Po S t Oak Arlington

Conservation Council

Volume 19, Number 6

july 2017

ACC float July 4, 2015

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3 From the President 4 Bits & Pieces 5 An honor for Tandy Hills 6 Blackland Prairie Nature Preserve 7 Johnson Creek history 8 Molly Hollar Wildscape update

9 A note from Molly Hollar 10 Fielder butterfly garden tour 12 Southwest Nature Preserve 13 Where did the foxes go? 14 July 4th parade 17 In case you missed it

No July Meeting We’re marching in the 4th of July parade instead

2016 2014

Contents

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ACC Post Oak Our mission: ACC works to protect Arlington’s natural environment through edu-cation, community service, and advocacy for a sustain-able future Published 10 times a year by Arlington Conservation Council P.O. Box 216, Arlington, TX 76004-0216. John Darling, Editor 1darling@sbcglobal.net Contributors John Blair, Julia Burgen, Grace Darling, J.M Domke, Candy Halliburton, Molly Hollar, Jan Miller, Wesley Miller, Marylee Thomason Proofreaders Marian Hiler, Grace Darling Deadline for submissions is the 15th of every preceding month. Please send them to 1darling@sbcglobal.net

From the President Jan Miller A great big, red-white-and-blue YAHOO for ACC’s Grand Prize Award winning 4th of July parade team, headed by Marian Hiler and Ann Knudsen. ACC’s entry proved that green is beautiful, while reminding everyone to be “Naturally Wild, Texas Style.” Don’t miss the photos and more in this issue. Here we go again: The governor’s special TxLege session is set to convene July 18 and a bill “preventing cities from regulating what private property owners do with trees on private land” is likely to be authored by Workman and Hall. This is a new attempt to limit local control, which started with SB40 in 2015. You can learn more about this and ways you can help at www.defendtexastrees.org. Arlington is one of 51 Texas cities that could lose what protections we have, so please, write a letter or make a call. Look for more on this topic by Grace Darling in this issue. While we’re on the topic of state regulation, or lack of it, “Breakdowns in Enforcement,” a report co-authored by Environ-mental Integrity Project and Environment Texas, found declining enforcement of environmental regulations industrial pollution events. An article on the EIP site outlines causes of this trend, dis-cusses how groups are working to reverse it, and has a link to the full report. Do you have ideas for improving our air quality? Due to the infa-mous Volkswagen (VW) settlement, billions of dollars are available for AQ improvement projects. ACC and other local groups are sponsoring two local meetings, with one on July 26, 7-9 pm at Fort Worth Botanic Garden. For more information or to RSVP, see this site. Much more in this special issue, thanks to many of you and to our devoted editors. Enjoy!

Julia Burgen article Former Arlington mayor Richard Greene has an excellent piece on Julia and Johnson Creek in the latest issue of Arlington Today. Find it here. Click on the July issue and scroll to page 82.

Inspiration

I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it. William Shakespeare

Backyard Beauty A passing butterfly caused some confusion the other day. Your editor got excited about a pipevine swallowtail that his more observant wife identified as a red-spotted purple butterfly that we had never seen or even heard about. This is a big, bold creature with a huge range that just reaches this area. Our subspecies of the red-spotted purple is, in fact, a mimic of the poisonous pipevine swallowtail, but only where their ranges overlap. We must have been lucky to see it; adults live only a week or two, and they might be rare here. One thing for sure: This marvelous butterfly needs a much catchier name than red-spotted pur-ple. Above, red-spotted purple butterfly. Below, pipevine swal-lowtail.

Can’t get enough butterflies Did you ever stop to think that an organic chemist could produce an enjoyable article that combines bits of human interest, very serious chemistry, and a wonderful story about queen butterflies and mist-flowers? Master Naturalist Ray Conrow has done just that and you ought to read it here.

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Bits & Pieces

Join us and act locally. Use the handy

application form on the back page.

Visit us on the web

www.acctexas.org

Photo courtesy of Kim Conrow

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An honor for Tandy Hills Natural Area

The Post Oak will not knowingly accept sponsors who are deceptive, misleading, or expressly incompatible with its mission. The Post Oak does not endorse, advocate, or guarantee any offer, viewpoint or represen-tation made by its sponsors.

The prairie gem in East Forth Worth is now a Lone Star Legacy Park thanks to an award from Texas Recrea-tion and Park Society. The story was recently reported by GreenSource DFW, and you can learn more here. Certainly everyone who cares for nature in Arlington and throughout the region must be happy for all the vol-unteers who have worked so hard to protect and improve the area. Tandy Hills cofounder Don Young said of the award, “It helps add another layer of protection to the park and enhances our credibility with the city with whom we have to work to manage and enhance this park.”

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Blackland Prairie Nature Preserve photos by Wes Miller

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.

John Ruskin

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Johnson Creek history Julia Burgen

An open letter to the many mem-bers and friends of Arlington Conservation Council Words are inadequate to express my thanks and appreciation to all of you for the May and June ACC newslet-ters with information about and images of the May 25 park dedica-tion for Julia Burgen Park on the Johnson Creek Greenway. Your coverage indeed did justice to the long name for this park and for the long time needed for its creation. ACC’s involvement, and mine, with this central Arlington waterway goes back at least to the 1990s, well actu-ally to the 1980s for me. I have yet to find the Arlington Citizen Journal article from sometime in the ‘80s about two parks department employees who walked the length of Johnson Creek to get a “boots in the mud” feel for the creek. I was quite impressed by their description and the potential for a central city waterway. Unfortunately, occasional floods were a problem, and by the early ‘90s several serious floods led to much talk about solutions, including dredging and concrete-lined chan-nels. The Corps of Engineers was called in for advice and engineering suggestions. The upshot was that in October 1995 city council was to vote yea or nay on approving a COE project to install a concrete-lined channel from approximately Park Row to Collins Street near Mitchell. Arlington Conservation Council, Arlington Neighborhood Council, and a newly formed Friends of John-

son Creek advocated a study and plan to determine if another solution allowing space for the creek plus adjacent parkland might be a better solution. Members began talking with friends and city officials. In September O. K. Carter and I walked the creek area east of Center and west of Collins. The result was a newspaper column by Carter that made a case for positive benefits from a green corridor, removal of flood-prone properties, and creation of a greenway park. Much commu-nity discussion ensued about the best solution for flooding along Johnson Creek. In October, Ron Wright also wrote a column favorable to a greenway approach as the best solu-tion over the long run. Arlington City Council was sched-uled to vote on the issue on October 31, 1995. The greenway approach was approved by a 5 to 4 vote. Sup-porters were Mayor Richard Greene, Council Members Judy Rupay, Wayne Ogle, Paula Hightower, and Dan Serna. It was a very courageous vote to turn down $4.5 million from the Corps of Engineers to build a concrete channel.

A lengthy book could be written to detail the full story of Johnson Creek from its beginning to now. Suffice it to say that we have the start of a creek greenway from Park Row to Collins Street. We have Gateway Park at the southern source of Johnson Creek, and Founders Linear Park from Vandergriff Park to the Historical Park on Arkansas Lane. Meadowbrook Park needs only a connection under Collins Street to link up its piece of Johnson Creek. The creek then continues north under Abram and Division Streets and eventually bends to the north-east along the linear parks running through the entertainment district. Six Flags Over Texas was built in the 1960s along Johnson Creek. From there the creek continues northeast, eventually to go under highways 30 and 360 into Grand Prairie and on to the Trinity River. Again, I want to express my grati-tude to ACC members and friends for your creek support over the years. The park opening was a spe-cial event for all of us to share and remember.

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Molly Hollar Wildscape Update Marylee Thomason

Josephine Keeney held a plant sale for the wildscape at the Fielder House in June, with gross proceeds of $515. Seventy-five plants were sold, and Carol Shin-sky was the best customer. Friends of the Wildscape In an attempt to continue the dynamic leadership of recently retired Molly Hollar, volunteers are rejuvenating the Friends of the Wildscape (FOTW). Joe Martinez is spearheading the effort

to hold scheduled meetings, elect officers and coordinate with the city over signs, kiosks and fencing repairs. Ann Knudsen and Danny Kocurek have met with city staff from the Parks Department and plan a walk-through on July 28. Sign committee members — Jane Oosterhuis, Hester Schwarzer and Teresa Day-Fickel — have ordered six corrugated signs with please-stay-out-of-the-flower-beds phrases intended to discour-age people from trampling the plants. For those interested in buying native plants, the wildscape fall plant sale will be held at the greenhouse in Randol Mill Park on Saturday, September 16 from 9 am until 1 pm.

Ann Knudsen is seeking volun-teers from Master Naturalists and Master Gardeners to take over the establishment and care of the pocket prairie. In the momentous decisions cate-gory, the volunteers have named Molly Hollar the Wildscape Co-ordinator Emeritus. Note: Speak-ing of Molly, see her response to your tributes last month on the next page. Regular meetings will be held every third Wednesday in the compost area after the workday. All who wish to participate are invited.

Left to right: Rosalie Rogers, Jane Oosterhuis, Carol Shinsky and Jim Landers rescue an over-grown area behind the overlook where cedar elm trees and non-native invasive ground covers have multiplied. Out came beggar’s lice (hedge parsley), and in went side oats grama, yarrow and Texas lantana. Hidden under the removed foliage were welcome natives snake herb, ratany and whorled milkweed.

A mother bluebird broods her clutch of blue eggs in one of the nesting boxes. Charley Amos and Donna Piercy added two more nesting boxes at the wildscape this spring. Donna is reporting information on the blue-birds to the Cornell University orni-thology labs’ NestWatch program.

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A note from Molly Hollar

To my wonderful volunteer friends, Thank you for your generous tributes. Your letters brought tears to my eyes and seriously left me speechless, for once. My favorite place to be is outside among the trees, and my favorite people are volunteers who generously give for others. The past 21 years, with all of you super volunteers, have been my Nirvana. You are so generous and giving of your time, which makes you among the best peo-ple in the world, in my opinion. Being in nature with you, pursuing the wildscape mission, has greatly enriched my life and has given me meaning and purpose. I feel that the time that I have given has come back to me tenfold through the loving friendships that I have with you. You have all contributed your individual talents to create an amazing and synergistic team that has made huge strides for conservation of our earth and has educated our community and beyond. You have dug holes through hard clay, whacked and lugged huge privet bushes, ripped up Bermuda grass, and eradicated poison ivy, to mention only a few of the many physical feats you have accomplished. Then you went the extra mile to influence and educate others to understand the importance of using native plants to attract wildlife, conserve resources, and reconnect with nature. So you not only have created our incredible wildscape but also have inspired so many people, of all ages, and walks of life, to love and preserve nature. With the determination of all of you, I'm confident that our wildscape team will continue to be an example for our community. Under Ann's super leadership, I know our mission will persevere, grow and thrive, as a shining example that will reach far and wide. I thank you for all of your many hard working hours, your talents and contributions, your dedication, and your friendship! Molly

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Fielder House butterfly garden tour

The late afternoon of June 29 was just as warm as you’d think, but the weather didn’t stop a large group of people from braving the afternoon sun to learn about at-tracting butterflies with native plants at Arlington’s Fielder House Museum butterfly garden. The garden is a work in progress supported by Arlington Organic Garden Club and Cross Timbers Master Naturalists. The tour was hosted by Master Naturalists Josephine Keeney, Jane Oosterhuis, and Charley Amos. (Frank Keeney was working hard, too.) It featured looks at the small but remarkably diverse garden — 32 nectar plants, 52 host and nec-tar plants, 84 species total — and lots of information about the vir-tues of the organically grown Texas native plants that our imper-iled butterflies must have to live and reproduce. The tour was followed by a presen-tation on local butterfly species, presented and beautifully illus-trated by Josephine. The tour will be repeated on Thursday, July 20, and will feature different species of butterflies. Want more information? Contact Josephine@texasstar.org. Middle photos clockwise from upper left: Josephine Keeney, center; Charley Amos, left; Frank Keeney, left; Jane Oosterhuis, left.

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On June 7 we tried out a new meeting place (Pantego Lions Club) and quite a large number of members and friends found it. That was good for all of us because UNT’s Dr Jessica Beckham deliv-ered a packed presentation on Texas bumble bees. Her talk had a bit of everything we crave: charis-matic animals and fascinating natu-ral history. Sadly, we also heard the story that has become com-monplace, declining populations and environmental problems that may seem overwhelming. We’re indebted to Dr Beckham for an excellent presentation.

Thanks to our speaker Thinking of Sharon Schoech

On July 2 it was a privilege to be among so many kind people who came together to remember and celebrate the life of Sharon Schoech at River Legacy Living Science Center. Photo by Jon Spencer Stewart.

Cattle Egrets We sit together in the evening air At my brother’s place, Laughing and talking, Lost in the present, Hooked on each other. Overhead small clouds scud, Blown by the western wind From Mexico to Mississippi, Crosstracing iridescent cirrus, Those crystals at the edge of space. I idly watch as white birds Flap firmly past, Thinking they are pigeons, Thinking they are common (Though all life is rare).

Suddenly I catch a flash of buff, Noting then the supple necks And slender legs as more birds, Dozens, scores, a hundred, Splash the sky with intermittent splendor. Cattle egrets, dressed in breeding plumes, Are flocking to their hidden roost Somewhere yonder in the dusk And glorify our lives unbidden, Reminding us to look for wonder. ©2004 John I. Blair

Friends of SWNP

No July Program Next Meeting August 15

Coming Up Saturday, July 15: Beginner Birdwatching Workshop and Survey 8 am Optional classroom instruction. Free, but RSVP requested due to limited seating; contact Rachel Roberts, 817/985-2135 or rroberts@cityofkennedale.com 8:30 – 10 am Birdwatching at SWNP (5201 S. Bowman Springs Rd.) Free, everyone welcome. Bring binoculars if you have them, but some loaners will be available. Also, consider bringing water, a hat, and sunscreen. For more info, see the SWNP sites below or: http://www.cityofkennedale.com/DocumentCenter/View/2763 For more information about Southwest Nature Preserve, see www.swnp.org or e-mail info@swnp.org. Last Month J. M. Domke The Friends of Southwest Nature Preserve had an interesting speaker on June 20 — Ray Rentschler, field operations administrator for the Arlington Animal Services spoke about all the wildlife in the city. He then mentioned how earlier this month they started trying to help a neighborhood in north Arlington which has been invaded by egrets. He said they had to wear raincoats and one neighbor washes his new truck daily of bird droppings. They are trying to help but have to wait till October when the birds fly south; by then the trees might be dead. They will then work to remove the nests before the birds return in the spring. A horrible situation in what the neighbors thought was a beautifully shady street. Rentschler said this was the first time anything like this has happened in Arlington. Related information here. Ray has a great sense of humor and gave a very interesting talk, noting that it isn't nice to move wildlife out of their ter-ritories, so for example, Animal Services tries to move opossums just a few blocks away from problem spots.

Means and Ends You may recall that we received a grant at Earth Day Texas to install a pollinator garden at the southwest-ern edge of the preserve. Recent work by Parks & Rec staff has involved spraying an herbicide to remove Bermuda grass and many other weeds. As we learn more about the environmental effects of herbicides, we’re placed in the position of having to hope that the long-term benefits from restored polli-nator habitat and reduced mowing will outweigh the negatives of herbicide application.

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Southwest Nature Preserve Jan Miller

Where did the foxes go? Candy Halliburton, story and photos

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We had two adult gray foxes in our neighborhood that would wander through our backyard. We kept hearing rustling sounds coming from our next door neighbors' shed and found out from them that there were four kits, which they had even recorded playing in the yard. They said they wouldn't disturb them and I suspect that since foxes leave their dens not long after birth, they have probably moved on, hopefully to a place with plenty of brush and a good water supply. We did spot a critter control truck in our neighborhood several times recently. The truck stated they relocated animals, but I have learned that foxes don't do well when relocated. We have several neighbors who were concerned about the safety of their pets, and even one who insisted the foxes

were coyotes. I explained to her why it was a fox and not a coyote, but she feared for her little dog and said she knew the difference because she had lived in Texas her whole life. We need to help edu-cate our neighbors but that doesn't mean it will always take hold. Gray foxes are one of the few members of the canine family that can climb trees, and we saw one

of them climb a leaning branch on our yaupon holly a couple of times in order to reach our fence. This species can be found in a woodland habitat but have adapted to living in close prox-imity to humans, thus the differ-ence between living in and build-ing their dens in rock crevices or tree hollows versus under a back-yard shed. They are good swim-mers and need to be near a water source (although we are several blocks away from any sort of creek or pond). Gray foxes are small and are preyed upon by coyotes. They are ominivores whose diet consists of small mammals (of the rodent variety, along with rabbits), birds and insects much of the year, but in the late summer and fall they eat persimmons and acorns. You can find more good information on this website. Common Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoar-genteus)

July 4th parade: ACC float wins Grand Prize

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After years of presenting the odd-est floats in Arlington’s otherwise glittering parade, ACC has just been awarded the Grand Prize, somehow beating all 130 entries in every category. An honor, and also a big shock for a float made from recycled, reusable stuff, and some-times junk. And always promoting environmental awareness under the appropriately patriotic surface.

How could this have happened? As always, it began with arts-and-craftsy ideas from Marian Hiler, who will tell you that it was really the efforts of volunteers and many hours of straightening, cutting, drilling, stringing, stapling, towing, sewing, and even ironing. And materials, of course: almost 580 aluminum cans, about 90 soda straws, 30 coat hangers, and 50 stars. Whew.

Preparations, clockwise from upper left: Ann Knudsen, Marian Hiler, Marian and Peggy Quinn, Wayne Halliburton, Anthony Caddell-Adams, Candy Halliburton.

Photo courtesy of Paul Knudsen, ArlingtoNOW.com.

continued on page 15

July 4th parade

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Construction, clockwise from upper left: Mike Kolanko and Danny Kocurek rough it out, Frederick Hiler drills bottle caps, Anthony and Danny place fireworks, Danny fixes the star, Marian and Mike figure out flowers, Danny and Mike raise the flag, Marian wonders which flower goes where. Center, Mike and Danny consider the blank slate.

continued on page 16

July 4th parade

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Big finish, clockwise from upper left: It’s the second year for our refurbished eagle. Roy Miliner and float as we leave the staging area. What’s a float without girls? Flower detail. More flower detail. The Texas star with actual aluminum laurel leaves. Our musicians persevered, despite a persistent fire engine siren. Center: Marian and Ann with hard-earned trophies.

Read much more about all this here. You’ll find a great article by Julie Thibodeaux in the latest offering from Greensource DFW.

In case you missed it Grace Darling

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Every Step Counts The UK company Pavegen has devel-oped a special floor tile that generates electricity whenever someone walks over it. As people step on the tiles, their weight pushes down on electro-magnetic induction generators causing them to move. The kinetic energy is then transferred into off-grid electric-ity which is stored in batteries. As well as producing electricity, the floor tiles also collect data such as fre-quency of footfall that may be used to predict peak timings and prime loca-tions, ideal information for surround-ing businesses. What's more, anyone who steps on the tiles who is con-nected via a mobile APP collects points that are converted into a digital currency to reward loyalty or to donate to charitable causes. Pavegen has completed over 150 pro-jects around the world, across various sectors including train stations, shop-ping centers, airports and public spaces. It’s also worked with brands like Coca-Cola and Siemens. Its most recent installations were in West End London and in Heathrow Airport. Hotter Than . . . Hopes that the world’s huge carbon emissions might not drive tempera-tures up to dangerous levels have been dashed by new research. A study pub-lished in Science Advances shows that temperature rises measured over recent decades do not fully reflect the global warming already in the pipeline and that the ultimate heating of the planet could be even worse than feared. Historical temperature meas-urements indicate a lower climate sensitivity than models or paleocli-mate data because the Earth has a fast

and a slow response to increases in carbon emissions, scientists explain. Land, mostly in the northern hemi-sphere, heats up quickly. But the oceans are big and full of cold water, especially at depth, and take a long time to heat up. When the slow warming does kick in, it is likely to reduce the cloud cover that shades the southern oceans, amplifying the heat-ing. This may already be happening: the rapid increase in tempera-tures since 2014 could be partly due to the eastern Pacific catching up, says one scientist. The accelerated warm-ing has implications for melting of the world’s ice sheets and the rising sea levels that already threaten many coastal cities. Neonicotinoids' Pervasive Harm A recent study published in Sci-ence, carried out on corn farms in Canada, found crops were not the main source of neonicotinoids to which bees were exposed. Instead, the contaminated pollen came from wild-flowers, indicating that "neonico-tinoids, which are water soluble, spill over from fields into the surrounding environment, where they are taken up by other plants that are very attractive to bees,” said the lead researcher. "The potential long-term persistence of neonicotinoids in the soil . . . raises the specter of a reprise of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring," warned a German soil scientist. A Plastic Rainbow? A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change. More than

480 billion plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300 billion a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun. New figures obtained by The Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade. The demand, equiva-lent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanized “on the go” culture to China and the Asia Pacific region. Texas Governor vs. Trees When Governor Greg Abbott included nixing local tree ordinances as one of 20 agenda items for the July 18 special session, many were left scratching their heads. But by perus-ing city records, a Texas Observer reporter found Abbott violated condi-tions of a permit he received in 2011 to demolish his 4,540-square-foot home in West Austin and replace it with a larger two-story, four-bedroom house with a backyard pool. The per-mit required Abbott to protect two large pecan trees — considered "heritage trees” by the city of Austin — but he didn’t follow the plan and the construction killed one of the trees. He was later allowed to remove the pecan tree and at least three other trees on the property but was required to plant new trees to make up for the loss, records show. Appar-ently the governor still bears a grudge against the hapless trees, which to him represent the heavy hand of govern-ment on private property rights. The pecan is the state tree of Texas.

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Arlington Conservation Council Membership Application Memberships are good for one year, renewable each January. Your dues go directly to our public education efforts.

Membership Information Name ________________________________________ First-year member $10.00

Address ________________________________________ Individual $15.00

________________________________________ Family $25.00

Phone ________________________________________ Supporting $40.00

E-mail ________________________________________ Sponsor $100.00

Lifetime Individual $250.00

Other $_______________

How did you hear about us? _________________________________________________________________ Make checks payable to Arlington Conservation Council. Mail to ACC, Box 216, Arlington, TX 76004-0216. Contri-butions and dues are not tax-deductible. Note: If you cannot pay, please let any board member know. The only avail-able newsletter format is electronic, and it can be obtained via e-mail and the ACC Web site.

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The Post Oak Arlington Conservation Council

PO Box 216 Arlington, TX 76004-0216

Don’t Forget!

No July

Meeting

President Jan Miller Vice President Dick Schoech Treasurer Marian Hiler

Secretary/Program Coordinator Dick Schoech Webmaster Frank Keeney Editor John Darling

Board Members Grace Darling Candy Halliburton Danny Kocurek Ann Trenton