A Week in the Wild
The Lost Pines area of Bastrop County is some of the only remaining habitat of the Houston Toad and will be your temporary home for the next week. Our purpose here is to increase the chances of survival for the Houston Toad in an area urbanization has already began to degrade. Improvement of this habitat is a necessity for the toad to exist in the wild.
During Work Week for Wildlife, you will be exposed to many habitat enhancement tools including, but not limited to trail clearing, tree planting, wetlands clean-ups, invasive species removal, soil and water sampling, and habitat analysis.
The week will also consist of multiple late nights for species mating-call identification training, collecting data on species counts by mating calls, and flashlight tours near wetland habitats for current counts of species in the area.
Most of the week will be spent in tents in woody areas near and around Bastrop County including Bastrop State Park, Buescher State Park and other private lands that have been offered to us by the residents, but we will not be more than 30 miles from town at any one time. Tents will be provided but sleeping bags need to be brought from home. Also waterproof hiking boots are a must. Even on the warmer days, pants are a necessity as we will be walking through some Thick brush at times.
The goal of your Week in the Wild is to enhance and rehabilitate the known habitat of the of Houston toad. When your week is over, you WILL feel satisfied with the amount of work you have done in order to help out a true Texas native.
During Work Week for Wildlife, you will be exposed to many habitat enhancement tools including, but not limited to trail clearing, tree planting, wetlands clean-ups, invasive species removal, soil and water sampling, and habitat analysis.
The week will also consist of multiple late nights for species mating-call identification training, collecting data on species counts by mating calls, and flashlight tours near wetland habitats for current counts of species in the area.
Most of the week will be spent in tents in woody areas near and around Bastrop County including Bastrop State Park, Buescher State Park and other private lands that have been offered to us by the residents, but we will not be more than 30 miles from town at any one time. Tents will be provided but sleeping bags need to be brought from home. Also waterproof hiking boots are a must. Even on the warmer days, pants are a necessity as we will be walking through some Thick brush at times.
The goal of your Week in the Wild is to enhance and rehabilitate the known habitat of the of Houston toad. When your week is over, you WILL feel satisfied with the amount of work you have done in order to help out a true Texas native.
Your week in the wild will consist of many hands on data collections and will be necessary for identifying many of the species of the Lost Pines region. Pictured here is a discovery of the rarely seen Houston toad and photographs documenting the event. "The habitat is rough and the work is not easy, but the reward is incredible!"
- Christopher Margrave
after first year of Work Week for Wildlife |