NEWSLETTER

ROLLING PLAINS

CHAPTER

Vol. 2, No. 7 July 2010http://grovesite.com/tmn/rpc

LOCALE V E N T S

july 6: Rolling Plains Chapter monthly meeting is at River Bend Nature Center. location: 2200 3rd Street, Wichita Falls, Texas. Time: 7:00 p.m. The subject of tonight’s program is “Moths” presented by Jennika Howes. july 16: Firewise Training pre-sented by the Texas Forest Service location: River Bend Time: 7-9 p.m. This an advanced Training evenT.

july 17: Fire Safety Training for Children including a presentation on Smokey the Bear presented by the Texas Forest Service location: River Bend Time: 10 a.m. volun-teers are needed for this event.

augusT 3: Rolling Plains Chap-ter monthly meeting will be held at Msu, not river Bend. Dr. Fred Stangl will be talking on “Cats in Texas” with an emphasis on the Ocelot found near Jack County.

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 1 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

Chapter Participatesin the North American

Butterfly Count

Left: Larry Snyder gets a close up view of a Hackberry butterfly.

North American Butterfly Association count was held at Lake Arrowhead State park June 26. Participants were Earl Anderson, Lila Arnold, Dian Hoehne and her guest 13 year old Megan Jones, Jane McGough, Terry McKee, Lynn Seman, Larry Snyder.

SPECiES SEEN:Hackberry EmperorDwarf YellowCommon SulphurCommon BuckeyeWood NymphPearl CrescentBlack SwallowtailViceroyLittle YellowGrey HairstreakPainted LadyClouded SulphurCabbage White, Queen, Gulf Fritallary and lots of assorted Skippers.

The top three nu-merous butterflies were Hackberry Butterfly with 46 individuals, fol-lowed by Com-mon Buckeye (38 seen) and Black Swallowtail with 19 seen.

TPWDE V E N T S

july 2010 — Devil’s Sinkhole SNA — evening Bat Flights — Every Wednesday-Sunday. Observe up to 3 million bats emerge from the depths of Devil’s Sinkhole. A short program will be given on the Devil’s Sinkhole and its bats. Call for times and fees; reservations re-quired, deadline 3 PM day of tour. (830) 683-3762

july 10, 17, 24, 31, 2010 — Cop-per Breaks SP — campsite Talks — Every Saturday Programs will include workshops on geocach-ing, mountain biking, camping first aid; presentations on cowboy poetry, native american story tell-ing, animal calling, Texas history and archaeology, photography, and more! Call for times and more information. (940) 839-4331.

augusT 14, 2010 — Govern-ment Canyon SNA — hike the canyon — Join the Friends of Government Canyon Volunteers for a guided hike on one of the many trails at the natural area. Dress ap-propriately and wear sturdy hiking shoes; bring two liters of water and a snack. Meet at the Visitors Center by the rainwater harvesting tower; Note new start time 8:00 a.m. - noon.; subject to cancellation; for more in-formation, call (210) 688-9055, ext. 291

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 2 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

Don’t Forget! Turn your hours into jane Mcgough. A form for keeping up with your hours is available on the web site. Hours needed for recertification are: 40 hours of public service and 8 hours of advanced training. Advanced training MUST be approved in advance. Fill out the form and submit along with any other information about the class to the Executive Committee at least one week before the event.

InvadersofTexasinvasive spotlight: Field Brome(Bromus arvensis)

Field brome is a winter annual producing dense, low leafy growth in the fall. Culms are erect and soli-tary and the inflorecence is panicle. it has 1-8 spikelets on each lower branch producing seedheads in late spring or early summer.

This plant displaces desir-able vegetation if not properly managed. it grows vigor-ously under high fertil-ity and growth usually starts earlier than most native

Spring grasses often smothering native grasses and forbs. it is an excellent seed producer and can maintain itself as a reseeding an-nual.

Field brome usually occurs in dry habitats, such as roadsides, waste places on sandy or rocky soils.

Learn more about Field brome and other Texas invasives at texasinva-sives.org/invasives_database

in June Rolling Plains Chapter members participated in a number of events including: Lake Arrowhead Kid Fishing Day on June 5th, the Jr. Angler Education event at Floral Heights Methodist Church on June 10th, Plum Lake Clean-up on June 12th, River Bend’s “Bug Fest” on June 26th and the Great American Backyard Campout at Lake Arrowhead State Park on June 26th.

June was a very Busy Month for theRolling Plains Chapter

Top Left: Earl Anderson, Maggie Bedford, Bill Setzler ready to register kids for the Lake Arrowhead Kid Gishing Day event. Top Right: A young guest enjoys s’mores at Lake Arrowhead State Park June 25 during the Great American Backyard Campout. Bottom Left: Dennis Haws shows his granddaughter Riley how to fish. Bottom Center: Lynn Semen shows spiders to kids attending “Bug Fest” at River Bend June 26th. Bottom Right: Evelyn watches as Ben successfully lands a fish dur-ing the casting training at the Junior Angler program.

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 3 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

chapter contacts:Terry McKee, President 766-4097; Dian Hoehne, Vice President 692-7234; Laura Gillis, Secretary 592-5319; Bill Setzler, Treasurer 692-4466 Committees Chairperson:Leslie Fernandez, RiverBend Liaison 767-0843; Paula Savage, Newsletter 691-0231; Martha Ford and Ev-elyn Staten, Social Committee; Patsy Petcoff, Grants/Fundraising 940-923-4478; Lila Arnold, Communica-tion Chair 696-2471advisor:Mark Howell, TPWD Advisor 766-2383

RESOURCECO

RN

ERDigging Up Texas: A Guide to the Archaeology of the State by Robert MarcomiSBN-10: 1556229372iSBN-13: 978-1556229374Cost: $18.95

A Woodpecker can peck 20 times per second. Woodpeckers don’t get headaches from all that pecking. Their skulls have air pockets to cushion the brain.

FUN

FACT

OID

S Each species of grasshopper has its own song. This is important, as the varied species can-not breed with each other. The female needs to be aware

that she is listening to a male from her own species.in this fasci-nating guide to the ar-chaeology of Texas, Robert Marcom cov-ers the entire story of the peoples and cultures of Texas, from hunter-gatherers chasing bison into arroyos over 10,000 years ago, to the Caddo establishing villages across East Texas during the last millennium, and the relatively recent immigration of pesky Euro-peans and Americans. Few books attempt to integrate the complete history of the state in one place - but seen through the eyes of an archaeologist and pulled together here - the past comes alive as a vivid and exciting story, 500 gen-erations in the making.

Topics covered in this guide to Texas Archaeology:l Past Lifeways, Texas Stylel The First Texansl Ancient Material Culturel Archaic to Proto-historic Cultures of Texasl Woodlands Material Culturel The Spanish and the French— Colonization of Texasl Tejas and the “Gringo” invasionl The Old Frontier: The Red River Warsl The Levi Jordan Plantation Site: Study in Historical Archaeologyl The American indians in Texas

Before a spotted skunk is about to spray it will first do a couple of handstands.

Patsy Petcoff showing off the Atl-atl (or spear-thrower, a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing) at the May 22 seminar on archaeology conducted by Tony Lyle who is with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.