Water Utility Project Clearcuts Portion Of McCommas Bluff Preserve

I'm somewhat disappointed to see Dallas Water Utilities flexing their muscle on a project at McCommas Bluff Preserve. Over the years that I have been mountain biking in the Great Trinity Forest I have always brushed off right-of-way clearings, alignments and heavy construction. Newly cleared access roads and water main excavations have always opened new avenues to explore the woods into areas that were previously inaccessible.  This time it's different.

I know that the soil in the river bottoms is so fertile that a bulldozer charging through the understory will be brushed off by the surrounding woods in a matter of weeks. A space opens and something nearby jumps into the fray to take the place. I also know that the Trinity River serves as the mother of all utility right of ways for gas, sewage, fiber optic cable and freshwater mains from area lakes. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. I realize the importance of utility right of ways and the need to keep them free of debris, brush and trees. If a company wanted to drill a gas or oil well down there I would be all for it. This time it's different.

I'm also probably guilty of not mentioning the somewhat difficult circumstances I encounter on a regular basis in the Trinity Forest. The illegal dumping, near constant sound of distant gunfire, butchered animal parts, marijuana farms, burned vehicles. I can look past that with a 1000 yard stare knowing distractions like that help keep some of the more special places, special. This time it's different.

McCommas Bluff has been a focal point of human activity for centuries. It was first mapped by the French explorers. It was first settled by William Shelton in the 1840s, an Illinois veteran from the Mexican War. The bluffs carried his name, Shelton's Bluff until shortly after the Civil War. In 1850, he married into the Dawdy Family who ran a ferry service on the Texas National Highway across the Trinity River downstream a few miles. Pronounced "Dowdy", the misspelling took and Dowdy Ferry Road is now over the old Texas National Highway route. Shelton, the Dawdy and Beeman families were all Illinois natives and they knew each other prior to immigrating to Texas. Dawdy and Beeman also appear together on muster roles for Bird's Fort. Together the three families owned most of the land along the Trinity just south of what is now Fair Park to Hutchins, in what was then Nacogdoches County in the Republic of Texas. The McCommas family purchased the Shelton land after the passing of William Shelton. The name Shelton's Bluff stuck through the Civil War, eventually changing names to McCommas Bluff on maps in 1880.

When efforts were made to navigate the Trinity River for the first time in the late 1800's, McCommas Bluff for a brief time was a beehive of activity. Land for a inland port was platted and surveyed. Some homes, a few businesses and a wharf for moving bales of cotton was even constructed. McCommas Bluff served as a staging center for cotton, bales were barged south to Porter's Bluff near present day Rice, Texas where they were put on larger barges before heading for the the coast. Nothing ever came of the plan since the river was not suited for boat traffic of that type.

In 1986, to commemorate the Texas Sesquicentennial , twin Texas Historical Markers were erected by the Texas Historical Commission to commemorate the history of the Trinity River. Identical historical markers were placed at McCommas Bluff and Reunion Plaza(near Reunion Tower). They read:

Navigation of the Upper Trinity River

Since the founding of Dallas, many of the city's leaders have dreamed of navigation on the upper Trinity River, but none of their attempts achieved lasting success. Fluctuating water levels and massive snags in the river below Dallas hindered early navigation. In 1866 the Trinity River Slack Water Navigation Co. proposed dams and locks for the waterway. Capt. James H. McGarvey and Confederate hero Dick Dowling piloted "Job Boat No. 1" from Galveston to Dallas, but the trip took over a year. In 1868 the Dallas-built "Sallie Haynes" began to carry cargo southward. Rising railroad freight charges spurred new interest in river shipping in the 1890s. The Trinity River Navigation Co., formed in 1892, operated "Snag Puller Dallas" and the "H. A. Harvey, Jr.," which carried 150 passengers. The "Harvey" made daily runs to McCommas Bluff, 13 miles downstream from Dallas, where a dam, dance pavilion, and picnic grounds created a popular recreation spot. In 1900 - 1915 the U. S. Government spent $2 million on river improvements, including a series of dams and locks, before World War I halted work. A critical 1921 Corps of Engineers report ended further federal investment. Despite sporadic interest in later years, the dream of Dallas an an inland port remains unrealized.
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You can walk right out of Reunion Tower and see the historical marker. It's twin at McCommas Bluff was stolen a number of years ago and never replaced. The post to which the historical marker was affixed remained. Until last week. When it was bulldozed. It had sat there since 1986, a relative newcomer to McCommas Bluff. The trees around it, while somewhat short in stature, varied in age from 50 to over 125 years old. Trees that witnessed most of the history mentioned above. They managed to survive the dozen other pipeline projects, gas line installations and water main redos.

I know how much fun running a chainsaw can be. Even better when you can just cut down stuff and not have to bother with cleaning it up. The photos below are before and afters of what it looked like as little as a month before the clearing began.

McCommas Bluff July 2011

One of the highlights of visiting the Great Trinity Forest for me is my usual turn around point, the end of the trail, what is usually a somewhat spectacular early evening view of McCommas Bluff from the far bank. It's about 20 miles from home, halfway. Makes you feel like you have been to some far off place seeing a piece of geography better suited for the Hill Country. I'm sure if it was in the Hill Country along the Guadalupe or Frio, Willie Nelson would have written a song about it. Making it here from where I live in North Dallas is usually no small feat, navigating the roads down to White Rock Lake, then south through what are the toughest and possibly most dangerous neighborhoods in Dallas.

McCommas Bluff August 2011

Both photos were taken virtually in the same spot. The large tree trunk in the foreground was from a 65 year old tree. Like I mentioned above, I respect the need to clear right of ways for projects. The results are somewhat drastic. Especially when one does not clean up after themselves.

Mountain bike ride with DORBA members April 2011 Great Trinity Forest

August 2011

Both photos were taken within 50 feet from one another. The cedars chopped down on the far bank have tree rings noting 50-125 years of growth on them. The trees that are closest to the waters edge show evidence that they had been sitting over a week. August 13th as a result of a rainstorm, the river rose three feet. The tree debris closest to the water shows mud lines where the river submerged the branches. You can also see a pipe with a layer of concrete over it running vertically down the bluff. This is the ROW for utilities. I would gather that in the past, any construction did not need such a large footprint to accomplish their construction.

McCommas Bluff July 2011

McCommas Bluff August 2011

It's just not the trees that are gone. It's the view. Arguably the only naturally photogenic piece of property on the Trinity, the view is damaged for a lifetime. Trees that grow on nearly bare limestone take many decades to grow. The trees chopped down cannot be replaced. I'm feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to take some photos of the bluffs and climb all over them before the clearing took place.

It's easy to answer the question of why this happened. Simple. They are working on a large water main. The harder question to answer is if the city and county are really serious about turning the "Great Trinity Forest" into a place that will attract an average person. Clear cutting the entrance to a nature preserve is probably not the way to do that.

They have budgeted an amount for the Great Trinity Forest equal to what it cost to build the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. With little to show for it. Upstream from McCommas Bluff, just a 15 minute walk up the trail, they stage feel good tree plantings of small saplings at the Trinity River Audubon Center. The goal is to change the perception people have about the surrounding woods and how past transgressions of illegal landfills and pollution are things of the past. Downstream, just a 15 minute walk down the trail, is Gateway Park where the city and county have invested at least a million dollars to build a grand southern gateway to the Great Trinity Forest. You know where the Audubon Trail and the Gateway Trail meet? Yep. Right at that big bulldozed mess at the McCommas Bluff Preserve.

I know some people would be outraged that giving a piece of land status as not just a park, nature preserve and state historic landmark does not afford it some kind of protection. I'm not really one of those people that gets knee jerk reactions like that. This time it's different.

Just food for thought. You stay classy Big D.

McCommas Bluff Is Finished

Wealthy is he who finds the silver lining in life’s unexpected vistas. That’s the beauty of the contrary nature found along the Trinity River. Photogenic places that belong in a calendar spread for a Texas Hill Country state park. There are a few on the river. Scattered here and there. Pocket places that you can show people and leave them speechless. Take a critic or a cynic of the Trinity River Project to McCommas Bluff and they have a change of heart. So large in scope are the bluffs that standing at the river's edge on one end, you cannot see the other.

McCommas Bluff post construction October 2012

That vista, the relatively unchanged sight that man has viewed for thousands of years was forever altered in 2012.

One of these cliffs is not like the others

You can read the title of this post a couple different ways. The bluffs are finished. I was fortunate to see the bluffs in their natural state before a Dallas Water Utilities Project created a permanent scar on one of the hidden gems of Dallas County.  What happened here should serve as a lesson. A lesson to never repeat such an unfortunate project.

McCommas Bluff July 2011 a month before construction started

McCommas Bluff is the only limestone bluff on the Trinity River. There are bluffs made of clay, sand and mud along the river but this one is the only limestone outcropping along the longest river wholly contained in the State of Texas. Registered as a Texas State Historic Landmark, the site was formally made a 111 acre Dallas County nature preserve in 1985. Part of the Dallas County Open Space Program it is a part of two dozen nature preserves in the county and open to the public.
Getting there: 1200 Riverwood Road Dallas Texas
Alternate address for secondary entrance: 7225 Fairport Road Dallas, Texas

The Harry J Emmins commanded by Captain JJ Gray with barges Epps Knight and Charles Lane in tow at City of Dallas Riverfront Wharf, Trinity River, Downtown Dallas, June 1906

The Historical Marker for McCommas Bluff reads:

Navigation of the Upper Trinity River

1893 McCommas Bluff Lock Design

1894 visitors to McCommas Bluff standing along dam crib work

Since the founding of Dallas, many of the city's leaders have dreamed of navigation on the upper Trinity River, but none of their attempts achieved lasting success. Fluctuating water levels and massive snags in the river below Dallas hindered early navigation. In 1866 the Trinity River Slack Water Navigation Co. proposed dams and locks for the waterway. Capt. James H. McGarvey and Confederate hero Dick Dowling piloted "Job Boat No. 1" from Galveston to Dallas, but the trip took over a year. In 1868 the Dallas-built "Sallie Haynes" began to carry cargo southward. Rising railroad freight charges spurred new interest in river shipping in the 1890s. The Trinity River Navigation Co., formed in 1892, operated "Snag Puller Dallas" and the "H. A. Harvey, Jr.," which carried 150 passengers. The "Harvey" made daily runs to McCommas Bluff, 13 miles downstream from Dallas, where a dam, dance pavilion, and picnic grounds created a popular recreation spot. In 1900 - 1915 the U. S. Government spent $2 million on river improvements, including a series of dams and locks, before World War I halted work. A critical 1921 Corps of Engineers report ended further federal investment. Despite sporadic interest in later years, the dream of Dallas an an inland port remains unrealized.

1893 Dam crib work July 2011

The Project

The construction project overseen by Dallas Water Utilities began in August of 2011. The purpose was to protect a 72 inch water main that serves as a freshwater supply serving South Dallas, Cedar Hill and Duncanville. The original line was unfortunately built right down or within 100 yards of the Trinity River Channel making it prone to potential erosion issues. In order to protect the line, the Bluffs were to be destroyed, wholesale.

One Juniper Left Standing, which has since been cut down

The footprint of the actual line is only 10-15 feet horizontally at most. I think any reasonable person would not have an issue with protecting a vital waterline to a million people. When that project quickly mushroomed into something larger than a football field it gave even hardened real estate developers I know accustomed to scraping pad sites, a sick feeling.

Gone first were the trees. All the trees were chopped down save one, a large juniper tree seen in the center of the photograph at left. Despite being worked around for a year, it is now absent from the finished project. I assume removed like all the rest. I went down to the site and photographed the rings of some trees that were chopped down in August of 2011. Along the bluffs were ash, post oak and bur oak. Some of these trees, based on their rings were at least 75 years old, some much older.

Juniper

The point to draw from this is that all previous construction projects in the last century at McCommas Bluff, including those in the utility right of way, avoided chopping down these trees. Somehow, someway, someone decided not to take out the trees lining the bluffs. This time it happened and is irreversible.

Post Oak

Looking at the finished product of the waterline project, the vast majority of the trees including the two octogenarian aged trees seen at right, could have been saved. Nothing anyone can do about it now. It's only hoped that there was some
food for thought in future projects that could have saved at least one tree, one blade of grass, something.

Construction site Spring 2011

Not much happened with the site during the winter and spring. It was not until late spring that construction continued, punching large holes in the bluff to provide heavy vehicle access to the river below. I hold no ill will towards the construction company responsible for the project. They were given a job to do and did it according to the plans given. I do pause and give serious criticism to the city officials that green lighted this project. The city should have blocked off construction access to other parts of the preserve as well. Over time the construction area sprawled in size, destroying many of the fragile bluff top areas known for wildflowers in the spring.



To the left you can see one of the exposed utility lines. This is not the larger 72 inch water line. The 72 inch pipe I assume is buried much deeper underground. The exposed pipe in the photo is almost made out of what appears to be cast iron and might have been wrapped at one time with an insulation material which has long since weathered away. This old pipe was always hard to photograph around since it stuck out so prominently from the cliffs. I have wondered why they left this old pipe in place, buried under the new waterline project. It now forms a prominent "hump" feature in the new sarcophagus along the bluff.

Riverwood Road residents standing in one of the access roads built into the cliffs, summer 2012

Water project taking shape by mid-Summer 2012 with first two courses installed.

October 2012

Looking from east bank bluff towards west bank

Looking downstream 1910's era Lock and Dam #1 visible in distant background

Below is some video shot from the old ferry landing site, just upstream from the bluffs. Here you can see the size of the project. Upstream from the bluffs and around the bend is another construction site where a similar stream stabilization project utilizing coffer dams is currently proceeding.

Upstream stabilization project on Trinity River around the bend from McCommas Bluff as viewed from Steamboat Harvey landing site

You Break It, You Buy It

Moonscaped bluff top at McCommas Bluff Preserve

One of the long term legacy issues from this construction is not the bluff face but the marred bluff top seen above. The construction zone slowly encroached across much of the preserve's southern portion, consuming many of the prairie meadows and plants. The level top was used as a turnaround for heavy equipment, a toilet by construction workers and temporary dump for construction debris.

The native soil here is not blackland prairie clay, which was used to backfill the project. The correct soil is a sandy loam deposited eons ago on the Trinity Terrace. These alluvial sands still cover much of Southern Dallas County and provide a unique growing environment known as Post Oak Savannah. The dirt brought into McCommas Bluff does not fit this soil profile at all. If the county were to attempt rebuilding some native environment, 200 truckloads of this aggregate sand would need to be brought in to recreate the soil profile. Only then would the native species like Post Oaks, Bur Oaks, Ash thrive there. They need the moisture holding sand to live on the bluff tops.

It would seem that some sort of mitigation for tree loss is in order here. The amount of trees, foliage and plant species lost here is enormous and stretches far back into the preserve itself to the property line with the Bass family.

There are many residents along Riverwood Road enraged by what happened to the bluff top prairie. I often get an ear full from them when I stop to talk. Some are lifelong residents, lifelong fishermen of the bluff area. They cannot believe what happened.

Poaching

Poacher's Blind at McCommas Bluff Preserve October 2012

McCommas Bluff Preserve Whitetail Doe near Fairport Road

Like a spreading cancerous tumor, poaching has entrenched itself into the bosom of the Great Trinity Forest. Both sides of the river face a widespread epidemic of poaching. The blind above was located not far from the construction area, just 1/4 mile from Riverwood Road on the right of way trail leading towards the Audubon Center. This particular blind is made from fabric panels and staked poles giving the poacher a field of fire facing west southwest. Odd about the location.

With all the ongoing construction at the bluff site and across the river it seems strange someone would hunt in this spot. For the last couple months, the construction contractor had round the clock armed security, one even boasted being armed with an AR-15 Bushmaster. I could not go back into the county owned public nature preserve during this time, I was told, due to insurance issues. So who was poaching back there and for what?

Texas Bluebonnets and Early Spring Wildflowers In The Great Trinity Forest

The unpaved, just off the beaten paths along the Trinity River in early spring highlight nature in the raw to those who venture into it. They are places of profound beauty and wonder that so very few ever experience. A scant handful of human signs mark the place which only offer suggestions on where to go.

The Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), is one of the most common hairstreaks in North America, ranging over nearly the entire continent. It occurs also throughout Central America and in northern South America

A sea of white lilies known as false garlic. as far as the eye can see on the Texas Buckeye Trail

It's for a few weeks that the Great Trinity Forest hits the first peak of blooms. Most Texans are familiar with the showy roadside flowers of the interstate shoulders that bloom later in the spring. Many have not seen or even know of the earliest of blooming flowers that hit the hardwood bottoms. They are here, there are a lot of them and you are missing out if you have never seen them.

The white-lined sphinx moth, Hyles lineata consumes nectar from a Texas Buckeye flower at the the Texas Buckeye Trail in the Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas

Members of the Trinity River Riding Club on the Trinity River under the old Central Expressway Bridge Hwy 310 April 2014

Many mislabel this area as Blackland Prairie. It is not. This is land carved upon by the ancestral Trinity, the old Ice Age river many times stronger and larger than that of today. The dramatic limestone canyons and cliffs now buried under many feet of sand and silt. The alien gravels of this time sit up to 100 feet in elevation above the present Trinity and blend a unique perspective to the landscape.

Native Texas Bluebonnets mixed with native Texas grasses in one of the hidden meadows only known to a few in the Great Trinity Forest

The meadow above exemplifies a sight few contemporary Texans have ever seen. A dense packed meadow of bluebonnets ringed by mature trees in an area full of Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Switchgrass. These are the legendary "Four Horseman of the Prairies" species of the Tall Grass Prairie. All but obliterated as an ecosystem with only small fractured pockets remaining.

Many might think that the tall grass here spoils the view. For those in the know, nothing could be finer. The intoxicating aroma of bluebonnets, perhaps a couple hundred thousand packed into the footprint are overwhelming to sight and smell. There might have been possibly two or three other humans who ever saw that spot this spring.

Bluebonnets Blooming Under A Blood Moon

Bluebonnets bathed only in the light of the rising full moon in the Great Trinity Forest

 This spring's bluebonnets peaked in bloom under the lunar cycle of a full moon in eclipse. A somewhat rare event known as a Blood Moon. The coppery red hued colors of the moon take on the appearance of blood, hence the name.

The April 2014 Blood Moon over Dallas, Texas

 Both astronomers and followers of certain religious pastors are talking about the lunar tetrad of 2014-2015. The Lunar Tetrad is four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six lunar months, six full moons. Whether the lunar cycles are an omen to an upcoming rapture or end times would be anyone's guess. Myth, legend and superstition abound about such events, the bluebonnet has such interwoven stories told about it too.

Cottontail Rabbit Among the Bluebonnets at McCommas Bluff Preserve

The Comanche, who lacked a written language told their tribe's history through storytelling. One of their parables was that of the Bluebonnet:

Methodist Chapel at McCommas Bluff, Lock and Dam # 1 April 2014

The Texas fields are covered With a blanket of deep blue. But for a little Indian girl, This would not be true.

Texas land was buried and dry. Rains just would not come. Indians danced and prayed for rain, And beat upon their drums.

The Chief made a proclamation. He appealed to one and all. A prized possession must be sacrificed Before the rains would fall.

The Indian camp was silent, While each person searched his heart. But when it came to sacrifice, With possessions they would not part.

Suddenly a little girl stepped forth, Holding her blue-clad doll. She placed it in the roaring fire and raindrops began to fall.  The rain brought forth the grass, Among its blades, flowers of blue. To be a sign for all the time. Of a love so pure and true.

Bobcat on patrol through a stand of last years Giant Ragweed in the Great Trinity Forest

 Invasives

European Honey Bee on the flower of a grape hyacinth Muscari armeniacum

It fools many from a distance, a flower that so closely resembles a bluebonnet that some get their family flower photos taken among an invasive species rather than a native. Muscari armeniacum, commonly called grape hyacinth, is an early spring-blooming bulbous perennial that is native to southeastern Europe. It provides spectacular drifts of color when massed in open areas, around shrubs, under trees. Each flower has a thin white line around the rim. Dense inflorescence purportedly resembles an elongated, upside-down bunch of grapes, hence the common name.

Grape hyacinth as far as the eye can see at McCommas Bluff

At about the same time that bluebonnets make their annual run, the hyacinth do the same. It is thought that the grape hyacinth at McCommas Bluff was probably planted near an old rendering plant structure and allowed to spread.

Walking through the fields here and brushing through the stands of the flowers one can pick up a decidedly grape kool-aid smell to the crushed flowers.

Feral pigs mowing down grape hyacinth at McCommas Bluff

Nowhere is the smell more evident, than being downwind of a feral pig sounder that is grazing the grape hyacinth. Above, and in the video below, a feral pig sounder, twenty strong works over the flowers just photographed minutes before.  The strong wind and thick privet hedgerows let me go unnoticed to the pigs who were preoccupied with eating the sickly sweet flowers.

Feral pigs are responsible for huge amounts of damage in the Great Trinity Forest. They root around the bases of many trees, tear out riparian plants along streams and are vectors for a host of diseases that enter the watershed. They are quite easy to find in the spring of 2014 here.

Swallowtail feeding on the flowers of a Mexican Plum and McCommas Bluff Preserve

The highly fragrant blossoms of the Mexican Plum appear in the earliest of spring days, before the leaves, and attract hordes of pollinators like butterflies and bees.  The tree often grows solitary in clearings and woodland edges in the eastern half of Texas. It tolerates dappled shade as well as full sun. Despite the name it is said to actually be more common in Texas than in Mexico. 

That plum tree sits right on the edge of some rather remarkable upland areas that rise directly above the Trinity River forming the hidden backbone of McCommas Bluff.

Mexican Buckeye at McCommas Bluff

The pink Mexican Buckeyes flourish here too with a great number commanding the steep slopes of the sandy soiled  partially exposed limestone. The late hard freezes of spring this year killed many of their blooms making for a lackluster display.

Exploring the Bluebonnets at McCommas Bluff

Master Naturalist Jim Flood using binoculars to check out the leaves of native hickory growing above McCommas Bluff

The isolation and simplicity of McCommas Bluff while well within the city limits takes you far out into the wild with some unique ecosystems overlapping each other in the span of a single river mile. In the 1980s and 1990s as Dallas and Fort Worth raced to fill the gap between the two cities as one, southeast Dallas was left out of the picture.

It is such a rare treat to hike around with Master Naturalist Jim Flood and Canoe Guide Charles Allen. It was a brief sunset jaunt through the woods of the porous Trinity Sands overlying Austin Chalk. Where the native post oak savannah is peppered with hickory, buckeyes, pecan and many species of oak.

Jumping Spider on the leaf of a Texas Buckeye

Among Texas spiders, Jumping Spiders may be the easiest to recognize.  Jumping spiders have a very distinctive, flat-faced, big-eyed appearance that is difficult to confuse with other kinds of spiders.  They also have a unique, stalking way of moving.  Most are small and hairy.  Like all spiders, jumping spiders have 8 legs, 2 body parts, and no antennae.  Eight eyes are present on jumping spiders, although 1 pair is often so small that it appears as though there are only 6 eyes.  One pair of eyes is always very large and directed forward, almost like human eyes.

Texas Bluebonnets at McCommas Bluff

Master Naturalist Jim Flood and Canoe Guide Charles Allen among the bluebonnets a top McCommas Bluff. They are looking at the condition of native yucca on the high commanding bluff over the Trinity River.

Not even paying attention to the camera or the bluebonnets, Jim and Charles are taking census of the native yucca that populate the top of McCommas Bluff.

Charles Allen standing on the edge of the 30' plus cliff top at McCommas Bluff

Pollen Gatherers Of The Bluebonnets

The Bluebonnet is a member of the lupine family. If you look at the photo above, you will see a white or pale yellow spot on some flowers and a purple spot on other flowers. The flowers start out with a white or pale yellow spot. By the fifth day after the flower opens, the spot begins to turn pinkish and by the sixth day, the spot is completely purple.

Bees of all species will choose flowers based on the color of the spot. Studies suggest that over 90% of bee visits were to white-spotted flowers. It appears that bees will limit their visits almost exclusively to white-spotted flowers.

Pollen from fresh white-spotted flowers has a sticky feel too it and easier to cling to the body of a bee. As the pollen ages, it is less sticky and gets powdery. This in turn darkens the color of the flower to a reddish purple hue. That color indicator is a pretty good indicator for the bees.

In 1980 a scientific study authored by Schall and Leverich concluded that  bees can gather much more pollen from white marked flowers as much as 100x than from purple marked flowers. So, if a bee is looking to get the most pollen for its effort, the bee is going to pretty much ignore the purple marked old flowers and just forage on the white marked fresh flowers.

This marker seems to help the bee because it can be a more efficient pollen gatherer–and it is good for the bluebonnet because the white spot directs bees to flowers with good, fertile pollen and the transfer of this pollen is likely to result in successful cross-pollination for the bluebonnet. Some think that that the purple spot is the result of pollination. Flowers with white spots are not yet pollinated while those with purple spots are already pollinated.

In North Texas along the Trinity and the smaller tributaries that feed the river, small meadows and unblemished vistas can still be found in the wildscape. The chalk uplands here are not unlike those of other rivers, the Brazos, Navasota, Colorado. While those river basins mentioned are famous for their spring wildflowers, the Trinity is not. It should be.

Red Tailed Hawk surveying the landscape in the light of a setting sun