NEWSLETTER

ROLLING PLAINS

CHAPTER

Vol. 2, No. 5 May 2010http://grovesite.com/tmn/rpc

LOCALE V E N T S

may 1: Fort Richardson State Park Butterfly Garden workday. Location: Fort Richardson State Park, Jacksboro, TX Time: 12-noon. We will be weeding the butterfly garden. Bring rakes, hoes, trowels, bug spray and a little elbow grease as well as water and work gloves.

may 4: Rolling Plains Chapter monthly meeting is at River Bend Nature Center. Location: 2200 3rd Street, Wichita Falls, Texas. Time: 7:00 p.m. may 8: Master Naturalist Train-ing Class field trip to Hackberry Flat. Location: Frederick, Okla-homa Time: 8 a.m. We will meet at Atwoods located on Loop 11 to carpool to Hackberry Flat Wildlife Management Area.

may 22: Archaeology Seminar presented by Tony Lyle, Cultural Resources Coordinator with Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Location: River Bend Time: TBA

June 5: Kid Fishing day Loca-tion: Lake Arrowhead State Park Time: TBA

June 12: Plum Lake Cleanup Lo-cation: Plum Lake, Wichita Falls, TX Time: 8 a.m.

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 1 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

It’s almost graduation time for our new class of trainees. For many, May 4 will be the first time to attend the Rolling Plains Chapter monthly meeting. Let’s have a big crowd Tuesday night to welcome the Class of 2010. Saturday, May 8 is Hackberry Flat Day in Frederick, Oklahoma. This is the final event for this year’s training class, but all members are welcome to attend. The event is free and there will be plenty of activities for the whole fam-ily. Hackberry Flat is a restored wetland and a prime route for water and shorebirds. Bring your binoculars for bird watching, as well as bug spray. We will meet Saturday morning, May 8 at 8 a.m. at Atwoods located on Loop 11 to carpool to Hackberry Flat Wildlife Management Area.

Details are still underway, but we will have an advanced training ses-sion Saturday, May 22 at River Bend Nature Center. Tony Lyle, Cultural Resources Coordinator with Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. will give a presentation and workshop on archaeology. June will be a busy month starting with the Lake Arrowhead Kid Fishing Event June 5th and the Plum Lake Cleanup June 12 at 8 a.m. and ending with the North American Butterfly Count at the end of the month.

Routes for Horned Lizard Watch, Mussel Watch, Amphibian Watch and Prairie Dog Watch will be starting soon. Make plans to attend these events and earn your volunteer hours. What a great organization we have! Where else can you earn volunteer hours while you are outdoors learning and having fun? Even though we have plenty of activities coming up, you are not required to be at each and every event- unless you want to. Pick the ones that interest you, or propose new events to your officers. Together we can continue to make a big difference in our community and to our environment!

President Reportfrom Terry McKee

TPWDE V E N T S

may 6, 9, 21, 30, 2010 — Cap-rock Canyons SP & Trailway — early Birding — Get a closer look at the birds who find food, water and shelter in Caprock Canyons. This slow-paced exploration allows new and experienced birders to work together to identify and learn about the lives of our feathered friends. Bring your binoculars and field guide or borrow some from the park. 8-10 AM (806) 455-1492.

may 22, 2010 — Palo Duro Can-yon SP — CCC Hike — Hike the only trail that goes from the rim to the floor and learn about the Civil-ian Conservation Corps contribu-tion to the park. Geology, flora, fauna and other information will be given. Some areas of this 1-3/4-mile trail have steep places, so you may want to bring a walking stick. No pets please. 10 AM-12 PM (806) 488-2227.

June 12, 2010 — Copper Breaks SP — Sun Fun and Starwalk — Begin your celestial journey in the afternoon with Sun Fun, which features solar viewing of our clos-est star, the sun. In the evening take a Star Walk for a naked eye tour of the night sky over the park followed by a closer look through telescopes and binoculars. Acces-sible for the mobility impaired. Call for times and fees (940) 839-4331.

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 2 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

Don’t Forget! Turn your hours into Jane mcGough. A form for keeping up with your hours is available on the web site. Hours needed for recertification are: 40 hours of public service and 8 hours of advanced training. Advanced training MUST be approved in advance. Fill out the form and submit along with any other information about the class to the Executive Committee at least one week before the event.

InvadersofTexas

Invasive Spotlight: Mimosa (Albizia Julibrissin)

Silk tree, also known as mimosa, or silky acacia, is a small to medium-sized tree that can grow up to 20-40 feet tall. The bark is light brown, nearly smooth, and generally thin with lens shaped areas along the stem. The attractive fern-like leaves of mimosa are finely di-vided, 5-8 inches long by about 3-4 inches wide, and alternate along the stems. Silk tree has showy and fragrant pink flowers, about 1 inch long, that resemble pom-poms and are arranged in panicles at the ends of branches. Fruits are flat, straw-

colored pods about 6 inches long containing light brown oval-shaped seeds. Pods ripen in August to Sep-tember and begin to disintegrate soon after, but remain on the trees into winter.

Learn more about the Mimosa and other Texas Invasives at www.tex-

asinvasives.org

Advanced Training Opportunity!Landscape and Gardening Program

May 7th at 1:00 p.m.On Friday, May 7th Texas Agrilife Extension Service will be hosting a Rainwater Harvesting program in Bowie at the Ozona National Bank at 1 p.m. The program will start off with lawn and garden insect problems by Dr. Chris Sansone followed by Firewise Landscaping around the house in the rural and residential areas from presenters of Texas Forest Service. The final program will focus on Rainwater Harvesting and the system that is set up at the Ozona National Bank and how you can accomplish the same thing. Billy Kniffen from Texas A&M will present the beneficial use of collecting your own rainwater and how it can be used around the house to irrigate or even drink. This program is free and open to the public, so come by and learn. For more information you can contact the Texas Agrilife Extension Office at 940-894-2831.

Our Chapterat WorkChapter members Bill Setzler, Maggie Bedford and Earl Anderson under the supervision of Tad Gose clearing the cacti planter box at the entrance to Lake Arrowhead State Park on April 10.

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 3 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

Chapter Contacts:Terry McKee, President 766-4097; Dian Hoehne, Vice President 692-7234; Laura Gillis, Secretary 592-5319; Bill Setzler, Treasurer 692-4466 Committees Chairperson:Leslie Fernandez, RiverBend Liaison 767-0843; Paula Savage, Newsletter 691-0231; Martha Ford and Ev-elyn Staten, Social Committee; Patsy Petcoff, Grants/Fundraising 940-923-4478; Lila Arnold, Communica-tion Chair 696-2471advisor:Mark Howell, TPWD Advisor 766-2383

RESOURCECO

RN

ERPublisher: TAMU Pressauthor: Brian & Shirley

LoflinLanguage: EnglishISBn-10: 1603441085Price: $24.00

When threatened, the hairy frog, or “horror frog,” intentionally breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture through the frog’s toe pads to become defensive weapons.

FUN

FACT

OID

S Cone shells are a dan-gerous type of snail with hollow, venom-filled teeth that it can shoot like darts at its victims. Their deadly venom causes paraly-sis and can sometimes kill humans within minutes. In Texas Cacti, authors Brian and

Shirley Lof-lin present a concise, fully illus-trated field guide to more than one hundred of the cacti most often found in Texas and the surrounding region.

The book opens with an illustrated introduction to cactus habitat and anatomy. The species are then organized by stem shape, with each account featuring detailed color photographs, specific identifying features (including spines, flowers, fruits, and seeds) and informa-tion about common and scientific names, habitat, flowering season, and more.

The photographs, range maps, and icons designating shape, conserva-tion status, and blooming period, along with easy-to-understand descriptions, make this book a quick and friendly guide to cactus identification for botanists, amateur naturalists, and cactus enthusiasts alike.

The Loflins have established them-selves as superb photographers and writers dedicated to making the plants of Texas accessible to all people who enjoy nature.

Award from the League of Women Voters of Texas.

Penny Miller, a Master Naturalist in the Rolling Plains Chapternominated the Texas Master Natu-ralist program for this award. Pen-ny is also a member of the Texas League of Women Voters and she was able to personalize the nomina-tion form with Statewide program stats and specific examples of vol-unteer service projects and impacts of the Rolling Plains Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist Program.

Congratulations and Thank-you, Penny!

Congratulations!Congratulations, Lila Arnold! Lila has been nominated for the Jeffer-son Award for Public Service. Lila is a active volunteer with Wild Bird Rescue, devoting nearly 66 hours a month to the nonprofit. She has been a volunteer since 2006. By the end of this year she has served 156 hours.

She is a wildlife rehabilitator and has accepted roles of education development coordinator, secretary of the WBR board of directors.

Texas Master Naturalist Program receives Environmental Awareness

If cornered, an opos-sum can foam at the mouth to convince a predator that it is toxic or sick, or dis-charge an anal fluid that smells almost as bad as a skunks’s spray.