For the first field trip of the semester, Shirley, Anibal, Conlon, Daniel, Nat and I visited Blair Woods – a Travis Audubon Sanctuary in northeast Austin on Friday, Sept 14. We got a tour and overview of the site by the preserve manager, Chris Murray.

Blair Woods was the home of UT professor and herpetologist, Frank Blair. He had no children, and donated the land to Travis Audubon when he died. Management of Blair Woods has varied over the years – for a while it was just left with a fence around it. It is about 10 acres and surrounded by development on all sides at this point, accessible via MLK Blvd. Blair’s old house is also still on the property, and is currently occupied by the nonprofit group Wildlife Rescue. This meant that we also got to see a cageful of recovering rescued raccoons on our visit!

Blair Woods is home to just about every invasive plant that lives in Austin. Chinese and Japanese privets, Chinaberry, wisteria, peppervine, and nandina were some of the most abundant. Chris also pointed out some native plants that can be weedy and act like invasives, including ragweed, stickweed (which sticks to your shirt forever!), and figs. We learned that many of these invasive species are from parts of Asia with similar soils to Central Texas. Here, they proliferate without herbivores or competitors to keep them in check. Many of the invasives are trees that are shade-tolerant, reproduce by seed and vegetatively, and are tasty to local birds (so they help disperse them).

Chris pointing out features of the invasive tree, Chinaberry.

Privet and Chinaberry, the most common invasive trees at the sanctuary.

Chris is working hard to remove the invasives and foster the growth of native plants, which provide more varied habitat and food resources for the native insects, birds, and mammals that they evolved with. He has separated the reserve into different zones and dedicates effort patch by patch, with the long term goal of restoring habitat for native birds and other wildlife across the entire reserve.  With groups of volunteers, he cuts the invasive trees (mostly privet), uses a wood chipper to break them down, and then mulches the hiking trails paths with the chips.  He mentioned how the privet chips break down really fast in comparison to native trees like Ashe juniper – requiring thick and frequent application to the paths. Conlon was enthusiastic about coming back to help out if he could be the wood chipper operator.

Our guide Chris showing us the restoration site.

We toured an area that he had been working on regularly over the last few years. The canopy was very open, since the privet and other invasives had been almost completely removed. In place, some weedy natives were coming up. We also saw natives that are good for wildlife, like hackberry, elbowbush, gum bumelia, cedar elm, live oak, Ashe juniper, Chile pequin, Turkscap, American beautyberry, inland sea oats, and Texas persimmon.

Inland sea oats, a native grass that has been used in restoration projects to reduce privet regrowth.

Turkscap, another beautiful native wildflower.

Many of these are edible to people along with wildlife – including beautyberry, Texas persimmon, and Chile pequin. You can also apparently use beautyberry leaves as a mosquito repellent and make jelly from the berries (here’s a recipe: http://www.eattheweeds.com/beautyberry-jelly-on-a-roll/). And birds love it!

American beautyberry, a native plant with so many uses!

After a tour of the property, we went to work on a service project helping out with the restoration.  Because it was so wet, we could not do invasive tree removal. When privet is cut down, the stump has to be sprayed with herbicide or it will just resprout since it is able to reproduce vegetatively.  Spraying herbicides when it is wet is not a good idea. The other task Chris needed done was to move mulch onto the pathways.  We were able to move the whole pile in about an hour!

Shoveling mulch

Carting the mulch

Spreading the mulch

Chris was a great guide and presenter, and we learned a lot about the history of the place, the flora and fauna that live there, and the opportunities and challenges with management of an urban sanctuary. And we had so much fun! He hosts many volunteer restoration days at the park, along with bird walks and more. The sanctuary is also free and open to the public daily from 10am to 4pm, so you can check it out on your own as well.

The crew with Chris!

To find out more about Blair Woods, you can visit their website: (https://travisaudubon.org/sanctuaries/blair-woods)

See the Audubon calendar for special workdays and events: https://travisaudubon.org/events-calendar

Post by Amy Concilio

Photos by Amy Concilio and Shirley Ochoa