The Drought Continues

September brought some relief from the all time record hundred plus degree days and we finally received some good rain - 6.15 inches. Every bit of which soaked into the ground. This was very good for the range grasses. It always amazes me how grasses can respond so quickly. All the pastures were brown and with no growth at all, yet in four days everything was green again. Wildflowers were blooming and grasses were shooting up and producing seed heads . . . . but this doesn’t end the drought. Remember that up until September we received only 11.24 inches for the year and during the hot summer months of May, June, July and August we only had 1.69 inches!

Since there was basically no runoff, our lakes, tanks and creeks are still, with a few exceptions dry. I hesitate to say the drought has a benefit, but it did give us the opportunity to remove silt from the lakes.

This tank was built in the late 1970’s. It has never been dry before and it was still boggy as the one loader got stuck in the mud. Photograph taken by J. David.

This pile of silt is 270 feet long, 50 feet wide and 6 foot high! Removal increased the tank capacity by 30 percent. After a prolonged drying out, we will spread it on the ranch. Photograph taken by J. David.

Madrone Lake, our most used recreation lake, on May 31, 2009. The creek that feeds it stopped flowing on July 28, 2008. Photograph taken by J. David.

Madrone Lake on October 8, 2009. The September rains soaked into the very dry earth. There has been no runoff to the lake nor spring activity to fill the lake. Photograph taken by J. David.

My observation of the effects of this drought on trees is that the most affected were Spanish Oaks. A Texas Forest Service representative estimated that we’ve lost 1,000! It surprised me that we lost at least five Bur Oaks. They have a tap root which goes deep into the ground. On the entire 5,500 acres I found only one Bur Oak. It’s probably 150 years old and in my 40 years here, it has never produced an acorn. We have planted all the other Bur Oaks on the ranch. Those five that died from the drought were seven to ten years old. Lacey Oak, some call it Blue Oak, and Live Oak have survived without loss. There has been some loss of Native Pecan, Walnut, BigTooth Maple, and Bald Cypress. It’s important to withhold judgement on this until next spring as some of these may come back to life.

This nice Spanish Oak shut down in late August. Aesthetically, it is a real loss as it was positioned along the road for all to see. Notice on the right a dead Bald Cypress. Photograph taken by J. David.

These are just two of many Bald Cypress we’ve introduced. Naturally there weren’t any on the ranch. I knew it was a risk to plant them at higher elevations, but since the creek had begun to run it was a good gamble. These are 40 foot tall and I don’t expect them to spring back to life as they got severely stressed in 2008 as well as in 2009. Photograph taken by J. David.

We call this the Catfish Tank. It has never gone completely dry. It has one spring and a 500 acre watershed to feed it. Photograph taken by J. David.

Obviously this tank has been dry long enough for cracks to develop and grass to grow. Photograph taken by J. David.

Because of the recent rains, one may want to declare this current drought over. This is not true. Conservation practices one may have developed due to the drought should become part of one’s life. Water is the single most important issue facing all of us.

Selah's Colors of Fall

When J. David was a young boy in Ohio, his mother Hester planted trees around the house and in the acres behind the house. He loved seeing them grow, and to this day plants trees on the ranch. When he started planting them on Selah in 1970 there were lots of trees here, but there were some that were missing. Maples probably grew all over the Hill Country in a previous wetter time, but today are mostly found in a few canyons and the Lost Maples State Park 50 miles west of us. David has planted over 400 Big Tooth Maples here and there are some areas that rival the State Park when the colors are brilliant.


At this time of year, at every turn of the road or trail the colors of fall are in evidence. J. David spends time out enjoying the fruits of his labor, and loves to bring friends out to see the fall colors. We even have a "Fall Colors Hike" in late November. Yesterday, Novemberr 22nd 60 people came out to hike around the trails.

(Note: Schedules are regularly shown on our website: and you can sign up ahead of time for a scheduled tour, workshop or hike. You will receive a confirmation letter and directions shortly before the day of the event.)

This grouping of Big-tooth Maples (Acer grandidentatum) are planted along the main road and can be seen at one of the turns in the main road. I want to point out that the maples are in corrals to protect them from deer, who consider them one of nature's most delicious treats. When these maples were planted we had no way of knowing that they would grow into magnificent trees that have beautiful colors.

At Madrone Lake, and along the creeks the colors of Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) that are getting ready to lose their needles are rusty red. They are especially colorful when the sun shines though them in the late afternoon.

On the trail I'm amazed at the symphony of colors that are seen in a sweep of the eyes. In this scene there are Spanish Oaks (Quercus buckleyi), Ash Junipers (Juniperus asheii), Big tooth Maples and Escarpment Black Cherries (Prunus serotina var. eximia).

Rusty Blackhaw (Virbunum rufidulum) turns a wonderful deep clear red, and retains its leaves for many weeks.

Smoketree's (Colinus obovatus) leaves turn a purplish red in fall which is quite striking. It is an uncommon tree but does well in our limestone soils.

Big-tooth Maple's colors can range from clear yellow to deep scarlet. The colors in this maple this year are what we call Salmon. We have been keeping records for over 10 years to determine if the colors are consistent from year to year, or if they are affected by weather or other variable conditions.

This maple on the Big Tooth Maple Trail is an exceptionally beautiful shade of crimson.

Maples frequently have several colors on the same plant. Here we have peach, yellow, and scarlet.

Spanish Oaks (Quercus buckleyi) turn a variety of colors. Some of the reds show a fair amount of pink in them.

This Spanish Oak is a deep scarlet.

Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) is in the White Oak goup (note rounded lobes) and in the fall its the leaves turn yellow and various shades of tan and brown.

Escarpment Black Cherry turns shades of yellow and yellow orange before their leaves drop.

Arrowood Virbunum's leaves turn red in the fall. When the late afternoon sun shines through them they are a beautiful deep red.

Photographs by Margaret Bamberger taken during the week of November 17 through 22.

Going to Seed: Acorns

Reproduction is important in plants just as it is in animals. In both, when the mature generation is aging, a new generation needs to be growing up to take its place. In many plants, such as wildflowers, trees and shrubs, seeds are produced from fertilized flowers, and they carry the spark of life that will become the new generation, and they are often packaged with the food that will give them a good start.

The seeds of oaks trees are acorns. The acorn is defined in the book, "Plant Identification Terminology" by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris as," The hard, dry, indehiscent (which means that they do not open at maturity along definite lines) fruit of oaks, with a single large seed and a cup-like base".

According to an excellent book about the use of plants by animals of the U.S., "American Wildlife and Plants, A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits" by Alexander C. Martin, H. S. Zim and A. L. Nelson, "Oak trees are of major importance to both man and wildlife, and acorns are at a position at, or very near the top of the wildlife food list. Acorns provide a good and abundantly available staple - the staff of life for many wildlife species. The acorns of the white oak species are more palatable to wildlife just as they were preferred by the Indians and early settlers." The red oaks are much higher in tannins which makes their acorns bitter.

I don't know where this illustration of different seeds types "Common Types of Fruits and Seeds" came from, but we have used it for years with students and at workshops. The acorn is in the upper left-hand corner. (If you know the origin of this illustration , please let me know so I can give the author and/or artist credit.)

Bur Oak has very large acorns (Quercus macrocarpa) ["macro" = large "carpo" = Greek for fruit] and the Bur Oak tree's acorns are the largest we have at the ranch. This one is over an inch wide and if you count the cup which is deep and fringed with course hairs in the measure it is almost 2 inches wide . The leaves of the Bur Oak can be up to a foot long. The leaves in this picture were 6 to 9 inches long.

The Bur Oak acorns on the left are huge compared to the much smaller Spanish Oak (Quercus buckleyi) acorns on the right (note the quarter in the middle of the large acorns for size comparison). The white oak family to which the Bur oak belongs are sweet. Red oak acorns are high in tannins which give them a bitter taste. Native Americans made flour and tasty dishes with white oak acorns. Animals love them too.

Bur Oak Acorns are very popular with animals. These acorns have been partially eaten, probably by squirrels. J David planted Bur acorns in pots by the Greenhouse, and covered them so no acorn loving critters couldn't reach them. He underestimated the cunning of squirrels, and was dismayed when he returned to find that eight of the containers showed evidence of tampering. Two of them still had an acorn and in the others the acorns were missing.

These beautiful dark brown acorns are on a Plateau Live Oak tree (Quercus fusiformis) and are up to an inch long. The large number of Plateau Live Oak trees in this area mean that their acorns are important food for turkeys, deer, jays, titmice and woodpeckers. It is also the host plant for the caterpillars of skippers, hairstreak and admiral butterflies.

Live Oaks can get to be very large. This one, along Miller Creek has a sign that says "Largest Oak Known in Blanco County". I have no idea whether it is a Plateau Live Oak which is the common oak here at the ranch, or if it is the Coastal Live Oak (Quercus virigiana). It is huge and I think very, very old.

These acorns were on the ground under a large Lacey Oak (Quercuw laceyi) tree. We have a grove of these beautiful oaks along Miller Creek. I didn't find any of the smaller trees with acorns on them, so I was unable to get a photograph of acorns in their cups on a tree.

The old Lacey Oak trees in the grove are beautiful, with light gray bark, and graceful arching branches.

The leaves of the Lacey Oak have a thin coat of a waxy substance on their surface that reduces water loss during dry spells, and also gives the tree a bluish tint which has earned this oak the common name "Blue Oak".

There are many animals that love acorns and some actually hide them away for later in the year when food is less plentiful. Squirrels and other small mammals bury them, and then forget where they put them. Thus they plant a new crop of oaks, and some of the new plants will replace the old ones that are dying. The young sprouts are also food for other animals.

I found out from Scott Grote, who manages the deer and hunts, that the acorn crop this year is large enough that the White-tail deer aren't as interested in our corn feeders as they are in years when the acorn crop is smaller.

There are many cycles in nature, warm and cold, wet and dry. It would seem that a dry year like this past 12 months would produce a small crop of acorns. However when you consider that we had an unusually wet spring in 2007, the extra water probably gave the oaks the health they needed to make it through a dry year. When looking at the health of trees you look at what has happened in the last 2 or 3 years, not just the recent seasons.

Enjoy the fall. Leaves are changing color. Lots of plants produce their fruit in the fall. The air is often cool. It is one of my favorite times of the year.

Of course, I would love to see some rain!

Bare oak trees in winter

Bare trees on a hillside tend to look alike unless you look specifically at tree shape, bark color and pattern.

Every winter I play a little game with myself.  I like to see how many trees I can identify using tree shape, bark patterns and color. Sometimes I can identify them, but not always. Tree shapes are variable, and many trees have so many lichens growing on their bark that it is hard to see a bark pattern. Young bark looks different from old bark.

This week I'd like to share with you some of the characteristics that help. Trees assume many shapes that are determined by the conditions around them, such as availablity of water, whether they are alone in a sunny space, or shaded and/or crowded in thick woods. Trees in an open area are more apt to show a classic shape than those in crowded conditions.

Note: Most tree identification books use leaves as the primary identifying feature. Defining clues include whether leaves are simple (one blade per leaf) or compound (2 or more leaflets per leaf), its shape (round, triangular, heart shaped, etc.), leaf edges (smooth, sawtoothed, lobed, etc.) and the attachment of leaves on their twigs (opposite or alternate).

Oaks here will be the subject for this blog. The most abundant oak we see at Selah is Plateau Live oak, which is an evergreen meaning it keeps its leaves all winter. For this blog, I'll be writing about deciduous trees, which are those that lose their leaves in winter.

Deciduous oaks that are native to Selah:  Bur, Blackjack, Bigelow, Lacey, Post, Shin, Spanish (also known as Texas oak).  (the oaks I feature in this blog are in bold) 

Deciduous oaks that are introduced here: Chinkapin, Monterey, Vasey.

Oaks that have leaves with obvious points on them are in the Red Oak group and have tannins in their leaves and acorns. Also,they turn colors such as red in the fall. Those oaks with leaves without points are in the White Oak group and don't have tannins, and they have little fall color and usually turn brown before they fall.

Of the oaks on Selah, the Bur oak is typically a large oak (up to 150 feet) with huge leaves 6 to 12 inches long with multiple rounded lobes, and acorns up to 2 inches long. Their limbs are straight. They need deep soils and constant water. Bark is grey, thick, with deep fissures, and are broken into narrow plates. The bur oak below was planted along Madrone Lake by J. David in 1987. It is now around 25 feet tall and doing well. There is a huge Bur oak in Sun Valley Pasture that has a creek running through it, and as far as we know it is growing there naturally.

The most common of the deciduous oaks on Selah are Spanish oaks, which line the upper slopes and are found scattered across the landscape here. They can be handsome trees usually under 35 feet tall. Their limbs are sometimes bent, and the overall shape of the tree is frequently irregular.  They seem to have weak trunk and branch structure and break easily in wind storms and ice storms. The wood can be used for burning, but not for lumber. The bark is light grey, unless covered with lichens, and the depth of the furrows depends on their age. Their leaves have deep narrow lobes with long points at the ends. In blog #2 (December 9) I have a picture that shows scarlet color that some of them turn. Others turn orange-red or orange.

Spanish oak is the most susceptible oak to oak wilt, which is a fungal infection that spreads from tree to tree through their roots when in they are in contact underground. Also it is spread by sap beetles that carry the fungus from a wound in one tree to other trees and start new centers of infection.

Shin oaks are found in a number of different areas, and how they look depends on both the depth of soil and the amount of water available to them. In deep soil they may be handsome small trees up to 30 feet tall (called Bigelow oaks), and in rocky limestone soil a small slender tree. It sometimes is found in a thick growth of brush known as "shineries". The 2 trees pictured below are on the edge of a valley that leads to a spring. The bark is typical of Shin oaks, thin, light grey, and peeling in vertical sheets.

This tangle of oaks is referred to as a shinnery. They grow like this when the original trees are cut down or burned in a fire and new shoots arise from the roots. These thick oak tangles are the favored habitat of the endangered Black-capped vireo. When the shinneries get too tall, they look for other habitat. The one pictured is getting close to being too tall.

Post oaks and Blackjack oaks are mostly in an area of the ranch which is on the plateau tops where the soils are red, and contain a high content of silica (the stuff glass is made of). They like silica rich soils, and are very common in Bastrop County, and other locations with sandy soils. The Post oak is the more common of the two, but Blackjacks are almost always found in Post oak woodlands, and my guess would be that there is one Blackjack oak for every ten or so Post oaks.

Post oaks are members of the White Oak family, and their leaves turn brown in the fall. The edges of their lobed leaves are rounded and often have a shape that is similar to a cross. Their acorns are sweet, and free of tannins, which makes them desirable to eat. Their branches are stout, with lots of bends in them. The bark color is a much lighter grey than blackjacks. The bark is thick with deep vertical fissures and longitudinal fissures that divide the bark into rectangular plates. I find them very attractive in the winter.

Blackjack oaks have leaves that turn rusty-red in the fall.   The classic leaf is shaped sort of like a duck foot, narrow at the base and at the upper end 3 lobes with pointed tips. The shape of the tree without leaves is less regular than Post Oaks. The furrows on the bark are deep. The dark grey, almost black bark has a knobby look with blocky plates.

I hope that even if you don't become good at identifying winter trees, you will look at and appreciate the shapes of the bare branches against the sky, as well as the color and patterns of the bark of the bare trees around you. Noticing differences makes the season more interesting.  

"Selah Moments" are times when you are outdoors and notice and enjoy some aspect of nature that seems special to you. For some it might be a bird song, or seeing an insect, or the sound of wind in the trees, or wind blowing grasses in waves across a field, or simply the beauty of sunlight, or clouds. So don't forget to go outdoors and take out time to notice and record in your memory those special moments.              

My favorite Selah moment this week occurred when a group of us were walking in the woods on the Aldo Leopold trail late in the afternoon on the day of the Winter Solstice.  We were enjoying each other's company when we arrived at an area with large boulders scattered about and a friend said, "Let's all sit down here for a few minutes and enjoy a Selah Moment."  It takes a few seconds to move from walking and talking to quiet attention. There was a gentle wind blowing and I could hear it in the tree branches and when it blew through the leaves of the Live oak trees. The moon had just risen, and the sky was starting to show late afternoon pink in the west. It was a magical moment. 

Many thanks to Chris Johnson who has helped so much with this blog. I call him anytime I can't figure out how to accomplish something. He also fixes the arrangement of elements in the final version that are beyond my abilities at this time.  

Look for another post in a about week, which will be next year. Have a fun, safe New Year's Eve, and a adventurous, healthy, happy year in 2008.