Today I met Winnie and Logan, Audubon's Summer Intern, in Port Bolivar. Chris Peterson's crew of 12 were gearing up to enter Horseshoe Marsh and begin treating the millions of Chinese tallow trees in Horseshoe Marsh. The idea is to remove as many trees as possible to a level where marsh management is easily measured. With so many tallows standing now, it is difficult to comprehend how to implement a management plan, or even what we want to gain from it. So we had to start somewhere, and this morning we found ourselves starting at 29th St.
I hadn't seen Chris in a few months, but I recognized him as the one moving around all the trucks and gear with a fair pace and talking to Winnie. He had an industrial long sleeve work shirt on that said "Karl". I withheld from asking if he was going by Karl these days, but I am sure his response would have been quick and witty. His crew looked ready and willing to take on the first day's work. They all sat on the flatbed trailer that carried the ATV over via the ferry and sharpened their various types of machetes. The slide and ring of steel on steel in such chaotic unison was really something to witness. I was astounded for a moment as I watched men respect the very tool that would earn their living for the day. Chris talked to us about his hack-and-squirt method as opposed to a foliar spray method of herbiciding the tallows. And with blades as sharp as the workers', I didn't see any reason to argue.
We decided that Logan and I should walk the invisible property line that forms an "L" around the tower company's land on the northeast corner of the bird sanctuary. A few weeks back, Logan and I walked a 50 acre section of marsh to the south of the tower and mowed a 3' wide perimeter strip with the all-terrain mower. We also set coordinate points on the handheld GPS of the corners of that tract. This morning I was thankful we did, because we were able to set the points and walk a mostly straight line right to them. In some areas we walked easily, ducking under an occasional tallow limb and in other areas we were waist deep in spartina that had especially rude needle tip points on the ends. When they stick you, it feels like a deer fly just bit you. When three or four stick you, it feels like a mob of bees is attacking you. We got to our first point, marked it on the GPS, flagged it for the crew that was somewhere way back behind us, and set our next destination point. The "L" shaped line we marked would give Chris' crew a good idea of what trees to hack and where to aim their squirts. It is easy to get turned around in the midst of tallow forests, but they won't be there forever.
The rest of the day was spent walking the sanctuary and flagging areas that mark our property lines. We gained a good understanding of the terrain of the marsh and learned which areas had tallow problems. When the afternoon storms started to rumble, I headed for the ferry, the mainland, and home to Houston.
