August 2015

MISSION

The Texas Master

Naturalist program is

a natural resource-

based volunteer train-

ing and development

program sponsored

statewide by Texas

A&M AgriLife Exten-

sion and the Texas

Parks and Wildlife

Department.

The mission of the

program is to develop

a corps of well-

informed volunteers

who provide educa-

tion, outreach, and

service dedicated to

the beneficial manage-

ment of natural re-

sources and natural

areas within their

communities for the

state of Texas

OFFICERS

President Chris Faught

Crisfaught1

@hotmail.com

(512) 261-6583

Vice-President

Melissa Duckworth

lissaduckworth@

gmail.com

(512) 756-2813

Secretary

Marilyn McClain

mccgrammy

@yahoo.com

(214) 235-5759

Treasurer

Blair Feller

blair.feller@gmail.com

(830) 385-2782

HIGHLAND LAKES CHAPTER

Highland Lakes Steward

Volume 6, Issue 8

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE by Cris Faught

The Texas Master Naturalist Annual

Meeting will be in Horseshoe Bay Resort

on 23, 24 and 25 October 2015. Here

are just some of the events and training you can participate in while enjoying the

event:

1. TMN Project Fair featuring the Inks SP

Bird Viewing structure and many oth-

ers.

2. Presentations and Field Trips including:

The Upper Highland Lakes Nature

Center featuring Billy Hutson

A geology field trip guided by Charles

Beierle

Classes on the natural history of milk-

weed, leopard frogs, bees and wasps,

and climate change in Texas.

Spiders of Central Texas by Sheryl

Smith Rodgers

Geology and soils of Texas

Partnering with Parks

Inks National Fish Hatchery by Judy

Parker

Texas Natural History

Indian Marker Trees

Youth education programs

CoCoRaHS explained.

3. An open Bookstore featuring all things TMN including clothes, maps, gifts and

books.

4. An array of neat things available in a si-

lent auction which goes on daily during

the meeting.

5. A chance to meet and talk with Master

Naturalists from all over the State.

6. Breakfast, lunch and dinner on site.

7. A chance to earn all the Advance Train-

ing hours you need for the year.

8. Last and not least is a chance to hang

out at the Horseshoe Bay Resort for a

few days.

Since this is in our neighborhood, a

good turnout of our members will make the event just that much better for all who

attend. Please register as soon as it opens,

pick what you want to accomplish during

the three days, then stay or commute daily

so you can participate in as many events as

possible.

I promise you a chance to learn a lot of

new things and to meet a fun group of peo-

ple..

Page 2 Highland Lakes Steward

Inside this issue:

President’s Column Cris Faught

1

August Program 2

September Program Melissa Duckworth

2

Get Well! 2

Halloween at the Nature Center Billy Hutson

2

2015 August Awards 3

New Volunteer Opportunity Sammye Childers

6

Agave Snout Weevils by Mary Kay Pope From Jessica Robertson’s Blog

(Backbone Valley Nursery)

6

Gallery 7

Please submit pictures, articles, reports, stories, announce-

ments, etc. to

chili865@gmail.com.

Photos should have captions and appropriate credits. The

deadline for submissions to each month’s newsletter is the

10th of the month and publication will be by the 15th.

SEPTEMBER PROGRAM by Melissa Duckworth

Kelly Tarla, our newly appointed Burnet County

A&M Agrilife Extension Agent spoke at the August

meeting. She provided an interesting look at several of

the most prominent Trees of Texas.

Karen Clary, Ph.d will speak to us on seed collecting

at the September meeting. Dr. Clary is Senior Program

Manager, Plant Conservation Project UT Austin, Lady

Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

AUGUST PROGRAM

GET WELL!

The chapter has sent get well wishes to the fol-

lowing fellow Master Naturalists/family mem-

bers.

Karyn Parker – July 20 surgery for endome-

trial cancer

Sharon Drake – July 28Knee replacement

Anne Holly – breast cancer treatments

Sondra Fox – back surgery

Wade Hibler – wife, Ellen, breast cancer

surgery

Ann Stevenson – treatments for breast can-

cer

Gretchen Pachlhofer – cancer surgery and

neuropathy

Ellen Ely Hibler – breast cancer surgery in

Houston and upcoming chemo treatments

Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

"Save the date: October 31st, Open House @ Up-

per Highland Lakes Nature Center. Come celebrate

"Owl-oh-ween!" with us. There will be lots of nature-

themed, family friendly activities, a live band, or two, many outreach stations, interpretive hikes and

more. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Located just north

of Burnet @ Reveille Peak Ranch. Sponsors include

Save the World Brewery and ArtFrog for now."

HALLOWEEN

AT THE NATURE CENTER by Billy Hutson

Page 3 August 2015 Volume 6, Issue 8

1000 VOLUNTEER

HOURS

George Brugnoli

Not Pictured: Helen Smith

2500 VOLUNTEER

HOURS

Billy Hutson - Not Present

Page 4 Highland Lakes Steward

250 VOLUNTEER

HOURS

From Left:

Fred Zagst, Tom Ash-

croft, M J Hansen,

Nancy Ellison, Eva

Hobbs, Lori Greco,

Alice Rheaume.

Not Pictured: Suze

Jernigan, Vicki Myatt,

Earlene Thorne, Pam

Walt.

500 VOLUNTEER

HOURS

From Left:

Debora Moroney, Marjo-

rie Dearmont, Charles

Beierle, Melissa Duck-

worth, Ed Lilley, Cathy

Hill, Cris Faught.

Not Pictured: Minnie

Eaton, Billie Gunther,

Karyn Parker.

INITIAL CERTIFICATION Jan Belz, Kathy Griffis–Bailey - Not Present

Page 5 August 2015 Volume 6, Issue 8

2015 RECERTIFICATION

From Left: Lori Greco, Alice Rheaume,

Wayne Moldovan, Debora

Moroney, Melanie Huff, Mike

Childers, Sammye Childers,

Cathy Hill, Ann Cook, Mor-

gan Beck, Karen Lundquist,

Pat Campbell, George

Brugnoli

From Left: Judy Haralson, Marilyn

McClain, Linda Brown,

Tom Ashcroft, Marjo-

rie Dearmont, Barbara

Booth, Sandra Landis, Sherry Bixler, Jane

Brunclik, M. J. Hansen,

Betsy Bouchard, Kay

Herring

From Left: Sue Kersey - Awards

Charir Ray Buchanan,

Marcy Wescott, Ce-

lia Escamilla, Sheryl

Smith-Rodgers, Susan Downey, Melissa

Duckworth, Bonnie

Mikels, Davie Payton,

Phil Wyde, Cris

Faught

Not Pictured:

Judy Bloomquist, Marvin Bloomquist, Betty Cruikshank, Lyn Davis, Helen Dillon, Paula D’Orsogna, Minnie Eaton, Joanne Fischer, Sondra Fox, Fredi Franki, Billie Gunther, Billy Hutson, Susan Morgan, Ed Myatt, Vicki Myatt, Hol-

lis Neier, Linda O’Nan, Karyn Parker, Jerry Stacy, Jan Warren, Terri Whaley, Shirley Winslow, Allan Wolfe, Ray

Zender

Page 6 Highland Lakes Steward

NEW VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY by Sammye Childers

I would like to introduce our members to a new

opportunity for public outreach. We have the oppor-

tunity to write a monthly column for Lake Country

Life. The column will be called NATURE Matters or Nature MATTERS, which ever inflection appeals to

you. Our mission will be to raise public awareness

and to educate members of our community on myriad

topics important to/about our unique environment. This project will be Committee based; hopefully we

will be able to meet monthly for lively discussions and

to brainstorm ideas. I think together we can make

this a fun and rewarding project for HLMN and an

important outreach to our community.

The column is to be 600 words and the subject can

be anything related to nature, environment, plants,

animals, topics of concern or current interest. The

sky is the limit. It should be unpublished, original ma-terial. We would love to have you participate on the

team. But, even if you do not have the time to be a

member of the team, please consider submitting arti-

cles for publication. The project has been approved for VS.

If you are interested in being a member of this

team or if you just prefer to write articles, please con-

tact Sammye Childers sammyenmike@yahoo.com

830-693-5061. Looking forward to working with you!

AGAVE SNOUT WEEVILS

by Mary Kay Pope Printed by permission from Backbone Valley Nursery (Jessica’s Corner Blog) - Submitted by Lyn Davis

The Agave Snout Weevils are at it

again! The females have spent the past

spring chewing into the Agaves and Yuc-

cas and laying their eggs. They chew into the leaf bases, leaving behind a bac-

teria (Erwinia) as they go. That bacteria

rots the heart of the plant. A small hole

at the base of the leaf may indicate the entrance of the beetle. The eggs have

now hatched into grub-like larvae, and

have tunneled into the rotting heart of

the plant.

Unfortunately, by the time that you see the damage to your plant, it is usually severe. The

bottom leaves will shrivel, and droop, although the top

leaves appear fine. A putrid odor develops from the

bacterial infection, and spreads throughout the plant as the larvae feed. It is actually the bacterial infection, not

the burrowing larvae, which causes the demise of the

plant.

Agaves approaching maturity, or those with a wide,

blue-green leaf seem to be the most susceptible to damage by the snout nosed weevil.

Systemic insecticides with the active ingredient Im-

idacloprid have been effective in preventing and con-

trolling the snout nosed weevils. Apply the product

around the base of the plant in early April and again in

late May to June. Systemic insecticides are absorbed

by the plant’s roots and translocated to the above-

ground parts. It may be effective against the adult wee-vil as it bores into the plant. It more probably will kill

the larvae that begin to feed on the tissue. This pre-

vents the spread of bacteria by the feeding larvae,

which can eventually kill the plant.

If you do lose an Agave or Yucca to an Agave snout nosed weevil, remove all parts of the plant immediate-

ly and haul it away or destroy it. Treat the remaining

agave and yuccas to prevent infestation. You may want

to treat the ground around the dead plant as well-

again, the best time to treat is when the adult weevil is active-once in early April and again in late May or June.

Page 7 August 2015 Volume 6, Issue 8

GALLERY

Diamond Back Water Snake

by Phil Wyde

Small Green Heron

by Phil Wyde

Spiny Softsheel Turtle

By Phil Wyde