The crew met for our normal workday despite the pending holiday.  It sure feels like summer out there now–with the un-relenting sun and the humidity.  Whew!  But our crew worked on tending the cattails in Ponds B and C and the Seed Crew (Lana, Gail, and Ray) gathered ripe Juncus, Rhynchospora and Cyperus.  Thanks to everyone for coming out in the heat!

We were expecting some heavy rains today but they never showed up during the workday.  So the small crew was able to get out to Ponds B and C and work on the cattails and the encroaching vasey’s grass.  It was a good, productive day.  Thanks to Glenn, John and Chatt for coming out.  🙂 (Sorry that Cullen and I were semi-absentee, but we did complete our tractor training).

Check out the sexy Mud Daubers!!!  Our digger crew (which also included Chatt who apparently refused to pose) headed to pond Bittern to get more plants in the ground.  Meanwhile the seed crew worked on organizing the grow out pond area (getting rid of dead pots and consolidating).  Seed cleaning continues as we have pounds and pounds to process and more to collect.  🙂  Thanks to everyone for your hard work.

This week we (Gail, Diane, Lana and Ray) took the time to collect some ripe seed.  We had been watching the Juncus seed to see if it was ripe enough to collect and Wednesday was as good a day as any to collect.  We also found some ripe Cyperus virens and Rhynchospora caduca.  Lucky us!!  We need all the seed for inoculating the pond edges in phase 2 through the future phase 4.  Meanwhile, the diggers (or should I start calling them the Mud Daubers) planted the last… Read More →

It was a lovely day out at the Park (Sheldon Lake State Park, that is), and the crew had a wonderful opportunity to work in wet conditions (makes the planting 10x easier).  Pond Bittern is looking amazing….so much so, that Chatt took the Seed crew out on a tour.  The Coreopsis in bloom with the Juncus makes for a picturesque scene.  For some of the Seeders, it had been months since they had a chance to see the ponds.  The seed(y) crew prepped the roughly  1300 seeds of… Read More →

This week the crew (Chatt, Diane, Mary and Cullen) ventured out to collect Iris virginica at San Bernard NWR–permits and permission in hand.  This collection benefits the Stormwater Wetland project primarily but we (the WRT) also get some material to propagate.  Our Iris virginica stock was kinda low.  Meanwhile, the seeders (Dick, Gail, John H, Glenn and Ray)  travelled out to Sheldon to pick up on the seed cleaning that needed more work.

We hosted our YES Prep North Central students this week.   While the morning started cool, it warmed up enough for the kids to be comfortable outside.  We had two crews working:  one in the ponds, another crew potting up sprigs.   Over 200 pots of Narrowleaf plumegrass were potted up and  safely placed by the grow-out ponds, while over 1,000 sprigs were planted into Pond Bittern.  Thanks to everyone for getting the job done!

We salvaged the Narrowleaf Plumegrass seedlings from their trays and bumped them up into one-gallon pots.  The seedlings were hard-pressed so it was imperative to get that done.  The crew (Diane, Ray, Lana, John E., and Glenn) worked diligently to get them staged as well by the grow-out ponds where we have interesting “friends” hang out with us—like the green tree frog pictured.

This week we hosted Kingwood High School Aquatic Science students.  These guys were seniors and easily could have passed on the work to plant the sprigs, but nope!!!  The students worked hard and planted all 2,000 miscellaneous sprigs with our mentors (Chatt, John Egan, Glenn and Cullen).  Our illustrious Seed/Sprigging Crew (Diane, Gail, Ray and Lana) stayed behind and worked on re-potting the Iris from the previous week.  Thanks to all for your effort.  🙂

This week we helped Kelly Norrid (Park Ranger) by clearing out the vegetation from the left side of the parking lot “ditch”.  We collected numerous Iris virginica, Crinum lillies, Spider lillies, Burhead and a few Beakrushes.  We ended up salvaging over 500 Iris sprigs which will be either planted or potted up next week.  Thanks to everyone for helping….I know it was a mucky mess.  🙂