Date: September 24, 2011
Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center
In conjunction with Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day, the Nature Center is offering free admission on Saturday, September 24. Besides enjoying our hiking trails, exhibits and botanical gardens, visitors can watch a hummingbird banding demonstration and participate in our Fall Bird Count. Download your free admission ticket for two from the Museum Day website.
July 16 & 30 (starting around 10:30 p.m.)
Following the Desert After Dark hike, plan on exploring a new frontier: the night sky! David Oesper and the Big Bend Astronomers will help you identify the constellations, star clusters, nebulas, and the planet Saturn with its spectacular rings. The program is $5.oo per person (which includes the Desert After Dark hike, so come for both!).
Guides: John Karges & Dr. Selma Glasscock
Date: April 29 through May 1
Location: Devils River State Natural Area in Val Verde County
Registration fees (includes food and housing): Bunkhouse $90/$115; Camping $70/$95
The Devils River is a gem of Texas. Its waters, not easily accessible, bubble up at the headwaters—crisp and clean—and eventually flow into Amistad Reservoir, an impoundment of the Rio Grande.
Habitat along the river provides a home to such bird species as the Green Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, Vermilion Flycatcher, Kiskadee, and the Black-Capped Vireo. If you are a birder, or simply a lover of nature, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to bird, butterfly, or simply enjoy the Devils River.
John Karges of The Nature Conservancy and Dr. Selma Glasscock of the Welder Wildlife Foundation will be our birding guides.
This trip is currently full. Call 432.364.2499 if you are interested in being put on the waiting list.
Date: February 12, 2011
Time: 9 AM
Place: Big Bend Ranch State Park
Registration Fees: $65 members; $75 nonmembers
For thousands of years, people have lived along the Rio Grande and in the spring-fed canyons leading down to the river. They left their stories painted on the rock walls in a visual language that we struggle to decipher—but still find fascinating.
On this field trip, we’ll hike into a canyon seldom seen by park visitors. Along the way, we’ll explore the plants, animals, and geology of the canyon with Texas Parks and Wildlife Interpretive Ranger Blaine Hall.
Our ultimate destination? A spectacular set of pictographs representing humans on horseback, longhorn cattle, missions, and other evidence of the coming of Europeans to the Big Bend region.
The hike is approximately 6 miles round trip and covers some fairly rough terrain. We’ll leave from the trailhead at 9 AM and return in the late afternoon.
A portion of the registration fees goes to support Big Bend Ranch State Park. The trip is limited to 15 people.
Date: June 25, 2011
Time: 10 AM to 3 PM
Location: Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center
Cost: FREE! (Thanks to a grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Community Outdoor Outreach Program.)
Come join us for Pollinator Palooza—a family field day in celebration of National Pollinator Week. Children and adults will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of naturalist-led activities designed to increase awareness of the diversity of pollinators.
Date: May 14, 2011
Time: 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM
Place: Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center
Cost: Free! (Due to support from a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Community Outdoor Outreach Program Grant)
In celebration of International Migratory Bird Day, we’re hosting a workshop on bird house construction. Drop by the Nature Center and choose the style you like, the bird type you’d like to build for, or even the amount of “building” you’d like to do. Supplies, including a selection of gourds, pre-cut lumber, and recycled materials, will be available.
Speaker: Dr. Selma Glasscock, Assistant Director of the Welder Wildlife Foundation
Date: October 27, 2011
Time: 7 PM
Place: Room 130, Sul Ross State University Range Animal Science Center in Alpine
Contemporary conservationists have come to term our current model of wildlife management the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. In this lecture, Dr. Glasscock will talk about the history of the North American Model and two of its basic tenets—that fish and wildlife do not belong to any select group of individuals, but to all citizens of the United States, and that by law our wildlife resources are to be held in trust and managed in such a way that populations will be forever sustainable.
She will also discuss contemporary concerns regarding the viability of the model that are surfacing because of changes in human lifestyles.
