Heard

It’s easy today for many Master Naturalists to recognize that the flora of our region are tied to the soil of the Blackland Prairie and the climate of North Central Texas, but this wasn’t always widely taken into serious account in early gardening and even in some restoration attempts. Different factors and forces affected the growing, selling, and use of native plants in Texas. The Heard Museum gardens reflect the evolution of the understanding and use of native plants in Texas. Heard Native Garden Manager Amy Monroy will present a history of native plant use in our area by sharing historic documents and photos from the first plans in 1994 for the Heard’s front gardens to today’s current challenges.

Amy’s Bio: Amy Monroy began volunteering in the Heard gardens and butterfly house in 2014 as a Master Naturalist, and in 2016 raised money for, designed, installed, maintained, promoted and created events and education for the Windmill Garden at Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch. In October 2019 she took over the position of Native Garden Manager for the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary.

Heard Shaking of the Trees Post Shaking the Trees

Heard Happenings

By Laura Ragan
Submitted by: Greg Tonian

It’s been quite a while since we’ve all been able to fellowship in the way we’d like, so I’m glad for this opportunity to catch you up on the Heard’s activities.

After a long, lonely April, which saw open trails but few guests, the exhibit hall and Nature Store reopened for May, and shutdown-weary guests began flocking back. Even with interactive exhibits and programs closed, the Heard remained busy through summer and fall and continues to be busy on nicer winter days. We are so grateful for the community’s support of our mission to bring nature and people together to discover, enjoy, experience, restore, and preserve our priceless environment!

Throughout this past year, we have greatly appreciated our new and renewing members for 2020 (which include many of you – thank you!). As a private non-profit, the Heard is NOT tax-funded. Our ability to keep up with our 289-acre private sanctuary, museum building & grounds, and non-releasable animals depends on admission fees and memberships, as well as donations, paid programs, and rentals.

But more than anything else, the Heard depends on volunteers to keep its departments running. With that in mind, I’ll highlight a bit of last year and what you might expect for this year.

Quite comfortingly, the sanctuary has continued its roll through the seasons, unconcerned with the nightly news. Its intrepid volunteers have been busy through all kinds of weather replacing boardwalk, cutting new trails, and keeping the prairies from being overrun with saplings. Boardwalk replacement has gone so well that we are now looking at the very real possibility of creating wetlands access for those with mobility challenges.

And speaking of access, the trail through Animals of the World to the pollinator garden is now concrete! We appreciate those of you who were able to monitor the animals’ stress level during this loud, messy project.

The animal care, garden, and facilities departments have continued to receive volunteer support throughout the year. Pandemic or no, living things and buildings still need to be fed, enriched, cleaned, rearranged, pulled, pruned, fixed, and painted. With your help, it all got done.

As for 2021, “Covid willin’, and the creek don’t rise” still applies. We know what we want to do; we just don’t know when we’ll actually do all of it. Below are some things you’ll see at some point soon:

Sanctuary – Boardwalk replacement continues; tree-thinning is planned for Cedar Brake loop; we’ll increase stewardship opportunities for volunteers and interactive opportunities for guests.

Gardening – Too many items to mention! Weekly volunteers are needed in order to make progress.

Education – Most paid programs continue with smaller numbers; few fieldtrips are scheduled so far.

Exhibit Hall – Paleo Lab volunteers have been working to prepare parts of a plesiosaur skeleton, and we hope to install the exhibit soon. The accompanying artwork is already up and is absolutely stunning.

Plant Sale 2021– Yes, it’s scheduled!! It’ll be modified a bit, but we’re planning for April 23-25.

I look forward to seeing everything this year has in store for both the Heard and our Blackland Prairie chapter. If you’re not yet a Heard volunteer and would like to be, our volunteer application can be found at https://www.heardmuseum.org/volunteerapplication. And as always, you are welcome to e-mail with any questions or comments: lragan@heardmuseum.org.

Flora and Fauna Heard Shaking of the Trees Post Shaking the Trees Wildlife

Heard Trail Topping

By: Deborah Canterbury

It was a joint effort between the Heard animal team, the Celina based concrete company and volunteers including Blackland Prairie Master Naturalists who received emergency approval to monitor the wellness of the animals whose homes are along the trail to and around the Butterfly Garden.

Imagine a paving company whose team is so dedicated to the Heard mission that they do a major portion of prep work without power tools so not to scare Nibbles the cay, the latest raccoon acquisition, bobcats Elliott and Devon, and the deer and fox.

Michele Dudas explained to the crew and volunteers what stress signals to look for and when to quit, offer a small treat or speak to them in a calm manner and walk by as the daily visitors do. A quiet down times were expected and planned for. Her team plus volunteers were posted at each habitat. In a few cases the museum staff most familiar with a specific animal entered the enclosure to calm them with their presence. The major problem? Myopathy. Capture myopathy is also known as white muscle disease. When the muscle is used, its metabolism changes from using oxygen to using stored energy in the muscle. This leads to a buildup of lactic acid that goes into the bloodstream where it changes the pH of the body and affects the heart output. If the heart does not pump correct oxygen to the muscle, the muscle starts to die. Over the next week or so, the product produced by the muscle’s death damages the kidney and affects other organs. All but the mid trail between butterfly house and deer remains unpaved. A job well done by all.

They worked in sections, were quiet in their conversations and took time to learn about the residents. Owner said it was the hardest job of his 30 years.

Fossils Geology Heard Shaking of the Trees Post Shaking the Trees

Heard Paleo Lab adds new display

By: Patti Tuck

2020 has at least one bright moment! A new fossil was added to the Fossil Hall at the Heard Museum.

We call it Ruby because of the red, iron oxide mudstone in which it was deposited. Ruby came from the Woodbine formation which dates to 95 million years ago. Its scientific name is: Trinitichelys maini.

This is a new aquatic turtle species, first described in December 2019. It was originally discovered at the Arlington Archosaur Site in Arlington, Texas. This site was founded by the late Dr. Derek Main, for whom the species is named. On display here is the most complete example to be discovered.

The fossil was discovered in April 2019 by Ty Leslie Goble, age 9.

The preparation from raw fossil to finished specimen was completed by volunteers in the Heard Paleontology Lab. Descendants of this turtle are with us today. They are commonly called sliders or mud turtles.

The unique display was created in the lab. By incorporating mirrors in the display, a complete view of the fossil is possible.

One of the challenges of preparing fossils for show is displaying it in the best way possible.

THIS SPECIMEN IS ON LOAN FROM AND IS THE PROPERTY OF THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.

Heard

The Heard Gardens: A History of Native Plants in Three Acres or So – Amy Monroy

Tuesday, March 9, 7:00PM

Heard Happenings

Heard Trail Topping

Heard Paleo Lab adds new display