Category Archives: Dr. Kevin Thuesen

April 2, 2015 · 9:20 pm

Get to Know Austin’s Conservation Wildlands

Dr. Kevin Thuesen, Program Manager with the City of Austin’s Water Quality Protection Lands, talked with KXAN about converting the City of Austin’s wildlands back to their native state. In the video, you’ll learn about prescribed burns on the lands and how native people used the native Prickly Ash or toothache tree.

You’ll also learn about their efforts to get rid of invasive plants like King Ranch Bluestem (KR Bluestem). (Sounds like a job for your friendly-neighborhood Amazing Invasive Hunter Man.)

The Austin conservation wildlands include the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve (BCP), which includes habitat for the endangered Golden Cheek Warbler, and Water Quality Protection Lands (WQPL) that include lands that help to feed the Barton Springs Aquifer.

Water is so important to Central Texas. The Texas Water Resources Institute describes how protecting our land helps to protect our water. (The Colorado River Alliance also helps to keep the water in Lake Travis clean.)

I’ve had a chance to go on many hikes and volunteer with Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division. Here are a few of the posts on my past adventures on the BCP and WQPL:

Take a hike on Wildland Conservation Division lands

Cripple Crawfish Cave Whirlpool in Onion Creek

Cripple Crawfish Cave Whirlpool in Onion Creek

Spring is the best time to take a guided hike on the water quality lands. Plants are green. Flowers are blooming. Water’s flowing. There’s a lot of life, birds and insects.

Normally, the BCP and WQPL lands are not open to the public to protect the land for endangered species and water quality, but there are many hikes that you can take with experienced guides to enjoy the lands and learn about the diverse plants and animals that inhabit these unique ecosystems.

In the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, April guided hikes include:

  • 4/26 – Finding Austin’s Endangered ones

On the Water Quality Protection Lands, April guided hikes include:

  • 4/10 – Scenic Springs and Hidden Vistas
  • 4/11 – Onion Creek Exploration
  • 4/11 – Sunset at Slaughter Creek
  • 4/24 – Big Views at Little Barton
  • 4/25 – Insect Safari

Sign up for a guided hike with the Wildland Conservation Division.

You can also help to remove the Invasive Star Thistle and volunteer for other activities on Austin Wildland Conservation Lands.

To learn about upcoming events, be sure to join the Wildland Conservation Division email list to get the latest updates from Ms. Amanda Ross, volunteer coordinator with the City of Austin.

I hope you’ll have fun with one of these hikes this spring!

Your friend,
Ben

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Filed under Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, City of Austin, Dr. Kevin Thuesen, King Ranch Bluestem, Water Quality Protection Land

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April 1, 2015 · 8:52 pm

Removing the Invasive Star Thistle on Austin Wildland Conservation Division Lands

Yellow Star-Thistle Invasive Plant Species (Photo credit: Eugene Zelenko from Wikipedia)

Yellow Star-Thistle Invasive Plant Species (Photo credit: Eugene Zelenko from Wikipedia)

The Yellow Star-Thistle is an invasive species in Texas with a yellow flower and nasty spines. It can grow up to five feet high and does well in areas with dry summers. It’s difficult to remove because of its long tap root.

The Yellow Star-Thistle seeds do not spread with the wind and this means new plants will usually sprout just a few feet away from the parent plant. Traveling animals or people working on roadsides help to accidentally spread the thistle and give its seeds a chance to invade new ecosystems sooner than it naturally could.

For the Yellow Star-Thistle, I was fascinated to learn from the Texas Invasives plant database that six biological control insects have been released in the United States to attack the seedhead of the thistle.

Just a few years ago, Dr. Damon Waitt predicted that the Yellow Star-Thistle would be the next big invasive species to threaten Texas rangelands. (Dr. Waitt is the Senior Director and Botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.)

Whether by mowing, hand pulling, insects, or other means, any way that we can reduce the number of seeds that the invasive thistle can produce will help us limit its spread and give us a chance to keep our native ecosystems safe or reclaim areas that have been invaded.

Give the thistle the business on the City of Austin’s wildlands

There’s a chance for you to help rid our native ecosystem of invasive species by removing the star thistle from lands that are used for water quality and recharge with the City of Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division.

Dr. Kevin Thuesen mentioned that the Malta Star-Thistle and King Ranch Bluestem (KR Bluestem) invasive species have been invading Austin’s water quality lands near Onion Creek. (Dr. Thuesen is the Environmental Conservation Program Manager for the Water Quality Protection Land program that is part of the Austin Water Utility.)

Karst feature with a huge draining crack

Karst feature with a huge draining crack

The Wildland Conservation Division is also looking for volunteers for other activities on their water quality protection lands. Water that seeps through karst features (big and small cracks and caves under the surface) and from Onion Creek on these lands makes its way to the Barton Springs Aquifer. So helping to maintain the natural ecosystem of this land is important to water quality.

In addition to invasive species removal, here are some of the other upcoming volunteer events in April:

  • 4/4 – Star thistle invasive species removal at Reicher Ranch
  • 4/11, 4/12, 4/14, 4/15 – Recreation survey to understand trail use
  • 4/11 – Seeding the Water Quality Protection Lands after a prescribed burn
  • 4/19/, 4/26 Land stewardship to restore endangered species habitat at the Vireo Preserve

Sign up for an upcoming volunteer activity with the Wildland Conservation Division.

I enjoyed the time that I volunteered with Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division. Here are a few of my posts with my past adventures on the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve (BCP) that are part of the City of Austin’s wildlands.

Your friend,
Ben

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Filed under Damon Waitt, Dr. Kevin Thuesen, Invasive Species, Wildland Conservation Division, Yellow Star-Thistle

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March 29, 2012 · 9:17 pm

Whirlpool Springs to Life in Onion Creek above Cripple Crawfish Cave

Commander Ben near the Cripple Crawfish Cave whirlpool in Onion Creek

As part of National Ground Water Awareness Week earlier this month, the City of Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division scheduled a “wonderful whirlpool” hike along Onion Creek.

What a fantastic place and what a rare treat to see so much green vegetation and water. We’ve been under a terrible drought in Texas. (The water level on Lake Travis dropped so low that I was able to walk to the sometimes islands late last year. These islands are normally submerged when the Highland Lakes are full.)

We’ve been blessed with recent rains. The rainwater has given life back to our land, lakes, and creeks. I hope that we keep getting more rain.

Karst features help recharge the Edwards Aquifer

The Orr Track on Onion Creek is part of the Barton Springs recharge segment of the Edwards Aquifer. Water that falls on the savannah and prairie land in this area flows through karst features to reach the aquifer underneath.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the air and water (H20) combine to create carbonic acid H2CO3. This acid eats the calcite in the limestone under the soil to create the karst features, and these features consists of big and small cracks and caves under the surface.

Slowly draining karst feature near Onion Creek

Because of our recent rains, there’s water on the surface, but it’s slowly draining underground with the small cracks in this karst.

Dry karst feature with flint rocks

This karst feature has bigger cracks, which causes it to drain faster. There’s no standing water here, but there’s lots of flint. Dr. Kevin Thuesen, Environmental Conservation Program Manager, helped to lead our hike, and he said that there’s evidence of native Americas in this area who have tried out the different pieces of flint to see if any would be good to use.

(I had a chance to try out flintknapping and other great nature activities at the Wild Basin Preserve a few months ago.)

Karst feature with a huge draining crack

This karst feature has a huge crack to help water drain quickly to the aquifer. No standing water here.

Watch out for the rattlesnakes

We saw a few rattlesnakes on our hike, and Dr. Thuesen cautioned us to watch out for them. When the snake started rattling as I walked by, my heart jumped!

This one was near the karst feature with the huge crack, and it was very hard to see at first. (Can you spot the rattlesnake in this picture?)

No snake in this picture, but here’s evidence of feral hogs. They were digging for food (grubs?) in this area earlier. They’re omnivores and will eat just about anything.

Wonderful whirlpool!

Cripple Crawfish Cave Whirlpool in Onion Creek

The treat at the far end of the hike was the whirlpool that flows into Cripple Crawfish Cave (another karst feature!) in Onion Creek. They haven’t seen water in the creek for about a year, so this was a special occasion.

Dr. Thuesen said that they installed a screen over the cave opening to keep out debris and to help water flow more easily into the cave and eventually into the aquifer. Scientists have used a special dye to discover that water that flows down this whirlpool can reach Barton Springs Pool in about 22 days or so.

I’ve only seen a whirlpool in my bathtub before. It was great to see a real one in nature!

Thanks for the great hike!

Ms. Amanda Ross, Commander Ben, and Dr. Kevin Thuesen and the end of our wonderful whirlpool hike

Thank you Ms. Amanda Ross, Conservation Program Coordinator, Dr. Thuesen, and the other knowledgeable guides for the fantastic hike!

Ms. Ross has always been kind and helpful, and she had some neat posters. (I first met Ms. Ross when I learned about rare Texas plants and took a tour of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve.)

I enjoyed talking with Dr. Thuesen about the different rattlesnakes. He also knew a lot about invasive plants and talked with me about some of the ones in the area, including the Malta star-thistle and King Ranch Bluestem (KR Bluestem).

Don’t miss these wonderful hikes to learn about the native ecosystems of Central Texas. Check out the latest events on the City of Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division event page and be sure to join their email list to learn about upcoming events.

Commander Ben signing off

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Filed under Austin Water Utility's Wildland Conservation Division, Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, City of Austin, City of Austin Wildland Conservation Division, City of Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division, Cripple Crawfish Cave, Dr. Kevin Thuesen, Edwards Aquifer, Flintknapping, Karst features, King Ranch Bluestem, KR Bluestem, Lake Travis, Malta star-thistle, Ms. Amanda Ross, Onion Creek, Rattlesnakes, Texas Drought, Texas Invasives, Whirlpool

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