By David Armstrong
A group of Master Naturalists worked regularly during the hot summer months removing mesquite and ash juniper from the prairie at River Ranch County Park. Here are some edited journal entries from their labors.
September 5-8, 2017. I am proud to report that the brush-whackers volunteered a total of 45.5 hours to the RRCP prairie restoration project. It is estimated that we felled about a hundred mesquites and Ashe Junipers, plus we sprayed numerous small mesquites that will never make it to mature tree-hood. The total acreage cleared to date is about 17 acres which leaves a mere 63 to go.
Laboring on hot humid mornings, sweating and groaning, lopping off branches, leveling trees, spraying the young’uns, tripping over fallen branches, watching for snakes, downing gallons of water, while wiping sweat from our brows—the Brush-whackers accomplished the above statistics. Racking up astonishing statistics is not our primary goal, but we are proud of our accomplishments and our close working relationship with Mr. Gomez and his staff. Our primary goal is to transform a former farm field into a pristine early 1800’s native prairie for the awe and enjoyment of visitors for years to come. The work is back breaking hard, but the pain is worth the gain; and we are all proud to pay the price. So far, we are accident free, even though I did side-step into a prickly pear cactus patch which attacked me with vicious vigor drawing blood and rendering of no further value a pair of socks and a pair of pants; it was a prickly drive home.
Thanks to the vivacious park staff and intrepid Brush-whackers who give and give and keep on giving.
August 30, 2017 Starting at 8:00 am, a quintessential quartet gathered at the ranch headquarters full of oomph and vitality, ready to take on the damaging juniper and mesquite trees, whose very presence does injury to acreage destined to become a luscious native prairie. We geared up, journeyed to the battle area, and prepared to fight at least until lunch. Two worked on the Juniper, while two conducted chemical warfare against young mesquite trees. While we did not clear more acreage, we did improve the acreage already cleared and laid the groundwork for more efficient clearing of large juniper. By noon our oomph and vitality was gone but we were pleased with the progress purchased with our sweat and sore muscles.
August 22, 2017. The weather was a nuisance and so humid that we consumed a significant amount of day-old water to replace the quarts of water we sweated out. Water is water and any water will do when bare-bone thirsty. We almost drank the barrel dry.
If you have never grabbed a mesquite branch to pull it to the holding pile, you should be aware that mesquites sport steel-like spines strong enough to penetrate any glove made in this country. Even with the threatening steel spines, we cleared 6 large cedars and 17 mesquite trees ranging from mature to juvenile. You should have seen the size of the holding pile it was moved to the burn pile. One of these days we are going to have a bon fire that will make the Aggies’ bon fire look like a wiener roast.
Safety is our major concern when we are horsing around with mesquite, spiny cactus, gopher holes, falling tree branches, and growling chainsaws. So far, no one on the Brush-Whackers team has earned a Purple Heart or lost anything other than a few pounds. We are proud of our safety record and intend to keep it injury-free. Heat stroke doesn’t count.
The vision of a healthy native prairie edges closer to reality one tree at a time. It is a distinct pleasure to work with Mr. Gomez, and we are appreciative of Jay for letting the GWMN folks join his professional team. Under Jay’s competent leadership, RRCP will become a show-case park where the restored prairie will amaze and awe people for generations to come. I believe that the on-going effort of the GWMN volunteers at RRCP is in the highest traditions of the Texas Master Naturalist Manifesto. The Chapter is making a difference.
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