State officials, conservationists, and representatives from donor groups marked the start of a tree replanting campaign by watering seedlings in Bastrop State Park.
Well-wishers and reporters sweated under the late summer sun recently in Bastrop State Park, as officials announced the start of a tree planting campaign for a forest that was 95 percent destroyed by fire last year.
Texas Parks and Wildlife hopes to raise millions of dollars to fund a vast tree replanting effort. For many, that campaign marks a new beginning in the life of the park.
“You know the good thing about today and what this kind of symbolizes is that we’re through looking back. We’re looking forward. And that’s what planting a pine seedling is all about,” Texas Forest Service Director Tom Boggus told the crowd.
But as the speakers gathered for a photo-op to water the seedlings, the past wasn’t really that far behind. The fact that the seedlings were there at allcame down to a very close call about a year ago, when the Forest Service had almost thrown away all the seeds that are now so essential to the park’s recovery. Continue Reading →
Four Central Texas Salamanders have recently been proposed to be listed on the endangered species list by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. You can learn more about the salamanders, and where they live in the region, in the slideshow above.
These salamanders are local to specific areas within the Edwards Aquifer region and have been threatened by development and urbanization in recent years.
“The Edwards Aquifer is an important water source not only for these four salamander species, but also for those living and working in the area,” said Adam Zerrenner, Austin Field Office Supervisor with the Fish and Wildlife service.
Texas saw a rare 'Blue Moon' today, a rare occurrence when two full moons occur in one calendar month.
*Update: The August 31 full moon technically appeared this morning at 9 am, but you’ll still get a great view of the moon tonight. Our apologies for the confusion, and we’ve updated this post to reflect the right time of appearance. We offer this lovely tune to help make amends.
It’s a rare lunar event today in the Lone Star State (which we love around here). A blue moon appeared in the Texas skies, when a full moon appears twice in one month. (Hence the phrase, “Once in a blue moon.”)
But don’t be disappointed if the moon wasn’t exactly blue. The blue moon commonly refers only to the double appearance of a full moon, not its color. The first full moon came August 1, and just barely squeezing in for a second time today, August 31.
Greg Creacy, with Texas Parks and Wildlife, says the wildfires in Bastrop revealed hidden structures and historic roads.
When the Rock House Fire struck Far West Texas in 2011, it didn’t just leave over 300,000 acres of scorched earth in its wake.
It also left bones.
The bleached white bones of wild animals, including the disappearing Pronghorn of the Trans-Pecos, were scattered across the ashes of the high desert, recalls wildlife management graduate student Justin Hoffman. Generations of dead creatures that had previously lain hidden in the tall grass were suddenly revealed, painting a stark picture of how many had died in the previous years from drought and other still-unknown causes.
“Being out here in the field a lot more than I ever have before, you start seeing that the die-off, it’s a lot more significant than I could ever have imagined,” Hoffman says, touring the site of the fire a year later.
Rick Chafey is a volunteer firefighter in McMahan, Texas.
During last year’s record-breaking wildfire season, most of the nation’s attention was focused on the massive Bastrop Complex fire that raged throughout September.
But in the first days of the wildfires, several others burned out of control. One of those was in Delhi, in Caldwell County, south of Austin.
Rick Chafey, a firefighter in McMahan, recalls what he saw that day: Continue Reading →
A new investigation reveals what sparked the Labor Day fire in Spicewood, outside of Austin, Texas.
As the anniversary of the Labor Day fires approaches, we’re beginning to get some answers on what was at fault.
As we reported earlier this week, the conditions at the time were the epitome of ‘perfect storm.’ Extreme heat, record drought, high winds and little humidity created a virtual powder keg. Compounding those well-known issues were the fact that many new communities had been built in greenbelts and woodlands, and fire departments that were cash-strapped and understaffed for a rash of fires of this magnitude.
What sparked each fire? In Bastrop, the culprit was power lines downed by dying trees, which has led to a lawsuit.
The Spicewood fire, aka Pedernales One, was originally reported as a brush fire. But a new investigation released by the Travis County Fire Marshal shows that the power lines in the community didn’t fall. Rather, winds forced them to slap together, sending “hot molten material” to the ground and sparking a fire that burned some 6,500 acres and destroyed 60 homes and structures. Continue Reading →
A man crouches behind a sign to avoid the high winds on Lake Pontchartrain as Hurricane Isaac approaches on August 28, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Rescue workers transport residents trapped by rising water from Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest subdivision on August 29, 2012 in LaPlace, Louisiana. The large Level 1 hurricane slowly moved across southeast Louisiana, dumping huge amounts of rain and knocking out power to Louisianans in scattered parts of the state.
A car sits submerged in the flood waters of Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest subdivision on August 29, 2012 in LaPlace, Louisiana.
Rescue workers transport residents trapped by rising water from Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest subdivision on August 29, 2012 in LaPlace, Louisiana.
A child and an adult share a folding bed as storm-weary residents take refuge at a high school gymnasium in Belle Chasse, in low-lying Plaquemines Parish outside of New Orleans, on August 29, 2012 in Louisiana, where Hurricane Isaac has slowed to storm force but looks set to linger over southern Louisiana. Officials have urged residents to stay indoors and warned it would be at least a day before winds calmed enough for crews to try to repair downed power lines.
Leroy and Lisa Smith sit in a boat after being pulled from the rising flood waters during Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest subdivision on August 29, 2012 in LaPlace, Louisiana.
Storm-weary residents take refuge at a high school auditorium in Belle Chasse, in low-lying Plaquemines Parish outside of New Orleans, on August 29, 2012 in Louisiana.
An uprooted and fallen tree is positioned in front of a house in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29, 2012, as Hurricane Isaac battered the city and surrounding region, flooding homes and driving stormy waters over the top of at least one levee, seven years to the day after Katrina devastated the city. Packing vicious winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour and rolling slowly over Louisiana, Isaac dumped huge quantities of rain on the renowned US jazz city as residents cowered in their homes.
Christopher Smith rides in a boat after being rescued from the rising flood water from Hurricane Isaac in the River Forest subdivision on August 29, 2012 in LaPlace, Louisiana.
Errol Ragas salvages blankets from his home as rising waters from Hurricane Isaac flood his neighborhood on August 29, 2012 in Oakville, in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The parish, south of New Orleans, was the most heavily damaged by the hurricane. The system, which was downgraded to a tropical storm by the National Weather Service, moved slowly across the state, dumping large amounts of rain and knocking out power to half a million Louisianans.
A traffic light glows red after being downed by Hurricane Isaac’s winds on August 29, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
As Hurricane Isaac begins to work its way north of New Orleans, rains and wind continue to hit Southern Louisiana. And once the storm does leave, it will leave behind widespread flooding and damage. In the slideshow above, you can see some of the impacts of the storm so far.
And while Texas was spared this time around, a new report from the Dallas Morning News says that the state may not be as lucky in the future. Environmental Reporter Randy Lee Loftis writes that a scientific consensus is building in the state: the danger hurricanes pose to Texas is growing. Continue Reading →
Bridgette Mooney, her daughter Skyler, 15 months, and husband Kevin watch from their home as Hurricane Isaac lashes their property with rain on August 28, 2012 in Kiln, Mississippi. Many residents of the community, which suffered severe damage during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, decided to stay home and ride out the storm.
For some farmers in the Midwest struggling with extreme drought, the storm could bring much-needed rain. AccuWeather says today that parts of Arkansas, Missouri and other states in the Central U.S. will “soon be on the receiving end of soaking downpours.”
“While flooding rainfall in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi will tend to diminish farther inland, some beneficial rain will fall on the parched landscape hundreds, if not a thousand, miles away from the Gulf Coast,” the weather service says in a report today.
But none of that rain looks like it’s headed to Texas.
And whatever the rains do to help the Midwest, they are mostly coming too late. Continue Reading →
Steiner Ranch residents have been working to clear out dry brush from the woods around their houses.
Since the Labor Day wildfires of 2011, many communities have begun taking it upon themselves to make their homes safer in the event of another wildfire. Â One of those places is Steiner Ranch, a planned community near Lake Travis, in the Hill Country outside of Austin.
Recently a group of volunteers, firefighters and residents got together to clean brush and dead trees from the woods surrounding the community.
“As far as we’re aware of this is the first program of its kind in Texas, definitely in Travis County,” says John Durham, assistant fire chief for Lake Travis. Durham’s team came equipped with chain saws, a Bobcat and a large dumpster to clear the undergrowth and deadfall. Once its collected, it will be taken to a composting company that volunteered to take care of the trees for free. Continue Reading →
A man sits on a bench watching the waves on Lake Pontchatrain from Hurricane Isaac on August 28, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hurricane Isaac is expected to make landfall later tonight along the Louisiana coast.
Nearly all of the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have been evacuated because of Hurricane Isaac, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). Of the 596 manned platforms in the Gulf, all but 93 have been evacuated as of mid-day today. 49 of the 76 rigs in the drilling area have been evacuated as well.
Curious about the difference between a platform and a rig? Drilling rigs are used to drill for oil, platforms are used to “produce” the oil out of the ground once the well has been drilled.
The Bureau estimates that after all of these evacuations, over 93 percent of the oil production in the Gulf has been shut down. Oil future prices are going up as a result.
So what happens on those rigs when there’s no one there to man them? Continue Reading →
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