New I-20 Wildlife Preserve Conservation Job Corps Program making West Texas an outdoor classroom
Jun. 26—The I-20 Wildlife Preserve will enlarge its outdoor classroom in an entirely new way this summer after welcoming seven Midland high school students into its new Conservation Job Corps program Monday morning.
The program will allow high school students from Legacy High School and Trinity School with an interest in medicine, biology and life sciences an opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in conservation, restoration, education and research before entering college.
The program blends life skills lessons, such as learning to use tools, with classroom instruction, and hands-on exploration and observation. Students will have the opportunity to investigate several Texas ecosystems, as well as meet with experts, scientists and graduate students on their field trips across the state.
"It is our hope that the program will encourage them to learn in nature and become lifelong advocates for the lands that surround them," Wes Faris, executive director of the Preserve, said in a news release.
The I-20 Wildlife Preserve is a learning environment like no other. It is a 100-acre riparian forest campus in Midland. It serves the people of 19 counties, including Midland, Ector, Pecos, Howard, Crane, Brewster, Presidio, Jeff Davis, Andrews, Ward and Reeves.
The Preserve is a wild space — not a park. The 86-acre urban playa lake is the highlight of the wetlands, floodplain thickets and prairie grasslands found there. The urban playa lake is an ephemeral wetland, and the shallow, clay-lined basins are a primary source of recharge for the Ogallala Aquifer.
While the Ogallala is vast, it is a rapidly depleting source of groundwater that is vital to all life in the Permian Basin and across much of the country's High Plains. There has never been a more important time to learn about the protection and management of groundwater.
"These scientist-students will find incredible teachers and mentors in Jaxon McAndrew, the Preserve's Conservation Land Manager, and Evelyn Guerrero, a UT Permian Basin student doing pollinator research at the Preserve. Our students will spend the next month working and learning on the Preserve and traversing several other Texas ecosystems," Faris added.
They will take a field trip to the Trans-Pecos, where they will learn about wildlife management and native prairie restoration from Borderland Research Institute graduate students. At the Nine Point Ranch, they will learn to band Montezuma quail.
No West Texas exploration would be complete without a trip to the Monahans Sandhills, a unique dune ecosystem that is home to bluestem grass and sand reeds that help stabilize the soil. In the summer, the park will bloom with yellow sandhill sunflowers, pink penstemons, bright white heliotropes, yucca flowers and so much more. The Sandhills are home to Jerusalem crickets, javelina, mule deer and the sagebrush lizard.
Students will also explore forest ecosystems and meet the Caprock Task Force at Reese Air Force Base. Then, they'll see seedlings being nurtured at the West Texas Nursery in Idalou.
"Texas A&M University and the Texas Forest Service use the seedlings in their reforestation projects, and the trees grown there are also used in all kinds of urban restoration projects, attracting more wildlife and creating natural windbreaks on properties," Faris said.
Students will then head to the Gulf Coast. In Corpus Christi, they will learn about marine biology at the Harte Research Institute. Then they'll head to the San Antonio Zoo. There, they'll meet up with zoo biologists who have been working with Texas Christian University on a grow-and-release program for the horned lizard.
The next stop is the Meadows Foundation Aquarena Springs in San Marcos. There they will learn water analysis, identify invertebrates and more.
The group will then head to north Texas to learn about the work at Greenspace Dallas Conservation Job Corps. They will join forces with those Job Corps students, and go canoeing down the Trinity River to pick up trash.
Since opening in 2013, the I-20 Wildlife Preserve has served thousands of West Texans through programs in education, wellness, citizen science and land management. This new Conservation Job Corps program is an expansion of its vision of being a "living laboratory."
Faris said he is hopeful that the program will continue to grow.
"We hope to enroll even more future scientists and nature enthusiasts from across the Permian Basin over the next few years. Their work will help preserve the ecosystems in the Permian Basin and Texas for generations to come."
The program began Monday, June 26, and wraps up July 21.
The schedule follows:
Midland, I-20 Wildlife Preserve
June 27
— 8 a.m. bug collection, pollinator observation
— 11:30 a.m. classroom
— Noon lunch
— UTPB Pollinator Presentation
Odessa, UT Permian Basin
June 28
— all day at UTPB
— science lab, learning to pin specimens
Alpine/Terlingua
June 29
— 4 p.m. Borderlands Research Institute and dinner
— Meet graduate students for overview of their research, followed by dinner with staff and students
June 30
— 6 a.m. depart for Nine Point Ranch in Terlingua
— Banding Montezuma quail, observing a completed prairie restoration project, and assisting with second prairie restoration. Going to the plateau of a mountain and viewing the vistas, observing different plants than those found in the rangeland
— 4 p.m. depart for Midland
Midland, I-20 Wildlife Preserve
July 3
— 8 a.m. work on quail trail and drinker until 11:30 a.m.
— 11:30 a.m. Midland Public Library campus next to Best Buy for lunch and classroom time
July 5
— Complete quail trail, set drinker and watering at the pavilion
— 11:30 a.m. Midland Public Library campus next to Best Buy for lunch and classroom time
— Curriculum on Monahans Sandhills ecosystem
— 2 p.m. finish
Monahans Sandhills State Park
July 6
— 8 a.m. leave Midland for Monahans
— outdoor observation of dune ecosystem
— picnic at the Sandhills
— 12:30 depart for Midland
Midland, I-20 Wildlife Preserve
July 7
— 8 a.m. complete the quail habitat
— 11:30 a.m. Midland Public Library campus next to Best Buy for lunch and classroom time
— Curriculum on forest ecosystems
— 2 p.m. finish
Lubbock/Idalou
July 10
— 8 a.m. leave for Reese AFB
— 10 a.m. meet the Caprock Task Force Texas Forest Service
— 12 p.m. leave for Idalou West Texas Nursery
— 3 p.m. depart for Midland
Midland, I-20 Wildlife Preserve
July 11
— 8 a.m. tree identification and leaf pressing
— 11:30 a.m. Midland Public Library campus next to Best Buy for lunch and classroom time
— curriculum on forest ecosystems
— 2 p.m. finish
Midland, I-20 Wildlife Preserve
July 12-13
— 8 a.m. learning to use sawzall, loppers
— trail maintenance
— 11:30 a.m. Midland Public Library campus next to Best Buy for lunch and classroom time
— curriculum on forest ecosystems
— 2 p.m. finish
Corpus Christi
July 17
— 8 a.m. Harte Research Institute
— 3 p.m. depart for San Antonio
San Antonio
July 18
— 8 a.m. Horned Lizard Research Lab
— Biologist will give an overview of the horned lizard project
— Staff will explain education and career path to become a research biologist for a zoo
— zoo tour, lunch
— 2 p.m. depart for Aquarena Springs
San Marcos
July 19
— 8 a.m. Class held at Aquarena Springs led by staff biologist Dallas
Dallas
July 21
— 8 a.m. Join Greenspace Conservation Job Corp on the Trinity River
— Canoe on the Trinity River picking up trash with other students lunch, depart for Midland