Volunteers Tackle Trail Demo With Teamwork

Wow! We had one fabulous assemblage of volunteers this past Saturday to help pull up the old trail underlayment in preparation for a new shell path. Two of our weekly volunteer staff Catlin and George were joined by Michael, Erin, and Brian, Richard, Jeanne, David, Judy, and myself for some seriously dirty and back challenging work.  The first couple of volunteers to arrive (Jeanne and David) dove into the work right away. The rest of the mornings introductions were done on the fly…”good morning, gloves are over there, hop right in and just follow the lead” :-)!!

 

The volunteers cleared 2/3 of the trail or just over 900 linear feet of Geoblock 4-5 ft wide. That’s over 4000 sq ft of material lifted from the ground. That was 4ooo sq ft of plastic grid full of gravel, wet sand, anchored to the ground with weed and tree roots! And, all of this was accomplished in just 4 hours. I was truly impressed by the tenacity with which the team tackled the project. And, I am truly grateful for all the help!

Much thanks again to members of the Jose Gaspar Toastmasters of Tampa; Richard, Jeanne, David, and Judy (the Toastmasters public speaking group meets at MOSI and volunteers for the museum and the Back Woods), extra thanks to Jeanne and David for the field ‘power station’ to keep the drills recharged, Catlin and George for putting in an extra day (you guys are the best), Brian (nice to see you again), Erin (Gator Gal extraordinaire), and husband Michael (thanks honey!)…an additional note of thanks goes to ‘Super Amazing Steve’ from our facilities staff for the last minute manufacture of specialty tool for the job; the volunteers send their thanks!

Pioneers in Space

Part of the challenge in habitat restoration that entails clearing mechanically or with herbicide is just what will take advantage of all that new growing space. Often it is not the species you desire. Case in point; the ubiquitous Caesar weed (Urena lobata). This aggressive pioneer species has taken advantage of the recent cleaning and clearing around the outdoor stage complex.

A vast carpet of paired cotyledons glow green from a thick compost of sand live oak leaf litter. I am amazed at the density of seedlings in this area. It makes me ponder dozens and dozens of children attentive to some program on the stage. Mindlessly they pluck away at the sticky burs caught in their clothing on their trip through the woods and drop them to fertile earth at their feet. There they lie in thick litter beneath a dense canopy, made denser by invasive vines, suppressed from growth. Then noble intentioned conservators armed with sharpened metal and the fruits of chemical ingenuity release vital elements of life, growing space. Then did mother nature let forth the final ingredient, a deluge of rain. It rained, they were sown, they conquered….time to break out the Round-Up.

Welcome Rain

I had been watching tensely as the dry days kept coming following our recent pine planting. I was cringing as the candles on the longleaf seedlings wilted in the heat. I was afraid we were going to lose significant numbers of trees. Fortunately, the recent rains have provided some much needed moisture and relief from the heat. Most of the pines are perky and happily soaking up every last drop the sky lets loose on them.

The wetlands are filled to capacity again and water is still overflowing Buttonbush pond to the sinkhole complex (pictured above). The frogs are in heaven. The cacophony of courting following the first really significant deluge was nearly deafening. I heard way too many non native Cuban tree frogs (Osteopilus septentrionalis) and a few greenhouse frogs (Eleutherodactylus planirostris) in the mix but, was pleased to hear competing choruses from southern toads (Bufo terrestris) and a few green tree frogs (Hyla cinerea). I really need to buff up on my frog calls to better determine the diversity our anuran residents. Check out the Frog Listening Network to beef up your own skills and take part in citizen science network of collecting data.

Find out more about Florida frogs and toads at this UF Wildlife Extension page

Green Day Photos

All the smiling faces and helping hands at MOSI's Green Day 2009

MOSI Green Day 2009

Wow, what an absolutely smashing success! First off I have to extend my thanks to the 204 VOLUNTEERS who showed up Saturday to participate in the plantings and clean up! Can you believe that number?! There are some seriously awesome folks in Tampa Bay who are all about making a difference any way they can. My most sincere thanks and kudos go out to them!

This past Saturday MOSI held it’s first ever Green Day event to celebrate the week of Earth Day and National Arbor Day. MOSI led into the event with plantings in the Richard T Bowers Historic Tree Grove starting Wednesday on Earth Day carrying through to Friday on Arbor Day. Nine thematic plantings tied in with the unique histories of the trees in the grove were funded by a grant from Fiskars and were installed by another corps of awesome volunteers led by Kristen G our curator of the BioWorks, butterfly gardens and tree grove. (Check out Kristen’s blog Lepcurious for more details and pictures)

Saturday MOSI held a Green themed exhibitor fair in the Richard T Bowers Historic Tree Grove with some wonderful folks including; Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, South West Florida Water Management District, Natural Resource Planning Services, Morningstar Fisherman, M & B Products, HCC Institute of Florida Studies, Galaxy Eco Wash, Enviro-tech, Green Armada, FL Aquarium Green Team, Baby Girl Cleaning Products, Hillsborough County Solid Waste, Posey Power Batteries, and a few more (apologies to anyone I am missing!)

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful was pivotal in helping us recruit and register 204 volunteers for the event. Volunteers cleaned up a mile and a half of city roadways including Fowler Avenue in front of the museum and the side streets bordering the Back Woods. More volunteers bagged trash along the nature trails and dug out long buried trash deep in the woods. Another team of volunteers filled bags and bags with seed pods of invasive trees. With shovels lent to MOSI by Hillsborough County’s Special Events Team, volunteers planted 90 longleaf pine throughout the east and west sandhills of the Back Woods. Cub Scout Pack 78, always up to any task, took on trimming trees growing into the trails. An intrepid group of Girl Scouts dove into duty late in the day cleaning and raking the trails. And with some serious gusto, teams of volunteers armed only with rakes and shovels and some serious fortitude filled in the plow line from our recent brush fire!!

Many thanks go out to all the MOSI staff and friends for help making the day possible. Thanks to Phil, Joel, Guest Services, Custodial, Parking, Cafe, Kristen, Sara, MOSI Science Store, and probably a ton more staff I am forgetting. Thanks to Mindy from NRPS for help mapping and flagging trees. Super thanks to Will and T.R.E.E. Inc. for donating nearly 100 longleaf pines for the plantings! Thanks to Steve for helping me schlep all those trees in and out of the truck! Thank you to Walter for taking photographs (and to Erin for letting me borrow him.) And, thanks to Joe and Pat for helping me heft 60 plus bags of garbage in the dumpster at the end of the day!

Our most sincere thanks go to the folks who provided extras for all of our amazing volunteers; thank you to Natural Resource Planning Services for providing over 200 bottles of water for our volunteers, thank you to M&B Products for providing water and juice in their unique bags to our volunteers, thank you to Dunkin Donuts for providing coffee and donuts for our volunteers, super thanks to MOSI for giving all volunteers a free pass to MOSI, and super super thanks to Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful for providing volunteers with t-shirts, sunscreen, bracelets, more water, tote bags, snacks, and other goodies in appreciation of their great service!

Thanks to Pat and Daisy from Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful for all of their awesome efforts with out which the day would not have been possible. KHCB does some really awesome work with almost no staff and more enthusiasm than 100 people!

Here is looking forward to MOSI’s Green Day 2010, Cheers!

More Gopher Goodness

Couple more shots from my guests from the EPC.

Looks like hatchling size to me but, seems a little out place in that much of the literature indicates breeding season starting around April with up to a 100 day gestation. So, we’ll assume he is probably last years brood going on 6-9 months old. Our resident ecologist Celina has them on her radar now. Won’t be long and I am sure she’ll be giving us a full rundown as soon she comes across one!

Outdoor Stage Renovation

Boy Scout Andrew D. preformed some renovation work on the outdoor stage area as part of the requirements to earn his Eagle Scout status. This past Saturday; Andrew, family, and other scouts cleared the outdoor stage platform and surrounding area of weedy debris, reset the campfire rings and resurfaced all the seating with new stained and treated planks. Awesome work Andrew! MOSI and I thank you immensely!

Just to give you an idea of the improvement this photo is of the state of the seating area in July of 2008.

Snapping Turtle Tease

Man am I a sucker for critters. There is not a one out there I cannot be induced to coo over (well except maybe Huntsman spiders). Here is my latest coo.

This little snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina serpentina) was making his or her way out of the stormwater retention to the wetland this morning. This is the time of year we might see aquatic turtles moving in and out of wetland areas to find mates.

It may be a little early (but it seems like a lot of things are happening early this year) but this animal may have been moving out of the wetland looking for a nesting area to lay eggs.

A note on the photo quality. Sadly, my (personal) Nikon Coolpix 4500 has suffered some sort of malfunction. Borrowing a later generation coolpix from the museum exhibits department has been disappointing. Of course the question is…is it the user or the equipment…I’ll definitely take part of the blame in needing to get up to speed with a new camera but, the lens on this later model does not produce the color and clarity of my old 4500, sigh.

Plow Line Clean-up

We are in need of volunteers to help us fill in the plow lines cut in to contain our recent brush fire. The level of activity is moderate. We will be using hand tools (shovels, rakes, etc) to fill and level the soil surface where the plow lines were cut. If you are interested in participating in reoccurring volunteer service as a Back Woods Forest Steward, please email me at crhodes@mosi.org.

Wildfire in the Back Woods

Got a call this afternoon around 2pm from my boss telling me there was a wildfire in the Back Woods. Local fire departments were already on scene and working to cut fence and get hose and people into the fire by the time I received the call. Dashing out to the woods as fast as the gator would carry me; I was able to capture a few photos of some active fire at the end of the event and before the local FD asked me to leave. The big palmetto is on the north side of the big sink hole.The composite shot is from the center of the big sink hole. The Division of Forestry was on hand at the end of the day to help with the mop up and put a plow line in around the fire to prevent it from spreading from the containment area from any flame-ups tonight or tomorrow. Needless to say we have some fairly significant damage from the plow lines. Volunteers will be needed to do some plow line restoration. Interested? Email me!

Owl Remnants

Sadly one of our forest sentinels is silently composting in the Back Woods. I am not completely positive of the identification. I am pretty sure it is either a barred owl or a great horned owl, both of which have been documented using the Back Woods. Any birders out there who could confirm the id? Sigh.

Scat Alert

One man’s scat is this foresters smile of the day. I present to you; gopher tortoise poo.