Trash Clean Up Sunday, September 28, 2008

Friday, Anne Massey, Bert Turner and I met at the Big Dam Bridge and led a group of City Year Corps throughout the River Trail. Let me tell you, walking and picking up trash and talking with these kids was a lot of fun. They are a good group of trash finders and made a huge difference in the park area.

Saturday, six Master Naturalists (Anne Massey, Ann Owen, Katherine Becker, Bill Toland, Tom Neale and I) met at PMSP. The people that came were assigned and as Team Leaders we set off with gloves, bags, and water. We were ready for TRASH!

The park was amazingly clean. My group of cub scouts took the Arboratum Trail. Since there wasn’t much trash to pick up, we picked up sticks and showed the kids as much nature as we could find and ID. After hours of walking in the woods, we rounded up the cub scouts and headed back to the picnic area for delicious food. After some short talks about what the park looks like in 1975 and how far it has come, we all received our patches. Thanks to all the volunteers who gave up their Saturday morning to help clean up PMSP.

Tree and Plant ID class helps Master Naturalists Thursday, September 25, 2008

Thank you Dr. Sundell for a great outdoor class on native plants. Your expertise, added to the knowledge that others had, made for a very interesting morning. It is always fun learning in an outdoor environment. We slapped our way along the Kingfisher Trail, enjoying each others company and gleaning much info. If anyone wants to know what we were wearing that day, we named our scent “Ode to Deet.” I took pages of notes and can’t wait to return to check out my memory. See the flickr photo album to remind you of some of the things we talked about.

Survey for Jackrabbits in Arkansas Thursday, September 25, 2008

LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is conducting an observation survey throughout the state, and seeks the help of Arkansas residents.

While cottontail and swamp rabbits are common, jackrabbits have not been seen in Arkansas since the late 1980s. One of the last known jackrabbit populations was in FortChaffee until the early 1970s.

The black-tailed jackrabbit once was found across northwestern and western Arkansas. It was common in Benton, Crawford and Washington counties in the mid-1950s, but has become rare in Arkansas because of changes in farming practices. Jackrabbits can be seen early or late in the day and thrive in prairies, pastures, hay fields and orchards.

Residents can help the AGFC by recording any jackrabbit sightings and submitting them to http://www.agfc.com/jackrabbit. They also may call Blake Sasse, AGFC nongame mammal program coordinator, at (877) 470-3650 to report jackrabbits. Old sightings will benefit the survey as well.

Jackrabbits are much larger than cottontails and swamp rabbits and can jump as high as 3 feet. The Web page includes drawings of cottontails, swamp rabbits and jackrabbits for identification.

Stream Team Sampling and Training Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fourteen Master Naturalists led by MN George Lauster gathered on the banks of the Little Maumelle River Saturday, along the Kingfisher Trail at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. We were fortunate that Tropical Storm Ike had held off till later the night, leaving us with just cloudy skies and a slight breeze.

Our first find of the morning occurred before most had arrived when Larry Cross discovered a baby alligator snapping turtle.

We started the morning inspecting the riparian area before splitting up into teams to measure the stream’s flow, chemistry and benthic macroinvertebrates (sediment bugs). There were still wood debris piles and other signs of Tropical Storm Gustav’s massive flooding that extended to the parking lot.

Bert Turner lead the flow team, Bill Toland coached the bug collectors, while Martha Bowden and I did the chemistry. Collecting bugs was the highlight for both the veterans and the newbies. We didn’t spend much time identifying them there as we all headed up to the visitor center for some advanced training.

I gave a presentation to help us understand better why the stream team exists. We tried to imaging what life is like from the viewpoint of a stream bug or fish, then connected our view to the stressors that stream scientists and managers are concerned about. We tied it up by going over the different riparian, chemistry and bug indicators we use as a stream team. For me the fun part was then breaking folks up into small groups that each became more expert on group of similar looking bugs. Each group then put their new knowledge to work identifying the bugs present in our samples.

We found nine types of macrointertebrates, including mayfly and stone fly larvae. These two types are sensitive to pollution.

Along with the chemistry results, this suggested that this portion of the Little Maumelle River is in great health and recovered after just two weeks since the massive flooding of Tropical Storm Gustav. The only criticism I got afterwards was that we don’t do this enough. Current plans are to sometimes help Game and Fish and other organizations with their sampling efforts, giving us a chance to see how things differ among streams.

Written by MN George Lauster

What could this be? Saturday, September 13, 2008