SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 2015

For our Third-Saturday August session at South Fork Nature Center, how about a crepuscular nature walk and a nocturnal listening session? It’s a cool way to keep cool during Dog Days!

Meet in front of the cabin at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, August 15. The gate will be open so you can drive to it. Bob and Joyce Hartmann will lead the group in a sunset nature walk, see the new milkweed plants that will help foster monarch butterflies, and the operating sawmill that uses timber from the grounds for projects on site.

Listen for twilight and night songs: learn about what you hear, who makes the sounds, and how they make them. Katydids, crickets, cicadas, long-horned grasshoppers, screech owls, barn owls, great-horned owls, barred owls, coyotes, frogs and toads…Arkansas country is not a quiet place!

To culminate the evening, enter the cabin lit only by kerosene lanterns, to experience what it was like in the Ozarks 100 years ago. Learn more about Almeda Riddle, one of eight children who was raised in the cabin, and whose spirit still lives on in her folk songs. Listen to her sing some of those songs while you sit inside her cabin.

Remember, there is no electricity or water…it’s a Nature Center. Things you might want to bring include a thermos of ice water or other cold beverage; a flashlight (and if it is a red light, or covered with red cellophane, so much the better to protect your night vision); a walking stick; and your favorite portable lawn chair to sit around the campfire.

Come on out August 15th, put aside your wi-fi, and get a strong connection with nature!

Look for the gate on Bachelor Road in Choctaw.

Click here for easy driving directions to South Fork Nature Center…

Don Culwell
Did you miss it on June 20? As Ruth Andre was setting up for her morning program to talk about and show off her butterflies, low and behold, one of the chrysalis stages of the butterfly she had brought began to crack open and move a bit. YES, out from its chrysalis emerged a zebra swallowtail, wings all crinkled up on its back. But, we watched carefully as its wings unfolded, slowly, into the beautiful black and white zebra pattern with long tails, each with a large red spot. And this beauty hung around quite a while drying its wings as it hung upside down in the sun before fluttering lazily ascending into the morning air.

During her presentation Ruth asked for a couple volunteer kids who anxiously stood up…and they became butterflies as Ruth had them think what anatomical features a butterfly had…how did each feature function? Soon each volunteer was outfitted with 6 legs, antennae, wings, and a coiled, sucking tongue.

During the morning, a monarch, too, emerged from its chrysalis. Many monarchs that had recently emerged at Ruth’s home had been kept cold in the refrigerator. Ruth passed these out to folks who opened the wax paper packet allowing each butterfly to walk about on your hand, stretch its wings, and then flutter off.

If you missed this exciting day at South Fork, why not plan to be present next June when Ruth returns for another treat with her butterfly friends…see you there!

Don Culwell

In 4″ peat pots, many with emergent roots, 400 healthy plants arrived at South Fork Nature Center ready for their home in the glades. Nearly half were Asclepias tuberosa (orange butterfly milkweed), A. verticillata (white whorled milkweed) filling in most of the rest of the flats of young plants. And with growth of 6-8″ from seeds that Mary Ann King of Pine Ridge Gardens had planted late in the winter, these plants were ready for setting out in the rich glade soil, where many cedars and a few hardwoods had recently been removed. (Several plants of A. hirtella (tall green milkweed), A. amplexicualis (curly milkweed), A. viridiflora (green-flower milkweed), and A. purpurascens (purple milkweed) were also planted in the glade in small numbers due to poor seed germination.) Spring rains and unseasonably cool weather had not favored rapid growth until May which allowed for healthy plants to be set into the glades in late June. Is it possible that this year of unusual weather will be favorable with scattered days of rain and temperatures a bit cooler?

Master Gardeners in the area had been alerted of the milkweed project last fall (as had South Fork personnel); a few calls and e-mails brought folks on three days to do the planting (9 Master Gardeners and 11 South Fork folks); the job was completed in three mornings. Spade the hole, trim off the top edge of the peat pot to prevent wicking up of soil moisture, set the plant and pat in the surrounding soil, mulch with pine needles, mark each plant with an orange flag for easy location (hopefully not by some grazing deer, rabbit, or hungry, grub seeking armadillo) water with a quart cup…and 400 milkweed plants were in.

Barring sufficient summer rainfall, the 23 populations planted in the three South Fork glades will get water by teams using 5 gallon buckets on a wagon or backpack sprayer tanks that can deliver the artificial rain…practice has already shown that 400 plants can be watered one quart each in three hours.

Come on, you monarchs! Your table is set for egg laying and feasting!

This project is part of a nationwide program to enhance monarch habitat, since their numbers have diminished greatly in recent years. The SFNC grant is through the US Fish and Wildlife Service which paid for seed and plant care producing the plants.

Why not come to South Fork and see the plant populations for yourself? The trails are always open beginning at the kiosk beside the iron gate…adjacent parking is available.

Click here for easy directions

Saturday, September 12, 2015
Fun Run, Cleanup, and Catfish Dinner

Join the 46th Annual GFL/LRRA Cleanup this year at Narrows Park in Greers Ferry, AR. This year’s event will kick off with a 1 mile Fun Run/Walk.

Directions:
GPS Info. (Latitude, Longitude):
35.56389, -92.19806
35°33’50″N, 92°11’53″W

From Greers Ferry, AR, take SR-16 southwest for 2.5 miles. Follow signs to the campground.

Fun Run/Walk

Official start at 7:15 am. You are encouraged to design your own T-Shirt with a cleanup theme and logo. T-shirts will be judged and prizes awarded to the winners. All ages, and families are invited.

Come out, have fun, and after the race join in the lake cleanup that begins at 8:00 am.

Then, after the cleanup come celebrate with us back at Narrows Park and enjoy the festivities beginning at 11:30 am with a catfish dinner, and fresh squeezed homemade lemonade, watermelon eating contest, face painting, caricature artist, bounce house for the kids, and our first ever Augmented Reality Trail in the Park.

Count me in!

Sign up as a volunteer, register for the fun run, or inquire for more information at the Official Greers Ferry Lake website:
46th Annual Lake & River Cleanup

Click the image to view the full-sized flyer

A Taste of Leopold at South Fork
July 18, 2015, 9:00a – 12:00p

Educators, both outdoor and classroom including SFNC docents and members can sample the curricula developed by the Leopold Education project.

The Leopold Education Project (LEP) is an interdisciplinary, critical thinking, conservation and environmental education curricula based on the classic “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold. LEP teaches about humanity’s ties to the natural environment in the effort to conserve and protect earth’s natural resources. It is the educational outreach program for The Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Leopold’s writings are both sound science and excellent literature, making them an outstanding tool for meaningful environmental education. The curricula encourages flexibility, creativity, and experimentation in using the lessons in a variety of subject matter areas. It uses hands-on critical thinking activities to not only teach students about nature and conservation but to instill what Leopold called a “land ethic”, an appreciation of and respect for the land. All activities are presented in an easy to use format similar to Projects WET, WILD and Learning Tree.

Special South Fork Offer
Those interested in becoming an LEP certified educator can do so with another 3 hours of training at South Fork (date to be arranged). Educators will get $50.00 worth of curricula for $30.00.

For more information, contact LEP Arkansas at suzannehirrel@gmail.com or call 501-224-9419 and ask for Suzanne or Marc Hirrel