Essays

Moseying: Outdoor Recreation Activities

Wildfire protection and prevention workshop and thoughts of spring planting
March 18, 2009

The slow and steady mid-March rains are a great blessing – but unless more rain soon comes, we will still be in fire season. Last year many wildfires occurred on a seemingly daily basis. The Texas Forest Service will present a workshop on wildfire protection and prevention on Saturday and Sunday March 28th and 29th from 8 a.m until 6 p.m., along with a field trip (to be determined, at a later date). The cost is $50. This workshop is for rural home and property owners, landscapers, architects, volunteer and paid fire fighters, and other interested people. The course will prepare the attendees to be “Firewise” stewards who will be certified to perform risk analysis and create and suggest firewise plans for other landowners. If you are interested, please email bwilliams@sibleynaturecenter.org, and we will send you the registration form, which has to be postmarked by March 23rd. Many residents of communities in East Texas have already taken the course, but in West Texas it has only been offered in Fort Davis (just last month).

Spring is trying hard! I had to go to Junction recently to present at the Texas Academy of Sciences annual meeting at the Texas Tech Field Station. Some daffodils were blooming in town, and redbud trees in full bloom dotted the hillsides, and a few Engelmann daisies flowered in the median of Interstate 10. I arranged to visit Bill Neimann at the Native American Seeds of Texas farm north of town. Native American Seeds of Texas is a well-known mail order wildflower seed company. The company also works with landowners and conservation organizations on large-scale revegetation and reclamation projects. It does not have a storefront for folks that want to come and shop, nor is it open for folks to view the wildflower farm.

As we toured Bill’s farm, we discussed the possibility of him presenting at the Texas Association of Environmental Educators annual meeting, to be held in Junction at the Texas Tech Field Station in late October this year. He showed me his seed sorting equipment, the big gleaners that gather the seed (and all the other tractors and trailers needed by the operation), the bulk seed storage barn, the small seed package warehouse, and the farm fields. During the twenty-five plus years of business he has modified an amazing amount of machinery designed for other farm products so it can handle the wide variety of wildflower seeds with all of sorts of pods, seeds with hairs attached, and seeds as fine as dust. No farm equipment manufacturer develops equipment for “seed farmers,” so every seed company has to be able to re-invent existing equipment.

The Native American Seeds of Texas does not grow or sell any species of plant seed that is not native to the United States, unlike most other companies that sell wildflower and wild grass seed. Neimann is quite critical of the sale of non-native species. For example, here in West Texas Lehmann’s lovegrass has changed the ecology of many square miles of ranch land to the detriment of quail populations. For most of the lifespan of the company, it has focused on the tall grass prairie from the Texas coast to Illinois. In recent years, it has begun to produce material for revegetation in the Deep South coastal states.

They are now looking to expand into the desert Southwest. Landowners and naturalist groups in West Texas can help out. Landowners can arrange to have large stands of native grasses harvested by machinery, while smaller groups can hand-harvest the many species of wildflowers that do not form “fields of glory.”

Native American Seed has a number of arrangements with landowners in the tall grass country for harvest and re-sale, where both parties benefit, and Bill hopes that similar arrangements can be developed in West Texas and beyond.

I also arranged to bring back 150 seed packets for folks that would like to join the Sibley Nature Center this month so they can receive the 10 percent membership discount at our plant sale on April 4th. The first 50 people to join will receive (for free) three seed packets - one of bluebonnets to plant next year, and two seed packets to plant this year - one of the Lady Bird Johnson Legacy mix with nine annuals and three perennial species, and another of the Texas Wildflower Mix with eight species of annuals and perennials. These new members will also be able to join our Plant Buyer’s Club, which allows a person to pre-order plants for our May plant sale, and our Propagator’s Group. If you help our horticulturist Mark Webb propagate plants, you get to take some home for yourself (for free)!

Here in Midland the Texas and Mexican redbuds are in bloom, and mountain laurel blossoms have begun to cast the scent of grape koolaid into the breezes. The native Texas columbines are sending up bloom stalks. By the end of the month the hummingbird salvia (Salvia greggi) and Coral Honeysuckle will be in full flower, too. Many of the perennial flowers (blue salvia, coreopsis, gaillardia, blue flax, bluebonnets, and more) are growing rapidly, forming green mounds of promise. Spring is coming! Spring is coming!

Wildflowers in the pastures are a bit skimpy this year, however. Deborah and I have taken some drives around. Down at Iraan we found algerita, javelina bush, and fourteen other species in bloom. Along Midland roads we have found copper mallow, tansy aster, chocolate daisy, filaree, perfume ball, yellow spiny aster, blue curls, and a few others. Out in the Monahans sanddunes the Spectacle Pod is blooming.

In the alleys we have found London rocket, shepherd’s purse, dandelion, and henbit, all cosmopolitan “weeds” that grow wherever humans live. When we find a wildflower this year, we are awed and deeply pleased – life rises again in a miniature “Easter story!”

The birds and butterflies are showing spring is coming, too. Some early bird migration is apparent. The sand dunes are full of migrating chipping sparrows, and purple martins have arrived. We even found a very early Ash-throated flycatcher in the sand dunes. Butterflies are beginning to fly in greater numbers. Deborah and I were surprised to find a Giant Swallowtail in our yard, along with the Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, and Cabbage Whites that have been flying on every warm day during the winter. Black Swallowtails are beginning to flip-flap about on warm days.

Get out and turn some soil! Add a little manure and compost, and prepare to grow some of the wonderful native flowers and shrubs we will have at our plant sale on April 4th! Sign up to become a member and sow seeds in two ways – flowers in your garden, and support our mission of celebrating the ecology and history of West Texas.