Category: Education and Outreach

Education and Outreach to Community

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Brush Pile 101

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— by Beth Erwin

A fundamental element for attracting birds to your yard is a brush pile. The familiar perching birds in our backyards like wrens, chickadees, titmice, and cardinals will appreciate the extra spot to dart into for cover. In turn, their activity will attract other birds that are passing through to check out your space for hanging out.

The recent winter storm has left plenty of material for brush piles. If you already keep a brush pile on hand for the birds, this might be a good time to refresh and relocate it. A brush pile left in the same place becomes a feeding station for predators after a couple of years, much like bird houses without predator guards. Your resident birds catch on quickly when the neighbor’s cat or a rat snake starts lurking in or near the pile. Migrants and casual visitors remain on the menu. In addition, the limbs at the bottom of the brush pile begin to disintegrate and pack down, leaving less space to dart around in.

You do not have to move far from the first brush pile when you relocate. You are going to have a bare spot where the old pile was. You can look for sprouts of the seeds the birds have left you once the ground is exposed to light or use the space to plant some native annuals or perennials. It should be rich in decomposed organic matter.

For those of you who cannot bear the thought of a pile of limbs in your yard, cohabitate with such a person, or know that your HOA would have a fit, try thinking outside the box. There is no rule on how the brush should be stacked other than there needs to be space for small birds to dart into when fleeing for cover.

Stand the limbs up, cut ends to the ground, bind the top ends together and make a cone/teepee shaped pile. Another option is to cut the thicker branches in pieces of the same length and stack them much like a split rail fence, only create a square tower configuration. Add some twigs in the center. Artistic brush piles! Please post pictures on our social media pages-> Facebook or Instagram.

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After the thaw…

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— by Beth Erwin

Folks have lots of questions about the effects of the great freeze on their native plants.

Let’s start with the ones that require the most effort and money to deal with — trees.  Most of the limbs on the ground are from Live Oak trees.  In our area they are typically evergreen, and a heavy load of ice on the leaves will bring the limbs crashing down and cause forked trunks to split in two.

Where small limbs have broken off the tree, if at all possible, those jagged breaks left on the tree need to be cleanly pruned back to a branch of similar size, a main limb or the trunk.  Cuts need to be painted immediately to deter the sap-feeding insects that spread Oak Wilt.

Trees that have split in two, or half of the tree has broken off, need to be removed completely.  It is nearly impossible to properly treat the wound caused by a split and the remaining portion of the plant becomes a liability.  This advice applies to all trees, large and small.

Most Live Oaks are showing signs of freeze burn on most of the leaves.  That means they will probably start shedding those leaves early.  If your method of disposing of leaves involves putting them in paper compost bags to be picked up at the street, stop reading right now and run to the store and get some bags.  They are going to get scarce.

Smaller trees and large shrubs need the same type pruning treatment.  Check the trunks of smaller trees for splitting bark.  Any trunks or limbs with linear splits showing bare wood underneath can be removed as they are not likely to survive.

With shrubs and perennials, it is a waiting game.  Perennials that have been in place for years and are well established will likely survive.  The Turk’s Cap and Texas Lantana you expect to see sprouting along the branches when spring arrives may end up sprouting anew from the ground instead.  The critical point for many of these plants will be tied to the soil temperature.  Remember, a few 80-degree days will not raise the soil temperature.  It takes a significant number of days with warm day and night temperatures to really kickstart the growing season.  If it looks like dead stalks, and you just cannot stand it, you can snip away small amounts until you reach green wood or scratch the bark surface to see if it lives.

Cultivate patience with your plants.  Give shrubs and perennials until the middle of June to determine if they will recover.  If you are ready to replace your non-native species for more dependable Texas natives, come see us at the Spring plant sale March 26-27 at Berry Springs Park & Preserve.

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River Ranch County Park, Williamson County

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— by Sue Wiseman

River Ranch County Park is currently closed while it is under construction. It opens to the public in 2021.

This summer, in addition to filming our virtual plant walk (see it on YouTube), we also updated our River Ranch County Park Plant List.  NPSOT-Wilco’s history with River Ranch County Park, Williamson County’s newest recreation area, goes back more than a decade!

The plant list for River Ranch County Park, originally called the Williams Tract, was started in late 2009.  It was the idea of the first Williamson County Parks and Recreation Director, Jim Rodgers.  Jim contacted me and asked if NPSOT would be willing to do a plant list for the future park.

The NPSOT Williamson County Chapter tackled the project by surveying at least once during each calendar month over a three-year period.  Once we had accomplished this, with the help of Marshall Johnston, co-author of the Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas, we went on to do plant lists for each of the remaining Williamson County parks.  However, our mission for River Ranch is not complete; when we started this project there were 1,011 acres in the park, we have since gained around 350 more acres, so once the park opens and Covid declines we will be able to go into the newly acquired areas to complete the project.

The Friends of River Ranch County Park are now accepting memberships.  “Our mission is to advocate and support River Ranch County Park by providing information, interpretation, and assistance in the maintenance and conservation of the park.” Folks that are interested can go to The Friends of River Ranch County Park Facebook page for information.

I was able to see the Interpretive Center last week and was thrilled with the facility and to find lots of bookcases built into the new conference room.  They have a long counter and sink on one wall of the meeting room.  In normal times, it would fit about 30 people classroom style.  When things get finished, I think everyone will be pleased with results!

P.S., The chapter’s River Ranch work helped to start the field trip committee that we know today. We did have field trips previously, but this effort inspired us to plan a trip a month through the year. Also, we sometimes did two park lists at the same time but usually stuck with one park, and then went other places during the rest of the year.   These photos are of some of us at River Ranch near the end of our project in October 2010, mostly chapter members but also some Austin members.

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River Ranch Field Trip, October 2010. Left to right: Ilse Meier, Charlie Wiseman, Sue Wiseman, Sue Anderson (Austin Chapter), Beth Blankenship, Dick Galloway, LaVerne Johnston (Austin Chapter), Kathy Galloway, Marshall Johnston (Austin Chapter).
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River Ranch Field Trip, October 2010. Kathy McCormack.

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