Pinnacle Mountain fire good for mountain’s health Tuesday, February 24, 2009

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The prescribed burn at Pinnacle Mountain State Park took place as scheduled on Monday Feb 23. A group of professionals from The Nature Conservancy along with State Park and USFS people “lit” the mountain starting at the top around 11:20 AM. When the igniters retreated to the base trail, they then lit the perimeter. The process went perfectly as planned and the entire (approx 640 acres) area above the base trail was burned by 3:30 PM. Since the burn went ahead of schedule they were able to also burn the Kingfisher Trail area from Hwy 300 to the boat launch area including areas below the base trail from the West Summit to the boat launch.

CAMN volunteers Bill Toland and Bert Turner were present that day to assist in the coordination of event. Bert Turner made available to all members of the burn teams a detailed GPS generated topical map that he made of the planned burn area. This valuable tool was extremely helpful in the placing of teams and equipment in precise locations easily identifiable on the map. This burn would not have progressed as quickly and safely without it.

The work that the CAMN volunteers did in advance of the burn which included the clearing of trees, debris, and leaf litter from around park buildings, residences, and fuel storage areas along with clearing a 10 ft wide base trail perimeter around the mountain (and the summit trails) made it possible for the burn to happen. Thanks to  Bert Turner (who led the effort), Anne Massey, Martha Bowden, Dave Danner, Linda Saylor, Bill Toland, Katherine Becker,and Tom Stramel.

The fuel load that has collected over the years (this was the first ever control burn for PMSP) was eliminated and this will ensure the safety of mountain hikers from uncontrolled fires in the future . The leaf litter elimination will enable the land to reclaim its natural plantlife and provide food and cover for the animals who live in the park.

Since this was a “cold” fire with flames no more than three feet high for the most part, the mature trees are in good shape. You will find the burned areas on the mountain to look better than you would think….more exposure of the beautiful rocks that were covered with leaf litter. The spring rains and the flooding of the Kingfisher Trail area will enable these areas to recoup quickly.

The healthy preservation of wildlife areas in the state of Arkansas is what we do.

CAMN members should take pride in their important part of this process.

Written by Master Naturalist Bill Toland.  Picture by MN Martha Bowden.  More pictures in the flicker photo taken by various people.

Simpler East Indian Holly Fern found in Arkansas Friday, November 14, 2008

Several CAMN alumni—Martha Bowden, Brenda O’Reilly and Cathy Porter joined walk leader Eric Sundell for an Arkansas Native Plant Society-sponsored botanical walk through Allsopp Park in the Hillcrest area of Little Rock. Off the beaten path, the wooded slope from Kavanaugh to Cantrell supports a mixed pine-oak-hickory forest, dominated by shortleaf pine, mockernut and black hickories, and post, white, southern red, and northern red oaks. Lovely late asters and goldenrods were still in bloom. Allsopp Park is also Ground Zero for alien invasives, especially along the paved pedestrian/bicycle path that links the Kavanaugh Promenade to the recreation area off Cantrell. Was there even one alien invasive species missing? We saw tree-of-heaven, chinaberry, Chinese parasol tree, Chinese privet, Taiwan privet, winter honeysuckle, nandina, Chinese wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle, kudzu, white mulberry, and several more, including a European contribution, English ivy. One participant, Bill Shepherd, thanked the group for an informative botanical tour of China.

A mysterious fern—nobody recognized it—was spotted growing beside a small creek at the bottom of the slope. Martha’s digital photo was sent to Don Crank of Hot Springs, probably Arkansas’ most knowledgeable amateur pteridologists (fern man). He tentatively identified it as “Simpler East Indian Holly Fern” [sic] (I am not making this up), Arachniodes simplicior. Eric returned with Theo Witsell, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission botanist, to collect a few fronds for identification, and Don Crank’s ID was confirmed. The single plant represented a new species record for Arkansas—though widely cultivated, it had never been found growing spontaneously in the wild in our state. And in fact, the plant represented only the second “population” of SEIHF recorded in North America—the only other wild plants occurring in South Carolina. A neat find—and unlike a lot of exotics, seems to pose no threat to native populations.

Written by Eric Sundell  Picture by Martha Bowden

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CAMN made the News Monday, October 27, 2008

Hi CAMNers,
I don’t think the word got out yet. There is an nice article in the Democrat-Gazzette today on the Master Naturalists and how in tune we are with nature. Thanks to Cecila Storey, Jonelle and the curriculum committee and all those who helped get the article ready. The class schedule and application is on the web site so pass it on to people you think may be interested.
George Lauster

Visit our website at http://home.arkansasmasternaturalists.org

Black Bear Raiding Local Bird Feeders Saturday, August 23, 2008

My wife Cheryl and I have lived in the Wye Mountain area for about 10 years. Our property is surrounded on two sides by timber company land, and in general this area of the county is fairly wooded, not cleared. We’ve seen bears two other times. The first year we were here we saw one at a neighbor’s. It was raiding their chicken coop, not for the chickens but for their food- a large plastic container of corn. A few years later we saw an assumed mom bear with three, yes three, cubs crossing the road on Highway 113 near the road we turn on to go to our house. There was a forest fire west of us that day, and I’m sure that’s what had resulted in this sighting. Everyone (the world’s most frequently quoted source) I’ve talked to since says that three cubs in extremely unusual, and probably only two were that bears, that she’d picked up one from another bear that had something happen to it.

We’d not seen one since until this last Friday, August the 15th. I got home from work about 5:30 and my wife said we’d just had a bear in the back yard about 30 minutes earlier. My immediate “Oh yeah sure, was it riding a unicycle and tooting a trumpet?” was met with a stern “I mean IT!” The back door was open, just the screen door was closed, and one of the cats was slinking toward the door with her hair all puffed upped (it was a long haired calico cat who is accurately named Bad Bella for her famous bite reflex, and she REALLY puffs up when scared) so I went to see what she was looking at and there was this HUGE bear standing on its hind legs raiding our bird feeder”. Ok Ok I say, sorry I missed it. She said it ran off when it heard her shut the door. I suspect that door was not just shut, but super slammed.
About 45 minutes later I was in kitchen when she calls out “It’s back the bear is back.” Don’t tease me I say and she says get in here NOW before it goes back into the woods and you think I’m hallucinating. So I hurried into the living room and yes dear I never doubted you, ’cause that is a big, big, bear!’ It was walking under our bird feeders, which are a little higher than my head and I’m about 6 feet tall, and then smooth and easy it raised up to stand only on it’s back legs, put two large bear paws around our main bird feeder that I’d just refilled a few days before with “Deluxe Mix”, and tilted the feeder sideways. It put it’s mouth to one of the feeding ports and shook bird feed into its mouth. It would then lower back to all fours to finish it’s bite then rear up to do it again. It was very cautious, looking around and occasionally walking about 10 feet back into the cover of woods and then return to continue it’s feeding. I finally eased the back sliding glass door open to try to get a picture and it immediately ran into the woods.

That was it until well after dark when I thought i heard something and shined a light out and of course, the bear was back to continue to raid the feeder. It is actually an electric “Wild Bill’s” feeder and I thought perhaps he would finally touch it in a way that would shock him, but it did not, or he was not bothered if it did. A shock designed to deter squirrels and raccoons may not have much effect on a bear. Or perhaps his initial swatting at the feeder may had jarred the battery loose.
Anyway, I would occasionally shine a light on him or even turn the back flood light on, which would cause him to go into the woods , but he would soon be back. This game persisted until about 11 pm at which time I decided to go to bed, resigned to have a mangled feeder in the morning. Next morning the feeder was completely empty and greatly misshapen, but somewhat to my surprise it was still hanging.

I got a call about mid morning from Wade Walker with Ark Game and Fish. We’d called and left a message with them the night before. Wade traps and relocates bears. He’s had one other sighting in this general area that might have been the same bear. He explained that late in the summer some animals will expand their range looking for food if their normal sources are low.

He gave me the good and common sense advice of putting up any outside food for a while- bird, dog, cat and making sure any garbage was secure. He said that without food source a bear will usually move on. I told him that it was obvious that this bear was still afraid of people. He said it was important to keep it that way, for people to make a loud noise and scare a potential nuisance bear off, and NOT to feed them. He was super nice, gave me his cell phone # and said call him if we continued to have trouble and he could come a set up a trap.
This is Sunday pm and I’ve not seen the bear since Saturday morning. Hopefully he is back in the woods where he should live and people should visit. And not the other way around. And while I enjoyed his visit, I must admit I would not like having to hide my outside animal food and be fixing bird feeders on a regular basis. My poor cardinals and hummingbirds did some frustrated flying back and forth across where the feeders should hang, and hopefully will again soon.

My impression of this bear was one of a gentle easy going creature, a little curious and hungry, but cautious, one who was a happy and relaxed. And if bears and people keep a decent distance between them, I think we will be happy, and relaxed too. And obviously delighted and enlightened, just as bears have been dong for people for as long as they’ve both been here.

By Owen Floyd

Pictures by Owen Floyd

Elegant Buck in Midtown Little Rock Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hi, All, I am Laetitia, a proud graduate of the first CAMN class—presently inactive but dues-paying and loving to follow the fantastic contributions you folks are making and the stories you are creating for present and future Arkansans.

I took this picture of an elegant buck from my back sun porch in midtown Little Rock, a bit west of Rebsamen Park Road and surrounded on 2-1/2 sides by forest. These handsome juveniles entranced me—there were four. My neighbor later saw a gang of eight bucks there. I know it should be called a “herd,” but just wait.

Soon after my excited photo shoot, I began to notice the absence of two sweet potato vines, a Red Maple,a couple of Dragonwing Begonias, and several clumps of Hosta here and there. It is worth noting that on all but the Hosta the stems were left intact, ghostly green skeletons.

We pick tomatoes, deer pick leaves—if we are lucky, they will replenish themselves. I have to admit that I was roundly steamed. No more than hairy, horned farmers they are!

What cooled me off was the wonderful poem that follows, by America’s incoming Poet Laureate. It is taken from her extraordinary book of poetry FLAMINGO WATCHING, Copper Beach Press, 1994, $9.95.

DEER, by Kay Ryan

To lure a single swivel ear,
one tentative twig of a leg,
or a nervous tail here,
is to mark this place
as the emperor’s park,
rife, I say rife, with deer.
For if one leaf against the littered floor
be cleft with the true arc,
all this lost ground, and more,
becomes a park. Everywhere
the nearest deer signals the nearest dark.
A buck looks up: the touch of his rack
against wet bark whispers a syllable
singular to deer; the next one hears
and shifts: the next head stops
and lifts; deeper and deeper into the park.

You know where to find me. I live in the emperor’s park.

Laetitia East

Try Removing Ticks this way Wednesday, August 20, 2008

As Master Naturalists, we are in the woods logging in plenty of hours volunteering. We use the bug spray and hope that ticks don’t make it past that layer of protection. If they do, here is something to try. MN Laetitia East said this was passed on to her by someone at ADEQ. She hasn’t tried it yet but wants to know if you will and then let us all know by making a comment on the blog.

A School Nurse has written the info below — good enough to share — And it really works!!

“Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20), The tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away. This technique has worked every time I’ve used it (and that was frequently), and it’s much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me. ‘It works!’

This seems like something we could all add to our packs by putting the cotton ball in a small container/ bag. Be sure to add a small plastic bottle to keep the tick for further ID if you get ill.

Written by Martha from an email by Laetitia East

Box Turtles of Park Hill by Master Naturalist Darcia Routh Tuesday, August 12, 2008

YOU CAN BE A MASTER NATURALISTS ALSO.  PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT: http://home.arkansasmasternaturalists.org/

 

Here is a photo of a my box turtle—I call her Dolly—laying her eggs in late June.

The night before she’d entertained folks from Central AR Horticultural Society who came to enjoy my wildlife garden. She looks much more serious than usual here.

The babies may hatch as early as late August, though I hear they usually stay in the nest for up to a year afterward. It’s a cruel world out there, especially since the nest is in the middle of my St Augustine lawn.

I am acquainted with an additional 9 box turtles who’ve spent some of their time at my place. It seemed like I ran a Box Turtle Free Love Compound last summer. Scuffy was “keeping company” with a number of the ladies, including the old turtle who has lived in my yard for 40 years:

It is very easy to maintain optimal box turtle habitat. They love to rustle around in leaf litter, so I leave my oak leaves in most of my garden beds as mulch. They enjoy a drink or a dip in a ground level plant saucer. They like fruit and veggie scraps and will return to the spot where you put them regularly to check for a hand out. Old strawberries and overripe tomatoes are a hit with my crew. They also eat a number of common garden pests like slugs and bugs.

Two of the younger crowd, both around 4 inches long:

Both immature box turtles are probably male, given the red markings and red eyes. The scuffs on the one were likely to be dog-inflicted. Dogs seem to really enjoy gathering up box turtles and carrying them around. My cat is indifferent to them, which no doubt improves my chances for turtle fostering.

Written by ‘darcia’ , Central Arkansas Master Naturalist

Tarantula was hard to see Sunday, August 3, 2008

It was the end of May and still cool enough to be working outside. I decided to move a few rocks on my lot next door. I turned over a fairly large rock when something moved by my hand. I was surprised to see a tarantula wolf spider (lycosa tarantula). After running for my camera and getting my heart back to a normal rhythm. I watched and took pictures as it crept quickly among the leaves. I learned he has good eyesight (you can hunt them at night by shining a light along the ground because the light reflects off his six eyes) and mostly afraid of big animals (humans). He is an agile hunter patrolling the area for harmful insects. Go get them big boy.

Watch out for Black Widow Spiders Sunday, August 3, 2008

Written by George Lauster: This is a black widow spider found in a North Little Rock backyard this afternoon. Known to occur in Arkansas, this one was found next to a raised garden bed, and appears to be large, perhaps with eggs. It was found during my niece’s birthday party by her 8 year old cousin. What I have learned from this is that it might be handy here in Arkansas to have a few observant kids check out the yard before a party.

Unusual Praying Mantis found Sunday, August 3, 2008

From George Lauster : This is a very light colored praying mantis my son Eamon found on our back deck. We have several mantids each year, but they are always bright green. This one was seen on Sept. 25, 2007, during the midday. A search of the internet found mention of other white praying mantids and other invertebrates, including a palmetto bug in Florida. There appears to be an argument on whether albinism occurs in invertebrates since exoskeletons are not pigmented the same as skin. However, an unreferenced posting at Argonne National Lab’s “Ask a Scientist” page suggests that the genetic mutation of color is possible regardless of how it occurs (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00698.htm). An exotic pet web site lists a chinese mantid that is a very light brown (http://www.exotic-pets.co.uk/chinese-mantis.html). I found several references to chinese mantids occurring in the wild in the US, but so far no information on distribution.