Camping and work at Okatibbee

This past Friday and Saturday our environmental club headed over to Okatibbee Reservoir for two days of work and a one night camp out. We got there on Friday between 2:00-2:30 where we met up with Mr. Gary Hardin with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He demonstrated to us the proper ways to check and clean around a bluebird box. The job was to remove any limbs or brush that may be around the blue bird boxes, and also to remove the old nest.

In the steps of doing that; the first thing to do is tap on the box in case there are any flying squirrels in them. That way they don't surprise you when they come out when you open the box. Next we were to cut any branches or brush that may be around the box so the birds will have a clean entrance and exit. Most of the boxes did have old nests in them which gives hope that the blue birds are using the boxes that we replaced last year.

We finished checking the boxes around 4:30 so we set up camp and started a fire. That is a reoccurring theme with this group, fire. While some were getting the fire started others went fishing. Below you see Brad ready to catch a big one. I think Matt was the first to put his line in the water and as soon as he did, he caught a 3 pound bass. The next question he has was "Can we cook it?". Only if you clean it. We settled in and roasted some hot dogs and hot links over the fire, and when Matt finished fishing he cleaned and cooked his fish, then generously shared it with the rest of us.

We sat around the campfire sharing funny stories of all sorts, went for a walk, gazed at the stars, and returned to the campfire for more of Mr. Johnsons' entertainment. He demonstrated the magic of a fiery stick (refer to the pictures). We sat around a had a wonderful time laughing and listening to stories. Finely, 1... 2.... 3... we went to bed, some of us did. The others stayed up and talked for a few more hours. Now let me say; when the temperature is 25 degrees, there is a difference between going to bed and going to sleep. Everyone eventually went to bed, not sure how many actually slept. I did not.

Saturday morning we rambled out of bed, cleaned up, and headed over to Collinsville beach where we met back up with Mr. Gary. This morning they served us hot sausage and biscuits from McDonald's, with some OJ. A good breakfast before work. After students from a local high school came, we all headed over to Cypress Loop where we put out some Christmas trees and tied cement blocks to them. This is to help build fish habitat so the smaller fish can have some shelter. When we finished at Cypress Loop, our group headed back over to Collinsville beach where we put our more trees.

Some where we changed our focus from dragging trees, cement blocks, and tying them on; to putting them in trucks and hauling them closer to the edge so the many high school students would not have as far to drag them. We filled that cove area up pretty fast, so we started hauling them over to a cove north of the boat ramp.

Our first trip across that area proved to be wet (almost left ruts), so I came in about forty yards from there where I had very little problem. That is until I backed up to drop the trees off on the third run. Got just a little stuck, but not bad. With five people pushing, the truck came right out. Not the same case for the guy driving the OTHER truck. A big F-250, 4X4, tried taking the same route I did on my first run, yea the wet area. At first the truck was barely stuck, but that wasn't good enough. He didn't quit until the truck was nearly on the frame. Good laughs!

Well we ate, won some great door prizes donated by local businesses and headed home.

The entire trip was fantastic. Thanks to everyone that was there and a special thanks to Evan James for the pictures.

UWA Priarie Burn

On Thursday February 5, 24 Environmental Club members made the journey to the University of West Alabama. We started off in the Cafeteria, which is a very nice building but I'll let you comment on the food, where we met up with Dr. Wymer and his crew. Once we finished eating, they gave a presentation on the importance of prairies and fire. Our students also received some information about the college and scholarships and such.

After lunch we headed over to the ALFA center where we walked out to the portion of the prairie that we were going to burn. Robbie Limerick, from UWA, discussed fire safety and then appointed various jobs for the members of our group. After the phone call to the Alabama Forest Service, he lit the torch and the burning began.

He started by doing a backfire which creates a buffer zone. This is backing the fire against the wind so it will move slowly through the prairie grasses. We stood around with buckets of water and cedar tops waiting just in case we were needed. We did make a wet line just in front of the area that we were burning, to help contain any loose flames. Once the buffer area was established, we started a head fire over a small area just so everyone could see what to expect when we were ready to burn the rest of the prairie. The flames reached heights of about 10 feet at times and moved very fast across the open prairie. During the burning we saw numerous rats and field mice escaping, about four deer, and a gray fox.

Next they handed me the drip torch and allowed me to burn off a small area. Wait, I know you are thinking, Mr. Skipper and fire, what were they thinking. Yes, I know I'm awesome.

After the burn, we headed back to the main part of campus where the students walked across the old covered bridge. Then we toured the Natural Sciences building (Bibb Graves Hall). Dr. Wymer, Dr. Shumaker, Dr. Stanton, Dr. Rindsberg, and Dr. McCall all spoke to our students and gave us a wonderful tour of the Natural Sciences classrooms and labs.

We ended our stay in Livingston by stopping at Tres Hermanos or Mexico if you are from West Alabama. After filling up on cheese dip, nachos, and other various foods, we headed back to EC.

What a great trip. Sorry there are no pictures. No one gave me any to put up. If some come later then I will post them.