New Texas Activity Report
for 5th - 12th August 2013

In attendance: AmeriCorps volunteers, Henry Whitesel, Mike Bertram.

Part of the AmeriCorps team

Accomplishments: AmeriCorps worked for 6 days at New Texas.  Other than the first day, when they worked on the SW grasslands, they worked on clearing the trails and grasslands in the northern area.  They worked hard but the amount of work required was greater than I estimated.  It also soon became clear (and Henry has seen the same at Chrome) that this has been a banner year for green briar growth.  Trails that Mick Economis and I walked only a couple of months ago were almost impenetrable.  AmeriCorps knocked back a lot of green briar but it will need to be attacked again in each of the next few years if we are going to keep it under control.

As well as clearing trails AmeriCorps also cleared grasslands 6, 7/10, 8, 9, and 25.  Some of these grasslands had not been work on since the 1990s. 

On the first day AmeriCorps worked on grasslands 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21.

Issues: The other grasslands in the northern area (especially #4) urgently need to be maintained.

Reporter: Mike Bertram