Texas Community Watershed Partners 
Today we worked on preparation for our upcoming workday with YES Prep Brays Oak. This meant a crew (Chatt, Glenn, John E.) was sent out to collect additional plant material and the rest of us stayed back to do all the sprigging and sorting. When we are of “one” mind, we work well together–all the sprigging was complete by the end of the workday including the new material. Y’all are awesome!
Today found us knee deep in the waters of Pond Anhinga with our brave planters (Chatt, Frances, John Egan and Glenn). Seed cleaning continued with Ray and Lana, and then the Team (Gail, Dick, and Diane) also worked with our visiting YES Prep Trailblazers on making seedballs. Thanks to all for keep the good work going!
Our Holiday Luncheon was a success for all! Great turnout and lovely food made for a nice casual get-together at the Park. Thanks to all the Team members for their participation all year long. We have a couple more weeks to go but then we start fresh in the New Year! (13 years and counting!!!)
Today was a fairly “quiet” workday at the park….Seeding Crew tallied up our Switchgrass sprigs and then proceeded directly back into seed preparation. In contrast, the planting crew ventured forth to the wetlands, pots in tow, to plant whatever they could in Pond Anhinga–190 plants of 8 species. Nice job, y’all! Remember that November 27th is our Thanksgiving Holiday and no workday that week. 
Extra! Floating Wetlands Launch Day photos and press: Click the image to see photos of volunteers preparing and installing floating wetland islands in a Clear Creek ISD campus stormwater pond. Thanks to Helle Brown, Texas Master Naturalist for being our photographer on the November 10 Launch Day! Preparations for the floating wetlands were covered in an excellent article by Galveston Daily News. Click the image to read the story. Now showing: the floating wetlands on video: A video about the floating wetlands project at Clear Creek I.S.D’s… Read More →
What a great day! And that is saying a lot because it was very blustery out in the wetlands, and I was convinced that all my YES Prep students would opt for inside work….but noooooooo, they chose the “high road” and went a-plantin’. A slow start (no surprise since it was 40 degrees with a breeze, and the water was super chilled) ended with 1200 plants in the ground! Go Cavaliers!!! Planting Mentors (Chatt, Glenn, John and Marilyn) were on-hand for guidance and assistance when needed. … Read More →
Well today felt strange…after several years of not seeing the ponds full of water, the planting crew (John H, Chatt, Lisa, Glenn and John E.) planted deep water species in the deepest part of pond 8–first pulling 130 pots and sprig material from the above-ground ponds. Meanwhile the seedy crew (Marilyn, Gail, Dick, Diane and Sherian) worked over more seed. Thank you to Cullen for collecting all that seed!!
Wow…today was a wash-out! But NOBODY is complaining about rain. This meant we (Gail, Dick, Lisa, Diane, Ray, Glenn and John E.) were relegated to seed duty. Good work for rainy days. Cullen and Chatt braved the rain (with Lisa part-time) and sprigged material in the potting shed. Thanks to the crew for being a weather-tolerant bunch.
Today was a lovely brisk day to host our volunteers from NRG Energy. Sixteen employees came out to plant wet prairie grasses and forbs in the Vasey Treatment areas (deemed safe by our Natural Resource Ranger, Kelly Norrid) in Pond 17 (Phase 3). The crew plowed through: (pots) 14 Guara lindheimerii, 11 Euthamia sp. , 8 Solidago sp., 40 Helianthus angustifolia, 18 Arnoglossum plantagineum, 6 Lobelia puberula, 3 Eupatorium spp., 31 Tridens stricta, 5 Aristida sp., 64 Juncus diffusisimmus, 60 Rhynchospora indianolensis, 31 Saccharum giganteum, and 30 Saururus… Read More →
Today, we were lucky again! We (Dick, Marilyn, Ray, Gail, and Glenn) hosted YES Prep North Central students, as like our YES Prep Brays Oaks students, we used our first “workday” with the students to give them an introduction to Sheldon Lake State Park and the restoration work in which they will participate this semester. The students had a chance to do a short work project: either making seedballs, or sprig grasses for future plantings. Meanwhile, the Digging Crew (John E., Diane and Chatt) headed out to… Read More →