Like gazing at clouds…the many shapes of air potatoes beg a little whimsical exercise of the imagination…
Rubber ducky tater…
Saguaro cactus tater… 
Venus of Willendorf tater… 
Martian landscape tater… 
And then of course there is the trash…
Humpback whale added to the Back Woods species list, check….
Headless dinosaur…
And the random selection of delectables notably munched upon and abandoned along a well traveled critter trail…
What a wonderfully frosty start to the new year. Much of the Back Woods vegetation is thoroughly dormant right now. The few Semi evergreen and evergreen trees and shrubs stand out starkly against the sleeping skeletons of deciduous trees. The warming weather has brought our gopher tortoises out foraging to make up for lost time in a torpor over the wintery past couple of weeks. We did catch a fine example of some mighty generous and frosty gopher tortoise poo deposited right before the freezes.
Volunteers George, Shayna, and Catlin helped me finish pulling up the last of the plastic on the main trail in preparation for the new shell bed. Local contractor Scheid’s Tractor Service did an awesome job of laying out the shell and doing a finally grade by hand! Thanks Eddie, it looks great. The new trail really looks fabulous and feels great underfoot. It is definitely crunchy, as a couple of people noted, but that should evolve as the material breaks down under traffic. The new surface is now much safer surface for hikers of all abilities. Take a moment to peak your feet from time to time, there is some other fossiliferous material mixed in with shell. You might just find a sharks tooth or two if you have a keen eye.
More on the Volunteer front: Great news for the Back Woods! Volunteer Catlin has begun an internship with us in conjunction with finishing an Environmental Science and Policy degree at USF. We are very happy to have her input and help as we complete the last of the requirements of our EPC grant and move on implementing a new grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service rehabbing the uplands.
The past two weeks have been a doozies for finding the weird in the Back Woods. A collection of the usual unusual as we continue to pick up and maintain the preserve.
Yay, the boardwalk is complete! Kudos to Golf Coast Construction on their attractive new addition to our Back Woods. A little more tidying up around the entry and exit and the boardwalk is really going shine as the first experience as you enter the Back Woods. Hard to believe it is even the same location when we look back to what was there a little over a year ago.
Golf Coast also spruced up our stormwater staging ponds by regrading and resodding them. Normally this would have been an easy dry winter task but our El Nino wet winter pattern left the ponds with plenty of water. Still the contractors made easy work of it and the stormwater system will function more as it was intended.
A crunchy icy slog through a mostly dry Buttonbush Pond yielded these pictures of the effects of the recent frosty weather. Just beautiful! The one good thing about a bout of thoroughly cold weather is that seems to make the forest a little healthier the following year. Many diseases and pest insects seem to be brought into check, deciduous trees appear to have more vigor, and even the some of the subtropicals seem renewed later in the year. And of course it does a number on the air potato, hoorah. Just about time for Tater round-up, stay tuned!!
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!
Construction of the new boardwalk got underway this week just in time for all the stormy weather. Posts from the previous boardwalk had to be removed before construction of the new walk could begin. The crew from Golf Construction seem to be having plenty of fun slogging about in the thick of it to get the job done.
Oh boy, this Saturday December 19th is going to be some down and dirty fun. About a dozen intrepid volunteers have signed up to help us pull up the old plastic Geoblock underlayment from the nature trail. Fortunately for us, it looks like the rain will let up just in time for the work to start tomorrow morning. The chilly temperatures expected might just be perfect for the heavy load of the day, pulling up nearly a 1/3 mile of plastic panels all screwed together and full of rock. I am excited to see the trail with out the Geoblock which has been exposed and damaged for a number of years. The short experimental stretch that volunteer Shayna and I pulled up yesterday looks really good. If you are free we could always use a couple of extra hands. Volunteers are meeting in the far southeast parking lot of the museum at 7:45 am, see ya there!! :-)
I am remiss in yet lauding the activities of our two new repeat volunteers. College students Shayna and Catlin joined us in October. Since that time, they have made a serious impact on invasive species with their weekly volunteer activities. The gals took the lead in clearing air potato by hand out of the bottoms west of the Buttonbush Pond. From there, they have been tackling the Caesar weed (Urena lobata) that sprang up en masse in the plow line cut to control the brush fire last spring. I can not thank these women enough for their dedicated efforts in the Back Woods.
We welcome back our volunteer George. Down for the winter, George brings his trail maintenance experience from working on access trails to the AT at his summer home. He is currently helping me break down all the cherries we are thinning out of the forest. George also volunteers for us on a weekly basis, we are very happy to have him back.
Possibly to become a weekly tradition is a post featuring the the endless supply of air potatoes and more unusual or interesting trash collected during our work in the Back Woods. I humbly bring you this week’s Taters and Trash.
