairies occupied a large area over a wide range of environmental conditions from Texas to Canada and from Kansas to Illinois. In addition to the variation across the wide geographical range, there are many opportunities for microsystems within the prairie — that is habitats ranging from water to rocks and from full sunshine to heavy shade, etc. Now, the original 170-million acres have been reduced to only a relatively small remnant. Some sources state that the remaining tallgrass prairies represent only 4-percent of the original; and the only places where there are large plots of prairie are in the Flint Hills of Kansas extending into the Osage Hills in Oklahoma. The remainder is in small isolated plots scattered throughout the original range. This fragmentation is not conducive to preservation of the prairie’s diversity. Most of the remaining tallgrass prairie is in privately owned pastures and used for cattle grazing. Cattle grazing is not the same as Bison grazing and managing for cattle grazing is not the same as managing to protect a natural ecosystem; those pastures do not have the diversity of life that the original prairies had. Yet even that is better than the vast majority of historical tallgrass prairies, which harbor only one or two species today: corn and soybeans. So it is remarkable and wonderful to find a place such as the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve where much of the original diversity exists. The photo below illustrates one of the 226 species of birds found in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Western Kingbird by Dwight Thomas

We are in debt to The Nature Conservancy for acquiring, protecting, and managing the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Using the estimate of 170-million acres of tallgrass prairie in its original state and the estimate that only 4-percent of the tallgrass prairie still exists, we see that today there are 6.8 million acres of tallgrass prairie. The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, at approximately 40,000 acres, is 0.6 percent of this remainder. But it is the largest single tract of protected tallgrass prairie and is the last hope of preserving this endangered ecosystem and its magnificent diversity.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

During the month of November we had 385 visitors with 360 from 29 states. Oklahoma was represented by 177 visitors followed by California (28), Texas (22) and Kansas (21). There were 25 visitors from 8 foreign countries.

Visitor Counts

Thank you all for trying to get people to sign the book, so we have some idea of how many have visited the preserve.

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Bill Alexander

The chart below shows that the docent coverage for 2014 was 75-percent compared to 85-percent for 2013, a decrease of 10-percent of the days open. Another way of saying this is that for each month, the Visitor’s Center was open to the public for about three weeks of each month. Looking into the reasons for the change, I compared coverage data for 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

In the next chart, you can see that the total number of docents who worked during the year has declined by around 10-percent each year; these numbers all reference the 2012 through 2014 period. When you look at the average number of docents that worked during a month, this has also declined by about 10-percent a year. And not surprisingly, the number of days open has also declined by about the same amount, 10-percent each year.

Docent Coverage of Season Days Compared

We should expect some normal attrition each year in the number of docents available for duty, which suggests that to get back to a fairly comprehensive coverage of season days we need to recruit around 18 to 20 new docents for the coming year. We are trying a new training approach this year, to help move more people from the training cycle into active docent participation. See if you can find one person to attend the recruiting sessions held in the Tulsa area and Bartlesville or, even better, to come to the training sessions in early February. Visitors are very positive about how much the Visitor’s Center increases their enjoyment and understanding of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Docent Coverage of Season Days Annual History

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.

2015—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2015
2014—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2014
2013—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2013
2012—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2012
2011—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2011
2010—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2010
2009—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2009
2008—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2008
2007—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2007
2006—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2006
2005—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2005
2004—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2004
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  December—2002
2001—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2001
2000—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2000
1999—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—1999
1998—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—1998
1997—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—1997
1996—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—1996
1995—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—1995

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.