Pine WarblerThe

Published September through May byThe Piney Woods Wildlife Society, Inc. Vol. 24. No. 5May 2004

Date: Tues., May 18

Time: Social 7:00 p.m. Meeting 7:30 p.m.

Place: Mercer Arboretum 22307 Aldine-Westfield

May 18 Program — Trees of TexasPresented By Carmine Stahl

Prairie-Chickens Strut Their Stuff for Early BirdersBy Michael Beathard

When dawn finally came on Saturday, March 27, it was bright and breezy. Its arrival seemed hours late for the six stalwarts perched inside the wooden blind. We had been up since three in order to meet preserve manager Brandon Crawford at 5:00 at the Texas City Prairie Preserve. Because of the wind, only Brandon’s trained ear could hear the booming in the distance. But in the dim light we could make out dark figures running and jumping in the gloom. The scene brought to mind the opening lines of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky:

“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”

As the morning brightened, the scene became clearer and stranger. Through our scopes we watched eleven birds decked out like brightly masked Polynesian dancers stamping, whirling and dancing with stiff ritual steps. In groups of two or three they charged at each other with bright yellow-orange throat sacs blazing and their pinnae erect, looking for all the world like mad little devils. Their headlong dashes at each other always stopped short of contact, and often ended in a flash of wings and a jump. As the sun rose, their activity became even more frenetic – the avian equivalent of a Saturday night bar fight. We could see only the male Attwater Prairie-Chickens, though Brandon assured us that at least one or two females were probably close by, recipients of all the testosterone-induced attention. As we watched the drama on the lek, Brandon explained the Nature Conservancy’s program for the prairie-chickens. We discussed their declining numbers, nesting habits, predation, captive breeding programs and the general chances for success of Texas’ most endangered bird. The good news is that the eleven males on the lek represent an increase from last year’s eight. Brandon estimates the population by doubling the number of males, so this year’s flock numbers 22. As we watched the lek, we enjoyed the other birds that shared the prairie habitat. Meadowlarks were calling everywhere, some perching close by and giving us their special morning serenade. White and Brown Pelicans cruised along the nearby bay. Mottled Ducks and Mourning Doves flew back and forth across the prairie.

( See Prairie Chickens on page 2)

Carmine Stahl will discuss his book Trees of Texas, An Easy Guide to Leaf Identification that he co-authored with Ria McElvaney. This new book, published by Texas A&M University Press in 2003, features life-sized leaf, flower, and fruit images for easy identification. Carmine is a naturalist and forester, recently retired as program coordinator at Mercer Arboretum and Jesse Jones Park. Ria is an attorney, writer, and illustrator. Bring your books and Carmine will sign them. If you don’t yet have yours, they are available at Kathy Coward’s “Just For The Birds” store at a discount for PWWS members. Or give Kathy a call and she will bring it to the meeting.

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The stars of the early morning show were a covey of Bobwhite. We could hear them calling very close by, but could not see them from the blind. Suddenly the whole covey was directly in front of us and posed for some long minutes a scant 20 feet away. Even Brandon was impressed; in his three years as manager these were the first quail he’d seen on the preserve. After a few hours, the activity slowly died away. The prairie-chickens seemed tired and sat openly exposed on the lek for long periods. One by one they flew away while we patiently waited. The last one departed at 8:30, giving us the signal that we could finally leave the blind. In the preserve parking lot we met a few more PWWS members and continued birding for the remainder of the day. We started on Galveston’s East Beach, traveled across to the Bolivar Peninsula on the ferry and birded the flats, moved on to High Island and finished the day at Anahuac. Bolivar was excellent with large numbers of avocets, sandpipers, terns and pelicans concentrated together. We saw a number of plovers, including Piping, Semipalmated, Black-bellied and Wilson’s, along with Horned Lark and Marbled Godwit. High Island was generally quiet. The rookery at Smith’s Oaks was the exception, with large numbers of egrets, herons, spoonbills and cormorants on the nest. All the nesting birds were in full breeding plumage, many with the bright facial skin that makes them so especially striking in the spring. Anahuac was active, as it usually is. White-faced Ibis were everywhere, but hard as we looked we couldn’t spot a Glossy. We had good looks at two American Bittern and a fleeting glimpse of a Least Bittern. We were able to view both species of whistling-ducks mixed in with flocks of Blue-winged Teal. It was a long day when the last of us departed Anahuac around 6:00 p.m. It was a productive one though, with around 70 species seen. Our thanks and appreciation go to The Nature Conservancy for their efforts in preservation of the prairie-chickens and to Brandon Crawford for spending his early morning with us and sharing the treasure of the lek.

Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken Tympanuchus cupido attwateri

(Prairie Chickens from page 1) Hope is the Thing With Feathers By Christopher Coking

Review and Comments by Jack Gorman

Two wonderful interests have fascinated me throughout my life, bird watching and history. Thus, what could be better than reading a book on the history about North America’s vanished bird species. In this book the author presents a personal chronicle of a dedicated birder who was touched by the extinction of some of our unique bird species. Thus inspired, he tells the life stories of six extinct species; The Carolina Parakeet, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the Heath Hen, the Passenger Pigeon, the Labrador Duck, and the Great Auk. Throughout the book the environmental lessons derived from these stories become self-evident.

The Carolina Parakeet — Until recently most people pictured parrots and parakeets as tropical birds living in hot, steamy, South American jungles. However, within the last decade many of us have realized that parrot species, such as the Monk Parakeet, not only live in the southern states but also live year-round in our colder northern states. The beautifully colored Carolina Parakeets once ranged in the thousands across the eastern half of the United States from Wisconsin, Kansas and New York to the deep south of the gulf coast and Florida. In Texas they could be found in the eastern lowlands along the Louisiana border. The foot long Carolina Parakeets were stunning birds and a delight to see. Until the first third of the nineteenth century small flocks were a common sight in bottomland hardwood forests. Their iridescent green bodies and yellow heads, with a touch of red around the eyes, brightened the day for most anyone who saw them. Since they were edible, they also made easy targets for early pioneers. And, because they always traveled in flocks, a shotgun could bring down more than one. Unfortunately when any of their kind was downed the rest of the flock landed close by to comfort their wounded compatriot. Thus making an easy target for elimination. This was only one reason for their extinction. The parakeets’ main food sources were the seeds, nuts and berries of the bottomland, hardwood forests. As pioneers moved west they cleared river-bottom land for farming. Others found such forests provided a ready source of lumber. Also, honeybees followed the advance of the pioneers and displaced nesting parakeets from their tree hollows. Thus, acre-by-acre the habitat of the Carolina Parakeet vanished. By 1900 few were left. Alas, this brought out collectors and profiteers who shot them for natural history trophies that would sit motionless in museums and/or private collections. The last known birds died in captivity in the 1930s. In today’s world the Carolina Parakeet is gone forever. However, the environmental and pet-collection pressures on the remaining 25 species of world’s parrots, parakeets, and macaws are greater than ever. “How many will avoid extinction?” is a question few can answer.

(See Hope is the Thing With Feathers on page 3)

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The Ivory-billed Woodpecker — King of the woodpeckers, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was two feet long, had an 18-inch wingspan and a white bill that measured three inches in length. Only the Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico was larger. In coloration it was similar to the Pileated Woodpecker. The main habitat of the Ivory-billed was the old forest bottomlands of the Mississippi Valley that once covered 25 million acres. They ranged over its deep recesses from Florida to east Texas and from southern Missouri to the gulf. However, their total population was relatively small. Today, after a century of logging only five million fragmented acres of this bottomland still remain. It is fertile habitat for 8 different species of woodpeckers. Unfortunately, the Ivory-billed occupied a niche that was too small for its main food supply, which consisted of large beetle grubs from trees that were dead for at least 3 years. With powerful beaks they would strip a 50-foot dead tree of its bark in a few hours and stuff themselves with larvae. As trees fell to the axes of lumbermen and farmers, the Ivory-bills were doomed. The last remaining birds were located in the Singer Tract in Louisiana where the last confirmed sighting was in the early 1940s. A few years ago a scientific expedition methodically scoured the remaining bottomland forests around the old Singer tract. After a summer of intense searching they concluded that no Ivory-bills exist in the USA.

The Heath Hen — Recently our Piney Woods Wildlife Society took a field trip to observe the Attwater’s race of Greater Prairie Chickens. These birds once numbered in the millions roaming the prairies of Texas and Oklahoma. I remember seeing them in the late 70s at a time when concerns about their existence were growing critical. Since then much money and effort has been put into saving the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken but its existence still teeters on the brink. Thus the history of the Attwter’s race parallels the situation that the Heath Hen found itself in during the 1920s. In the 1800s the Heath Hen population numbered in the millions. They roamed from the East Coast to the mid-west feeding mostly in dry busy habitat. Heath Hens were so common that they were extensively hunted to supply meat for the public markets of New York and Boston. However, two greater forces were pushing it to extinction; first, the loss of habitat created by the march of civilization and second, the suppression of fire in their natural feeding and nesting grounds. By the early 1900s the Heath Hen was extinct in all locales except the island of Martha’s Vineyard where 200 hens resided. Heroic efforts were made to keep the species alive but alas the last Heath Hen died in 1932.

The Passenger Pigeon — Of all the birds that vanished in the last 150 years, the passenger Pigeon’s tale is the most unbelievable. In the early 1800s it’s population numbered in the billions. Passenger Pigeons were so plentiful that they comprised 20 percent of the population of all birds in America. They lived in huge flocks, which at times, when nesting, covered 20 to 30 square miles. A migrating flock would contain a million birds and span an area a mile wide and 30 miles long. It was thought that the Passenger

Pigeon was too plentiful to ever become extinct. But it did. The last one died in 1904. Their story is so incredible that I’ll leave it for you to read along with the histories of the Labrador Duck and Great Auk. Lost but not forgotten, I looked up the pictures of all six birds as painted by John James Audubon. Each one was a beauty. Each one was a loss to us all. However, we have learned much from such tragedies and are more aware of our nation’s obligations to protect all species including endangered ones. This gives the author his premise that “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers.”

(Hope is the Thing With Feathers from page 2)

August Potluck/Show and Tell

Greet old and new friends after our summer vacations at the annual PWWS potluck supper. Bring your favorite salad, entree, veggie or dessert and your own plate and silverware. PWWS will furnish drinks, ice and napkins. For entertainment, bring 15 or so of your slides — any subject — for the Show and Tell.

When: Saturday, August 21 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Olde Oakes MUD Building

Directions: From FM 1960 West, turn north on T C Jester Blvd. And follow to the end of the road. The MUD building is on the right.

4 The Pine Warbler May 2004

East Texas Nature By Diane Cabiness, Certified Texas Master Naturalist

“The earth laughs in flowers. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Due to my mother’s allergies her gardening efforts were small compared to her parents landscape. They lived in Cleveland, Ohio and on a small city lot. They had a grape arbor, vegetable garden, cherry tree and flower gardens. I owe my budding interest in gardening to my grandmother. While visiting my grandparents I would follow my grandmother around asking questions about what she was doing in her flower gardens. On several occasions I found coins in the garden and remember bending down to pick up a dime with excitement and eyes aglow showing my grandmother what I had discovered. She said, “Diane you found it you can keep it”. You would have thought I had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A seed had been planted and a love for gardening blossomed slowly through the years in my heart.

“In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own. –Alice Walker

Gardeners all over the Piney Woods are in the midst of their spring gardening chores. Improving the soil and weeding can be done in a less strenuous fashion by using the sheet composting method. Pick an area that can be left alone for the season and mow or weedeat it. Sprinkle a nitrogen source such as cottonseed meal or manure in a thin layer to help with decomposition. Then spread a thick layer of newspapers (8 to 10 sheets), cardboard, or paper bags. Cover it with a layer of manure, than build your compost pile on top of the manure. Top with leaves or pinestraw for a neat appearance. In 3 to 6 months nature will have your weeding finished and your soil will be improved for you. If you decide to weed your garden yourself, treat yourself at the end of the day to a good long soak for your tired muscles. 1-cup oatmeal 1⁄4 cup baking soda—aluminum free 1⁄4 cup powdered milk dried herbs such as mint or chamomile

This recipe can be mixed in a blender ahead of time until it is a fine powder. Sprinkle a little of this in your running water, hop in and begin planning your next backyard project while your body unwinds and relaxes. After I left home to go to college, I came home for a visit. I saw a small spider on the ground that my mom was about to dispose of and reminded her that this was one of God’s critters and please do not hurt the spider. Mom reassured me she rescued all spiders that found their way into their house. Than mom shared with me about the first time she picked up a spider without gloves on and it bit her. Luckily for mom it was not a brown recluse or black widow spider. Saving spiders is best done with a scoop such as an old greeting card and than carefully placed outside. Occasionally I get spiders that move fast and I have found a bunched up tissue

carefully placed over the spider and removed in this fashion works well for me. Like my mom I have a tender spot for “all creatures great and small”. “Join the whole creation of animate things in a deep, heartfelt joy that you are alive, that you see the sun, that you are in this glorious earth which nature has made so beautiful, and which is yours to enjoy.”—Sir William Osler

Please share your Nature Experience with me at dianecabinessplants@earthlink.net. This article was written in honor of Jean Resnik Gonzalez, my mom and my friend who died February 13, 2004.

Special Summer Activities

Mark your calendars for the following special Piney Woods activities this summer.

• July 17, Piney Woods Parklands Circle annual butterfly count led by David Henderson. (see page 6 for details)

• August 21 Potluck dinner – show-and-tell (see details on page 3).

We do not have meetings and do not publish The Pine Warbler during the summer months so be sure to make a note of these activities now.

Also, while the dog days of summer aren’t great for birding, they are prime time for butterflies. In addition to the Piney Woods Parklands Circle on July 17, the Butterfly Enthusiasts of Southeast Texas has 24 other Butterfly Counts scheduled from June 5 through July 24. These are a fun way to learn and enjoy the butterflies in our area.

For details check the BEST website www.best-naba.org or contact David Henderson.

May 2004 The Pine Warbler 5

As John and I were approaching the bat cave at 7 p.m. on April 13, we could see millions of Mexican Free-tailed Bats streaming from the cave entrance and spiraling into the distance, appearing as hordes of insects. They were emerging early — in broad daylight. We rushed up the hillside, thinking that we were too late but they continued to stream from the cave in vast numbers until around 8 p.m. when they slowed to a trickle. However our guide, Bain Walker, said activity would pick up again and they would continue emerging until around midnight. According to Bain, they begin returning about 3 a.m. and by about 11 a.m. the next morning they are all back. Estimated at 12 million, the clouds of bats are so large they

are picked up on the San Antonio weather radar. They will often travel over 100 miles each night to feed on insects that are harmful to agricultural crops. We have watched bats emerge before at several places including the Carlsbad Caverns and the Austin City Bridge and have always been amazed at the spectacle but this occasion was

something special. Here we were in early evening daylight with blue skies and right in the middle of the action. Standing near the cave entrance the emerging bats swirled all around us — one bounced off of my chest then continued on his way. We could hear their wing beats, feel the air movement from their wing beats, hear their chatter, and we could certainly smell their musky order. Bain

Phenomenon at the Annandale RanchBy Gloria Jones

stuck his cap up into the swirling mass and caught a bat, like a first baseman snagging a line drive. He gave us a short lecture, some close-up looks, and some photo ops before releasing the bat back into the stream.

Some in our group were lucky enough to see a Ring-tailed Cat and one person captured it on video. However, the highlight for me was seeing numerous Red-tailed and two Swainson’s Hawks soaring above, patrolling and diving into the bat stream to catch an evening meal. The bats do not disperse after exiting the cave but maintain the approximate same diameter stream as when they emerge from the cave. So you see this long stream of concentrated bats snaking across the sky until it disappears from sight. Therefore, it’s easy for a raptor to dive through this stream for a catch. A Red-tail did miss once but usually they were successful.

Some climbed to the hilltop to take in the beautiful vistas but most of us just stood in awe and wonder at this spectacle that has been going on since the earliest documentation of the 1700’s. John and I were attending our second Nature Quest Festival at Concan, Texas. This area is billed as the Texas Hill Country River Region. The bat cave was one of the many events offered during this six-day festival. Daily field trips, seminars and workshops are scheduled for birds, butterflies and other insects, wildflowers, native plants and trees, herpetology, mammology and nature photography. There is never a dull moment if you can stand the pace. And, this hill country setting along the Frio, Nueces and Sabinal Rivers, with Lost Maples State Natural Area and Garner State Park nearby, is one of the most beautiful in Texas.

6 The Pine Warbler May 2004

Piney Woods Society Field Trips2004

Rated for degree of difficulty * Exertion level: 1 - easiest, 5 - hardest

Sat. May 15Sabine & Angelina NF

Leaders: Ro Wauer/David HendersonFocus: Spring butterflies, nesting neotropicals,

Virginia Stewartia*4 -trails poor to nonexistent; possibly rugged relief

Sat. July 17, 9:30 a.m.Piney Woods Parklands Butterfly Count

Leader: David HendersonFocus: NABA Butterfly Count

*4 - extremely high temps, long walks over good trails

All Piney Woods field trips are free (with the exception of en-trance fees at some sites) and nonmembers are invited to attend. You should bring binoculars, spotting scopes, insect repellent, water and lunch. Please wear appropriate outdoor footwear and clothing.

Valley Land Fund Photo Contest Book

At the February 17 program presented by John and Gloria Tveten, someone asked them where to get copies of the recent Valley Land Fund Photo Contest Book. At the time they didn’t know but brought two copies back from the McAllen Festival. Now, no one remembers who wanted the book. So, whoever is interested in this beautiful wildlife photo book, John and Gloria have two extra copies for sale.

While we traverse the cathedral-like forest, tanagers and flycatchers mark off their territories with lilting song… primeval dragonflies zip by while woodland butterflies bob along the path… strange wildflowers bloom in the glades… the trees seem bigger here, and everywhere there is green… you’re in Deep East Texas. On the weekend of May 15-16, come join naturalist extraordinaire, Ro Wauer, and David F. Henderson on a trek into some of the little known remaining parcels of wilderness in Angelina, Jasper, Newton, Sabine and San Augustine Counties. We will be rendezvousing 7:30 am at the Holiday Inn Express in Jasper. It will be here that we will retire in the evening as well.

Lunch will be picnic- style, with restaurant dinner. Exertion level will be moderate to difficult, depending on the weather. Sturdy walking shoes and anti-chigger measures will be a must. So are cameras and binoculars. If you think East Texas is nothing but one big pine lot with a bunch of bayous, then this trip will surprise you! To get to Jasper, take US – 59 north to Livingston. Then proceed 61 miles east on US-190 to Jasper. At the intersection with US-96, turn left (north) and go 0.7 miles to the Holiday Inn Express on your right.

Sabine & Angelina NF Field Trip Sat. May 15

Rain Makes For a Good Day of BirdingOn Sabine Woods Field Trip

During the morning of April 24, the group of seven PWWS birders spent more time under the rain shelter talking about birding than we did actually birding. We did get in some early morning action before the monsoons, and did see a good variety of birds but the numbers of warblers were low so we had to work for them. Finally, we gave up, opted for an early lunch and headed for Sea Rim State Park and the sheltered picnic tables. That’s when our luck changed. BP was catering a hot crawfish-with-trimmings lunch for the beach clean-up volunteers. After feeding the crew, they had gobs left so they fed us also. Then, several in our group headed for the Sea Rim willows. There, the rainy skies had forced the migrating birds to come down and the trees were alive with warblers, tanagers, grosbeaks, orioles, buntings and cuckoos, and more were coming in. Where during the morning we had to search for them, at the willows they were right in our faces. So, with very little actual birding time we racked up an impressive number of birds including eighteen species of warblers. Not bad for a rainy day.

Check out the Piney Woods Wildlife Society’s Internet page, located in Yahoo Clubs at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pineywoodswildlifesociety. Instructions for joining the club are in the message section of the club’s page. Visitors to the site will find information about upcoming PWWS club meetings and field trips as well as other information of interest to local nature lovers.

Thanks to webmaster Dr. John Laneri, up-to-date- information and last minute changes in activities are posted on our web page.

April 2004 The Pine Warbler 7

HEART Happenings

The big news is that on April 5, a headstarted female Kemp’s ridley sea turtle raised at Galveston in 1989 and released there in 1990 laid 85 eggs at the Galveston seawall between 29th and 30th streets. A tourist from Austin called for help. Remember, everyone who visits the coast should remember the number 1-866-TURTLE5. Sadly, two days before, a dead adult Kemp’s ridley was found just west of the San Luis Pass, no tags found.

The Stakeholders’ meeting for the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Recovery Plan was held in Houston on April 13 and 14. I took the opportunity to request that a bi-national swimway be considered for the Kemp’s ridley and that more protection be provided on the north Texas coast and southwest Louisiana. The Recovery Plan has not been revised since its original writing in 1992.

Following is a shortened version of what I submitted at the meeting:

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project and HEART (Help Endangered Animals-Ridley Turtles) recognize and applaud over 40 years of international cooperation and research to prevent the extinction of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. The years of dedication and hard work by the people of both Mexico and the United States are exemplary. We also recognize a number of excellent projects now ongoing in both Mexico and the United States that have as their goals protection of natural resources including land, water and wildlife. One such project focuses on the Laguna Madre. Its goal is to protect sensitive lands and waters through preserve acquisition and management agreements with private landowners, and through partnerships with businesses, community organizations and government entities.

In Mexico, there is an incredible plan going forward to protect land, water and wildlife in the state of Tamaulipas, along the coast of Laguna Madre, almost to Rancho Nuevo, home of the largest nesting population of Kemp’s ridleys. It is called the Laguna Madre Natural Protected Area Proposal. With a similar plan in the United States, there could be an International Kemp’s Ridley Swimway with both countries continuing to work for conservation and also the development of tourism. It could increase protection of the coastal and marine resources including the nesting and migratory pathways of the turtles.

There are other indications that regional partnerships composed of individuals, conservation organizations, and state and federal agencies are extremely effective. One such partnership is the Gulf Coast Joint Venture concerned with migratory birds and their habitats along the western U.S. Gulf of Mexico from Brownsville, Texas, to Mobile Bay in Alabama.

We believe the time is right to consider an extended area of protection of both coastal and marine resources from Tampico, Mexico, north to and including the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. This would also include the waters adjacent to the Padre Island National Seashore where we have proposed a marine reserve for protection of sea turtles for several years. And, of course, the existing Texas closure area would be included, which is already free from shrimping during the sea turtle nesting season from Corpus Christ south to the Mexican border.

Protection is needed also for the upper Texas and southwestern Louisiana coast that serves as a vital feeding ground for juvenile as well as sub adult and adult ridleys. Tidal passes such as Sabine, Calcasieu, Mermentau and others are essential foraging grounds where ridleys feed on blue crabs and shrimping by-catch discards. This protection is especially critical to post-pelagic juveniles that establish a strong site fidelity to tidal passes and migratory adults that use these food-rich areas in their reproductive conditioning strategies. Protection of this zone also will provide a refuge for adult white shrimp spawners and other commercially- and recreationally-important fish, crab and shrimp.

(Note from author to PWWS: Remember the turtle philosophy: You don’t get anywhere unless you stick your neck out.)

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The Pine Warbler is published monthly, September through May, by:The Piney Woods Wildlife Society, Inc. P. O. Box 189, Spring, Texas 77383-0189For membership information write to us at the above address.Annual Dues: $15.00 per household.

Editor: John M. Jonese-mail address: joneshou@swbell.net15215 High Springs DriveHouston, TX 77068-1814Submit articles by the 15th of the month.Send address changes and corrections to John Jones

2004 Board of DirectorsPresident .............................................................................. Kathy Coward1st Vice President (Publicity)....................................................Carole Allen2nd Vice President (Membership) ..........................................Jim Stepinski3rd Vice President (Programs) .......................................Carlos HernandezSecretary .................................................................................Sally ReisterTreasurer .....................................................................................Jim LaceyDirector (term expires 2004)............................................... Pam WeedmanDirector (term expires 2005)............................................................Pat LeeDirector (term expires 2006)............................................ David HendersonPast President .................................................................Michael Beathard

Phone numbers of interest:HEART Hotline ......................................................................281-444-6204HAS Texas Rare Bird Alert ....................................................713-369-9673

Piney Woods Wildlife Society, Inc.P. O. Box 189Spring, TX 77383-0189

May 11 — Board of directors meeting — Kathy Coward’s home at 7:00p.m.

May 15 field trip: — Sabine and Angelina National Forest (see page 6)

May 18 program: — Trees of Texas presented by Carmine Stahl (see page 1)

May 18 — Trees of Texas — An Easy Guide to Leaf Identification

May 2004 ActivitiesS M T W T F S

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