Dr. Stephen Bullard, the Dean of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture welcomed the campers back to Stephen F. Austin State University and gave them some advise about attending college and choosing the career of their dreams. They then heard about fire management careers from Paul Tiller, a master's student in Fire Ecology. He talked about what fire management entails, what fire ecologists study, and some of the nuts and bolts of how the fire management world works.
We got a peek into the important research being conducted at the US Forest Service Southern Research Station at Stephen F. Austin State University. Dr. Daniel Saenz talked about his studies involving the detrimental effects of Chinese tallow on the health of bronze frogs and Houston toads. As the leaves from Chinese Tallow fall into the bayous of Houston and decompose, the bacteria working to rot these leaves suck precious dissolved oxygen out of the water, suffocating Houston toad tadpoles.
 |
Dr. Craig Rudolph's predicted use map for the Lousiana Pine Snake
|
The Natural Resource Conservation Service's East Texas Plant Materials Center (ETPMC) invited the campers to explore their facility, and perhaps consider a job in developing plant solutions to conservation problems. The ETPMC tests and selects plants, preferably plants native to an area, that can solve problems such as erosion, polluted soil, habitat loss and more. Students saw the labor saving equipment the ETPMC uses and helped them plant some herbaceous mimosa.
 |
Alan Shadow introduces the East Texas Plant Materials Center's greenhouse to the campers.
|
The students then took a hike through the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest, which surrounds the ETPMC, discovering east Texas favorites like Devil's Walking-Stick, Yaupon, and Southern Yellow Pine.
 |
A wonderful shot by Anabelle Lopez of the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest
|
 |
Devil's Walking-Stick by Anabelle Lopez
|
Some of our kids opted to sweat their energy off at a Zumba class at the C.L. Simon Recreation Center and Library in Nacogdoches, one of their favorite events. Then we all enjoyed the Hubble Vision Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU), and then the stargazing adventure at the SFASU Observatory. The Observatory features the very same telescope used to map the moon prior to the Apollo program, and through that telescope we saw Saturn in glorious view, as well as the moon.
Tomorrow will be the last day, where we will send them off from the place we're it all began.
No comments:
Post a Comment