welcome to the new tmn trainees! - texas master...
TRANSCRIPT
In October we kicked off our
new training classes! We’re
delighted to welcome each
new class member:
Pete Aranda
Cynthia Harding-
Woodhull
Everett Hyman
Aaron Johnston
Kurtis Klein
Gemma Mehalchick
Eric Mansker
Ruthann Panipinto
Stephanie Putnam
Vincent Sherman
Kenneth Sparks
Amanda Sullivan
Kelly Ward
Virginia Weldon
We look forward to get-
ting to know each and
every one of you, and
supporting you in your
TMN journey.
Welcome to the New TMN Trainees!
From the President
First, I want to thank you for
authorizing your background
checks. Now, if I could just have
your social security, credit card,
birth certificate and driver’s
license, it will help me take over
the world! Just kidding of
course; one must have a sense of
humor about these things.
In all seriousness, I couldn’t ask
for a better way to start this fall
semester than to train our new-
est members, officiate the meet-
ings and initialize great projects
that will allow us to grow the
future of our chapter and help
the environment. I cannot stress
enough how spectacular you are.
And, since this is the month for
giving thanks, I would like to
thank a few of our members.
Thank you Amanda (trainee) for
working with Ruthann (trainee)
to carry on the work of the pond
project. Thank you Beth
(webmaster), for taking over my
technology role . You are already
far exceeding me in that area! A
big thanks to Theresa for being
my mentor and to John, without
whom the VMS system wouldn’t
run. Jesse, thank you for all the
advanced training opportunities
and Michael, for making the
parliamentary procedures inter-
esting. Finally Bill, thank you
for ‘feeding’ me (or should I say
all of us). Simply said, thank you
all for helping me do my job and
making it easy and rewarding.
I am very pleased to announce that we will have a graduating Texas Master Naturalist this year. Maire Cox, our first presi-dent and a founding member of the chapter, will be the first from our chapter to graduate Concordia University (12/5/15) .
To honor her achievements, our chapter will be presenting her with a Texas Master Naturalist stole as recognition for her hard work and dedication. Congratu-lations Maire, we are very proud of all your achievements and wish you the best of luck in the next chapter of your life.
— Kaitlyn Rodriguez
B a l c o n e s C a n y o n l a n d s C h a p t e r a t C o n c o r d i a U n i v e r s i t y T X F a l l , 2 0 1 5
Save the Date!
12/13/15—Holiday Pot Luck, 2-4 at Concordia’s “black box” experimental theatre 1/14/16—Dr. Jay Banner’s class about climate change, at Concordia 1/12/16—Chapter meeting and Volunteer Project Fair 3/5/16—Stream Team Advanced Training with Goodwater Chapter, Georgetown
Welcome! 1
From the President 1
Book Review 2
Fun Facts About Drag-
onflies
2
Update: TMN Annual
Meeting
3
Native Plant Highlight 3
Texas Land Conservan-
cy
4
Officers & Committee
Heads
4
Inside this issue:
The New TMN Class is Underway!
Fun Facts About: Dragonflies
Jim Stanley, a retired chemist
living in Kerrville, has written
an important little guide for
those lucky enough to own a
piece of the Hill Country. Dr.
Stanley correctly points out
early in the book that if Texas
is to protect the natural beauty
and ecology of its land, it must
be done by private landowners,
since 95 percent of all land in
the state is owned privately.
As much as state agencies such
as Parks and Wildlife, universi-
ty programs (such as A&M’s
excellent AgriLife Extension),
and federal counterparts do to
protect our heritage, they have
relatively little control over
much of what happens in the
complex interaction between
the creatures and plants that
depend on the soil, water and
air that sustains them.
He writes that his guide is for
the “new landowner who may
know very little of the ecology
of the Hill Country” but wants
to preserve it for generations to
come.
While he is correct that this
guide is basically for those who
are charged by their ownership
to take care of their land, the
guide is also a mini-
encyclopedia of the area rough-
ly from West Austin to Junc-
tion, south to Uvalde and east
to San Antonio.
It’s a land that was once the
home of Apaches and Coman-
che; bison roamed like a thun-
dering ocean and 10 million
years ago, the sea placed an
indelible stamp on the geog-
raphy and geology, leaving
hundreds of feet of limestone
deposits, embedded with the
shells of billions of sea crea-
tures and the bones of dino-
saurs.
Then in the mid-19th Century
another tribe emerged in the
Hill Country, the European
settlers with their determina-
tion to “tame the land” and
they left their mark, too.
Dr. Stanley writes eloquently
of these transitions in a clear,
direct style without romanti-
cizing either the native species
nor those who came later.
He is a scientist by training
and profession and presents
the issues as they are, not how
he might want them to be.
Want to know about Ashe
juniper (the bane of many
landowners and a godsend to
allergy clinics), the plight of
our magnificent stands of
oaks, or how to take a census
of the deer population on your
property? Dr. Stanley tells all.
But if you wonder about the
impact of imported exotics on
the land or how those rolling
hills came to be, it’s in the
Guide, too.
In its own way, it is a book of
deep ethical considerations:
All of us are just tourists in
this land. We may run a dozen
head of cattle down the Medi-
na River or cool off on a sum-
mer day at Barton Springs, but
we are all just trespassing
through—as temporary as the
bison, Comanche or black
bear.
The book is, in fact, mis-titled:
It should be “Hill Country
Land Caretakers Guide and
Bible.”
Note: Dr. Stanley is a three-
term president of the Hill
Country Master Naturalists.
Disclosure: Dr. Stanley and
his fellow Hill Country Mas-
ter Naturalists provide a free
service to landowners, inven-
torying the plant and animal
life, advising on best and
practices, and following up
with a detailed written report
on findings. He and several of
his colleagues provided that
service to me shortly after
Cynthia and I acquired a
small place near Utopia, the
aptly named little town on the
Sabinal. We are still hard at
work trying to meet Dr. Stan-
ley’s prescriptions.
—Bill Cryer
Book Review: Hill Country Landowner’s Guide
Canyonlands Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 4
Page 2
Hill Country Landowner’s
Guide by Jim Stanley (2009)
Texas A&M University Press,
204 pages ($19.95)
Dragonflies were some of the first winged insects to evolve. Modern dragonflies have wingspans of
only two to five inches, but fossil dragonflies have been found with wingspans of up to two feet.
There are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies, all of which belong to the order Odonata,
which means “toothed one” and refers to the dragonfly’s serrated teeth.
Dragonflies are expert fliers. If they can’t fly, they starve; they only eat prey they catch while flying.
Dragonflies catch their insect prey by grabbing it with their feet. In one Harvard University study,
dragonflies caught 90-95% of available prey.
A single dragonfly can eat anywhere from 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes per day.
Reference: The Smithsonian
Particularly in October and
November, it puts out large,
branched spikelets up to half
the size of the entire plant,
giving a feathery look that you
just can’t miss.
In the winter, the plant be-
comes the color of straw, and
the spikelet blooms become
seedheads.
Like most grasses, Gulf Muhly
produces sexually, with the
wind being the assumed polli-
nator.
It is named “Muhlenbergia”
after Heinrich Ludwig Mueh-
lenberg (1753-1815), a German
educated Lutheran minister
and America’s first outstand-
ing botanist, who published
Index Flora Lancastriensis in
1785. “Capillaris” comes from
the Latin ‘capillus,’ meaning
having hair, or hair like.
Here are Theresa Rooney’s top
8 reasons you should attend
the next TMN Annual Meeting
(drumroll, please):
8. Win awesome things at the
Silent Auction. (Karen
McGraw surprised herself
by “winning” a beautiful
book on hill country gar-
dens and a great art piece.)
7. Win Contests
(Photography, Stitchery,
Art, Newsletter, Scrapbook
and Project). We must
submit next year!
6. Purchase Master Natural-
ist gear and books at dis-
counted prices.
5. See other ecoregions in the
state.
4. Do a big chunk of volun-
teer service.
3. Get all your advanced
training done in one day.
2. Receive recognition for all
you accomplished in the
last year.
1. And the #1 reason to at-
tend the annual meeting
is...
FELLOWSHIP with your
fellow Master Natural-
ists from around the
state!
This year, the following chap-
ter members attended the
meeting in Horseshoe Bay:
Theresa Rooney, Maire Cox,
Kaitlyn Rodriguez, Gloria Sut-
ton, and Karen McGraw. We
all had a great time—in spite
of the weather.
If you did not attend this
year’s meeting please start
planning now to attend next
year’s. These meetings are
more fun than I can possibly
express and the training is
some of the most practical and
valuable you can attend. I
have attended the annual
meeting the last two years and
I have learned so much.
Being the first collegiate chap-
ter, we are recognized by other
chapters from around the
state and looked to for infor-
mation about the successful
pilot project we have under-
taken. Next year we hope to present a session on implementing a
program with college students and possibly others. Your volun-
teer project and knowledge could be one of the things showcased.
—Theresa Rooney
We had a strong representation at the meeting and had the pleas-
ure of standing up and cheering (loud and long) for our chapter
during the “Chapter Rollcall” portion of the meeting.
In spite of our relatively small chapter size, two of our members
were honored and recognized for achieving 250 hours of volun-
teer service already! Theresa Rooney and Beth Samuelson joined
others on the stage to receive well-deserved congratulations and
their service pin.
—Karen McGraw
If you’ve been out and about
this fall, you’ve probably no-
ticed gulf muhly blooming,
showing off its pink-purple
tufts of blooms.
Gulf Muhly is a 11/2 to 3 ft. tall,
2-3 ft. wide perennial grass
that you can use as a specimen
plant or focal point in your
garden, or in mass plantings.
Gulf Muhly does well in full
sun, with well-drained soil.
Native Plant Highlight: Gulf Muhly
Update: Texas Master Naturalist 16th Annual Meeting
Canyonlands Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 4
Page 3
Gulf Muhly (Muhlenbergia
capillaris). —K. McGraw
Theresa Rooney and Beth Samuelson receive their 250-
hour service pin and recognition.
At our October meeting we
welcomed Dr. Ashley Lovell of
the Texas Land Conservancy
as our speaker. Ashley, who
described herself as an envi-
ronmental sociologist, is the
Director of Partnerships and
Outreach for TLC.
Texas Land Conservancy’s
mission is to protect the iconic
landscapes of Texas for pre-
sent and future generations.
They are currently protecting
85,000 acres across the state.
Ashley described the extreme
changes that Texas has under-
gone. We are 80% urban now,
versus 20% urban 100 years
ago. Since 1997, the accumu-
lated loss of native rangeland
has exceeded 4.8 million, as
land is converted to other us-
es, such as development.
These changes have immense
impact, especially since Texas
is among nine southern states
that host nearly 90% of the
endangered species in the
United States.
Between 1997 to 2007, land
values in Travis County in-
creased 199%, two times both
the state average and the aver-
age of the Hill Country due to
development pressures.
It is for these reasons that
Land Trusts are so critical .
Land Trusts are non-profits
focused on preservation and
protection. Texas Land Con-
servancy is especially interest-
ed in helping owners of large
pieces of land with scenic
viewsheds understand and
consider implementing a Land
Trust. TLC helps landowners
set up conservation easements
(a legal agreement between a
property owner and a land
trust to limit the kind and
amount of development that
goes on).
Ashley encouraged us to con-
sider volunteer opportunities
with the Texas Land Conserv-
ancy. Current opportunities
include:
Photography
Nature Interpreters for
Monthly Hiking Series
Event Coordination
Invasive Species Removal
Trail Maintenance
Questions about volunteering?
Contact Ashley Lovell via
email.
Chapter Officers & Committee Heads
Texas Land Conservancy
Canyonlands Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 4
Page 4
Committee heads:
Training & Membership: Theresa Rooney
Volunteer Service: John Laisy
Advanced Training: Jessie Zehr
Program: Gloria Sutton
Communications/Newsletter: Karen McGraw
Outreach/Webmaster: Beth Samuelson
Historian: Pete Aranda
Host: Bill Cryer
Student Welfare: Sam Whitehead
Nominating: Maire Cox
Trails: Jen Weaver & Michael Lewis
Officers:
Current officers for the Balcones
Canyonlands Chapter at Concordia
University TX are:
Kaitlyn Rodriguez, President
Gloria Sutton, VP
Cheryl Grayden, Secretary
Jose Rivera, Treasurer
Thank you to Maire, Kaitlyn, Theresa, and
Jose for their service as officers last year!
Our mascot: Salam ander
Newsletter masthead: Jessie Zehr
A big “thank you” to our
officers and committee
heads!
Chapter members are encouraged to contribute articles and photos to the newsletter. Let us showcase
your recent activity, favorite native plant, tree, bird or book! Most stories are 125-150 words in length.
Texas Land
Conservancy