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This is a 8000-acre private wilderness in the post-oak savana ecoregion
of Texas, south of Athens. My gracious hostess, one of the
property owners and a Texas wild-flower afficionado, has an awareness
and a deep appreciation of the importance of the bogs on her property,
and of the carnivorous plants, orchids, and myriads of other wildflowers,
plants, and animals taking part in this stunning, humid, green orgy.
The property is covered with gently rolling sandy hills which drain
into offshoots of the Trinity River, and the several large and small
lakes, ponds, and creeks that dot and criss-cross the land.
Our hostess' 4WD Jeep makes driving around the wooded, sandy hills
fun and adventurous. It rained today, and everything is wet,
warm, humid, luscious, and full of juices. The rich, humid,
fermenting, exotic smells make the air thick and intoxicating.
Upland hills are covered with light-colored, deep, permeable sands.
Muck-bogs line some of the lakes, some under such a thick
canopy as to completely shut the sunlight out; all kinds of ferns
and vines,as well as sphagnum moss thrive there. Yellow-cream lizzard-tails
and cinnamon ferns abound. Common wetland plants include yellow
lotus, duckweed, pondweed, giant cutgrass. Having had a wet Spring,
displays of flowering dogwood and wildflowers are spectacular.
Whitetail does in groups of 3-4, many with fawns, graze and pause
in relaxed vigilance, making sure we're about 30 feet away at all
times. Wild turkeys walk around the forest and quickly walking,
disappear into the bush as soon as they become aware of us.
We drive around a turtle laying her eggs in the middle of the deep-sand
forest road.
Although there are several very high-quality peat bogs on the property,
I have seen canvivorous plants and orchids in only one. This is
propably due to the canopy over all the bogs, with the exception
of site 21 which is open and sunny. This one is at the soutwestern
edge of one of the smaller lakes, surrounded by low wooded hills.
There, tens of long, sun-bleached, naked tree-trunks and braches
come out of the water, with thick-oak-forest backround and surroundings,
residence to hundreds of white and blue herons spooked to flight
by my emergence from the forest to the lake-shore; they cover the
sky flying around, then they settle down again and chatter.
Hundreds of almost-black alligators build their nests on the sandy
shores around April, after they come out of 'dormancy'. Their bodies
crush vegetation and form 'slides' along the lake-shore, as they
repeatedly use the same spots to slide into the water. Unlike
crocodiles, alligators are shy and non-aggresive animals, and they
keep their distance from us at all times. Feeding time for
the 'gators is at night, when piglets and other small animals go
to the lake's edge to drink.
Where the lake ends, a deep-muck peat bog begins, a meadow covered
with Pitcher plants and sundews, surrounded by sand-hills covered
with oak forest and ferns, on three sides. The bog is home
to orchids, bladderworts and a myriad of other creatures.
Wax myrtle, vines, and alder have started to close-in on the pitcher-plant
meadow, which is for the most part still open. My hostess
understands the benefits of regular burns to the pitcher plants,
and works to make prescribed burns of the bog an annual event.
Wild hogs look for snakes and roots in the bogs at night, sometimes
trampling and digging up the pitcher plants. Cotton-mouths
and other snakes, bear, coyotes, beavers, armadillos, and countless
species of birds and fishes are at home here. A cougar left
his tracks here, an adventurous traveller a little too far east
of his range.
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