By Melissa Gaskill
A special NWF program is helping to restore Gulf Coast marshes and woodlands damaged by the 2005 hurricanes
LOUISIANA RESIDENT Mike Dever spent much of his childhood in the 1970s exploring Sam Houston Jones State Park on the banks of the Calcasieu River in the western part of the state, and his two sons in more recent years often walked and rode bicycles there. Then, in September 2005, the park’s 1,087 acres of mixed pine and hardwood forest were drastically changed when Hurricane Rita roared through. “Trees used to be so thick that you couldn’t see very far,” says Dever, an environmental consultant in Lake Charles. “But the storm blew over so much of the old growth that you could see hundreds of yards, clear to the other side of the river, where you couldn’t before.”
Last fall, Dever volunteered to work for the Coastal Louisiana Habitat Restoration Initiative, an NWF program designed to restore ecosystems damaged by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The state park was one of the sites where he worked, removing invasive Chinese tallow trees, which had proliferated in the newly opened areas. Dever pulled smaller seedlings mostly by hand, using an axe as necessary. Other volunteers cut larger tallows with chain saws. “The smaller seedlings had come up by the hundreds,” he says. “I could pull up two or three at a time.”
When Katrina and Rita struck Louisiana in summer 2005, they washed away some 217 square miles of coastal Louisiana, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. Katrina alone killed or damaged an estimated 320 million trees across an area the size of Maine, stretching from eastern Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. “Louisiana’s coastal habitat and wildlife still have not recovered from the onslaught of the two hurricanes,” says Susan Kaderka, regional executive director for NWF’s Gulf States Natural Resource Center. “High water and winds from the storms pushed animals out of their habitat and destroyed many nesting sites. Tidal surges swept over coastal islands and brought saltwater into freshwater marshes. Wildlife food sources were destroyed.”
Hurricanes are nothing new on the Gulf Coast, but decades of human alterations to Louisiana ecosystems affected the ability of plants and wildlife to withstand the two storms. Levees along the Mississippi and industrial canals that cut across much of southern Louisiana had shrunk the coastal marshes that might have kept storm surges from rushing inland. Fast-growing nonnative plant species—such as Chinese tallow trees and cogon, a Japanese grass, brought into the area by human activity—are crowding out native species in areas where the storms knocked down woodlands. “Had we not changed the dynamic nature of this system, there would not have been such dramatic scenes of devastation,” says Denise Reed, a coastal geomorphologist and professor at the University of New Orleans. “In their natural state, these are hardy, resilient systems that have been around a long time.”
Because development has crippled nature’s ability to recover from storms like Rita and Katrina, people have stepped in to help repair the damage. NWF launched the coastal restoration initiative in summer 2007, funded with a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and with additional money from Shell Oil. This project seeks during its first year to revegetate 500 acres of marsh lands, clear invasive species from 6,000 acres of wetlands and remove 10 tons of trash and debris.
One of the initiative’s goals is to sign up 2,500 volunteers for a total of 65,000 hours of work, NWF project manager Rebecca Triche says. As of this writing, more than 1,100 participants have come from all over the nation. Some help without even visiting Louisiana. A group in Illinois built some 300 wood duck boxes for shipment south—a major contribution toward the project goal of 350 to 400 installed boxes that are vital, Triche says, because the hurricanes knocked down many of the dead trees the ducks use for nesting. Volunteers also have planted 14,000 plugs of cordgrass, 15,000 native longleaf pines and 25,300 bottomland hardwood trees, and the NWF team that runs the project won the 2007 Coastal Stewardship Award from the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
The project also addresses the lack of native seeds and plants needed for future restoration projects, such as grasses in the coastal prairie. Native plants ensure ecosystem and genetic integrity, but seeds and plants native to this diverse habitat usually are not commercially available, says Scott Edwards, coordinator of Acadiana Resource Conservation and Development Council in Louisiana. Through NWF’s initiative, volunteers have collected nearly 50 pounds of seeds on Louisiana’s 1,000 acres of grassland—isolated remnants squeezed between highways and railroad rights-of-way. Heather Doney—a resident of Slidell, near New Orleans, whose home was under 5 feet of water after Katrina—volunteered for the restoration project after learning about it online. “Collecting seeds was very beautiful,” she says. “I didn’t even know Louisiana had prairie like that.”
Organizers hope the initiative’s volunteer program can be used as a model for restoring other damaged ecosystems. “I think we are learning lessons that can be put to use in the future,” Triche says. “We’ve highlighted the interest of people in doing this kind of work, being out in nature and doing something productive and meaningful.” Doney, who also helped to remove debris and invasive plants and to install wood duck nesting boxes, found that working on the project helped her cope with the effects of the hurricane. “I live next door to someone who hasn’t done anything to their house, hasn’t been here since the storm. I have no control over what my neighbor is doing, but at least I can go clean up elsewhere.”
Dever, too, found personal satisfaction in his commitment to the restoration initiative. “I could definitely tell a difference after doing the work at Sam Houston park,” Dever says. “I had a real sense of accomplishment. There is still a lot of work to be done, but you can tell the park is coming back.”
Triche hopes the project not only demonstrates the value of using volunteers but also complements larger trends in ecotourism and service projects. “It is great to see people test themselves and learn something new,” Triche says. “We’ve had city people who have never even camped. They comment on how quiet it is, or they see wildlife for the first time. That’s a really powerful experience. This project provided that opportunity to enjoy nature. They’ve made a strong connection.”
Making that connection may be one of the project’s most important developments, says Kaderka. “These people have turned an interest in nature into a partnership with nature. Once you’ve forged that link, you never really lose it. It becomes a promise to future generations that we will not let nature languish without our help.”
Melissa Gaskill is a Texas writer
http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?issueID=123&articleID=1619
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Between the Mountains and the Deep Blue Sea
El Santuario Eco-Retreat, Baja California Sur
by Melissa Gaskill
In a flash of orange and black, an oriole landed on the windowsill of my casita, then flitted to the thatched palm roof, serving as a wake-up call timed perfectly with rays of sun rising over the mountain peaks. A clear Baja California Sur sky turned deep blue as leaves rustled in the breeze over an ever-present whisper of waves.
It wasn’t easy to get to El Santuario Eco-Retreat, six small dwellings scattered discreetly among the desert’s gnarly torote blanco trees and many varieties of cacti, overlooking a crescent of beach lapped by the multi-hued waters of Mexico’s Gulf of California. But that’s part of its appeal. After a flight to the growing village of Loreto, it’s 30 or so miles south by taxi or rental car on narrow paved road, then another unpaved mile to the gate, little more than a gap in the trees with whale bones arching over a sandy path.
More paths of deep, fine sand wander the property to the casitas, each hidden from view of the others. Names like Sueno, Danzante and Escondido, carved on wooden fish with bright glass-bead eyes, point the way. The complex, rounded out by a communal yurt, bath house, and open air kitchen, is framed in on three sides by the steep, rugged slopes of the Sierra de la Giganta and on the fourth by the water, where tall Isla Danzante and long Isla Carmen seem to float in the air just off shore.
It would have been perfectly satisfying to relax on my porch the entire week, emerging only for generous meals cooked by women from the nearby villages of Ensenada Blanca and Ligui, featuring fresh-caught fish, fruits and vegetables from the farmer’s market, and a variety of delicacies such as handmade empanadas and fresh tortillas. But the wealth of activities proved too tempting for that. Blue Waters Kayaking, which handles booking for El Santuario, offers planned group tours and guided activities รก la carte for solo guests (some require advance booking). I shared my week here with a group tour, led by a pair of personable and astonishingly knowledgeable guides, Eli Shostak and Erin Bohm. Running down the list of options that first night, Shostak summed it up well: “There are no poor choices here.”
The first day, I walked south on the beach to a series of jutting rock shelves. At their edges, small fish swam in three or four feet of gin clear water. Gulls, pelicans, frigate birds, and a pair of osprey flew overhead, while herons and pipers waded along the sandy part of the shore. Later, I followed the group on a hike up a mountain ridge for a stunning view of island-dotted sea stretching to the east and south horizons. After a gravity-powered shower and dinner, everyone relaxed around a roaring fire and listened to Shostak’s animated reading from Almost an Island, a book by Bruce Berger about the peninsula. After dark, I snuggled into my blankets (desert evenings can be cool almost year-round) under a moon so bright it threw black shadows and made my flashlight unnecessary for a late-night bathroom run. The eco-resort lies so far from signs of major civilization, under such clear air, that stars are visible despite the moon.
The next day I elected to ride horses with another woman retreating at El Santuario. Phillipa and I were picked up at the whale-bone gate by Jorge, who lives in Ensenada Blanca with his wife and two kids. The use of locals is obviously a recurring theme here. Jorge brought two nice-looking horses wearing comfortable saddles, and led us by a different route to the same “vista del mar” as the previous day’s hike. Riding proved much easier than walking on the loose scree and in the deep sand, and our guide pointed out various plants along the way, including pitahaya dulce and pitahaya agria, fruits that are, respectively, sweet and sour, and whose early summer ripening has been eagerly anticipated by Baja California residents for centuries. According to Shostak’s reading, in fact, early Spanish missionaries reported that locals liked the dulce version so much that they sometimes tied a string to the fruit before eating it, so they could pull it up and enjoy the experience all over again, and were also known to pick the seeds out of weeks-old human scat. Fortunately, those missionaries introduced to Baja California a variety of other fruits that are readily available today.
Horseback riding seemed the perfect excuse for a massage, provided in my casita by a very competent local woman with six years of experience under her smock. Her touch was perfect, light and soothing where it needed to be, firmer where required, strong hands softened with refreshing oil. A cool breeze through the open windows and the ubiquitous sound of waves lulled me into complete relaxation. I slept even more soundly that night.
Guests at El Santuario can opt for longer hikes, including those that start off-site and explore canyons where waterfalls or ancient cave paintings await, or boat rides to Cosme, a natural tidal hot springs and a great snorkeling spot. Other options are exploring the coastline by panga, snorkeling around the shore or nearby islands, kayaking, fishing and scuba diving. All are dependent on weather conditions, of course, as well as availability of guides and local services, but there are always plenty of options.
Denise and Bill Jones, a veterinarian and psychotherapist in San Luis Obispo, Calif., started El Santuario in 1999 as a way to step out of the rat race they no longer enjoyed. They wanted to get closer to nature and provide a place for others to do so as well; simple living close to nature became their theme. The retreat was designed to blend in with the natural surroundings, built largely with indigenous materials by local laborers, and crafted to minimize use of water. The couple intentionally bought supplies locally where possible and trained and employed residents of the nearby villages. El Santuario is also solar-powered, and while there are lights, hot showers, and refrigeration for the kitchen, there are no phones, televisions, or computers to disturb the tranquility.
“It is a wonderful feeling living off the grid,” Bill says, “and while we’re far from self-sufficient, we’re very self-reliant, with the help of the community. We were thrilled to get away from all the consumption of LA and become part of the Ensenada Blanca community.”
For decades, if not centuries, little has changed in Baja California, but today change looms for even the most remote places on the peninsula. A steadily increasing trickle of visitors is turning into a torrent. FONATUR, an agency founded by the Mexican government to create infrastructure and promote tourism, seems to have a single-minded view of what that tourism should be, and it isn’t places like El Santuario. The agency has invited U.S. firms, primarily from California, to develop choice spots. Even Donald Trump is in on the rush. This creates the very real possibility that every beach in Baja California will, before long, sport rows of high-rise hotels and condominiums with incongruously green golf courses carved in the desert scrub. Heavy equipment recently appeared not far up the beach from El Santuario. A slick Baja publication aimed at potential real estate clients in the U.S. — thousands of Americans already have purchased high-end second homes here — is liberally sprinkled with words like “exclusive” and “luxury.”
But Baja California and places like this retreat offer singular luxuries no development can ever create: That of a peaceful night with only the gentle lullaby of waves falling on your ears. Serene bays of water in shades of blue defying description, punctuated with hazy, pointed islands marching to the horizon. Sunrise over rugged mountains whiskered with stately cardon and wild cholla cacti, and that same sun setting over a different ridge, neither horizon marred by the hand of humans. In between, the music of birds in the air — or on the windowsill — and the sigh of whales and splashes of dolphins in the water.
So come to El Santuario now, while these luxuries are still available, no extra charge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whale Camp
One of this area’s most popular diversions is whale watching in winter, when lagoons on the Pacific side of Baja California are home to hundreds of gray whale mothers and calves. The baleen whales, which grow up to 50 feet long and 40 tons, migrate here from summer feeding grounds in the far-north Bering and Chukchi seas. Calves are conceived during the previous year’s migration and born in the lagoons during winter after a 13-month gestation. Fifteen feet long and 1500 pounds at birth, the calves nurse on milk that is 53 percent fat, gaining 200 pounds a day and sufficient blubber to travel thousands of miles to the cold, Arctic waters in late spring.
One of the lagoons, Bahia Magdalena, or Mag Bay, is a two-hour drive from El Santuario. You can rent a car or taxi to go there yourself and hire a panga (boat) guide for whale watching, or sign up for whale camp, all-inclusive excursions that feature sleeping in tents on uninhabited islands along the bay, whale-watching by boat several hours each day and from shore other times, kayaking, bird watching, and hiking in the dunes. Blue Waters offers camps as an extension on either end of your stay at El Santuario.
Baja Expeditions, the first outfitter to offer Bahia Magdalena whale-watching tours way back in the 1980s, has whale watch and kayak excursions originating in La Paz, a four-hour van ride away. Guests stay in cabin-style tents with cots. The company also has five-day whale-watching trips out of San Diego to San Ignacio Lagoon, north of Mag Bay.
Sea Kayak Adventures has a Mag Bay whale camp on Isla Santo Domingo, a barrier island with more than 12 miles of beach and wind-sculpted dunes. A typical day begins with coffee at 7 a.m., followed by a hot breakfast, then loading into pangas for whale watching. Grey whales come quite close to the boats, sometimes near enough to touch, and calves often spy-hop, raising their heads high above the water for a good look around. The pangeros, or boat drivers, from nearby Lopez Mateos have an organized rotation for taking out groups, and the best among them have a real eye for spotting surfacing whales and a sense of a respectful distance from the big animals.
After whale watching, lunch is ready, and the afternoon may be spent walking along the beach, hiking the ever-changing dunes, or paddling kayaks to mangrove areas, excellent places to bird watch. You may spy dolphins and sea lions from kayaks or the beach. Happy hour at 5 p.m. is followed by a hearty supper, then socializing or a talk on whales before everyone retires. Sea Kayak offers itineraries with three, four and five days of whale watching, sightings guaranteed. After spending a few days in such close proximity to these whales, so huge and yet so gentle, it is hard to say goodbye. The sights and sounds of the grays remain with you, and the urge to return, just as the whales do, is strong. Perhaps annual migration is a good idea for all of us.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If You Go
El Santuario Eco-Retreat
Ensenada Blanca
Baja California Sur, Mexico
El-santuario.com
Casitas start at $80 per person in high season (Thanksgiving to April 30). One night stay includes three meals per day and snacks. Some guided activities extra. Children and pets welcome.
Sea Kayak Adventures
PO Box 3862
Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816
208-765-3116
seakayakadventures.com
Magadalena Bay whale-watching wilderness camps, January through March, start at $895, not including airfare. Sea of Cortez kayak tours offered October through April.
Baja Expeditions
2625 Garnet Avenue
San Diego, CA 92109
800-843-6967
bajaex.com
Delta, Alaska, and Continental Airlines serve Loreto. Rental cars and taxi service available at the airport. Loreto is 700 miles from San Diego on Baja’s paved Highway 1. Passports are now required for travel to Mexico. Bank services (ATM, money exchange) available in Loreto, and most places accept U.S. dollars.
Gray Whale Facts from the American Cetacean Society, San Pedro, California, acsonline.org/factpack/graywhl.htm
by Melissa Gaskill
In a flash of orange and black, an oriole landed on the windowsill of my casita, then flitted to the thatched palm roof, serving as a wake-up call timed perfectly with rays of sun rising over the mountain peaks. A clear Baja California Sur sky turned deep blue as leaves rustled in the breeze over an ever-present whisper of waves.
It wasn’t easy to get to El Santuario Eco-Retreat, six small dwellings scattered discreetly among the desert’s gnarly torote blanco trees and many varieties of cacti, overlooking a crescent of beach lapped by the multi-hued waters of Mexico’s Gulf of California. But that’s part of its appeal. After a flight to the growing village of Loreto, it’s 30 or so miles south by taxi or rental car on narrow paved road, then another unpaved mile to the gate, little more than a gap in the trees with whale bones arching over a sandy path.
More paths of deep, fine sand wander the property to the casitas, each hidden from view of the others. Names like Sueno, Danzante and Escondido, carved on wooden fish with bright glass-bead eyes, point the way. The complex, rounded out by a communal yurt, bath house, and open air kitchen, is framed in on three sides by the steep, rugged slopes of the Sierra de la Giganta and on the fourth by the water, where tall Isla Danzante and long Isla Carmen seem to float in the air just off shore.
It would have been perfectly satisfying to relax on my porch the entire week, emerging only for generous meals cooked by women from the nearby villages of Ensenada Blanca and Ligui, featuring fresh-caught fish, fruits and vegetables from the farmer’s market, and a variety of delicacies such as handmade empanadas and fresh tortillas. But the wealth of activities proved too tempting for that. Blue Waters Kayaking, which handles booking for El Santuario, offers planned group tours and guided activities รก la carte for solo guests (some require advance booking). I shared my week here with a group tour, led by a pair of personable and astonishingly knowledgeable guides, Eli Shostak and Erin Bohm. Running down the list of options that first night, Shostak summed it up well: “There are no poor choices here.”
The first day, I walked south on the beach to a series of jutting rock shelves. At their edges, small fish swam in three or four feet of gin clear water. Gulls, pelicans, frigate birds, and a pair of osprey flew overhead, while herons and pipers waded along the sandy part of the shore. Later, I followed the group on a hike up a mountain ridge for a stunning view of island-dotted sea stretching to the east and south horizons. After a gravity-powered shower and dinner, everyone relaxed around a roaring fire and listened to Shostak’s animated reading from Almost an Island, a book by Bruce Berger about the peninsula. After dark, I snuggled into my blankets (desert evenings can be cool almost year-round) under a moon so bright it threw black shadows and made my flashlight unnecessary for a late-night bathroom run. The eco-resort lies so far from signs of major civilization, under such clear air, that stars are visible despite the moon.
The next day I elected to ride horses with another woman retreating at El Santuario. Phillipa and I were picked up at the whale-bone gate by Jorge, who lives in Ensenada Blanca with his wife and two kids. The use of locals is obviously a recurring theme here. Jorge brought two nice-looking horses wearing comfortable saddles, and led us by a different route to the same “vista del mar” as the previous day’s hike. Riding proved much easier than walking on the loose scree and in the deep sand, and our guide pointed out various plants along the way, including pitahaya dulce and pitahaya agria, fruits that are, respectively, sweet and sour, and whose early summer ripening has been eagerly anticipated by Baja California residents for centuries. According to Shostak’s reading, in fact, early Spanish missionaries reported that locals liked the dulce version so much that they sometimes tied a string to the fruit before eating it, so they could pull it up and enjoy the experience all over again, and were also known to pick the seeds out of weeks-old human scat. Fortunately, those missionaries introduced to Baja California a variety of other fruits that are readily available today.
Horseback riding seemed the perfect excuse for a massage, provided in my casita by a very competent local woman with six years of experience under her smock. Her touch was perfect, light and soothing where it needed to be, firmer where required, strong hands softened with refreshing oil. A cool breeze through the open windows and the ubiquitous sound of waves lulled me into complete relaxation. I slept even more soundly that night.
Guests at El Santuario can opt for longer hikes, including those that start off-site and explore canyons where waterfalls or ancient cave paintings await, or boat rides to Cosme, a natural tidal hot springs and a great snorkeling spot. Other options are exploring the coastline by panga, snorkeling around the shore or nearby islands, kayaking, fishing and scuba diving. All are dependent on weather conditions, of course, as well as availability of guides and local services, but there are always plenty of options.
Denise and Bill Jones, a veterinarian and psychotherapist in San Luis Obispo, Calif., started El Santuario in 1999 as a way to step out of the rat race they no longer enjoyed. They wanted to get closer to nature and provide a place for others to do so as well; simple living close to nature became their theme. The retreat was designed to blend in with the natural surroundings, built largely with indigenous materials by local laborers, and crafted to minimize use of water. The couple intentionally bought supplies locally where possible and trained and employed residents of the nearby villages. El Santuario is also solar-powered, and while there are lights, hot showers, and refrigeration for the kitchen, there are no phones, televisions, or computers to disturb the tranquility.
“It is a wonderful feeling living off the grid,” Bill says, “and while we’re far from self-sufficient, we’re very self-reliant, with the help of the community. We were thrilled to get away from all the consumption of LA and become part of the Ensenada Blanca community.”
For decades, if not centuries, little has changed in Baja California, but today change looms for even the most remote places on the peninsula. A steadily increasing trickle of visitors is turning into a torrent. FONATUR, an agency founded by the Mexican government to create infrastructure and promote tourism, seems to have a single-minded view of what that tourism should be, and it isn’t places like El Santuario. The agency has invited U.S. firms, primarily from California, to develop choice spots. Even Donald Trump is in on the rush. This creates the very real possibility that every beach in Baja California will, before long, sport rows of high-rise hotels and condominiums with incongruously green golf courses carved in the desert scrub. Heavy equipment recently appeared not far up the beach from El Santuario. A slick Baja publication aimed at potential real estate clients in the U.S. — thousands of Americans already have purchased high-end second homes here — is liberally sprinkled with words like “exclusive” and “luxury.”
But Baja California and places like this retreat offer singular luxuries no development can ever create: That of a peaceful night with only the gentle lullaby of waves falling on your ears. Serene bays of water in shades of blue defying description, punctuated with hazy, pointed islands marching to the horizon. Sunrise over rugged mountains whiskered with stately cardon and wild cholla cacti, and that same sun setting over a different ridge, neither horizon marred by the hand of humans. In between, the music of birds in the air — or on the windowsill — and the sigh of whales and splashes of dolphins in the water.
So come to El Santuario now, while these luxuries are still available, no extra charge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whale Camp
One of this area’s most popular diversions is whale watching in winter, when lagoons on the Pacific side of Baja California are home to hundreds of gray whale mothers and calves. The baleen whales, which grow up to 50 feet long and 40 tons, migrate here from summer feeding grounds in the far-north Bering and Chukchi seas. Calves are conceived during the previous year’s migration and born in the lagoons during winter after a 13-month gestation. Fifteen feet long and 1500 pounds at birth, the calves nurse on milk that is 53 percent fat, gaining 200 pounds a day and sufficient blubber to travel thousands of miles to the cold, Arctic waters in late spring.
One of the lagoons, Bahia Magdalena, or Mag Bay, is a two-hour drive from El Santuario. You can rent a car or taxi to go there yourself and hire a panga (boat) guide for whale watching, or sign up for whale camp, all-inclusive excursions that feature sleeping in tents on uninhabited islands along the bay, whale-watching by boat several hours each day and from shore other times, kayaking, bird watching, and hiking in the dunes. Blue Waters offers camps as an extension on either end of your stay at El Santuario.
Baja Expeditions, the first outfitter to offer Bahia Magdalena whale-watching tours way back in the 1980s, has whale watch and kayak excursions originating in La Paz, a four-hour van ride away. Guests stay in cabin-style tents with cots. The company also has five-day whale-watching trips out of San Diego to San Ignacio Lagoon, north of Mag Bay.
Sea Kayak Adventures has a Mag Bay whale camp on Isla Santo Domingo, a barrier island with more than 12 miles of beach and wind-sculpted dunes. A typical day begins with coffee at 7 a.m., followed by a hot breakfast, then loading into pangas for whale watching. Grey whales come quite close to the boats, sometimes near enough to touch, and calves often spy-hop, raising their heads high above the water for a good look around. The pangeros, or boat drivers, from nearby Lopez Mateos have an organized rotation for taking out groups, and the best among them have a real eye for spotting surfacing whales and a sense of a respectful distance from the big animals.
After whale watching, lunch is ready, and the afternoon may be spent walking along the beach, hiking the ever-changing dunes, or paddling kayaks to mangrove areas, excellent places to bird watch. You may spy dolphins and sea lions from kayaks or the beach. Happy hour at 5 p.m. is followed by a hearty supper, then socializing or a talk on whales before everyone retires. Sea Kayak offers itineraries with three, four and five days of whale watching, sightings guaranteed. After spending a few days in such close proximity to these whales, so huge and yet so gentle, it is hard to say goodbye. The sights and sounds of the grays remain with you, and the urge to return, just as the whales do, is strong. Perhaps annual migration is a good idea for all of us.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If You Go
El Santuario Eco-Retreat
Ensenada Blanca
Baja California Sur, Mexico
El-santuario.com
Casitas start at $80 per person in high season (Thanksgiving to April 30). One night stay includes three meals per day and snacks. Some guided activities extra. Children and pets welcome.
Sea Kayak Adventures
PO Box 3862
Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816
208-765-3116
seakayakadventures.com
Magadalena Bay whale-watching wilderness camps, January through March, start at $895, not including airfare. Sea of Cortez kayak tours offered October through April.
Baja Expeditions
2625 Garnet Avenue
San Diego, CA 92109
800-843-6967
bajaex.com
Delta, Alaska, and Continental Airlines serve Loreto. Rental cars and taxi service available at the airport. Loreto is 700 miles from San Diego on Baja’s paved Highway 1. Passports are now required for travel to Mexico. Bank services (ATM, money exchange) available in Loreto, and most places accept U.S. dollars.
Gray Whale Facts from the American Cetacean Society, San Pedro, California, acsonline.org/factpack/graywhl.htm
Gardens of the Gulf
A mass coral spawning event is just one of many marvels at the Flower Garden Banks.
By Melissa Gaskill
The Jell-O blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico undulate like a shaken carpet, a few boats rising on swells that roll from one watery horizon to the other. From the surface, the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, roughly 110 miles from the Texas shore, looks no different than the miles of gulf surrounding it.
But on this August night, some 60 feet below, a frenzy of activity begins — a mass coral spawning, or simultaneous release of eggs and sperm into the water column by millions of coral organisms. First documented here in 1991, the phenomenon occurs annually between seven and 10 days after the full moon in August. Spawning times for individual species are extremely consistent, often predictable within a few minutes. With a single exception, each species has a unique window of time in which it and no other species spawns, the chain of reproductive events filling the water with clouds of particles from tiny round pearls to irregular blobs, rising above the reefs like slow-motion rain in reverse.
"The reef is typically very quiet at night, except on the night of the spawn," says Peter Vize, professor of biological sciences at University of Calgary in Canada, and lead author of a research paper on the event. "All of a sudden, a large percentage of one species starts blowing out these giant clouds. When that species is finished, they all shut down and there is a little gap, then the next species goes off. It is an incredible transition over hours of crazed activity, quiescence and back to crazed activity, until after midnight. It is so intense that the water gets murky, and in a good year, the entire surface of the ocean is covered by a slick."
Three factors trigger the activity: water temperature cycles, phases of the moon and time of sunset. While research suggests that water temperature sets the month, moon phase the day and sunset the hour, scientists don't know how coral can tell water temperature, phase of the moon or time of day, Vize says. There are good reasons, though, for them to do so.
"Eggs and sperm have a limited life span, so fertilization has to happen within a limited window," says Vize. "In the ocean you also have diluting effects, and currents and waves carry things off, so if a coral spawns more than half an hour off from its reef-mates, it won't have much chance of reproducing. "As different species of coral developed, the triggers for spawning couldn't change much if the species was to survive, ultimately producing this chain reaction — which also occurs on coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. A number of other Flower Garden Banks residents, including fish, brittle stars, sponges and Christmas tree worms, join in the reproductive frenzy. One advantage to piggy-backing on the coral's show could be protection from predation. With such a lavish buffet served all at once, predators fill up and simply can't eat it all.
The Reef Ccosystem
The frequency and volume of the annual spawning event are important indicators of the robust health of this reef ecosystem, according to Emma Hickerson, research coordinator for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary is actually three separate areas taking in the northernmost coral reefs in the continental United States. The 100-acre West Flower Garden Bank and 250-acre East Flower Garden Bank grow on the caps of salt domes rising from the gulf floor 450 feet below and include some 21 species of coral. Stetson Bank, 30 miles closer to shore, is a 1,500-foot-long ridge of pinnacles jutting from the sea bottom, populated by fire coral and sponges. The closest coral neighbors lie off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, 400 miles away and the likely source of polyps that initially populated the Flower Garden Banks, and the Florida Keys, 750 miles distant.
These sessile inhabitants of the Flower Garden Banks — corals, algae and sponges — provide habitat, protection and food for a vibrant community of mobile creatures, including worms, crabs, shellfish, sea urchins, at least 280 species of fish, 20 of sharks and rays, loggerhead and hawksbill sea turtles, marine mammals and birds. Large schools of jacks congregate here. Surveys also indicate that this is important habitat for spawning aggregations of grouper and for juvenile red snapper. And while many reefs in the world are more diverse, the Flower Garden Banks are a healthy, well-populated marine environment that plays a vital role in the larger ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico.
Threats to the Flower Garden Banks
Data have been collected on the Flower Garden Banks since the 1970s. One of the most sensitive biological communities in the gulf, its exceptionally good condition is largely thanks to geography. A northern location in waters cooler than most reefs offers protection from common coral diseases, and its remoteness reduces some other threats. The sanctuary is not, however, completely immune to damage. It is near oil and gas operations and shipping lanes and is affected by outflow from the Mississippi River basin, which carries runoff from cities, industry and agricultural operations in roughly two-thirds of the United States. A major oil spill in the gulf could have drastic effects, as could discharge of pollutants from ships.
Coral reefs globally are in decline due to disease, pollution, increased extraction and increased use, Hickerson says. "In comparison, the coral reefs of the Flower Garden Banks are very healthy, evidenced by high coral cover of between 50 to 70 percent. However, warning signs of declining health have been observed."
The principal threats to the Flower Garden Banks are climate change, pollution and fishing, says Jack Sobel, Ocean Conservancy senior scientist. Any type of stress, even slight changes in water temperature, can cause coral polyps to bleach, or expel their symbiotic algae. Without the photosynthetic algae, taking in enough food is difficult for coral and they usually die. Hickerson reports that temporarily elevated temperatures were documented at the Flower Garden Banks in association with a bleaching event in 2005, with 45 percent of coral in the sanctuary affected. Once temperatures returned to normal, the majority of bleached coral recovered. But that year, Hurricane Rita caused serious mechanical damage to the reef, tumbling coral boulders, causing loss of large barrel sponges and flattening fields of delicate finger coral. For the past four years, Hickerson and her colleagues also have been studying a condition suspected to be coral disease.
An invasive coral native to the Indo-Pacific was documented at the East Bank in 2002. Likely brought in on a ship's hull or discharged in ballast water, the species is common on oil and gas platforms in the gulf, which played a role in its spread. Invasives can upset the balance of delicate ecosystems like coral reefs.
Recreational scuba divers are the largest user group in the sanctuary, with around 3,000 divers visiting each year. Potential negative impacts of this activity include sound from boat engines and generators, light from underwater photography and the introduction of pathogens from other dive sites carried on diving equipment such as wet suits. Coral reefs in other parts of the world have suffered ill effects from increased recreational use.
Helping the Reefs
The Flower Garden Banks NMS is one of 14 underwater areas protected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Sanctuary Act. Eight full-time employees, based in Galveston, monitor the health of the reef and manage activities that can affect it. Marine sanctuary designation provides certain protections, with regulations prohibiting taking or injuring coral or coral reef organisms, discharging pollutants or disturbing the sea floor in the sanctuary. Oil and gas exploration and development are prohibited in "no activity" zones, but these do not include all of the sanctuary. Anchoring is also prohibited; one boat anchor can destroy thousands of years of reef growth in minutes. Spearfishing and trawling are prohibited, but conventional hook-and-line fishing is still allowed.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department program has created 30 artificial reefs, mainly from obsolete oil and gas platforms, between Stetson and the East and West Banks. These provide additional habitat that may take some of the fishing pressure off the banks, says John Embesi, diving safety officer of the TPWD Artificial Reef Program.
Protection would be greatly enhanced by additional restrictions, Sobel says, including prohibiting the taking of anything from the area. But enforcement of even existing regulations is difficult in an area located between 70 and 110 miles from shore and with limited staff.
Activities outside the sanctuary boundaries affect the reefs as well. "Through satellite imagery, use of tracking devices and anecdotal observations of freshwater vegetation floating near the sanctuary, it is generally accepted that freshwater from shore reaches far offshore," Hickerson says. Analysis by Kenneth Dunton, professor at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, confirms ties between estuarine sources and the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks, with Stetson showing a higher connection. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, satellite imagery clearly showed plumes of discolored water extending from the shoreline to the Flower Garden and beyond.
"Coral reefs are groups of organisms that live and work almost as a single system." Sobel says. "Having all the parts of that system in place and intact makes them much more resistant to pollution, climate change and other issues, and we have good science to back that up.
"We need to protect the area surrounding the sanctuary as well," he says, "including other reefs and hard bottom areas that attract the same life." Boundary expansion is, in fact, one of six priority issues identified by sanctuary staff and members of the sanctuary advisory council. Currently, staff is developing a list of nominated sites to be considered for inclusion. The other priority issues are law enforcement, education and outreach, and the impacts of fishing, pollutant discharge and visitor use.
"The banks are little storehouses of biodiversity, key areas that sustain and replenish the gulf as a whole, even though they take up a relatively small area," Sobel says. "They are truly the jewels of the gulf." Jewels that need protection, for the enjoyment of future generations and the overall health of the Gulf of Mexico.
Year of the Reef
The year 2008 is International Year of the Reef, a worldwide campaign by the International Coral Reef Initiative to raise awareness about the importance of coral reefs and the things that threaten them, and to motivate people to take action. Coral reefs, often called the rainforests of the sea, are some of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Reefs provide resources and services — from food to storm protection, medicine and recreational opportunities — worth an estimated $375 billion a year, even though they cover less than one percent of the earth's surface.
According to Status of the Coral Reefs of the World: 2004 (published by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and the International Coral Reef Initiative), 70 percent of the world's reefs are threatened or destroyed, 20 percent of those damaged beyond repair. In the Caribbean alone, many reefs have lost 80 percent of their coral species. Individuals can help protect coral reefs without ever leaving land, though.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Conservation Program offers a number of ways, including ensuring that sewage from boats and homes is properly treated, avoiding use of pesticides and fertilizers (even if you live thousands of miles away), buying marine life for aquariums only from suppliers that collect in an ecologically sound manner, recycling and conserving water. Those who visit reefs can help by supporting reef-friendly businesses, hiring local guides and never touching coral or anchoring on a reef. Find more information at.
By Melissa Gaskill
The Jell-O blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico undulate like a shaken carpet, a few boats rising on swells that roll from one watery horizon to the other. From the surface, the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, roughly 110 miles from the Texas shore, looks no different than the miles of gulf surrounding it.
But on this August night, some 60 feet below, a frenzy of activity begins — a mass coral spawning, or simultaneous release of eggs and sperm into the water column by millions of coral organisms. First documented here in 1991, the phenomenon occurs annually between seven and 10 days after the full moon in August. Spawning times for individual species are extremely consistent, often predictable within a few minutes. With a single exception, each species has a unique window of time in which it and no other species spawns, the chain of reproductive events filling the water with clouds of particles from tiny round pearls to irregular blobs, rising above the reefs like slow-motion rain in reverse.
"The reef is typically very quiet at night, except on the night of the spawn," says Peter Vize, professor of biological sciences at University of Calgary in Canada, and lead author of a research paper on the event. "All of a sudden, a large percentage of one species starts blowing out these giant clouds. When that species is finished, they all shut down and there is a little gap, then the next species goes off. It is an incredible transition over hours of crazed activity, quiescence and back to crazed activity, until after midnight. It is so intense that the water gets murky, and in a good year, the entire surface of the ocean is covered by a slick."
Three factors trigger the activity: water temperature cycles, phases of the moon and time of sunset. While research suggests that water temperature sets the month, moon phase the day and sunset the hour, scientists don't know how coral can tell water temperature, phase of the moon or time of day, Vize says. There are good reasons, though, for them to do so.
"Eggs and sperm have a limited life span, so fertilization has to happen within a limited window," says Vize. "In the ocean you also have diluting effects, and currents and waves carry things off, so if a coral spawns more than half an hour off from its reef-mates, it won't have much chance of reproducing. "As different species of coral developed, the triggers for spawning couldn't change much if the species was to survive, ultimately producing this chain reaction — which also occurs on coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. A number of other Flower Garden Banks residents, including fish, brittle stars, sponges and Christmas tree worms, join in the reproductive frenzy. One advantage to piggy-backing on the coral's show could be protection from predation. With such a lavish buffet served all at once, predators fill up and simply can't eat it all.
The Reef Ccosystem
The frequency and volume of the annual spawning event are important indicators of the robust health of this reef ecosystem, according to Emma Hickerson, research coordinator for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary is actually three separate areas taking in the northernmost coral reefs in the continental United States. The 100-acre West Flower Garden Bank and 250-acre East Flower Garden Bank grow on the caps of salt domes rising from the gulf floor 450 feet below and include some 21 species of coral. Stetson Bank, 30 miles closer to shore, is a 1,500-foot-long ridge of pinnacles jutting from the sea bottom, populated by fire coral and sponges. The closest coral neighbors lie off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, 400 miles away and the likely source of polyps that initially populated the Flower Garden Banks, and the Florida Keys, 750 miles distant.
These sessile inhabitants of the Flower Garden Banks — corals, algae and sponges — provide habitat, protection and food for a vibrant community of mobile creatures, including worms, crabs, shellfish, sea urchins, at least 280 species of fish, 20 of sharks and rays, loggerhead and hawksbill sea turtles, marine mammals and birds. Large schools of jacks congregate here. Surveys also indicate that this is important habitat for spawning aggregations of grouper and for juvenile red snapper. And while many reefs in the world are more diverse, the Flower Garden Banks are a healthy, well-populated marine environment that plays a vital role in the larger ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico.
Threats to the Flower Garden Banks
Data have been collected on the Flower Garden Banks since the 1970s. One of the most sensitive biological communities in the gulf, its exceptionally good condition is largely thanks to geography. A northern location in waters cooler than most reefs offers protection from common coral diseases, and its remoteness reduces some other threats. The sanctuary is not, however, completely immune to damage. It is near oil and gas operations and shipping lanes and is affected by outflow from the Mississippi River basin, which carries runoff from cities, industry and agricultural operations in roughly two-thirds of the United States. A major oil spill in the gulf could have drastic effects, as could discharge of pollutants from ships.
Coral reefs globally are in decline due to disease, pollution, increased extraction and increased use, Hickerson says. "In comparison, the coral reefs of the Flower Garden Banks are very healthy, evidenced by high coral cover of between 50 to 70 percent. However, warning signs of declining health have been observed."
The principal threats to the Flower Garden Banks are climate change, pollution and fishing, says Jack Sobel, Ocean Conservancy senior scientist. Any type of stress, even slight changes in water temperature, can cause coral polyps to bleach, or expel their symbiotic algae. Without the photosynthetic algae, taking in enough food is difficult for coral and they usually die. Hickerson reports that temporarily elevated temperatures were documented at the Flower Garden Banks in association with a bleaching event in 2005, with 45 percent of coral in the sanctuary affected. Once temperatures returned to normal, the majority of bleached coral recovered. But that year, Hurricane Rita caused serious mechanical damage to the reef, tumbling coral boulders, causing loss of large barrel sponges and flattening fields of delicate finger coral. For the past four years, Hickerson and her colleagues also have been studying a condition suspected to be coral disease.
An invasive coral native to the Indo-Pacific was documented at the East Bank in 2002. Likely brought in on a ship's hull or discharged in ballast water, the species is common on oil and gas platforms in the gulf, which played a role in its spread. Invasives can upset the balance of delicate ecosystems like coral reefs.
Recreational scuba divers are the largest user group in the sanctuary, with around 3,000 divers visiting each year. Potential negative impacts of this activity include sound from boat engines and generators, light from underwater photography and the introduction of pathogens from other dive sites carried on diving equipment such as wet suits. Coral reefs in other parts of the world have suffered ill effects from increased recreational use.
Helping the Reefs
The Flower Garden Banks NMS is one of 14 underwater areas protected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Sanctuary Act. Eight full-time employees, based in Galveston, monitor the health of the reef and manage activities that can affect it. Marine sanctuary designation provides certain protections, with regulations prohibiting taking or injuring coral or coral reef organisms, discharging pollutants or disturbing the sea floor in the sanctuary. Oil and gas exploration and development are prohibited in "no activity" zones, but these do not include all of the sanctuary. Anchoring is also prohibited; one boat anchor can destroy thousands of years of reef growth in minutes. Spearfishing and trawling are prohibited, but conventional hook-and-line fishing is still allowed.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department program has created 30 artificial reefs, mainly from obsolete oil and gas platforms, between Stetson and the East and West Banks. These provide additional habitat that may take some of the fishing pressure off the banks, says John Embesi, diving safety officer of the TPWD Artificial Reef Program.
Protection would be greatly enhanced by additional restrictions, Sobel says, including prohibiting the taking of anything from the area. But enforcement of even existing regulations is difficult in an area located between 70 and 110 miles from shore and with limited staff.
Activities outside the sanctuary boundaries affect the reefs as well. "Through satellite imagery, use of tracking devices and anecdotal observations of freshwater vegetation floating near the sanctuary, it is generally accepted that freshwater from shore reaches far offshore," Hickerson says. Analysis by Kenneth Dunton, professor at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, confirms ties between estuarine sources and the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks, with Stetson showing a higher connection. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, satellite imagery clearly showed plumes of discolored water extending from the shoreline to the Flower Garden and beyond.
"Coral reefs are groups of organisms that live and work almost as a single system." Sobel says. "Having all the parts of that system in place and intact makes them much more resistant to pollution, climate change and other issues, and we have good science to back that up.
"We need to protect the area surrounding the sanctuary as well," he says, "including other reefs and hard bottom areas that attract the same life." Boundary expansion is, in fact, one of six priority issues identified by sanctuary staff and members of the sanctuary advisory council. Currently, staff is developing a list of nominated sites to be considered for inclusion. The other priority issues are law enforcement, education and outreach, and the impacts of fishing, pollutant discharge and visitor use.
"The banks are little storehouses of biodiversity, key areas that sustain and replenish the gulf as a whole, even though they take up a relatively small area," Sobel says. "They are truly the jewels of the gulf." Jewels that need protection, for the enjoyment of future generations and the overall health of the Gulf of Mexico.
Year of the Reef
The year 2008 is International Year of the Reef, a worldwide campaign by the International Coral Reef Initiative to raise awareness about the importance of coral reefs and the things that threaten them, and to motivate people to take action. Coral reefs, often called the rainforests of the sea, are some of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Reefs provide resources and services — from food to storm protection, medicine and recreational opportunities — worth an estimated $375 billion a year, even though they cover less than one percent of the earth's surface.
According to Status of the Coral Reefs of the World: 2004 (published by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and the International Coral Reef Initiative), 70 percent of the world's reefs are threatened or destroyed, 20 percent of those damaged beyond repair. In the Caribbean alone, many reefs have lost 80 percent of their coral species. Individuals can help protect coral reefs without ever leaving land, though.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Conservation Program offers a number of ways, including ensuring that sewage from boats and homes is properly treated, avoiding use of pesticides and fertilizers (even if you live thousands of miles away), buying marine life for aquariums only from suppliers that collect in an ecologically sound manner, recycling and conserving water. Those who visit reefs can help by supporting reef-friendly businesses, hiring local guides and never touching coral or anchoring on a reef. Find more information at
Friday, July 27, 2007
Bad Sports
Winning has become more important than the kids having fun, more important than the kids themselves.
My first glimpse of the problem came when I walked to the neighborhood Little League field to watch a friend’s son play baseball. Prominently attached to the fences were signs stating, in essence, that anyone yelling at the umpires would be asked to leave. Things hit closer to home at one of my oldest daughter’s kickball games a year or so later, when the game screeched to a halt while the grown-ups huddled around a thick rule book, trying to decide whether to call a player out for some minor infraction I can’t even recall, like taking 5 seconds too long to step up to bat. I didn’t remember kickball having so many rules when I was 10.
After a couple of years of fairly low-key recreational soccer, my son made a “select” team. Not every kid gets on these teams. The coaches are paid professionals, the rules strict. It’s costly, upwards of $1,000, plus uniforms and travel, which can be extensive. The first indication that the ante had been upped was when the team mom handed out lollipops to keep the parents quiet.
There were teams with matching bags precisely lined up on the sidelines, games where parents berated officials the entire time (obviously, they hadn’t brought lollipops), coaches who positioned parents at intervals along the sidelines to yell at their players. When my youngest daughter made one of these teams, she sometimes came home from practices and games in tears, devastated by the comments of a teammate or because she’d disappointed her coach. A particularly rainy fall left the team of sixth graders trying to make up games well into December. I asked if we couldn’t just let those games go (hello, it’s almost Christmas!), and was told that would mess up season statistics.
I think we are taking youth sports way too seriously. Programs like Little League and Pop Warner Football were originally founded on the principles of letting every kid play and having fun, but many youth leagues now resemble miniature versions of professional sports. The frightening “do whatever it takes to win” mentality includes yelling at children, playing through pain, and even trying to injure other players.Winning has become more important than the kids having fun, more important than the kids themselves.
Maybe we need to be reminded that these are just kids. Our kids. I remember T-ball—my son and his teammates spent their time in the outfield pulling up dandelions or digging in the dirt. The grown-ups often hollered at these 5- and 6-year-olds to pay attention. Now I wonder why. We shouldn’t have cared who won, just that the kids were outside and having fun.
I figured I was alone in my alarm until I read Why Johnny Hates Sports by Fred Engh. Engh says 70 percent of all youngsters drop out of organized sports by age 13 because of unpleasant experiences. Seventy percent. By age 13! Frankly, that seems to me about the age kids should start team sports, not already be burned out and quitting.
Sports, and team sports in particular, have a lot to teach children—when they’re ready. Let’s face it, 11-year-olds can get distracted or tired. So can 15-year-olds, but they usually have the developmental ability and maturity to push through it and give that extra effort. That feels like a real accomplishment, and teaches perseverance. But pushing an 11-year-old to act 15 won’t make her develop or mature anyfaster. It might, however, make her drop out of sports.
Fortunately, my youngest has decided to move on to another sport rather than quit. My dandelion-picking son seems to have let all that yelling go in one ear and out the other (an annoying skill in so many arenas), going on from baseball to soccer, basketball, football and, finally, lacrosse. My oldest daughter has dabbled in a variety of sports as well (her favorite: Ultimate Frisbee, a game that defies rules and organization).
I’m glad about this. I’m not against sports or competition, just against taking them too seriously.Too much competition sucks the fun out. An undue emphasis on winning and losing—and not on teamwork, self-improvement and good sportsmanship— takes away from the benefits sports can offer, like cooperation, respect for teammates and opponents, even compassion for the loser. I want my children—and their future coworkers, neighbors and spouses—to have exposure to those things, too.
Finally, I don’t think we should sacrifice the fun of childhood. No one should know better than my successoriented generation that you only get to be young once. I don’t think my kids will look back from that vaunted front-porch rocking chair and say, “Gee, I wish I’d won more soccer games when I was 11.” I know I won’t.
In addition to the emotional and psychological consequences of our overzealous attitudes, there are potential physical ones. Stress fractures, growth plate disorders, cracked kneecaps, frayed heel tendons and back problems were previously seen only in adults. Now injuries like these are reaching epidemic proportions in young teens, as more kids play one sport year-round and focus on single skills like kicking or throwing. Their still-growing bodies simply can’t take it. Some parents justify pushing their kids for scholarships, but a kid with injuries probably won’t be able to play, scholarship or no.
The American Academy of Pediatrics even issued a formal statement: “Those who participate in a variety of sports and specialize only after reaching the age of puberty tend to be more consistent performers, have fewer injuries, and adhere to sports play longer than those who specialize early.”
Kids won’t acquire skills faster just because they start younger. A lot of skill and ability is a function of age and development, not more practice. Former NBA player Bob Bigelow, who wrote Just Let the Kids Play, didn’t even play basketball until high school. World Cup star Mia Hamm didn’t focus on soccer until age 16.That gawky 10-year-old who can hardly run and breathe at the same time could grow up to be the next Mia if given a chance. A lot of kids never discover their talent because they’re told at age 9 or 10 that they aren’t good enough.
Remember that old saw about variety being the spice of life? I don’t want my children to spend their youth hammering away at one thing, no matter what it is. This is the time of life (maybe the only time) they can and should try many things—a variety of sports, musical instruments, dance, horseback riding, camping, biking, scouts. I don’t know about you, but I’m just darned bored watching yet another soccer game. I could go for a little softball for a change, or a picnic, a game of cards, or a hike in the woods.
In short, let’s lighten up and let our kids be kids while they still can. We’ll all have more fun.
Melissa Gaskill is co-author of Lacrosse: Guide for Parents and Players (Mansion Grove House, 2006). Her most recent contribution to Texas Co-op Power was the May 2005 cover article,“Rhinos at Fossil Rim.”
My first glimpse of the problem came when I walked to the neighborhood Little League field to watch a friend’s son play baseball. Prominently attached to the fences were signs stating, in essence, that anyone yelling at the umpires would be asked to leave. Things hit closer to home at one of my oldest daughter’s kickball games a year or so later, when the game screeched to a halt while the grown-ups huddled around a thick rule book, trying to decide whether to call a player out for some minor infraction I can’t even recall, like taking 5 seconds too long to step up to bat. I didn’t remember kickball having so many rules when I was 10.
After a couple of years of fairly low-key recreational soccer, my son made a “select” team. Not every kid gets on these teams. The coaches are paid professionals, the rules strict. It’s costly, upwards of $1,000, plus uniforms and travel, which can be extensive. The first indication that the ante had been upped was when the team mom handed out lollipops to keep the parents quiet.
There were teams with matching bags precisely lined up on the sidelines, games where parents berated officials the entire time (obviously, they hadn’t brought lollipops), coaches who positioned parents at intervals along the sidelines to yell at their players. When my youngest daughter made one of these teams, she sometimes came home from practices and games in tears, devastated by the comments of a teammate or because she’d disappointed her coach. A particularly rainy fall left the team of sixth graders trying to make up games well into December. I asked if we couldn’t just let those games go (hello, it’s almost Christmas!), and was told that would mess up season statistics.
I think we are taking youth sports way too seriously. Programs like Little League and Pop Warner Football were originally founded on the principles of letting every kid play and having fun, but many youth leagues now resemble miniature versions of professional sports. The frightening “do whatever it takes to win” mentality includes yelling at children, playing through pain, and even trying to injure other players.Winning has become more important than the kids having fun, more important than the kids themselves.
Maybe we need to be reminded that these are just kids. Our kids. I remember T-ball—my son and his teammates spent their time in the outfield pulling up dandelions or digging in the dirt. The grown-ups often hollered at these 5- and 6-year-olds to pay attention. Now I wonder why. We shouldn’t have cared who won, just that the kids were outside and having fun.
I figured I was alone in my alarm until I read Why Johnny Hates Sports by Fred Engh. Engh says 70 percent of all youngsters drop out of organized sports by age 13 because of unpleasant experiences. Seventy percent. By age 13! Frankly, that seems to me about the age kids should start team sports, not already be burned out and quitting.
Sports, and team sports in particular, have a lot to teach children—when they’re ready. Let’s face it, 11-year-olds can get distracted or tired. So can 15-year-olds, but they usually have the developmental ability and maturity to push through it and give that extra effort. That feels like a real accomplishment, and teaches perseverance. But pushing an 11-year-old to act 15 won’t make her develop or mature anyfaster. It might, however, make her drop out of sports.
Fortunately, my youngest has decided to move on to another sport rather than quit. My dandelion-picking son seems to have let all that yelling go in one ear and out the other (an annoying skill in so many arenas), going on from baseball to soccer, basketball, football and, finally, lacrosse. My oldest daughter has dabbled in a variety of sports as well (her favorite: Ultimate Frisbee, a game that defies rules and organization).
I’m glad about this. I’m not against sports or competition, just against taking them too seriously.Too much competition sucks the fun out. An undue emphasis on winning and losing—and not on teamwork, self-improvement and good sportsmanship— takes away from the benefits sports can offer, like cooperation, respect for teammates and opponents, even compassion for the loser. I want my children—and their future coworkers, neighbors and spouses—to have exposure to those things, too.
Finally, I don’t think we should sacrifice the fun of childhood. No one should know better than my successoriented generation that you only get to be young once. I don’t think my kids will look back from that vaunted front-porch rocking chair and say, “Gee, I wish I’d won more soccer games when I was 11.” I know I won’t.
In addition to the emotional and psychological consequences of our overzealous attitudes, there are potential physical ones. Stress fractures, growth plate disorders, cracked kneecaps, frayed heel tendons and back problems were previously seen only in adults. Now injuries like these are reaching epidemic proportions in young teens, as more kids play one sport year-round and focus on single skills like kicking or throwing. Their still-growing bodies simply can’t take it. Some parents justify pushing their kids for scholarships, but a kid with injuries probably won’t be able to play, scholarship or no.
The American Academy of Pediatrics even issued a formal statement: “Those who participate in a variety of sports and specialize only after reaching the age of puberty tend to be more consistent performers, have fewer injuries, and adhere to sports play longer than those who specialize early.”
Kids won’t acquire skills faster just because they start younger. A lot of skill and ability is a function of age and development, not more practice. Former NBA player Bob Bigelow, who wrote Just Let the Kids Play, didn’t even play basketball until high school. World Cup star Mia Hamm didn’t focus on soccer until age 16.That gawky 10-year-old who can hardly run and breathe at the same time could grow up to be the next Mia if given a chance. A lot of kids never discover their talent because they’re told at age 9 or 10 that they aren’t good enough.
Remember that old saw about variety being the spice of life? I don’t want my children to spend their youth hammering away at one thing, no matter what it is. This is the time of life (maybe the only time) they can and should try many things—a variety of sports, musical instruments, dance, horseback riding, camping, biking, scouts. I don’t know about you, but I’m just darned bored watching yet another soccer game. I could go for a little softball for a change, or a picnic, a game of cards, or a hike in the woods.
In short, let’s lighten up and let our kids be kids while they still can. We’ll all have more fun.
Melissa Gaskill is co-author of Lacrosse: Guide for Parents and Players (Mansion Grove House, 2006). Her most recent contribution to Texas Co-op Power was the May 2005 cover article,“Rhinos at Fossil Rim.”
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
There's A Stranger In My House
Your sweet kid's morphed into a teen who hates you. Reacquaint yourselves, quick.
When your children were born, that bonding thing went pretty well. Quite naturally, in fact. Their chubby little faces lit up every time you came into the room. These days, though, their faces darken at the sight of you. You have teenagers.
Parenting during the teen years is at least as important as it was in the early ones, says Michael Bradley, PhD, a practicing clinical psychologist and author of Yes, Your Teen is Crazy! Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind. Believe it or not, research has revealed that the higher parts of the brain form - key word "form," as in take shape out of chaos - during adolescence. Which means good parenting is essential at this stage, if, that is, you want to have anything to do with your child's grown-up outlook on life. "This is when you are shaping the adult," Bradley says. "These are likely the most critical years of parenting."
Well, okay. Except it is also true that one of the primary jobs of adolescents is establishing themselves as independent beings, separate from you. Anthony Wolf, PhD, another teen psycholo-gist and author of Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall warns us, "Just your existence compro-mises their need to feel like independent beings."
"It's like adolescents have an allergy to parents," Wolf explains. "So if a parent's aim is to have close bonding with a teenage child, that's not realistic." What is realistic, even important, is connecting with your teen in meaningful ways. Roni Cohen-Sandler, psychologist and author of - you've gotta love these titles - I'm Not Mad I Just Hate You, cautions that "Teens say they aren't interested, but deep down they do want to feel connected." Just don't expect it to be easy.
GOTTA GET OUT MORE
The first golden rule: Don't even try to work serious bonding into your daily routine (at least at first). You'll have better luck away from home and all its competition TV, Internet, music, siblings, telephone, friends, and so on - because, let's face it, at this point in their lives, anything is more interesting than you. Doing something out of the context of day-to-day life creates the best opportunities for making a connection.
Cohen-Sandler took her teens to Costa Rica, and while there, the kids got to play expert because they knew more of the language and were more physically fit than their parents. Give your own kids the opportunity to try on new roles by choosing destinations together. Look for a variety of activities as well as a setup that allows both of you a little breathing room. Avoid highly structured tours, which create too many opportunities for adolescent rebellion against authority.
Seek activities that don't involve your usual parent mode - that "where-were-you, what-about-that-English-grade, who-are-these-weirdos-you-call-friends" stuff. Show that you see your teen as a person, not just your child, and temporarily put aside your job of setting limits. How? Try something new, preferably something your teen is dying to do.
If your daughter has been fantasizing about surfing ever since she saw Blue Crush check out Surf Camp in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina (www.wbsurfcamp.com) or Paskowitz Surf Camp in San Diego (www.paskowitz.com). Both promise to have anybody - even you, Dad - up and riding a board in five days. Or cater to your kid's inner scientist. Cheryl Bennett and daughter Lauren spent 10 days researching leatherback turtles on an Earthwatch Institute expedition in the Caribbean (www.earthwatch.org). "It ended up being the trip of a lifetime for both of us," says Bennett. "It was more like we were partners ... researchers working together." If turtles don't excite you, Earthwatch offers expeditions on everything from dolphins to medicinal plants.
As you're casting about for something you can both agree on, don't take rejection of your ideas personally. Your teen will knock some of them just as a power exercise. Don't give up. The offer alone is a connection. If you keep striking out with big plans, start small, with ice cream, a movie, or dinner out. Above all, be creative.
Even if that means, as in Michael Bradley's case, that you have to provide incentives - aka bribes - to get your teen to go along. Bradley rented a convertible for his son to drive through California -with Dad in tow, of course. Such tricks are fair play, but don't be too pushy. If you have to force your teen into that car, your fantasy weekend could turn into a nightmare.
HEY, LISTEN UP!
Taking a trip together isn't the only way to foster bonding time. Be open to your teen's ideas, even, perhaps especially, about activities you wouldn't normally do. "I play Ping-Pong with my son, even though it's not my favorite activity," says Cohen-Sandler, "and I hate the mall, but that is where my teenage daughter wants to go."
Volunteering is another way to put you both on level ground and to create shared memories, even if it's not something exotic like an Earthwatch trip. Be open to what is meaningful to your teen (say, saving turtles) rather than to you (art museum), and don't push too hard. You don't have to build houses; maybe your kid just wants a local skatepark. Offer to help him start a petition or visit city officials.
Develop rituals like sharing a Saturday morning breakfast or a Friday night pizza, or reading the morning comics together. Repetitive events are very centering, and while teens may act like they don't like it, the experts say they do. Trust them, they're experts.
If you just want to have a conversation, Bradley has a foolproof trick: Set your alarm for midnight. The adolescent brain kicks in late at night, and teens will actually talk if you just hang with them. Can't stay awake at that hour? "I think about waving goodbye in a couple of years," says Bradley. Works better than a double espresso.
Above all, hang on to your sense of humor. Teenagers still don't have all their brain equipment, and they really are a little crazy. Just like potty training, this, too, shall pass. And if relaxing on a beach makes it pass more quickly, hey, who's to argue.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Trail Mix: Top Texas Hikes
Take a hike. Rather than a brush-off, to me this sounds like an invitation to have a great time. Hiking offers one of the most accessible and versatile ways to enjoy the outdoors. Naturally, Texas boasts an amazing array of hikes for every taste and ability—from strolls of less than a mile to treks longer than 100 miles, through thick woods or open country, on high mountain slopes or smooth, flat shores. Here’s a look into a few of my favorites.
Hill Country State Natural Area
Just outside of Bandera, the 5,369-acre Hill Country State Natural Area (photo on opening spread) offers classic hikes on 40 miles of multi-use trails. My favorite combines Routes 1 and 6 to loop out to the Wilderness Camp Area and back, going 5.8 miles through open stretches where tall grass undulates in the breeze, into shady groves of oak and juniper covered in berries, over rocky hills and down canyons, and even across a wide swath of ankle-scratching but wickedly beautiful sotol. A must is the detour on Route 5B, up a steep, rocky staircase to 1,760-foot-high Twin Peaks for a stunning, panoramic view of the almost unblemished countryside. There is no drinking water or supplies in the park, so bring everything you think you’ll need. Not that you’ll need much, with scenery like this.
Hill Country State Natural Area, 830/796-4413
Sam Houston National Forest
East Texas’ Lone Star Hiking Trail runs for 128 miles through the Sam Houston National Forest, but that’s too much hiking for me. I can handle, though, the challenging 27-mile section between Evergreen and Cleveland, which is a designated National Recreation Trail. Tree tags 25 to 50 yards apart mark the narrow path, but I suggest picking up a map from the Sam Houston National Forest district ranger’s office in New Waverly. Pines and magnolias shade the trail, which also blazes through thick brush and swampy areas, and crosses several creeks and the East Fork of the San Jacinto River (twice). You might also see white-tailed deer, turkey, quail, and rabbits. Foxes and bobcats live here, too, though you’re unlikely to see them. Old stumps covered in shades of green moss, strange fungi growing on fallen logs, and a variety of mushrooms lend an otherworldly, untamed feel to the landscape.
USDA Forest Service, Sam Houston Natl. Forest, 936/344-6205
Lake Georgetown Good Water Trail
A rugged, 23.8-mile trail circumnavigating scenic Lake Georgetown traverses dense juniper stands, hardwood bottomlands, limestone cliffs, and wide-open prairie grasslands. You’ll even ford a few streams. My favorite spot on this hike, Knight Spring, creates a small stream above a lush, serpentine waterfall. Nearby is an old corral left by early settlers, and elsewhere on the trail are remnants of stone walls and fences. Armadillos rustle in the grass, and hikers may startle an occasional deer in the brush. During deer season (check with the office for dates), stay on the trail and wear bright clothing; the trail crosses Hunt Hollow Wildlife Management Area, which allows hunting. Multiple trailheads and several campgrounds make it easy to choose your distance; if your party has two cars, you can even leave one at your destination before driving to the starting point—then you won’t have to backtrack.
Georgetown Lake Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 512/930-5253
Full article on Top Texas Hikes can be found in the May 2007 issue of Texas Highways magazine.
Hill Country State Natural Area
Just outside of Bandera, the 5,369-acre Hill Country State Natural Area (photo on opening spread) offers classic hikes on 40 miles of multi-use trails. My favorite combines Routes 1 and 6 to loop out to the Wilderness Camp Area and back, going 5.8 miles through open stretches where tall grass undulates in the breeze, into shady groves of oak and juniper covered in berries, over rocky hills and down canyons, and even across a wide swath of ankle-scratching but wickedly beautiful sotol. A must is the detour on Route 5B, up a steep, rocky staircase to 1,760-foot-high Twin Peaks for a stunning, panoramic view of the almost unblemished countryside. There is no drinking water or supplies in the park, so bring everything you think you’ll need. Not that you’ll need much, with scenery like this.
Hill Country State Natural Area, 830/796-4413
Sam Houston National Forest
East Texas’ Lone Star Hiking Trail runs for 128 miles through the Sam Houston National Forest, but that’s too much hiking for me. I can handle, though, the challenging 27-mile section between Evergreen and Cleveland, which is a designated National Recreation Trail. Tree tags 25 to 50 yards apart mark the narrow path, but I suggest picking up a map from the Sam Houston National Forest district ranger’s office in New Waverly. Pines and magnolias shade the trail, which also blazes through thick brush and swampy areas, and crosses several creeks and the East Fork of the San Jacinto River (twice). You might also see white-tailed deer, turkey, quail, and rabbits. Foxes and bobcats live here, too, though you’re unlikely to see them. Old stumps covered in shades of green moss, strange fungi growing on fallen logs, and a variety of mushrooms lend an otherworldly, untamed feel to the landscape.
USDA Forest Service, Sam Houston Natl. Forest, 936/344-6205
Lake Georgetown Good Water Trail
A rugged, 23.8-mile trail circumnavigating scenic Lake Georgetown traverses dense juniper stands, hardwood bottomlands, limestone cliffs, and wide-open prairie grasslands. You’ll even ford a few streams. My favorite spot on this hike, Knight Spring, creates a small stream above a lush, serpentine waterfall. Nearby is an old corral left by early settlers, and elsewhere on the trail are remnants of stone walls and fences. Armadillos rustle in the grass, and hikers may startle an occasional deer in the brush. During deer season (check with the office for dates), stay on the trail and wear bright clothing; the trail crosses Hunt Hollow Wildlife Management Area, which allows hunting. Multiple trailheads and several campgrounds make it easy to choose your distance; if your party has two cars, you can even leave one at your destination before driving to the starting point—then you won’t have to backtrack.
Georgetown Lake Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 512/930-5253
Full article on Top Texas Hikes can be found in the May 2007 issue of Texas Highways magazine.
Dog-Friendly Parks
When you can’t resist those big eyes that say “Don’t leave me at home,” head for a park that welcomes pooches.
Any outdoor experience is made better when it’s shared with the right company, and as many of us have discovered, dogs are great travel companions. According to the Travel Industry Association, some 29 million Americans now travel with their pets, primarily dogs. While no doubt some of those millions are simply carrying a pampered pooch in and out of fancy hotels, I’m sure that many are, like me, taking their dogs swimming at the lake, exploring at the beach, hiking in the woods or on some other outdoor adventure.
If you’re already one of these people, you know it isn’t always easy to include your four-legged friend. Dogs simply aren’t allowed some places, for good reasons, like protecting fragile ecosystems or endangered wildlife, or because it would be dangerous for the dog. Some places allow dogs but don’t actively welcome them, for the same or related reasons. That said, there are great spots for enjoying the outdoors with your dog.
First, a few words about responsible doghood. Dogs in public places are like kids: Not everyone wants them around, and even those who like them may be somewhat annoyed by the disruptions they can cause. People quietly wildlife-watching won’t be too happy if your barking dog scares the critters away, and someone floating Zen-like on the river probably doesn’t want to be joined by your wet, hairy friend. Do yourself, your dog and everyone else a favor and make that first trip to an obedience class. Train your pooch to come when called and stay when asked; you’ll be much more popular out there, and your dog will be safer, too (think snakes, alligators, cliffs and the like). Take your dog for a vet check-up (and updated shots) before inviting him along on a strenuous outdoor activity. Be aware that dogs can get sunburned and suffer heat stroke just as easily as people. Mosquito repellent may be a good idea, and all Texas dogs need heartworm preventive.
Carry plenty of water for everyone (not all sources of water are safe for your dog to drink) and snacks for your dog if you’ll be hiking or otherwise active. First-aid supplies are a good idea, and, in some thorny places, dog booties.
Follow the rules. When hiking, stay on trails. Most places — and all state parks — require dogs to be on a leash; use leashes where required, even if no one is looking. And only service dogs are allowed in public buildings. Most important rule: scoop the poop. Unlike the stuff that wild animals produce, dog-doo is not a natural part of the environment. It can contain harmful viruses and bacteria, which are carried by rain into streams and rivers. No one likes to step in it, and no one likes to look at it, either. Carry plastic bags — this is a great way to reuse the ones that envelop your newspaper or sub sandwich.
Okay, turn the page to read about the top 10 dog-friendly sites according to my personal opinion, without benefit of scientific analysis or public poll (well, the dogs had a vote). This list reflects a preference for beautiful views, refreshing water, nice facilities for humans and ample recreational possibilities for all. There are many more wonderful places that just wouldn’t fit; almost every Texas state park is worthy of a visit with your dog, for example. You may quibble with certain selections, depending, say, on your level of tolerance for a sand-covered dog, or perhaps a burning (pun intended) desire for shade. That’s okay. What’s important is getting up and out, breathing in that fresh air (even if it is laden with eau de wet dog) and appreciating this great gem of a state. So, don’t sit. Don’t stay. Go!
1. Matagorda County Beach
Dogs can run free on this wide, uncrowded beach that stretches 22 miles from the mouth of the Colorado River. The first half-mile is pedestrian beach, adjacent to the LCRA Matagorda Bay Nature Park, which has restrooms, showers for you and your dog and picnic shelters. Dogs are also allowed on the park’s nature trails and three fishing piers. Stop at Stanley’s, at the turnoff onto 2031 from Highway 60, and pick up a beach vehicle permit, $6 for the calendar year. On the beach, keep your dog out of the dunes and from chasing the birds (there will be plenty; Matagorda County has been number one for number of species counted in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count for four years). There is an RV park and camping is allowed on the beach.
Matagorda County (979) 863-7120; www.lcra.org/community/matagorda.html
Honorable mention:
Padre Island National SeashoreMore than 60 miles of undeveloped beach — just you and your dog with lots of sand and surf. Malaquite Beach, a five-mile, vehicle-free stretch, has a visitor center with a place to wash off your dog (who isn’t allowed on the deck or in the buildings). Keep dogs on leash here and elsewhere around people, but let him swim loose in the Gulf. Campground at Malaquite Beach, primitive camping anywhere on the rest of the beaches.
(361) 949-8068; www.nps.gov/pais
2. Lake Georgetown
Jump into the blue water with your pup, then hit the Good Water Trail, a scenic 16.6-mile hiking route along the lake’s shore, named after what local lore suggests the native Tonkawa called this area: “land of good water.” Views, rugged terrain, wildlife spotting and solitude abound. Leashes are required on the trail and in developed recreation areas. Dogs are allowed to swim in the lake without a leash. In undeveloped areas, dogs are allowed off-leash (but must be under their owner's control) except during hunting season and nesting season for golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos. Check with the park for dates and locations of those restrictions.
(512) 930-5253; www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/Georgetown
Honorable mention:
Lake Somerville State Park and TrailwayA 13-mile trail connects Birch Creek Unit (with camping and day-use facilities) on the north shore of the lake to Nails Creek Unit on the south, crossing Yegua Creek and skirting Flag Pond. Shelters along the way for resting and picnicking and four primitive campgrounds. All state parks require that dogs remain on leash at all times, and only service dogs are allowed in public buildings.
3. Bastrop and Buescher State Parks
Dogs — and people — love the sandy, shady 8.5-mile Lost Pines Trail and 3.5 miles of other trails through this most westerly stand of loblolly pine in the United States. The park also has a small lake, picnic areas, campsites and, for humans only, cabins, lodges and a swimming pool with a CCC-built bathhouse. Roll the windows down and drive scenic Park Road 1C to Buescher State Park to enjoy another 7.5-mile trail plus multiuse and tent camping, picnic areas and fishing lake.
4. Canyon of the Eagles Lodge and Nature Park
Hang out at Lake Buchanan with your pup or explore (on leash) 14 miles of hiking trails roaming 940 wooded acres, from level shoreline to rugged hills. Look for a variety of wildlife and birds, including American bald eagles, black-capped vireos and golden-cheeked warblers. Dark skies are conducive to star gazing, and the park’s observatory is open most Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. The park has a dog-friendly lodge, campgrounds and RV sites.
Honorable mention:
Black Rock Park, an LCRA park on the southwest shore of Lake Buchanan, with boat ramp, sandy beaches, tent and RV sites. Dogs can play unleashed in the water if it isn’t crowded.
Inks Lake State Park, on Inks Lake just downstream from Buchanan, has camping, swimming, fishing and 7.5 miles of hiking trails, where dogs will find an endless supply of intriguing sights and smells.
5. Davis Mountains State Park
Trails meander through part of the most extensive mountain range in Texas, including a 4.5-mile route that leads to Fort Davis National Historic Site (dogs allowed on leash, but not in the buildings). The aptly named Skyline Drive is popular with star gazers; let your dog’s inner coyote gaze at the moon, which seems larger here. Keep pups in the tent or RV at night.
6. Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway
This is John Wayne country — rocky cliffs, deep canyons, dramatic skies, even bison —and almost 90 miles of trails beckon, including a 64-mile trailway along a former railroad bed, complete with a tunnel. Hike up to 3,100 feet, then down to wade in the sandy Red River. People and perhaps their dogs first settled 10,000 years ago. Be prepared to share some trails with horses and bicycles.
7. Sam Houston National Forest Lone Star Trail
Wander through woods of pine and magnolia, across creeks and through swamps on the 128-mile Lone Star Hiking Trail through Sam Houston National Forest. A section with National Recreation Trail status goes from a trailhead on FM 945 just south of State Highway 150 27 miles to another on FM 1725 just north of Cleveland, with several access points in between that allow you to shorten that distance. Double Lake Recreation Area, accessible from this route or by car, is on a 24-acre lake and has campsites, picnic sites, a swim beach and, in summer, a concession stand with canoe rentals. Dogs must be on leash but are allowed in the lake (and can ride in a canoe).
8. Pace Bend Park
The 1,368-acre park on a Lake Travis peninsula, with rugged limestone cliffs and typical Hill Country terrain, welcomes dogs and allows them off leash as long as they are under the owner’s control. Hiking trails take you to the high ground, where you may see deer, fox and other wildlife, and swim beaches on the gentle north and east shores provide easy water access. Picnic areas, restrooms and campgrounds.
9. Hill Country State Natural Area
Forty miles of multiuse trails crisscross more than 5,400 acres of grassy valleys, steep limestone hills and spring-fed streams on this former ranch, which the donors requested be kept natural and untouched. That means only basic facilities are provided, but it also means the park is wild and natural, just the way some of us like it. Primitive and improved campgrounds, as well as several equestrian campgrounds (you’ll often share trails with horses).
10. Grapevine Lake
Several parks on the north shore of this Corps of Engineers lake smack-dab in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex offer varied recreational opportunities. Your best bet is Murrell Park in Flower Mound, open 24/7 and free, with boat ramps, picnic tables, camp sites, restrooms, fishing banks and a trailhead for the Northshore Trail, a challenging hike and bike route roughly nine miles long. Dogs must be on leash.
When you don’t have time to travel far, tide yourself over at dog-friendly urban parks like leash-free Red Bud Isle or Bull Creek District Park in Austin and dog parks like George Bush Park’s Millie Bush Bark Park in Houston, Gateway Park’s Fort Woof dog park in Fort Worth and the Dallas Dog Park at White Rock Lake. Just promise your dog, and yourself, that you’ll make time for a longer jaunt soon.
From Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, August 2006.
Any outdoor experience is made better when it’s shared with the right company, and as many of us have discovered, dogs are great travel companions. According to the Travel Industry Association, some 29 million Americans now travel with their pets, primarily dogs. While no doubt some of those millions are simply carrying a pampered pooch in and out of fancy hotels, I’m sure that many are, like me, taking their dogs swimming at the lake, exploring at the beach, hiking in the woods or on some other outdoor adventure.
If you’re already one of these people, you know it isn’t always easy to include your four-legged friend. Dogs simply aren’t allowed some places, for good reasons, like protecting fragile ecosystems or endangered wildlife, or because it would be dangerous for the dog. Some places allow dogs but don’t actively welcome them, for the same or related reasons. That said, there are great spots for enjoying the outdoors with your dog.
First, a few words about responsible doghood. Dogs in public places are like kids: Not everyone wants them around, and even those who like them may be somewhat annoyed by the disruptions they can cause. People quietly wildlife-watching won’t be too happy if your barking dog scares the critters away, and someone floating Zen-like on the river probably doesn’t want to be joined by your wet, hairy friend. Do yourself, your dog and everyone else a favor and make that first trip to an obedience class. Train your pooch to come when called and stay when asked; you’ll be much more popular out there, and your dog will be safer, too (think snakes, alligators, cliffs and the like). Take your dog for a vet check-up (and updated shots) before inviting him along on a strenuous outdoor activity. Be aware that dogs can get sunburned and suffer heat stroke just as easily as people. Mosquito repellent may be a good idea, and all Texas dogs need heartworm preventive.
Carry plenty of water for everyone (not all sources of water are safe for your dog to drink) and snacks for your dog if you’ll be hiking or otherwise active. First-aid supplies are a good idea, and, in some thorny places, dog booties.
Follow the rules. When hiking, stay on trails. Most places — and all state parks — require dogs to be on a leash; use leashes where required, even if no one is looking. And only service dogs are allowed in public buildings. Most important rule: scoop the poop. Unlike the stuff that wild animals produce, dog-doo is not a natural part of the environment. It can contain harmful viruses and bacteria, which are carried by rain into streams and rivers. No one likes to step in it, and no one likes to look at it, either. Carry plastic bags — this is a great way to reuse the ones that envelop your newspaper or sub sandwich.
Okay, turn the page to read about the top 10 dog-friendly sites according to my personal opinion, without benefit of scientific analysis or public poll (well, the dogs had a vote). This list reflects a preference for beautiful views, refreshing water, nice facilities for humans and ample recreational possibilities for all. There are many more wonderful places that just wouldn’t fit; almost every Texas state park is worthy of a visit with your dog, for example. You may quibble with certain selections, depending, say, on your level of tolerance for a sand-covered dog, or perhaps a burning (pun intended) desire for shade. That’s okay. What’s important is getting up and out, breathing in that fresh air (even if it is laden with eau de wet dog) and appreciating this great gem of a state. So, don’t sit. Don’t stay. Go!
1. Matagorda County Beach
Dogs can run free on this wide, uncrowded beach that stretches 22 miles from the mouth of the Colorado River. The first half-mile is pedestrian beach, adjacent to the LCRA Matagorda Bay Nature Park, which has restrooms, showers for you and your dog and picnic shelters. Dogs are also allowed on the park’s nature trails and three fishing piers. Stop at Stanley’s, at the turnoff onto 2031 from Highway 60, and pick up a beach vehicle permit, $6 for the calendar year. On the beach, keep your dog out of the dunes and from chasing the birds (there will be plenty; Matagorda County has been number one for number of species counted in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count for four years). There is an RV park and camping is allowed on the beach.
Matagorda County (979) 863-7120; www.lcra.org/community/matagorda.html
Honorable mention:
Padre Island National SeashoreMore than 60 miles of undeveloped beach — just you and your dog with lots of sand and surf. Malaquite Beach, a five-mile, vehicle-free stretch, has a visitor center with a place to wash off your dog (who isn’t allowed on the deck or in the buildings). Keep dogs on leash here and elsewhere around people, but let him swim loose in the Gulf. Campground at Malaquite Beach, primitive camping anywhere on the rest of the beaches.
(361) 949-8068; www.nps.gov/pais
2. Lake Georgetown
Jump into the blue water with your pup, then hit the Good Water Trail, a scenic 16.6-mile hiking route along the lake’s shore, named after what local lore suggests the native Tonkawa called this area: “land of good water.” Views, rugged terrain, wildlife spotting and solitude abound. Leashes are required on the trail and in developed recreation areas. Dogs are allowed to swim in the lake without a leash. In undeveloped areas, dogs are allowed off-leash (but must be under their owner's control) except during hunting season and nesting season for golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos. Check with the park for dates and locations of those restrictions.
(512) 930-5253; www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/Georgetown
Honorable mention:
Lake Somerville State Park and TrailwayA 13-mile trail connects Birch Creek Unit (with camping and day-use facilities) on the north shore of the lake to Nails Creek Unit on the south, crossing Yegua Creek and skirting Flag Pond. Shelters along the way for resting and picnicking and four primitive campgrounds. All state parks require that dogs remain on leash at all times, and only service dogs are allowed in public buildings.
3. Bastrop and Buescher State Parks
Dogs — and people — love the sandy, shady 8.5-mile Lost Pines Trail and 3.5 miles of other trails through this most westerly stand of loblolly pine in the United States. The park also has a small lake, picnic areas, campsites and, for humans only, cabins, lodges and a swimming pool with a CCC-built bathhouse. Roll the windows down and drive scenic Park Road 1C to Buescher State Park to enjoy another 7.5-mile trail plus multiuse and tent camping, picnic areas and fishing lake.
4. Canyon of the Eagles Lodge and Nature Park
Hang out at Lake Buchanan with your pup or explore (on leash) 14 miles of hiking trails roaming 940 wooded acres, from level shoreline to rugged hills. Look for a variety of wildlife and birds, including American bald eagles, black-capped vireos and golden-cheeked warblers. Dark skies are conducive to star gazing, and the park’s observatory is open most Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. The park has a dog-friendly lodge, campgrounds and RV sites.
Honorable mention:
Black Rock Park, an LCRA park on the southwest shore of Lake Buchanan, with boat ramp, sandy beaches, tent and RV sites. Dogs can play unleashed in the water if it isn’t crowded.
Inks Lake State Park, on Inks Lake just downstream from Buchanan, has camping, swimming, fishing and 7.5 miles of hiking trails, where dogs will find an endless supply of intriguing sights and smells.
5. Davis Mountains State Park
Trails meander through part of the most extensive mountain range in Texas, including a 4.5-mile route that leads to Fort Davis National Historic Site (dogs allowed on leash, but not in the buildings). The aptly named Skyline Drive is popular with star gazers; let your dog’s inner coyote gaze at the moon, which seems larger here. Keep pups in the tent or RV at night.
6. Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway
This is John Wayne country — rocky cliffs, deep canyons, dramatic skies, even bison —and almost 90 miles of trails beckon, including a 64-mile trailway along a former railroad bed, complete with a tunnel. Hike up to 3,100 feet, then down to wade in the sandy Red River. People and perhaps their dogs first settled 10,000 years ago. Be prepared to share some trails with horses and bicycles.
7. Sam Houston National Forest Lone Star Trail
Wander through woods of pine and magnolia, across creeks and through swamps on the 128-mile Lone Star Hiking Trail through Sam Houston National Forest. A section with National Recreation Trail status goes from a trailhead on FM 945 just south of State Highway 150 27 miles to another on FM 1725 just north of Cleveland, with several access points in between that allow you to shorten that distance. Double Lake Recreation Area, accessible from this route or by car, is on a 24-acre lake and has campsites, picnic sites, a swim beach and, in summer, a concession stand with canoe rentals. Dogs must be on leash but are allowed in the lake (and can ride in a canoe).
8. Pace Bend Park
The 1,368-acre park on a Lake Travis peninsula, with rugged limestone cliffs and typical Hill Country terrain, welcomes dogs and allows them off leash as long as they are under the owner’s control. Hiking trails take you to the high ground, where you may see deer, fox and other wildlife, and swim beaches on the gentle north and east shores provide easy water access. Picnic areas, restrooms and campgrounds.
9. Hill Country State Natural Area
Forty miles of multiuse trails crisscross more than 5,400 acres of grassy valleys, steep limestone hills and spring-fed streams on this former ranch, which the donors requested be kept natural and untouched. That means only basic facilities are provided, but it also means the park is wild and natural, just the way some of us like it. Primitive and improved campgrounds, as well as several equestrian campgrounds (you’ll often share trails with horses).
10. Grapevine Lake
Several parks on the north shore of this Corps of Engineers lake smack-dab in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex offer varied recreational opportunities. Your best bet is Murrell Park in Flower Mound, open 24/7 and free, with boat ramps, picnic tables, camp sites, restrooms, fishing banks and a trailhead for the Northshore Trail, a challenging hike and bike route roughly nine miles long. Dogs must be on leash.
When you don’t have time to travel far, tide yourself over at dog-friendly urban parks like leash-free Red Bud Isle or Bull Creek District Park in Austin and dog parks like George Bush Park’s Millie Bush Bark Park in Houston, Gateway Park’s Fort Woof dog park in Fort Worth and the Dallas Dog Park at White Rock Lake. Just promise your dog, and yourself, that you’ll make time for a longer jaunt soon.
From Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, August 2006.
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