NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY OF TEXAS

Kerrville Chapter

Website:  www.npsot.org/kerrville

 JANUARY  NEWSLETTER - 2005

 NATIVES ON THE GROW

Dedicated to the understanding, preservation and enjoyment of the native flora of the Hill Country

NATIVE AND INTRODUCED AQUATIC PLANTS

                                                     The program for our meeting on Tuesday,January 4^th at 2PM will be given by Robert G. Howells who is with Texas Parks and Wildlife. Robert is a Fisheries Scientist and Aquatic Ecologist at Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center in Ingram. The title of the talk is “Native and Introduced Aquatic Plants”

Robert graduated from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. He was employed for 10 years by Ichthyological Associates, Inc., in New Jersey and Delaware , an environmental consulting firm. He was the senior research biologist studying the impact of fossil-fuel and nuclear generating stations and oil refineries. He has been employed by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Inland Fisheries Division, Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center for 20 years as research biologist working with inland sports fishes, exotic species and freshwater mussels

Robert is the author of two books. The latest published in 1999 is “Guide to Identification of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Fishes, Shellfishes, and Aquatic Plants Prohibited in Texas”. He has been published in many journals, symposia, and written numerous technical and professional reports as well as articles and training materials. His work at HOH has focused extensively on invasive , exotic species and regulations relating to these species. The program will include both native and exotic plants found in Texas waters as well as other species from the aquarium and water garden trades. The talk also includes harmful, exotic species legally prohibited by Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations and the impact some of these species have had on native ecosystems.

Anyone who has water on their property would be well advised to attend this program.

We will be joined at this meeting by a group of botanists from Austin who are interested in the aquatic plant identification program that Robert is presenting .

The Kerrville Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas holds monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of the month (September through June) at 2:00PM usually at Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos St. in Kerrville.  These meetings are free and open to the public.  If you have any questions about the Native Plant Society of Texas or this program, please call Janey Crum at 238-3666 

Calendar

January 4 at 2 PM: Native and Introduced Aquatic Plants by Robert Howells (see article above)

February 1  at 2PM : Deborah Payne – Life Cycle and Habitat of Native Butterflies

DOOR PRIZES

Door Prizes will be available at our January meeting.  Each member or visitor who signs in at the Welcoming table receives a free ticket for the door prize drawings of native plants.

REFRESHMENTS!

Refreshments for our January meeting will be provided by Sandra and Scott Magee