Native Plant Society of Texas Tyler Chapter Newsletter
http://www.npsot.org/Tyler/
February 2011 Newsletter Next Chapter MeetingMondayFebruary 7th @ 7:00 PMTyler Nature Center11942 FM 848Tyler, TX
5:00 Dinner at Posados, 6:30 Workshop at Nature Center, 7:00 Meeting at Nature Center
Directions: In Tyler take Loop 323 to SH 248 (southeast of Tyler). Go east on SH 248 past the UT Tyler Campus to FM 848 (about 3 miles). Turn right on FM 848 and travel 0.7 mile. The Nature Center is on the right.
This Month’s Program
Speaker Melinda Brakie, Soil Conservationist
“ The East Texas Plants Materials Center Programs and Current Activities”
Future Programs
March 7th 2011 – Dr. Herb Jarrell - Botanical Déjà vu- -a Travelogue of the Pacific Northwest
April 4th 2011 (joint mtg w/Audubon) – Glenn Olsen - Ecology of Native Plants and Birds (tentative topic)
May 2nd 2011 - waiting for confirmation from Speaker
President’s Message
Hello Everybody
We’ve had some warm days and cold days and even a pretty snow. Such is winter in Texas. But I can see tree buds beginning to swell, and by the end of the month, Elms (Ulmus sp.) and Alders (Alnus serrulata), and maybe Maples (Acer sp.) should be in bloom. And Willow branches (Salix nigra) are definitely turning red.
On the NPSOT State level…..
Tricia Hopkins, from the Cross Timbers chapter, has offered to make a quilt for the silent auction that we always have at the yearly Symposium. So she wants people to make quilt squares depicting “What NPSOT Means to Me” out of natural materials—in other words, no double knit. The State Board will vote on their favorite at the July board meeting. If you do any kind of handwork that could be fashioned into a quilt square, see the write-up on the State NPSOT website.
The State Board has authorized president Cynthia Maguire to sign a group letter to USDA-APHIS (that’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Department of Agriculture) supporting their rule change to eliminate the current exemption that allows wood packaging material from Canada to enter the US without treatment. This would help control the importation of destructive new plants and insects.
On the NPSOT Local level…..
Elizabeth Parks has taken the first step in encouraging our chapter to start a NICE! Program at some plant nurseries in the area. Blue Moon Gardens seems very interested, and we hope to get a few others interested also. If you have any ideas, let Elizabeth or I, or Jim Showen know. We will definitely need some more people on this committee. Look on the Boerne Chapter website (through the NPSOT website) to gets lots more information on what they have been doing, and what plants they have had as their “Plant of the Month”. We plan to have a “Featured Native” to start with. Mary Wilkins, from Blue Moon, will help with our selections, and maybe try growing some of our suggestions. Our Tyler Chapter, even though it is 20 years old, has not made itself known to the public as have some of the other chapters—no wildflower gardens or big plant sales—so I hope this will be a truly worthwhile ongoing project.
There will be a biological assessment weekend workshop held by Texas Parks and Wildlife in May. I talked to Jason Singhurst, TPWD botanist, about it at the board meeting. If you would like to go on a really in-depth field trip, read the accompanying article. Read it anyway. You might change your mind.
By the time you get this newsletter, we will have had our tree-potting workday at Kay Jenkins. Her husband Dennis joined us, along with Ron and I, Jim and Laquita Showen, Lynn Sherrod and Sonnia Hill. Afterwards, some of us went into Whitehouse to eat BBQ. I hope some of you will want to buy some of these little trees—there are several that you just don’t find in nurseries very often. Kay will bring some to our meeting.
The East Texas Garden Conference on February 12 will be at the Rose Center. We will have a table there to sell those trees and the seeds that we have left from last fall. Come help out. The program starts at 8:30, and we need to set up before that. The morning programs will be on roses, handicapped gardening and garden pests. After lunch, David Creech is to speak about natives in your yard, and those of us who have heard him, know that he is an excellent speaker. So come, help out, and learn some new information.
Sonnia will not be at the February meeting, so I will lead the workshop, identifying some of the little plant rosettes that are coming up in your yard. You don’t have to just look at the flowers.
I hope we can get some field trips planned for this spring. Let me know some ideas.
See you at Posados at 5:00 on Monday, February 7, or at the nature Center at 6:30 for the workshop or 7:00 for the program. It will be an interesting one.
Ruth Loper
President, Tyler Chapter, NPSOT
NICE! or Natives Instead of Common Exotics!
Our chapter has decided to implement this program from the Boerne chapter of NPSOT. The main intention is to increase, both the supply and demand for Texas native plants. One of the first items of business is to identify and make a list of the plants that are native to our area andtargets plants that are suitable for cultivation in yards and gardens. Our President, Ruth Loper, has agreed tocompile this list. Thanks, Ruth!
On Thursday, a group of our members met with one of the owners of Blue Moon Gardens near Edom. Since this nursery has sold native plants in the past, they seem to be the perfect medium for introducing this local program. Blue Moon Gardens wants to start in March if we can get the signs and information sheets ready.They havea source for the Louisiana Blue Phlox (Phlox diverticulata) and want to use this native as our first featured plant. This means that we need toget busy!
Anyone interested in helping with this project is encouraged to do so. A committee will need to be formed with a chairman, signage co-ordinator, advertising, andrepresentatives that will stay in touchwith each nursery. This is an exciting project that highlights the Native Plant Society of Texas' goal: "to promote research, conservation and utilization of native plants and plant habitats of Texas through education, outreach, and example".
Elizabeth Parks
Biological Assessment Team Members Needed in East Texas
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Diversity Program is looking for knowledgeable individuals interested in joining an East Texas team of plant or herp enthusiasts to participate in a biological assessment on private property near Ben Wheeler, TX, Van Zandt County. The goal for this pilot project is to get professionals and hobbyists in the field for some fun botanizing and herping, as well as looking at the feasibility of putting together biological assessment teams for future projects. Another important goal for this project is to help fill the gaps in the Texas Natural Diversity Database. This database, maintained by TPWD, tracks rare species throughout the state and data is greatly needed. For this pilot project there will be two teams, one surveying herps and one surveying plants.
The project begins Friday evening on May 13, 2011 and runs through Sunday, May 15, 2011. The location is private ranch near Ben Wheeler, TX. Exact directions will be given out upon registration.
Agenda:
· May 13th - 7pm - Project Overview then amphibian survey for herp team
· May 14th – Plant and herp surveys at two or more properties (times will be determined by teams)
· May 15th – Continue surveys
There are plush cabins with internet at the ranch but space is limited so please contact me as soon as possible and I will reserve a spot for you.
Future projects may also include bird and mammal survey teams, if herps and plants aren’t your thing. We also plan to expand this project throughout the state, so projects such as this may soon be available in your area.
If you would like join us on May 13th and be a member of a plant or herp team in East Texas, please contact me at:
Marsha E. May
Texas Nature Trackers
Wildlife Diversity Branch
Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept
4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744
(512.389.8062)
Photo Section
Remember to visit: Spot, Snap, Send, & Share on our web site.
http://www.npsot.org/Tyler/Album.html
Announcements
The East Texas Garden Conference on February 12 will be at the Rose Center
Caddo Wildflower Chapter NPSOT: meets the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Meetings are held in Atlanta at Horn Enterprises located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Texas Hwy. 77and Texas Hwy. 43. (Just off U.S. 59 on the southwest sideof Atlanta.) The old Texas National Guard armory sits diagonally across the same intersection on the southwest corner. The Atlanta ISD Junior High School is across the street.
Lake Country Chapter NPSOT: meets at 7:00 p.m. the first Tuesday at the Titus County AgriLife Extension building, 1708 Industrial Road (FM 1402), Mount Pleasant.
Four Corners Chapter NPSOT: meets at 7:00 p.m. the first Thursday at Williams Memorial United Methodist Church parlor, 4000 Moores Lane, Texarkana.
Northeast Texas Organic Gardeners: meets at 10:00 a.m. the 1st Wednesday at Wildwood Eco-Farm in Kilgore. For directions call Carole Ramke at 903-986-9475
Cypress Basin Chapter Texas Master Naturalist: meets at 6:30 p.m. the 3rd Tuesday most months. For information on location email the president, Ted Barrow, @
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