—Kay Krebbs
Here are a three things to remember when on duty at the Visitor’s Center:
-
Please use the new number system on sale tickets, and check prices as some
have changed.
-
If you open the shop again after having closed for the day, please fill
out the paper and close it again once business is concluded. DO NOT leave it for the next day.
-
Please verify that the computer is turned off before you depart.
—Andrew Donovan-Shead
Again it was a lovely day on the prairie; by afternoon, the sun was
shining and temperatures were in the 70s on Saturday, 14 March 2014.
Karen Cruce convened the second docent reorientation at 10 a.m.
Thirty-nine persons attended the meeting, two Nature Conservancy staff
with eighteen new and nineteen returning docents. Another good turnout as
you can see in the panorama below; any discontinuities in the picture are
due to edge-blending across the joins of three pictures.

In this report, I will only address the differences from the last meeting,
which means I won’t repeat the administrative material that can be found
in our February 2015 edition.
Starting a round-robin of introductions, Karen said that this is her fifth
year as a docent and her first as the leader of the reorientation
committee and participation on the Docent Council. Last year, the Docent
Council was reinstated to help spread the responsibility and effort of
running the program. We were gratified to discover that the Docent Council
has enjoyed significant success in its new incarnation.
Agenda
Karen drew our attention to the agenda, saying that she will be watching
the time to ensure that we remain on schedule; she pointed out the
principal contacts listed on the back side.

Science in Action: Brine Contamination in Surface & Sub-surface Waters

Karen introduced Tallie Craigo who is a graduate student at the University
of Tulsa working on her MSc. degree in Geoscience. Tallie’s thesis
work investigates brine contamination in the surface and sub-surface waters
of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
Brine is a significant problem associated with oil and gas exploration and
production on the Preserve. Tallie’s work is a continuation of that
done by Dr. Kerry Sublette at the University of Tulsa. Dr.
Sublette’s February 2004 presentation to Preserve Docents is
reprinted below. Her presentation outline consisted in:
-
Tallgrass Prairie Overview
-
Study Objectives
-
Oil Production
-
Sources of Brine Contamination
-
Thesis Overview
-
Conclusions
In the 1.5-million acres of Osage County, the mineral rights are wholly
owned by the Osage Nation. Oil and gas activity is managed for the Osage
by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has no jurisdiction. This arrangement with the BIA has existed since
the Osage were moved from their ancestral lands in Kansas by the Federal
Government. The 39,000 acres of the Preserve are owned and managed by
The Nature Conservancy.

Tallie is doing this study because of the recent increases in oil and gas
exploration on the Preserve that has resulted in increases in the
chlorides detected in the water at fish monitoring stations. Another aspect
of her work is to find out if there have been any developments from past
research projects.
Ojectives of this study are: (1) to take seven or eight quarterly water
samples from the Preserve to define the trends in dissolved salts and
chloride levels; (2) to determine if the elevated brine levels are due to
new oil production or to sub-surface brine flow; and (3) to collect soil samples
from past brine spill remediation projects to determine the degree of soil
recovery.
Geology of the Preserve is late Pennsyslvanian, dating from around 300-million
years ago. Rock is either limestone or sandstone. In past ages, the area
has been inundated by shallow seas that are responsible for the deposition
of dead sea creatures, the shells of which became limestone; organic
material collected that was eventually converted into concentrated oil
hydrocarbons. Exploration beginning in 1897 discovered fourteen oil fields
below the Preserve, identified by the green areas in the slide below.
Within the boundaries of the Preserve, as many as four hundred oil wells
were bored; about a quarter of these are still active and some have been
hydraulically fractured by newer horizontal drilling technology.

A problem with extracting oil from the Preserve is that it produces large
volumes of brine that must be disposed, usually by reinjection into the
oil reservoir. Because the brine is so corrosive to steel piping, there is
always a high risk of leakage during transport and storage. Brine and oil
spills scar the landscape, mainly because the brine kills vegetation and
the root systems that bind the soil together. Historically, regulation of
oil and gas activity has been lax in Osage County, which has resulted in
accumulated damage to the environment similar to that shown in the slide
below.

After 118 years of poorly regulated oil and gas extraction activity
on the Preserve, problems with pollution are inevitable, especially with
the older wells that were bored using cable-tool drilling technology that
did not make the uniform bores produced by rotary drilling. Compromised
well casings, no casings, and improperly plugged wells allow oil and brine
to escape. Brine also gains access to the surface and rock fracture
systems when the water table rises.
Brine scars have been visible from the air since the 1930s. Tallie showed
one of the worst examples at the western edge of the Preserve, reproduced
in the picture below.

Much of the early damage was due to the available technology of the era.
Re-injection of brine is a more modern process. In the early days of oil
exploration, brine was dumped in brine-pits to evaporate naturally,
leaving a salt crust on the surface and a plume of highly saline soil
below and around the pit; size of the saline plume is dependent on the
porosity of the ground in the area.
Tallie’s thesis project consists in the major activities listed
here:
-
Take quarterly water samples from four streams:
-
Have the samples analyzed for chloride levels.
-
Locate the areas of brine contamination.
-
Identify the drainage areas for each stream:
-
Then correlate the areas with the locations of the oil wells.
-
Analyze the surface fractures:
-
Find out how much fluid flow they support.
-
Study the electrical conductivity of the ground:
-
Image the sub-surface brine flow patterns.
-
Find out if the elevated chloride levels are due to surface water
runoff or ground water transported through the systems of fractures.
-
Take soil samples from eight brine spill remediation sites:
-
Determine the levels of recovery in the soil via the nematode populations.

Tallie showed where she is sampling the water from the creeks and streams
that traverse the Preserve in the slide above and a three-dimensional
terrain map below, in which color represents elevation — green is low;
brown is high. In the slide below, the red dots represent the sample sites.

Some rounds of sampling are now complete for both water and soil,
summarized below:
-
Water Samples:
-
May/June 2014 — low flow conditions.
-
August 2014 — low or no flow conditions.
-
October 2014 — peak flow conditions.
-
December 2014 — normal flow conditions.
-
Soil Samples:
-
October 2014 — Nematodes sent to Kansas State University (KSU)
Plant Science Center for analysis.
-
March 2015 — Old Carter.
Nematodes are microscopic communities of worms that live within the soil.
They are an indicator species that reveal the health of the soil by their
presence in number. Tallie’s current nematode sampling summary is
reproduced below.

Salinity is shown in the slide below, from samples taken May 2014; a truer
picture of the salinity will emerge as more data is collected under
different flow conditions at different times of the year.

Electrical conductivity of the terrain is a more direct measurement of
ground salinity; the more saline the ground, the more conductive it
becomes. Conductivity is a function of the terrain salinity and moisture
levels. These tests enable the researchers to develop a salinity
profile 200 meters wide on the surface and vertically down to 100 meters
depth.

Tallie’s team will be using these conductivity tests to find out how
much brine is flowing through the fracture systems of the rock. These
fractures occur naturally and have nothing to do with the hydraulic
fracturing of the oil-bearing strata, though it is possible for the two
kinds of fracture systems to connect.
Both limestone and sandstone are soft porous rocks, susceptible to erosion
by water that is acidic. Through geologic time, small fissures in the rock
become widened naturally. The network of fractures can’t be seen at
ground level, only becoming visible from the air as you can see in
Tallie’s slide below.

Some convenient outcrops provide a nice cross-sectional view of the
facturing, along the banks of the creeks where the water has lowered the
stream-bed by erosion.

The objective of Tallie’s study is to reach definitive conclusions
about the source and movement of brine on the Preserve thus:
-
Identify areas of elevated brine in four streams through collection of
quarterly water samples.
-
Identify the drainage areas of the four streams and correlate wells and
brine spills.
-
Perform electrical conductivity surveys to identify subterranean brine
flow.
-
Compare the fracture system with the electrical conductivity results to
determine if brine is flowing through the sub-surface fracture network.
-
Determine if the elevated brine levels in the streams are from current
production activities or from subterranean brine flow.
At this point, Tallie answered questions from the audience and then we
moved on to the other parts of the reorientation that were the same as
reported last month.
During preparation of this report, I downloaded the 1987 proceedings of
the
International Symposium on Subsurface Injection of Oilfield Brines
that was sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Underground
Injection Practices Council Research Foundation.
On page 578 a section begins that describes several methods for locating
abandoned wells. Beginning on page 598 is a section that describes the Ada
Pressure Test that was designed to test the mechanical integrity of wells.
Since December 30, 1984, the
Environmental Protection Agency’s Region VI has been implementing
the Underground Injection Control (UIC) program in Osage County, Oklahoma.
There are approximately 3,500 in the county that must demonstrate
mechanical integrity before 1 January 1990 or be plugged.
In 1986 thirteen wells in Osage County were tested. Five wells passed and
eight failed, a significant 61-percent failure rate. Here’s the first
part of the introduction to the section, giving insight into the
technology associated with, and management of, well-bore integrity:
In EPA’s Region VI, primacy for the UIC program has been delegated to
all five of the states in the Region (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, and Texas).
The Osage Nation consists of the entire county of Osage in Oklahoma (Figure 1)
and as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 (PL93-523), Region
VI has direct implementation of UIC Program on Indian Lands. Accordingly,
the Osage UIC regulations (40 CFR Part 147, Subpart GGG) were established
and became effective December 30, 1984. These regulations require that all
injection wells demonstrate mechanical integrity by December 30, 1989 and
at least once every five years thereafter. Osage County Oklahoma has
approximately 3,500 injection wells ranging in depth from 500 to 3,000 feet.
In order for these wells to have mechanical integrity it must be demonstrated
that:
-
There is no significant fluid movement into an underground source of
drinking water (USDW) through vertical channels adjacent to the wellbore,
and
-
there is no significant leak in the casing, tubing or packer.
The demonstration of (1) above can be through any of the following:
-
Cementing records (need not be reviewed every five years);
-
Tracer survey (in appropriate hydrogeologic settings; must be used in
conjunction with at least one of the other alternatives);
-
Temperature log;
-
Noise log; or
-
Other tests deemed acceptable by the Regional Administrator.
This demonstration is usually accomplished through a file review of Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) records. The BIA has regulated the oil and gas
production in Osage County almost since the first discovery of oil in the
county and maintain a comprehensive file on all well completions dating
back to the early 1900’s.
The demonstration of (2) above can be through any of the following:
-
Performance of a pressure test of the casing/tubing annulus to at least
200 psi, or the pressure
specified by the Regional Administrator, to be repeated thereafter, at
five year intervals, for the life of the well (pressure tests conducted
during well operation shall maintain an injection/annulus pressure
differential of at least 100 psi
through the tubing length); or
-
Maintaining a positive gauge pressure on the casing/tubing annulus (filled
with liquid) and monitoring the pressure monthly and reporting of the
pressure information annually; or
-
Radioactive tracer survey; or
-
for enhanced recovery wells, records of monitoring showing the absence of
significant changes in the relationship between injection pressure and
injection flow rate at the well head, following an initial pressure test
as described by (a) above; or
-
Testing or monitoring programs approved by the Regional Administrator on
a case-by-case basis.
Over 90 percent of the injection wells in Osage County demonstrate the
presence or absence [sic] of a significant leak
in the casing, tubing, or packer through the standard pressure test (2a
above).1
However, early into the mechanical integrity test (MIT) program, it was
discovered there were some wells which had open perforations above the
packer. The operators and the BIA were reluctant to squeeze off these
perforations, both because of the economics of the remedial work and the
possibility that these zones might once again become commercially
productive or could be used for an injection well in an enhanced recovery
project. Thus, the problem of being able to demonstrate the mechanical
integrity of such wells.
-
This paragraph doesn’t make sense. What percentage
of the wells in Osage County either pass or fail the pressure test? Do
90-percent pass and 10-percent fail, or vice versa?

In response to a question about the presence of an aquifer, Tallie said
that the Ada-Vamoosa is a Pennsylvanian sandstone aquifer that underlies
the Preserve, above the brine bearing strata. Extent of the aquifer is
shown in green and gray on the USGS map to the right. The eastern edge of Osage County is
on the 96th meridian. About the middle third of Osage County
sits on top of the aquifer. With large numbers of oil and gas wells bored
through the aquifer to access the oil and brine strata, even a
mechanically sound well will be subject to corrosive brine and eventually
fail.
As a laboratory, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve has few equals. It has
already seen the development of remediation processes for the surface.
There are plenty of opportunities to do remedial work on abandoned or
failed wells as part of university-based engineering science teaching.
Harvey Payne
After lunch, Harvey Payne thanked us for our continuing commitment to
being part of the docent program, recognizing Nancy Irby who had joined
the 100-shift club having completed 118. Between Dave Dolcater who has
completed 209 shifts and Van Vives who completed 236, there were two
others who completed 223 and 231 shifts, Iris McPherson and Anita Springer.
Harvey thanked Karen Cruce, David & Betty Turner for their strong
efforts at making this year’s docent recruiting and reorientation
an amazing success. Harvey uttered some kind words for the newsletter too,
which were received with appreciation.
Harvey said that he was recruited by Henry Little in 1990 to be the first
Director of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. During their negotiations, Henry
said: The Nature Conservancy gives people opportunity to realize their
dreams
, a notion that has stuck in Harvey’s mind ever since.
Certainly the Preserve has brought people together and fostered a
community with common dreams, despite initial resistance from various
directions. Resistance is a good thing because it puts ideas to the test,
ensuring that the promoters exert due diligence in laying the foundations
and addressing the concerns of the opposition. Harvey has said on multiple
occasions that it is a prime objective of The Nature Conservancy and the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to be a good neighbor. In general, the Preserve
has put Osage County and Pawhuska on the international map, attracting
visitors from around the world. Today, Pawhuska looks more prosperous than
it did twenty years ago; let’s hope that this is a continuing trend
in a good direction.
The Nature Conservancy bought the Barnard Ranch in 1989 and the Tallgrass
Prairie Preserve took possession in 1991 after three years of the land
lying fallow. The Chapman-Barnard ranch was owned by two of the richest
men in the country who shunned publicity. Instead, they took care of the
land well enough for other ranches to want a piece when it came up for
sale. Instead, with a lot of help, The Nature Conservancy managed to do
the deal. Acquisition of the ranch was a major event for the Conservancy
that marked a change in direction from piecemeal to landscape scale
conservation.
Harvey said that, initially, the University of Tulsa wasn’t
particularly interested in participating with the Conservancy, unlike the
other schools in Oklahoma. Dr. Kerry Sublette approached the Preserve
about the possibility of doing some research into remediation of oil field
pollution. A very fruitful relationship developed between Tulsa University
and the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Dr. Sublette developed a soil
remediation program on the Preserve that has since been exported
worldwide. Dr. Sublette went a lot further; he was the driving force
behind raising the funds to get the Research Station built and established
a maintenance and operating endowment that was then transfered to the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. A vision and dream made real.
Seventy-six counties in Oklahoma host oil and gas activity. On the
1.5-million acres of Osage County, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve has
become the most significant area for oil and gas saltwater remediation.
The University of Tulsa and the Preserve have become strong partners.
Last year was the 25th anniversary of the formation of the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. The Preserve is in a strong position. Bob
Hamilton is now the Director of the Preserve since Harvey stepped aside.
Harvey said that the most significant recent development was the successful
acquisition of the John Joseph Mathews property from the Mathews family.
Harvey talked about John Joseph Mathews after which we went on a hike to
the Mathews cabin. We’ll stop here and pick up the story
under The Blackjacks heading below.
—Kay Krebbs
During March, docent interns made great progress with their training. A
special note of congratulations to John Jackson and Elmer Downing who
completed three days staffing the Visitor’s Center before the
end of the month. Also, congratulations to the following interns who have
completed their training and are now scheduling their own days at
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: Bill Adrain, Jane Adrain, Chris Bartenhagen,
Chris Dash, Elmer Downing, Phil Glover, John Hammond, John Jackson, Karen
Johnson, Lee Johnson, Virginia Kuch, Robert McCalla, Deborah McCormick,
Keith McDowell, Anne Schwerdt, Steve Schwerdt, and Lucy Weberling.
—Dennis Bires
Safety issues relating to a prescribed burn at the Tallgrass Prairie
Preserve compelled us to redirect our April 18 Work Day away from the John
Joseph Mathews cabin, as originally announced. We will endeavor to
reschedule a cabin-vicinity clean-up in another season.
Meanwhile, other work calls out for our efforts this Saturday, April 18.
We will meet instead at the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 a.m., and
proceed to the nearby Trailhead for a morning trail maintenance project. A
recent burn there has revealed fallen branches that must be removed so
springtime hikers can have unimpeded access to the entire Prairie Earth
Trail. Please bring work gloves, hand clippers, and bow saws or other saws
suitable for clearing small to large branches.
Also, bring a lunch for our noon break on the Bunkhouse porch. After lunch
we will caravan to some stunningly beautiful parts of the Preserve, not
accessible by the general public, to do some debris clean-up around oil
production facilities. Bison don’t appreciate discarded scrap metal,
hoses, and coffee cups any more than we do, but it is up to us humans to
keep these areas clean. Some of our more responsible production operators
have pumping units on pristine sites in the area we will visit, but also
some others. Walking the rolling hills in bright spring green should make
this work a delight.
My apologies to those anxious to visit the Mathews cabin. [See The Blackjacks below for a
virtual visit. Ed.] Please stay tuned for future opportunities.
—Andrew Donovan-Shead

During our second Docent Reorientation this year, Harvey Payne talked
about John Joseph Mathews and led the hike to the cabin that Mathews built
in 1932. Mathews was born on 16 November 1894 and died on 11 June
1979, aged 83. He was one eighth Osage, one of 2,229 members of the tribe
with full headrights, and went to school in Pawhuska. He was offered a
Rhodes scholarship that he declined.
The war-to-end-all-wars intervened in his life, during which he served as
a flight instructer in Texas and was, at some time, associated with the
cavalry. After the war, Mathews went to Oxford University where he studied
for a degree in Natural Science and graduated in 1923. He studied
international relations at the University of Geneva and the Graduate
Institute of International Studies and traveled in North Africa before
returning to the United States. He spent some time as a newspaper
correspondent and returned to Pawhuska in 1929. He became known as the
Osage Oxonian and now has an entry in the
Wikipedia.
Nobody exists in isolation. We are receivers of the gifts or otherwise
that make us and shape our personalities. Mathews grew up in his banker
father’s house at 911 Grandview Avenue, Pawhuska, across the street
from Laban Miles who was the local
BIA
Agent, nephew of President Herbert Hoover, and a central character in
Mathew’s first book Wah’kon-tah: The Osage
and The White Man’s Road published in 1929. Instead of a boring
biblical who begot whom, scroll through the nice engineering flow-chart
below that sets Mathews among his family relationships.

Mathews was active in tribal politics; he was twice elected to the Tribal
Council serving from 1934 to 1942. Part of his legacy derives from his
help to found the
Osage Tribal Museum
that is now located on the West side of Grandview Avenue a few doors South
from his family home; more importantly, he was instrumental in extending
the tribal mineral rights and helped to restore self-government of the
Osage Nation.
Mathews’ land consists in the 320 acres on which he built his cabin
and another 320 acres elsewhere that he leased. I seem to remember reading
in Talking to the Moon that a cowboy would ride
across to pay him his rent and visit overnight. He entailed his land to
his children for their lifetime and to his children’s children for
their lifetime. It was a mess that was nullified in court, restoring the
right to sell the land. It was owned by his son John H. Mathews from whom
the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve leased The
Blackjacks and recently purchased at full market value.
When we hiked to the cabin, it was a mild, sunny afternoon. A few deer ran
from our approach. A gentle breeze rattled the dried oak leaves still
clinging to the bare branches, adding a light percussion to the songs of
the birds going about their business. A peaceful calm was in the air, just
the environment for a writing and thinking man. See the satellite image
below: the top half of the montage is the general area showing The
Blackjacks in what looks like a letter P of trees, just above the lower
left quadrant that is zoomed in to Mathews’ cabin adjacent to the
lower right-hand quadrant zoomed closer yet.

As you can see in the photo-montage below, the cabin is derelict, needing a
lot of work to effect proper restoration. The top view is taken from the
West side facing East; the middle view is taken from the South side facing
North, and the bottom picture is the view facing Northwest, showing the
collapsed sleeping-porch on the East side of the cabin.

The mural looks in good condition. Harvey wondered what kind of paint
Mathews used; considering the time, the paint may well be lead-based. An
interesting feature of the mural is the depiction of a hunt that looks
suspiciously like an English fox hunt.

Dennis Bires drew our attention to the English saddle and heel-down
posture of the rider; certainly, the attire is indicative. It’s not
much of a stretch to imagine that Mathews would have attended a hunt
during his time in England, especially as there would have been other
students at Oxford who came from a hunting background in the counties of
England.

Inside the cabin, there are two rooms. Originally, it appears to have been
built as one room with the second room on the West side added to provide a
kitchen space; Dennis Bires pointed out that the hearth in the kitchen
looks designed to be used for cooking, being raised about eighteen inches
from the floor and tiled with terracotta tiles. Prevailing winds in this
part of the world are mainly from the North during winter and from the
South in summer. In orientation, the North wall of the main room is
devoted to the fireplace where it can bear the brunt of the winter winds.
The screened sleeping-porch on the East side catches the summer winds and
is shaded from the hot afternoon sun. In Talking to
the Moon, Mathews mentions that the mosquitoes can be very
bothersome.
Below, the left picture is in the National Archives, taken by Andrew T.
Kelley, December 16, 1937. The motto on the edge of the concrete
mantelpiece is variously translated but Venari lavari
ludere ridere occast vivere seems to fit fairly well with: To hunt,
to bathe, to play, to laugh, that is to live. Mathews encountered the motto
on Roman ruins during his travels in North Africa and adopted it as his own.

Harvey said that acquisition of The Blackjacks is a hand-in-glove fit
with the objectives of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and The Nature
Conservancy, objectives that he feels are in accord with the values that
John Joseph Mathews had when he was alive. Restoration work will be
planned in consultation first with the Osage Tribe through Chief Geoffrey
Standing Bear, second with the University of Oklahoma, and third with the
Oklahoma Historical Society through Frederick Drummond. Once it is
restored it will be staffed by a history student and have limited public
opening.
Mathews is buried in the Southwest corner of the cabin grounds under a
cedar tree.

—Rochelle Caudill
One of the wonders of volunteering at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is
the people you meet along the way. One hot sunny day, while I was doing my
thing as a volunteer, a young lady came in with her friends. I introduced
myself and they told me they were students from Augustana College in Sioux
Falls,
SD,
doing research on the American Burying Beetle. To be totally honest I had
never heard of this little guy, however, I discovered, when they pointed
it out to me, that we had a picture of the Beetle on the counter. She
informed me that some beetles use environmental stimuli to communicate and
are affected by the climate. They explained that the Beetle was endangered
and they were looking at how ground vibration from wind turbines affected
the reproductive behavior of the Beetle. The young lady went on to
describe their method of recording the sounds of wind turbines and how
they were going to use this sound on the prairie with other non endangered
beetles to see if it affected the reproductive behavior that is crucial
for this insect to survive. I found her study fascinating, however did not
request a copy of the completed study at that time. I thought of her often
and wondered about the study results.

When I arrived at the Docent Reorientation on March 14, 2015, much to my
surprise and delight, there is on the wall of the conference room a poster
with the results of the study. Through my research I found that Courtney
Moore, had won first place for her poster The effect
of wind-turbine induced vibration on the reproductive behavior of the
endangered American burying beetle, at the 67th annual
meeting of the North Central Branch of the Entomological Society of
America.
In her discussion, she reported that wind turbine vibrations do not prevent
the burying Beetle from burying their carrion source, nor does the
disturbance affect the size of the brood, however as the vibrational
intensities increase so do the burial latency periods. This is
ecologically relevant as the longer it takes to secure and bury a carcass,
the more likely scavengers will find the carcass and interrupt the
process, thus not allowing the recovery of this endangered species.
Dr. Dan Howard at Augustana College in Sioux Falls,
SD is the primary investigator of the
vibrational effects on the American Burying Beetle. He said in an email
that Courtney Moore graduated and is now in medical school. He sent a
copy of the poster published last year by the new student authors.

If you are interested, you can download the poster as a
PDF file via this
link.
—Andrew Donovan-Shead
This article first appeared in the March 2004 issue of
The Docent News, a report of Dr. Kerry Sublette’s presentation at
the annual Docent Reorientation.
At our docent reorientation meeting on March 6, 2004, we heard Dr. Kerry
Sublette talk about his fieldwork on the Tallgrass Prairie investigating
soil remediation, which is what he does to mitigate the effects caused by
oil and saltwater escaping into the surface environment of the Earth. Dr.
Sublette’s presentation was lucid and cogent.
Oil wells produce a mixture of oil and brine. Brine is water saturated or
strongly impregnated with common salt. As oil wells age, the ratio of
saltwater to oil increases. Most of the wells on the Tallgrass Prairie are
old; there are about three hundred of which one hundred continue to
operate. Naturally, the oil and brine must be separated; this is done at a
tank battery located at a convenient place in the vicinity.
A tank battery consists, at a minimum, of two fat, squat tanks adjacent to
a tall, thin tank. Oil and brine is pumped from the wellheads across
country into the tall, thin tank that serves as a separator. Oil and water
don’t mix and will separate under action of gravity with the heavier
water gravitating to the bottom of the thin tank while the oil rises to
the top. Sometimes the separator tank is filled with special material to
increase the surface area of the interior and equipped with a
horseshoe-shaped heater; heat and the higher surface area helps to speed
separation of the fluids.
Once separated, oil and brine are pumped into their own holding tanks, the
two squat tanks nearby. Oil is collected periodically by tanker truck and
taken to a refinery for processing into gasoline, fuel oil, paraffin wax,
plastics, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and many other products; you would be
amazed, and alarmed, at how dependent our way of life is on oil. Brine is
a useless nuisance that is a cost of doing business; it is pumped from its
holding tank to an injection well where it is returned deep underground.
Ten times as much brine as oil is produced by each well. Brine is thought
to come from ancient seawater trapped under ground. It is highly corrosive
to metals and deadly to life. Life needs some salt, not much though. Oil
well plumbing is made of steel pipes and tanks that are very susceptible
to corrosion by salty fluids.
Most tank batteries are surrounded by earthen berms to contain any fluids
leaking from the tanks. Properly designed, these containment berms will
also be lined with an impermeable membrane to prevent seepage into the
ground.
Often leaks occur in the pipework, spilling oil and brine onto the ground.
Crude oil spills are easy to clean-up compared to spilled brine.
Crude oil is cleaned away by bioremediation. Bioremediation uses the
bacteria that occur naturally in the soil to consume the oily
hydrocarbons. Trick is to make it easy for these bacteria to do their job,
which means adding fertilizer, moisture, creating good soil structure, and
warm temperatures. It is a process called landfarming because the activities needed look
identical to farming. You plow hay into the contaminated ground to improve
the soil structure while adding fertilizer to help the hay decompose and
the bacteria to grow, adding water when needed. It’s just like
gardening, you don’t start work until the weather is warm enough to
produce good crops; in this case you want a good crop of bacteria to eat
up the crude oil.
Soil remediation takes time, several years for the land to recover from
insult by oil and brine. Brine is a bigger problem because it has to be
washed away, diluted. Brine stops roots of plants from extracting water
from the soil, killing them within days. Once plant life is killed there
is nothing to hold the soil together and the soil will start to erode,
blowing away in the wind and washing away in the rain. Rapid revegetation
is essential to hold the top soil in place. Any vegetation will form an
island of fertility helping recovery of the land.
Only way to remove salt left by a brine spill is through dilution and
drainage. Salt is mobile; it is diluted by rain and carried away across
the natural lie of the land or with the help of a French drain. Either
way, the soil must be conditioned to improve its structure by plowing in
hay and fertilizer. If French drainage is installed then flow is directed
to a sump where the brine is collected and taken away to an injection
well.
Once oil and brine is removed, the final task is to restore the original
condition of the land prior to pollution by the spill. Dr. Sublette is
experimenting with earthworms to help speed restoration of soils. In case
of the prairie, you know that John Deere’s steel plow is bad for the
deep rooted prairie grasses, but sometimes a scalpel is needed to heal a
hurt. Natural vegetation is replanted and the land left to recover its
former glory, convalescence in care of Nature.
Dr. Sublette’s research on the Tallgrass Prairie is a collaboration
between the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma State University, and the
University of Oklahoma with funding from the Department Of Environment
(DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His results have been
transferred to oil producers across the U.S. and throughout the world in
the form of lectures like the one we experienced at Pawhuska,
environmental checklists, self-assessment kits, bioremediation guidelines,
and training videos.
Dr. Sublette’s research is a shining example of value extracted from
the Tallgrass Prairie and The Nature Conservancy’s commitment to
science-based environmental conservation. We had a fascinating look at
science applied to nurture our environment. In this The Nature Conservancy
excels, making it easy to see cause and effect, easy to see the value of
taking good care of our natural heritage; it removes the emotion and
grounds in facts our efforts to conserve.
—Dwight Thomas, Ph.D.
Through the first three weeks In March, 2015, I was at the Tallgrass
Prairie Preserve four days to work as a Docent, helping train new Docents
and interacting with visitors. I found that we had a large, enthusiastic,
and capable group of new Docents, and we had visitors all day long each
day.
During those March visits, I saw a vastly different prairie than I had
seen on my January and February visits. The difference was that there were
fires, haze, smoke, ashes, and blackened landscapes everywhere. Smoke
plumes were visible in almost every direction.

This was not just on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve; it was scattered all
along the way on my drive to and from the Preserve. Billows of smoke from
just over the hilltop create a note of urgency as you drive by, and the
starkness of freshly burned prairies make a deep impression that you need
to pay attention and be careful. And the sunrises and sunsets, often
spectacular anyway, were even more colorful with the addition of smoke to
the atmosphere. On these visits with fire so evident, I was reminded that
fire has always been part of the life of the prairie. In January 2014, in
our Tallgrass Prairie Docent Newsletter, I wrote about how we could get a
good historical view of the prairie by looking at historical artwork. I
illustrated that with George Catlin’s 1832 painting Prairie Meadow Burning. Another example of artistic
presentation of burning prairie is Francis Blackbear Bosin’s Prairie Fire, which is at Philbrook Museum in Tulsa.
Above is a photograph of that painting.
Obviously it was the season of Spring burning of the prairies. We know
that burning is essential for maintaining a prairie, and many ranchers
burn from fence-row to fence-row every year to ensure that their
prairies
are good pastures for their cattle. We also know that the
Nature Conservancy fire management plan of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
is to burn in smaller patches in random rotation to allow for protection
of wildlife and better distribution of bison grazing. Notice the smoke in
the air and hazy horizon in the photograph below of bison crossing the
road.

When I work as a Docent, I plan my day at the prairie so that, in addition
to working at the Visitor’s Center, I have time to drive around the
preserve to see the bison, deer, and whatever else makes itself visible. I
also plan a time to walk around at least part of the trails to see what
plants are newly growing or blooming and what birds and other animals can
be found. These drives and walks help me know the prairie better and also
help satisfy the attraction that I have for the prairies and woodlands.
There are certain spots that I always pause to take in fully, and some
spots that I always stop to photograph on each visit.

During the first week of March, the area of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
where the trails are laid out was burned. And it was burned completely,
with almost nothing protruding above ground level. So when I walked around
the trails on March 10, 2015, I had a totally different experience than
what I had on February 14, 2015. On that day, the trails wound through the
prairie and the woods with old growth grass and forbs standing from a few
inches to a few feet tall. On March 10, 2015, the trail stood as the high
ground with blackened grass and other plants extending for as far as I
could see. There was nothing green or even tan. The area seemed totally
foreign. I had an eerie feeling while walking through the burned-out trail
area. The feeling was a sadness and even a bit of foreboding that the area
had been ruined. I could clearly see trails that had been made by Deer and
many small critters. There was no place above ground to hide. There was no
food.

By March 17, 2015, and even more by March 21, 2015, when I made my walk, I
was relieved to see that grasses had already begun to grow. There were
green sprouts throughout the blackened field. Not only were the grasses
growing, there were also shoots of many broad-leafed plants growing so
fast that I could almost see them grow. I knew that the prairie was once
again recycling its nutrients, growing where old-growth had stifled it,
and on its way to being the lush growth of prairie plants that had been
there before the fire. Many of the critters would soon be back, even
though I saw a lot of predation shortly after the fire.
And just wait a few more days. By mid-April, those prairie forbs will
begin to bloom. Here are some I remembered from watching recovery from
Spring fires in a previous year. Look for Prairie Irises and
Tradescantias, as seen below, growing and blooming from burned land. But
also look for Verbenas and Fringed Puccoons and thousands of other
Spring-flowering plants.

The prairie has been burned. It is recovering. It will be renewed with
nutrients, with more space for growing, and with more light at the
surface. Those plants and animals that are so specially adapted to living
in the prairies have withstood the fires and are thriving. The Nature
Conservancy fire management plans are working. Even some of those
ranchers may be watching and learning. Maybe eventually their pastures
will be managed more like true prairies.
—George Pierson
The cloudless sulphur is one of the most recognizable of the sulphurs.
With a wingspan that is from 2¼″ to 3⅛″, it is
larger than most of the others in that family that can be seen at the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. They are very fast fliers; in my experience,
they fly 10 to 15 feet off the ground and rarely stop to have their photo
taken.

Males are a bright lemon yellow while females can be yellow or a light
gteen. Both sexes have cell end spots. Males have fewer markings than the
females. Females have a faint broken line toward the tip of the forewing.
—Iris McPherson
The new year beginning on March 1, 2015 has started for the
docents. The visitors didn’t wait until the Visitor’s
Center was open. A few hardy folk came in January and February. We
never know what the count would have been for those months, since
visitors don’t necessarily sign the visitor’s book.
Based on the visitors that did sign in, we had 92 visitors in
January with 9 states and 1 foreign country represented. In
February there were 78 visitors with 10 states and 1 foreign
country represented.
For the first three days in March we were not open due to bad
weather and roads. Once the weather cooperated we had a good
response. There were several large groups that came in March and
that really boosted our numbers. There were a total of 822
visitors. Of that total there were 815 from the US and 7 from
foreign countries. Of those from the US there were 638 from
Oklahoma with KS (47), TX (19) and NY (16) being the next 3 most
highly represented states.
The following table will give you a look at how this year started
compared to previous years.
We have a lot of new docents this year, which is a real delight for
the rest of us. One of the things that we must emphasize in the
training is that each docent on duty should encourage visitors to
sign the guest register outside the front door. The numbers give us
an idea of where our visitors live, which helps us figure out the
states and countries not being represented. One of the things I
enjoy most as a docent is getting to visit with people from all the
US states and many foreign countries. It is amazing when you stop
and think about our opportunities to spread The Nature
Conservancy’s message about the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve,
as well as the Conservancy’s many other preserves.
Remember to always politely request our visitors to sign the guest
register.
Annual Number of Known Visitors to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Summarized by Month
Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Totals |
1994 | 260 | 280 | 569 | 951 | 1,456 | 1,529 | 1,565 | 1,045 | 1,010 | 1,117 | 672 | 338 | 10,792 |
1995 | 282 | 420 | 668 | 1,167 | 1,602 | 1,700 | 1,485 | 1,598 | 992 | 1,588 | 770 | 262 | 12,534 |
1996 | 216 | 325 | 705 | 1,100 | 1,904 | 2,081 | 1,362 | 1,030 | 1,197 | 1,416 | 530 | 399 | 12,265 |
1997 | 291 | 288 | 912 | 1,055 | 1,922 | 1,877 | 1,299 | 1,055 | 1,032 | 1,304 | 578 | 417 | 12,030 |
1998 | 317 | 340 | 609 | 1,178 | 1,456 | 1,258 | 1,182 | 960 | 884 | 1,133 | 667 | 289 | 10,273 |
1999 | 215 | 417 | 628 | 777 | 1,712 | 1,857 | 1,209 | 703 | 754 | 1,549 | 922 | 342 | 11,085 |
2000 | 229 | 282 | 583 | 1,176 | 1,624 | 1,614 | 1,017 | 597 | 818 | 1,125 | 438 | 93 | 9,596 |
Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Totals |
2001 | 131 | 149 | 855 | 910 | 1,811 | 1,550 | 1,100 | 638 | 1,049 | 1,250 | 653 | 252 | 10,348 |
2002 | 217 | 114 | 761 | 725 | 1,745 | 1,383 | 1,057 | 685 | 951 | 688 | 517 | 140 | 9,010 |
2003 | 98 | 39 | 527 | 808 | 1,190 | 832 | 594 | 672 | 1,008 | ??? | ??? | ??? | 7,125 |
2006 | ??? | ??? | ??? | 586 | 810 | 629 | 709 | 310 | 605 | 641 | 405 | 68 | 4,763 |
2007 | 47 | 35 | 361 | 575 | 810 | 737 | 756 | 407 | 660 | 688 | 396 | 81 | 5,553 |
2008 | 26 | 74 | 299 | 507 | 941 | 664 | 629 | 436 | 488 | 724 | 560 | 111 | 5,459 |
2009 | 117 | 72 | 482 | 428 | 969 | 1,026 | 790 | 688 | 746 | 615 | 443 | 25 | 6,401 |
2010 | 23 | 194 | 471 | 735 | 979 | 739 | 898 | 538 | 769 | 793 | 450 | 72 | 6,661 |
Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Totals |
2011 | 35 | 42 | 478 | 547 | 612 | 587 | 634 | 293 | 494 | 672 | 313 | 92 | 4,799 |
2012 | 73 | 42 | 368 | 436 | 732 | 699 | 446 | 293 | 389 | 416 | 466 | 36 | 4,396 |
2013 | 64 | 33 | 437 | 466 | 720 | 760 | 846 | 580 | 543 | 612 | 391 | 104 | 5,556 |
2014 | 81 | 41 | 482 | 811 | 784 | 635 | 874 | 601 | 464 | 687 | 385 | 114 | 5,959 |
2015 | 92 | 78 | 822 | | | | | | | | | | 992 |
As of December 2014, we have received 154,605 visitors who took the
trouble to announce their presence in the Visitor’s Book.
In 1994, George Myers started recording the numbers of visitors to the
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and from whence they came. He did this for
almost ten years. His last report appeared in the September 2003 edition
of the newsletter.
Beginning in April 2006, Iris McPherson took up the task of chronicling
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve visitation, as recorded in the Visitor’s
Book.
—Bill Alexander
The Visitor’s Center coverage chart shows the results of having a
large new docent class. Our days open for March was 84-percent versus
65-percent for the same period last year. And if the four weather-day
closings are removed, when both docents and interns were signed up, then
the coverage would be 97-percent for the month. This tremendous
improvement bodes well for getting the message of what is happening on the
Preserve out to our visitors in 2015. Thanks to all for this dramatic
improvement.

Here we provide some links to other places worth visiting.
Here is the latitude and longitude of the Tallgrass Prairie
Preserve Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for
entry into their GPS
navigation device.
- 36° 50′ 46.6004″ N
- 96° 25′ 22.4320″ W
These coordinates are a verified position on the parking lot in
front of the Visitor’s Center. This link to Google maps shows
the position superimposed on satellite imagery:
https://goo.gl/maps/hBUIu.
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.
Available Back Issues:
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
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.
Biodiversity
Birds
-
American Crow,
Corvus brachyrhynchos.
-
American Golden Plover,
Pluvialis dominica.
-
American Kestrel,
Falco sparverius.
-
American Robin,
Turdus migratorius.
-
Bald Eagle,
Haliaeetus leucocephalus.
-
Barn Swallow,
Hirundo rustica erythrogaster.
-
Breakfast Guest.
-
Brown Creeper,
Certhia Americana.
-
Buffalo Bird or Brown-headed Cowbird,
Molothrus ater.
-
Canvasback Duck,
Aytha valisineria.
-
Carolina Chickadee,
Poecile carolinensis.
-
Cedar Waxwing,
Bombycilla cedrorum.
-
Chimney Swift,
Chaetura pelagica.
-
Cliff Swallow,
Petrochelidon pyrrhonota.
-
Common Nighthawk,
Chordeiles minor.
-
Cooper’s Hawk.
-
Dickcissle,
Spiza americana.
-
Downy Woodpecker,
Picoides pubescens.
-
Eastern Bluebird,
Sialia sialis.
-
Eastern Meadowlark,
Sturnella magna.
-
Greater Prairie Chicken,
Tympanuchus cupido.
-
Hairy Woodpecker,
Picoides villosus.
-
Lark Sparrow,
Chondestes grammacus.
-
Merlin,
Falco columbarius.
-
Mourning Dove,
Zenaida macroura.
-
Northern Harrier,
Circus cyaneus.
-
Passenger Pigeon,
Exctopistes Migratorious.
-
Peregrine Falcon,
Falco peregrinus.
-
Pied-billed Grebe,
Podilymbus podiceps.
-
Pileated Woodpecker,
Dryocopus Pileatus.
-
Red-bellied Woodpecker,
Melanerpes Carolinus.
-
Red-headed Woodpecker,
Melanerpes erythrocephalus.
-
Red-shouldered Hawk,
Buteo lineatus.
-
Red-tailed Hawk,
Buteo jamaicensis).
-
Rough-legged Hawk,
Buteos lagopus.
-
Ruby-throated Hummingbird,
Archilochus colubris.
-
Rusty Blackbird,
Euphagus carolinus.
-
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher,
Tyrannus forficatus.
-
Snowy Owl,
Nyctea scandiaca.
-
Trumpeter Swans.
-
Tundra Swan,
Cygnus columbianus.
-
Turkey Vulture,
Cathartes Aura Septentrionalis.
-
Upland Sandpiper,
Bartramia longicauda.
-
Wild Turkey,
Meleagris Gallopavo Silvestris.
-
White-crowned Sparrow,
Zonotrichia leucophrys.
-
Wood Duck,
Aix sponsa.
-
White-throated Sparrow,
Zonotrichia albicollis.
-
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Sphyrapicus varius.
-
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Coccyzus americanus.
-
Yellowlegs, Greater & Lesser,
Tringa melanoleuca & Tringa flavipes.
-
Yellow-rumped Warbler,
Setophaga coronata.
Bison
Bison Roundup
Books
Botany
Butterflies
Butterfly Counts
Docents
Docent Recognition Luncheons
Docent Reorientations
Docent Council Meetings
Forbs
Insects
Grass
Haiku on the Prairie
History
Josie of the Prairie
Miscellaneous
Osage
Prairie Watching
- 2012:
Dec.
- 2013:
Jan,
Feb,
Mar,
Apr,
May,
Jun,
Jul,
Aug,
Sep,
Oct,
Nov,
Dec.
- 2014:
Jan,
Feb,
Mar,
Apr,
May,
Jun,
Jul,
Aug,
Sep,
Oct,
Nov,
Dec.
- 2015:
Jan,
Feb,
Mar,
Apr
Rangeland Management
Recipes
Science
Sightings
Trails
Trees
Verse
Visitor’s Center
Visitor’s Center Kiosk
Visits
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.