More Books!

 

Another run of the book has now been proofed and ordered. This is a self published endeavor and only a few are ordered at a time. Shirley Boyd and I are learning the ropes with the help of Mary Beth Smith. It has been enlightening how it all works.

We will have 100 books available and the delivery date is Feb. 25!!! If you would like a book and missed out on the December order this is your chance! Once the shipment arrives, we will mail your book to you.

Remember that the first run sold out quickly due to the pre-order special and the book signing event at Wild Birds Unlimited, which we greatly appreciated.

We already have some orders for the next shipment. Get yours in now...order information is here. Look up on the bar...find it? Good : ) More information on ordering larger quantities can also be found there.

If you are interested in a program pertaining to the book and would like books available for signing, please contact me.

Thanks to everyone for your interest!
Becky

Here We Go Again

                                                                                                             www.flickr.com

An example of what is occurring in the Great Trinity Forest. Seems exaggerated...perhaps not.

What has happened to the appreciation for Nature? It seems that there is an ever increasing perception that nature is composed only of concrete trails with grass and trees.

There is yet another occurrence of habitat destruction in the Great Trinity Forest...now numbering so many that I have lost count. This place that has been recognized as priceless and one-of-a-kind is being torn apart in the City's quest to make it known they are BIG with the only 6,000 acre urban forest in the city.

Well make that < 6,000 acres now after thousands of trees, several prairies and numerous wetlands have been destroyed. And the tales of mitigation? Don't worry, you will never see the outcome of that in your lifetime. It has taken hundreds of years and in some instances thousands of years for these places to be formed. It is not possible that they can be recreated or replaced in just a few years.

An example and fact of this is the Leopold Prairie in Wisconsin. This is from the Aldo Leopold Archives from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection.  http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/AldoLeopold

Aldo Leopold is considered by many to have been the most influential conservation thinker of the 20th Century. Leopold's legacy spans the disciplines of forestry, wildlife management, conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, restoration ecology, private land management, environmental history, literature, education, esthetics, and ethics. He is most widely known as the author of A Sand County Almanac, one of the most beloved and respected books about the environment ever published. The Leopold Collection houses the raw materials that document not only Leopold's rise to prominence but the history of conservation and the emergence of the field of ecology from the early 1900s until his death in 1948.

To access or cite this collection:
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/AldoLeopold  

In his book, A Sand County Almanac, he describes the effort of restoring his Sand County farmland back to the natural environment that had once existed which included forested areas and open meadows or prairie areas. After 30 years of working to re-introduce species, planting by collected seed or transplanting, using different control methods for combating unwanted species, and attempting to re-create the biodiversity that existed before, he came to the conclusion that it would never have the biodiversity it had before the land was cleared for farming. The project continues to this day.

Now we know that part of what Also Leopold discovered was due to the lack of soil micro-organisms or mycorrhizal organisms that we continue to study and discuss today. When the soil is turned over or damaged through other means and exposed to the air these essential soil organisms die. This creates an environment which makes it very difficult for restoration to succeed.

Now to get back to the latest in the saga of the Great Trinity Forest. This incident has recently taken place at the McCommas Bluff Preserve area, an area that is part of the natural preserve systems of lands set aside for protection by the City. Interesting how this now falls under Planning and Development, that is disturbing.
Here is the lovely page for you to take a look:
https://www.dallascounty.org/department/plandev/trails/tapp_philosophy.php
And the Preserve now compromised:
https://www.dallascounty.org/department/plandev/locations/09-mccommas-bluff.php

 

  www.mowildflowers.net

Example of what is now gone....

What has been brought to our attention, by the writer of Dallastrinitytrails, is the complete destruction of an area that was once a remnant of a seasonally wet prairie with Indian Paintbrush and Little Bluestem grass. Remember the discussion above on soil chemistry? The late Dr. Geoffrey Stanford, of the Dallas Nature Center...now Cedar Ridge Preserve, conducted research on Indian Paintbrush and was one of the first to discover the symbiotic,otherwise known as root semi-parasitic, relationship it had with grasses, in particular Little Bluestem. He also discovered other varieties of Indian Paintbrush that were unknown. Indian Paintbrush is extremely difficult to grow and re-establish and will be impossible with the area completely turned into nothing but bare soil criss-crossed with heavy equipment tracks in preparation for more construction. No more beneficial soil micro-organisms.

This preserve also contains an extremely important plant community of Trout Lilies, Palmetto and Texas Buckeyes, all in the vicinity of each other. All photos below from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Image Gallery in Austin, Tx. Left to right, Trout-Lily or Dog's Tooth Violet, Palmetto, and Texas Buckeye.

          
          Photo credit:Brenda K. Loveless              Photo credit: Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller          photo credit: Brenda K Loveless
                           
This place is remarkable and possibly the only of its kind with this specific plant community. To have this priceless area in direct connection with this destroyed prairie remnant warrants an immediate response from us all. And the City was alerted to this over a year ago.....

Check out the before and after pictures of the McCommas Bluff Preserve area at Dallastrinitytrails.blogspot.com

This place cannot be re-created and was destroyed for trails?

Which would you rather do?

Ride a bike on concrete

                                 bicyclegermany.com
or

Hike and ride on dirt paths through the Great Trinity Forest


                                                                                          llaboutroswell.com

And see

Only grass and trees
or
Wildflowers, wildlife, wetlands and true habitat?

Let me know...........the short message is, "once it is gone, it stays gone."  Better hurry up to see it now.

It Is All In The Past

Have you ever wondered about the City's past, I mean a really long time ago, before it was settled, before the area was explored by the Spanish and French over 500 years ago....I mean a really, really long time ago, like oh, say, 146 million years???? Take a walk back in time...........

For example:
Did you know that this part of Texas was once part of the sea and that Mosasaurs and Giant Sea Turtles (Protostega) swam here? During much of the Cretaceous geologic period, from 146 million years ago to 65 million years ago, a shallow sea split the North American continent.....going right through what is now Texas. Huge reptiles, like the Mosasaur and Protostega, lived in that sea and dinosaurs walked next to it. Their fossils, that have been preserved for millions of years, now provide a background of our past and a source of unending educational research opportunities to understand that time in our Earth's history. It's a fact, as you can see from these photos from the Dallas Museum of Natural History, now the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

                                Mosasaur                                                      Protostega        http://www.northtexasfossils.com/

The Mosasaur was discovered in Rockwall County, and the Protostega was found when a farmer not far from Dallas,drove his tractor over it, then realized he had struck something rather large. Viola...Protostega was found. If you look in the creek bottoms around here you are bound to find fossils of oysters and other bivalves in the limestone. My brother and I found them all of the time as kids when we explored creeks near White Rock Lake. No living oysters around here anymore........

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by two SMU students who were giving a synopsis of their projects in the Great Trinity Forest. Both did exemplary research, one on the succession of trees in the forest, and the other a study of the mammals living in the forest. The site for the studies was the Trinity River Audubon Center (TRAC) which is located on the old Deep Woods landfill, a notorious toxic dumping site. Both studies are of vital interest due to the fact that some of the area was untouched by the now cleaned up landfill providing a good comparison to the reconstituted land around the center itself. 

Both presentations ended with declarations of the fact that the GTF is an undeniably important location for continued scientific study and that great care should be taken to protect this valuable asset for our City. Sound familiar? Afterwards we were invited to a private tour of the Shuler Museum where we were taken by Dr. Louis Jacobs, President of Southern Methodist University's Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, to see some new discoveries, but especially to see the old fossils found in the gravel pits from the early 1900's that were located along the Trinity from Big Spring to TRAC, where the Horse Park and Golf Course are being built by the city. 

Why would this be important?  Because knowledge of the past is a part of the education process so that we can use best judgement on land use and future development. The sight of fossils from near the very site of the Horse Park was amazing. The old gravel pits had been a wealth of information pertaining to the period of the Pleistocene when saber toothed cats, camels, horses, mammoths, and more roamed this part of the world.

Imagine seeing the lower jaw from a new species of saber toothed cat that was unearthed in what is now referred to as the Pemberton pit. As the http://dallastrinitytrails.blogspot.com/2014/02/big-spring-in-snow-dallas-great-trinity.html has stated before, this was a spectacular discovery. Simply amazing and makes me wonder why on earth the consideration of scientific discovery was not pursued and developed upon by the City. Imagine the benefits to the education of school children, continued research by college students and dedicated scientists when these discoveries from the past could have led to a museum/interpretive center that included an active paleontology/archeology dig site? 

Sustainable development goes hand-in-hand with educational opportunity.

Dr. Louis Jacobs holding the Pemberton Pit saber toothed cat lower jaw              

dallastrinitytrails.blogspot.com

Re-Creating the Most Endangered Ecosystem in North America

Lawns Gone Wild

www.huffingtonpost.com

The total area of American lawns is approximately 50 thousand square miles, about the size of New York State. To keep it well watered takes about 200 gallons per person per day, and nearly a third of all residential water use...

Something to consider...
The section of the article referring to the use of lawn space as restoration possibilities for the tall grass prairie are right on, especially since the 12,000,000 acres of Tall Grass/Blackland Prairie that once existed in Texas are now less than 1/10 of 1% or <5,000 acres.

For those in the Dallas area and the massive Trinity project....let's think about restoration of that prairie component right here between the levees. It can be done.

The City and Corps, along with TPWD and other partners, could assist with the development of seasonal wet prairies that can withstand flooding and drought. There could be mowed trails, instead of concrete, for walking though the wildflowers and tall grasses, watching butterflies and hummingbirds, kestrels and hawks swooping to catch their next meal, environmental education opportunities would abound and more...can you just imagine what that would look like every spring/summer/fall? A changing seasonal palette of color. Gorgeous...who needs to drive to the Hill Country when we would have that in our own backyard? And it all would be beside the Trinity River. This would drive eco-tourism, a $16B industry in the state according to TPWD, and become an economic factor all the while improving the local environment and restoring what was here for thousands of years, but has almost disappeared.

 

                  Imagine the beauty of the prairie that the early Texans saw to the horizon    Photo by NPAT

The benefits for adding back to the most endangered ecosystem in North America would be a significant bonus. Right now TPWD is working with land owners and municipalities encouraging them to consider the enormous benefits of native tall grass prairies for water retention, drought tolerant native plants, importance for pollinators, endemic birds that require grasslands to survive and thrive, wetland birds, clean air, water filtration and so many more benefits that would justify a project such a this.

It could be that sea of grass and wildflowers, or a ribbon of it, that those first Spanish and French explorers saw when they came through this area over 500 years ago. Something to consider and just imagine the possibilities....

 Blackland Prairie remnant/Dallas         photo by Becky Rader

 

The USACE has extended the deadline for comments on the final EIS statement for the Dallas Floodway/Trinity River project. Make sure that you send in your comments before Feb. 2.

"In response to resource agency request for additional review time, USACE has prepared a 15-day extension notice for the Dallas Floodway Project Final EIS Notice of Availability." Send your response to marcia.r.hackett@usace.army.mil

Borrowed this one from yesterday to post here on the blog. Great comeback.

They are back in our area too! Check out the live camera at JBS Wetland Center.

Today our Throwback Thursday post takes us to 1963, when there were only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the lower-48 states. Once on the brink of extinction, here’s the remarkable comeback story of our national bird: http://bit.ly/1sDnrRc

We are Making History!

Big Spring in the Snow - DallasTrinityTrails.blogspot.com

I really can't watch anymore....come on Cowboys!

Better do this and get the mind off the game.

We are making history! How is that you ask?

If you have been keeping up with the blog, though I have been rather slow in writing, you have seen information about Big Spring. Yes, a Spring that still flows in Dallas. Books have been written about the number of springs in Texas, but this area was not covered well due to the fact that too many springs here were already gone and others were unknown or had been forgotten.

Oh no, I saw the final score. Good try guys...

So back to the history making part. If you live in Dallas you will be aware of the Preservation for historical structures and places like Fair Park for all of the fabulous art work and buildings, love that place! But never has a place without structures been designated an Historical Landmark, until now, well almost.

For the past 2 years we have been working to establish long lasting recognition for Big Spring due to its historical connection with Dallas. Margaret Beeman Bryan and John Neely Bryan, credited with the founding of Dallas, lived there after the Civil War. Margaret sold it to the Pemberton family. Billy Ray and Zada Pemberton still own part of that land today. The Spring section was purchased by the City of Dallas (COD) from another part of the Pemberton family. This important connection makes it a place to be preserved and protected.

               Billy Ray Pemberton, Jill Jordan COD, and MC Toyer, descendant of the Beeman family

                                                                                                      photo by dallastrinitytrails.blogspot.com

We asked the COD how to make that happen and with the help of Mark Doty, senior planner for City of Dallas Historic Preservation, the Dallas Landmark Designation is in the works of being finalized. This is a new approach for the Department and the City to recognize that there are very special areas of Dallas, sans buildings, that should be recognized for their place in our history. It has also been speculated that the Spring Sam Houston visited, recorded in his journal on his way to Byrds Fort to sign a treaty with the Indians, was in fact Big Spring. History here in the Great Trinity Forest.

We are working with the City and LAERF to make sure that this place will be here for all of us to enjoy and that we will continue to learn about the history, both the natural history and settlement history, of this beautiful place. We call ourselves the Pemberton Preservation League, a loosely formed group of individuals that have degrees in areas ranging from Archaeology, Paleontology, Wildlife Biology, Education, Finance, Engineering, Construction and more. Some are retired but many are not. Some have military backgrounds. The common thread is the connection with the land and the desire to preserve our history. On we continue to make it happen.

Finally Arriving!!!

                                                                                                                                                                                              

The book that is.....

The release for the book will take place at the Wild Birds Unlimited Store on Mockingbird@Abrams this Saturday, December 20th, from 12-2.  Shirley Boyd and I are both so excited that it is finally happening.

George worked at this store during his "retirement" and Ron has been gracious enough to allow us to be there to share the book with you.

The book is a compilation of 30 years of photographic documentation from George Boyd of the Flora and Fauna around White Rock Lake that represents the urban flora and fauna of this region.  It is not a guide book of the various and numerous species, but is instead an introduction to the necessary requirements for the survival of all species found in our region.  Habitat is the most important criteria for that survival.

It was the intent of the authors that children, students and adults that are interested in learning about the living beauty of the lake have a book that can guide them on the best places to view and recognize the wildlife, help them learn how to protect the habitat and to become good land stewards of our lake and park. 

Hope to see you there!

6333 E. Mockingbird Ln. Ste 101
Dallas, TX  75214
(214) 821-7400
wbuofeastdallas@sbcglobal.net
http://eastdallas.wbu.com/