Wednesday, December 19, 2012
San Antonio River, Mission Reach, Concepcíon Park Trailhead upstream
Today's photos:
It's December in South Texas… with dragonflies and butterflies… and scouringrush horsetail.
As I mentioned in my post last Thursday (December 13), "… here in South Texas, summer rarely completely gives way to winter. Summer may go into hiding for a few days or even a couple of weeks, but it is never far away."
We had two nights below freezing last week. Yesterday and today we set record high temperatures for the two days, 81º (F) and 82 respectively. As I am typing this tonight, a Pacific cold front has blown in that will bring temperatures back to seasonal norms. We are supposed to be close to, if not below, freezing for the morning of the first day of Winter Friday.
Yes, this is South Texas and that's how it goes around here.
The butterflies in this series of photos in the order of first appearance are: common buckeye, ceraunus blue and dainty sulphur. As with all my walks along the San Antonio River, there are a slew more photos to publish in future posts.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
As I have written in previous posts, four ecological regions converge in Bexar County: Edwards Plateau, Blackland Prairie, Post Oak Savanna and South Texas Plains. Each region has its own characteristics that define the region, but there usually are no clear, well defined boundaries where they converge.
When the Spanish first arrived in what is now Bexar County in the early 1700s and began to establish the Presidio and Missions on the San Antonio River, it appears that most of the area was either riparian woodland along the waterways or some type of savanna in the upland areas.
A savanna is an open grassland with scattered trees. It is a fire based ecology in that the periodic natural occurrence of wildfire is necessary to prevent woody succession from continuing to a full woodland climax.
With permanent human settlement, wildfires were redefined from being a "natural occurrence (or phenomenon)" to being a "natural disaster." Wildfires were suppressed at all cost and the open savanna eventually became woodland.
At the same time that wildfires were being suppressed, periodic flooding along the streams and rivers also destroyed the growing settlements along their banks. To control the floods, the riparian vegetation was removed and the waterways were channelized.
Both the wildfire suppression and the channelization of waterways significantly altered the ecology and habitat of Bexar County. Much has been learned just in the past fifty years about the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and the benefits they provide to urban living. Now, numerous agencies within Bexar County are working on major ecosystem restoration projects.
Many of the posts on this blog have covered the major riparian restoration project that the San Antonio River Authority is managing on the San Antonio River. This is the largest restoration project of its kind in the United States. There are plans in the early stages of development to expand this restoration along several of the major tributary creeks of the River.
The San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department is in the early stages of riparian restoration projects at the Medina River Natural Area and along both the Salado Creek and Leon Creek Greenways.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is in the process of a major savanna restoration project in the Frontcountry area of Government Canyon State Natural Area. And the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department also has savanna restoration projects underway in most of their Natural Area Parks including the project at Hardberger Park pictured in this series of photos.
Which brings me full circle back to my opening statement in Part 1: if you have an interest related to urban ecology and / or ecosystem restoration, Bexar County is the place to be.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Hardberger Park, Oak Savanna Restoration Area
Today's photos:
Bexar County is a great place to live for anyone with interests related to urban ecology and ecosystem restoration. The San Antonio River Authority (SARA), the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department all have major ecosystem restoration projects in progress in the county.
I'll go into a little more detail on these projects in part 2 of this post tomorrow. For now, I'll just mention that these photos were taken this afternoon in the section of the Oak Savanna Restoration Area north of the parking lot at the NW Military Dr entrance to Hardberger Park. This restoration area was begun a couple years ago and is now fairly well established.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Salado Creek Greenway, Robert Tobin Park Trailhead downstream
Today's photos:
As I began walking along the trail today, it was looking like this would be another walk dominated by wildflowers and butterflies. And there certainly is nothing wrong with that. But I have learned to expect the unexpected.
The very large white-tailed buck was quite unexpected as I rounded a bend in the trail. I don't think he was expecting to see me either. White-tailed deer are very plentiful in the upper Salado Creek watershed, so it was not a complete surprise, but this is the first time I have encountered one this far downstream.
