Over the past weekend I joined some other Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) enthusiasts in an excursion to the Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area for a hike. The main purpose of this hike was to see an elusive orchid called Calopogon oklahomensis or Oklahoma Grass Pink.
Following is a description of the area from the TPW website:
Gus Engeling WMA (GEWMA) is located in northwest Anderson County, 21 miles northwest of Palestine. This 10,958-acre area was purchased from 1950 to 1960 under the Pittman-Robertson Act using Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program funds. The GEWMA’s primary purpose is to function as a wildlife research and demonstration area for the Post Oak Savannah Ecoregion. The area is comprised of 2,000 acres of hardwood bottomland floodplain and almost 500 acres of natural watercourses, 350 acres of wetlands: marshes and swamps and nearly 300 acres of sphagnum moss bogs.
The GEWMA is an island of Post Oak Savannah surrounded by coastal bermuda grass pastures, harvested timberlands, and fragmented wildlife habitat. It’s rolling sandy hills dominated by post oak uplands, bottomland hardwood forests, natural springs, pitcher plant bogs, sloughs, marshes, and relict pine communities contain a rich variety of wildlife. Sound wildlife management tools like prescribed burning, grazing, brush control and hunting are used to demonstrate the results of proven practices to resource managers, landowners, and other interested groups or individuals.
–The elusive orchid was found deep in the preserve after hiking at least two hours. I think our TPW tour leader knew where to go. There were only four of these orchids in bloom that we found.
–Mushrooms on a log
–Savannah
–Bog
—Batyle ignicollis or Fire-collared Longhorn Beetle
—Berlandiera pumila or Soft Green Eyes
—Junonia coenia or Common Buckeye butterfly.
—Papilio brevicauda or Short-tailed Swallowtail butterfly
–This area of the WMC (wildlife management center) went through a prescribed burn the previous year.
–A type of penstemon . . . there are so many varieties, sometimes it is tough to identify.
–From the top of the hill/ridge.
–Water collects in this area sometimes so there are lots of sedge.
–Grasshopper chilling . . .
–This was bright, but I am not sure of what plant it might be . . .
–Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar
—Hymenopappus artemisiifolius or Old Plainsman
—Quercus stellata or Post Oak tree.
–The road in and out of the WMA.
Thanks to Taylor Garrison and Jeff Quayle for leading this hike and to Texas Parks and Wildlife and Native Prairies Association of Texas. It was a wonderful way to spend Earth Day 2024!