Endangered Species: The Undisturbed portions of Lubbock City Parks
This afternoon I was talking with a City Parks & Recreation staffer about another matter, when she said that there were plans to turn over the part of Mackenzie Park that lies south of Masha Sharp Freeway and presumably east of Cesar Chavez Drive and north of the disk golf course to Meadowbrook. When I tried to express dismay, she said the golf course is good at protecting trees and things.
I didn't think to point out that nearly all trees at Mackenzie Park are non-native. Guess I got pigeon-holed as a tree hugger.
Golf courses are green but anything but natural. I speak as one who deplores the loss of another Lubbock golf course -- Stonegate -- to economic pressures and development.
The problem is what happens to what I call the "wild" part of Mackenzie Park that has never, far as I can tell, been plowed. There ARE native plants there, and animals. Saw a box turtle there a month ago. Where can they go when this is gone?
The caliche outcroppings there host an array of plants including Missouri Foxtail cactus that seems to exist nowhere else in the city except on certain untouched parts of city parkland.
What can I do? All I know is to set up a project here on iNat and put posted observations from that area in it. Another idea is to make a video and post it to Youtube. Then having that data online, try to interest news media and maybe the city manager.
Added -- here is the new project. Feel free to add. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mackenzie-park-wilds-the-endangered-non-landscaped-part-of-lubbock-s-mackenzie-park
Comments
Yah, sooooo, we're talking about the same city that poisons animals, right?
And looking at a map of this, i'm wondering whether those golfers are supposed to play through Marsha Sharp? Can you imagine how many cars are going to get pinged by a golfball?
The underpass that connects Mackenzie North to South doesn't have room for golf carts. Possibly a new 9-hole facility south of Marsha Sharp? Since Stonegate closed and Treasure Island years ago (the Walmart at 4th & Loop 289 was built on that property and filled in the playa lake Treasure Island was built around), Lubbock does not have a public 9 hole pitch & putt. (Except for LCU, but that's a 9-green course meant to be played in 2 directions for 18 holes total. I'm thinking Lake Ridge is 9 holes too.)
Ironically I am re-bitten by the golf bug. Went to the range this month after over 4 years of not having hit a golf ball full swing and was striking balls better that ever before. Just got myself some used Mizuno blades I am itching to try out. Even so and despite the fact that yesterday I was lamenting the lack of a Lubbock short course, I hate to see that part of Mackenzie developed. Let's bulldoze a neighborhood in SW Lubbock for a 9 hole course.
i know absolutely nothing about this. Nothing! I think i'm more the miniature golf type
Few things are more fun than whacking a golf ball and watching it soar into the distance. Not too late to learn! And golf courses may not be natural, but are better than apartment complexes or strip malls. [Horrors, I am possessed by the dark side and trying to contaminate others!]
water consumption...low marks in that department. But yah, healthy exercise!
This saddens me. One day last month I walked the length of the publicly accessible portions of Yellowhouse draw from the northernmost point of Lubbock Lake Landmark to the east loop, and while it is a fantastic park system, it needs those feral and wild corners. They were my favorite portions of that walk, and are more interesting than the "native wildlife habitat" that is nothing but cattails.
Once the City of Lubbock finally embraces that we are a short grass prairie city with a rolling plains type canyon running through it, we can get rid of "memorial groves" of non native trees and begin having memorial prairie patches. It is time we start celebrating what sets us apart from other cities in Texas instead of trying to mimic them.
This type of park was conceived by the English. Why are we STUCK with it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_landscape_garden
O.k., here is the new project. Comment and even criticism welcome. I am going to glean my observations for project additions. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mackenzie-park-wilds-the-endangered-non-landscaped-part-of-lubbock-s-mackenzie-park
Anybody can add appropriate observations to the project! Or go make new ones. Basketflower were fair out there on Thurs.
I joined it, but will have to try to create a bounding box and search my observations within it. I know i've got osprey and other cool stuff in that area.
Do you want to include anything from the contiguous wooded area north of Marsha Sharp, east of existing golf course? Lot of good stuff back in there.
How about the Purina trails?
Because of the threat to this area only, I felt it best to narrow it. My description opens it up to observations to the south bank of the creek and prairie dog town in the open area between, but I imagined it as only the grassy area south. If there is something cool between creek and ridge, great. YOU'VE GOT OSPREY?! Jemeny, I feel like a 2-year old crawling around the feet of grown-ups.
It was certainly a big day for me! I think i came home with about a hundred photographs of that osprey.
I created a place called "Mackenzie park wilds" so that i could search it. Do you want to check the boundaries for me? It's editable.
Then you could use that place to automatically add observations to the project, if you like
Sure. Keeping in mind I am 66 & technically inept.
Ok, better verbal definition. South boundary: Ridge & Bayer Museum north fence from Cesar Chavev Dr. to Nutmeg and Oak Ave.
North boundary: the creek.
East and west boundaries: Nutmeg and Oak Avenues. and Cesar Chavez Drive, respectively.
Much easier to see on satellite view.
Still trying to figure out how to set map boundaries.
Only the original place maker can edit a place. (Gee, that's biblical) I will delete the one i created, so that you can use the name. I don't need it anymore
go to Places (top menu, under "More"), then "add a new place".
Do a manual draw. It helps to enlarge the google map to full screen. Pick up the polygon tool, and click the vertices of your shape. When you close the shape, you're done. You can edit the place at any time.
REally, it's easier than it sounds! The hardest part is choosing an option for "place type". Point of Interest works, in this case, i think.
We're going to have to hurry. They're already working on it. I talked to one of the workers today, and it is a new disc golf course and not regular golf. He called it a "championship level gold course." At least four of the new "holes" are already in place.
I didn't think the worker would know how much they are going to clear/mow, so I didn't ask.
The good news: disc golfers don't use carts!
Or take divots. Should be lower impact. Disk golf has been on part of Mackenzie Wild around the west knob for a while. There has been some clearing of trees and pruning, mysterious holes being dug, and a stake put to mark something. Drilling and workers north of the creek when I was there on the 14th. Photographed some of what was going on. 140 pics posted on my Facebook June 14. https://www.facebook.com/barry.keith Any suggestions who to express concern to? P&R Dept?
Start at the top, is my advice. But not too often...
Not the mayor or my city councilperson. P&R and City mgr.
Two comments. #1, @mattex26 and other TTU students have an exhibit now at the Museum near the west door, about a project for restoring native vegetation at Mae Simmons or more exactly for the wooded area south of Mae Simmons. Thought project only.
2 As you know, that area is now a disk golf course. Before then and briefly a mountain bike race loop was laid out in part of it. Nice course, rode it some fighting mosquitoes. Smashed a pedal on a rock route. Back 10-12 years ago I made a habit of ambling about that area that I then called Lubbock Wild and took photos some of which are here: http://s196.photobucket.com/user/RefractedImage/library/Lubbock%20Scenery%20Two%20Endangered%20Species?sort=3&page=1 The wild has been tamed down quite a lot. Vegetation thinned. Used to be you could get lost among the thick trees,; no more. Could be a map of what is in store for Mackenzie Park.
I think it depends on how much they want to mow. There are some iconic prairie grass species in there that won't last under heavy mowing. If someone can convince them to have a decent wild/disc golf interface, maybe we can all be mollified. My worry is that it sounds like they are courting PDGA tournaments, and much like the prairie dog killing and extreme landscaping ahead of the Mayor's marathon a while back, there will be a low tolerance for wild there.
Redrew the boundaries for this place "Mackenzie park wilds", which once again exists. https://www.inaturalist.org/places/mackenzie-park-wilds
Does it fit your criteria, Barry?
If so, you can use this as a filter to search out suitable observations. Current count of 40, including quite a few native grasses contributed by Rowdy White. You want to have a blitz? We can do this.
Hi, Ellen. Thanks. Those boundaries are generous and quite satisfactory.
I went out Wed and covered the area excluding the creek. There was a flag on the far east ridge or "knob" as I call it. Imo that caliche knoll is the most sensitive spot and at least one vehicle had driven up the knoll probably over some cactus and Caesalpinia and the like.
I have prob 250 photos of 100 species from Wed and previous excursions that I have not posted to iNat out of laziness. The more species found in the area the more convincing the case for conservation, surely. And what kind of presentation? I was thinking about a color print out of the whole project, incl photos of species.
What's your opinion about a blitz? Availability of volunteers? I prob have more time than others but less ability to identify. Perhaps notifying TV stations? Who would like to be on camera? But obviously if a cameraperson were sent out, the more of us present the better.
In my vast antisocial experience, the fewer people involved, the more actual work gets done. But that's my work style.
I guess it comes down to intention: If you want data, send a few observers with good cameras and a pledge to post everything on iNat for identification. It can be a week-long event or month-long event for maximum results.
On the other hand, if you want a newsworthy event, send a lot of volunteers out there and make sure most of them are children. But! Consider the environmental disturbance that will cause.
It's important to hit the area throughout the seasons. Very important. I promise to go down there the next time i'm taking a field day.
I promise (1) to go thru my photos and to get those from the area on line this weekend, (2) to print out color copies of the project and (3) to distribute them no later than Tues. Will go out at least once this weekend. Since I live a mile away that is an easy one.
Have fun! Play ya some golf too.
My friend, political ally, and fellow demonstrator in numerous causes left the Ft Worth convention and messaged me to ask how I was doing. I sent a link to the Mackenzie Park Wilds project page. Within 5 minutes I got this link back. https://www.facebook.com/sandra79424/posts/10209074512018471?notif_id=1529902144751212¬if_t=mention So nice to be young and energetic. Or maybe it was the tea served at the convention? Last month I invited her out to see the hedgehog cacti blooming in this part of Mackenzie. Guess she liked the place.
Still have over a hundred photos to sort through. Problem being that when I walked for an hour or 90 minutes I'd take 90-140 photos, then would download them and mine them for birds, Escorbia, butterflies etc., and let the plant IDs sit and wait, up to 3 months. Had to go thru Facebook to see where I roamed on what days. to locate the "Mackenzie Park Wilds" photos. Which I needed to do anyway to calculate TMN volunteer hours.
I know what you're saying. I have to keep my route in my head too, so it gets tough when the recollections start getting cold.
But you know? Maybe this makes us more aware of species distributions, and codistributions, and habitats, than if we let the device do all the work.
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