Too Much Water, Alligator Wrangling and Fire Extinguishers Again

Tuesday it was back out to the Whitmire Unit to cut more saltcedar, but we were deterred by water. There had been some isolated thunderstorms overnight and, although they didn't hit the main body of the refuge, it must have rained on Whitmire. The water in Foester Lake had come quite far in, further than we'd ever seen it. It was exacerbated by a stiff wind (25-30 mph) blowing right up onto the flats where we had been working.

Flats on Foester Lake Last Thursday

I'd brought out a string trimmer to cut a path through the tall ground cover down to our hole in the phragmites, easing Ellen's concern for snakes in the grass. It will also make it easier to get the brush out later after the flat has dried out. We also brought more planks to get through the mucky area in the passage through the reeds to the flats. We had been sinking in the mud above our ankles. By the time we finished the weed trimming and board lying, the water was up to the edge of the phragmites and some of the boards were almost floating. There was to be no saltcedar removal today.

Flats on Foester Lake Tuesday

We had also trailered our an RTV to Whitmire to leave it there in preparation for hauling the dried saltcedar brush off the flats when the flats had dried out enough. There is an open-sided pole shed out there in which we can leave it. We drove over to the shed, had lunch and unloaded the RTV. We took it on a brief tout of the unit after lunch as we were hoping the wind and water might recede and found cattle at on end of the refuge, on the refuge, They aren't supposed to be there and we expect there is a break in the fence line. The neighbor will be called.

The water didn't recede, so we headed back to Aransas having done no saltcedar removal.

When we returned there was crowd down by the wetland across from the visitor center. It was the remainder of the refuge staff unloading alligators. There is brackish lake, Burgentine Lake, back in the refuge. Because of the lack of rain, it has become too salty for the alligators. Several have been found dead and others were having trouble, so some regional biologists who were here to do some research (and who have experience with wrangling alligators) felt that the ones in distress should be moved. It was all hands to Burgentine Lake to move gators.

The wetland across from the visitor center is much fresher and is fairly extensive, so that was where to put them...and all the better for visitor viewing. Since we were off at Whitmire, we missed wrangling, but at least we got to watch the release.


After work, we went out to Tivoli to meet Garry and Kate at Canales Cafe for dinner. It was our last chance to get together and chat before they went off to Waco to visit Garry's aunts and we only seem to get together once or twice a decade. Canales isn't a fancy place or even a great Mexican restaurant, just the only place in town. They had gone up north to Port Lavaca for the day and Tivoli was on the road back to Rockport, where they have been staying. We had decent cheap eats. Their burrito and their guacamole salad were actually pretty good.

After a long dinner of talking and eating, we wished them a good trip, said our goodbyes and we both went down the road.

Today, went back to Whitmire to see if the lake had receded at all. It had, but not enough for the ground around the saltcedar to be dry, so we went back to the refuge.

We had expected to be done with our months of fire extinguisher and first aid kit inspections, but with the shortage of staff (most are still off on Matagorda managing the oil spill mitigation), we decided to do it one more time. We spent most of the day and are just about finished.

Tomorrow it is off to find Chinese Tallow.