Well I Would Walk 500 miles

Picture from The Nature Conservancy

T he J. T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve is one of Oklahoma’s last attempts to recreate an “unfragmented native landscape” (The Nature Conservancy). The J.T. Nickel Family Preserve is near Tahlequah, OK where the Cherokee Heritage Center is also located; there you see an ancient Cherokee village, also search your ancestors. This nature and wildlife preserve is one that is trying to protect the living things that already live there and trying to introduce old friends such as elk that once roamed eastern Oklahoma. There is also a man that is walking the ancient trail of tears the Native Americans once had to walk; this man will end up in the Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife preserve at the Cherokee Heritage Center.

“The Nickel Preserve is largest privately protected conservation area in the Ozarks” (The Nature Conservancy). In 2000 the preserve was created as a gift from the John Nickel Family, it is 17,000-acres that is in eastern Oklahoma in the Cookson Hills and overlooks the Illinois River. The land is very diverse consisting of savanna, shurbland and prairie. The Preserve also has several threats against it which they are trying their best to protect. They have many invasive species like sericea lespedeza which threat the native grasses; they are getting rid of the Bermuda and fescue grasses and let the native grasses grow. “Prescribed burns here will restore the open woodlands conditions that Conservancy scientists believe historically existed” (The Nature Conservancy).

Picture from News OK

Other than the beautiful J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve there is a man from Lawton Oklahoma who is about to finish up the Trail of Tears. Ron Cooper once was a couch potato he says; he was a black jack dealer at a local casino who wasn’t athletic at all. “One day, Ron decided it was time to try a monumental hike, something like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail. He Chose the Trail of Tears route, he said, because ‘I just wanted to walk a trail that had a little more meaning to me’” (NewsOK.com). Ron had this idea after him and his wife left Lawton, OK and bought a travel trailer and work down near the Grand Canyon.  

Not much of the Trail of Tears has been accurately mapped out by detail but throughout Cooper’s trip he had help with local historians to guide him the right way. He started his trail in Charleston, Tenn where the last Cherokee camp was. The trail led him through some people’s private property where many of them let him walk through. Ron walked about 15 miles a day and then made camp to rest; his wife was there every step of the way with their travel trailer. Though he did not go through the immense troubles the natives had to go through at the time Cooper had a top of the line backpack and shoes. He says he has very felt that connected with the nature and environment than he has now. His trail is going to end as close as he can get to the end at the J.T. Nickel Family Nature and Wildlife Preserve.

Picture from NewsOK

The J.T. Nickels Family Preserve is very beautiful and we are lucky here in Oklahoma to gain a gift like that. A place that is protecting what they have and trying to make it look like it was hundreds of years ago. This place is also a historical place where the Cherokee Heritage Center is located and where one Ron Cooper from Lawton, OK ends his journey of the trail of tears.  This is a connection of our beautiful environment and a connection with the our ancestors that lived and gave their lives for the land.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-couch-potato-completes-hike-along-trail-of-tears/multimedia/photos/gallery/3560291/1/1398058?custom_click=email_multimedia_gallery

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/oklahoma/placesweprotect/j-t-nickel-family-nature-and-wildlife-preserve.xml

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

If I told you that I did not wear my shoes, went on a walk with a dog and went around the OSU cross country 5k made me feel more enchanted with nature would you be shocked. In the past week I have had several occurrences with nature and our environment. The events that occurred came shocking to me that I have not done these things before. All these events happened in Stillwater surprise cool things can happen in Stillwater. Most of all this made me realize I need to get out more but in a different way.

On Tuesday my work decided to not wear shoes because of the Toms event to not wear shoes to see how it feels without shoes. I love not to wear shoes in general and if I had the choice to not wear them all the time I would defiantly choice to be shoe free. That is not my amazing moment with nature, but as I was walking through campus to class I could feel all the things I was walking on from gravel, mud and grass I could feel the different temperatures and textures it really gave me a shock that I really felt connected with the areas I was walking on. After class I was waiting for my brother to come pick me up and was standing on warm cement, the warmth on my feet was uplifting and hear warming. I know cement is not a living thing but the things around it I felt as they felt the same feeling.

On Thursday after my long day of being stuck in the basement of the NRC a walk around Boomer was calling my name. My friend Liz and I got her dog Kobe and walked from her apartment to Boomer so we had to along Perkins Rd. and was we were walking Kobe he is a HUGE black lab was just jumping around and enjoying his whole walk even though we were going along the loud busy street. Kobe he just kept looking back at us with such joy in his eyes. It made me start to think of why he is enjoying the walk so much, that we are out about in the fresh air and it was so refreshing. We all need that hour or so to realize we actually are taking in some clean fresh air not some NRC basement air or library air some good fresh Oklahoma AIR. Other than enjoying the fresh air I enjoyed the time getting to connect with Kobe, to see his freedom and happiness when he was outside.

On Saturday it was so beautiful and my boyfriend and I had to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Boomer was super packed when we decided to go somewhere for a rock and sometime we would go run the OSU cross country 5k, which when you run it you really do not take in everything that you are running past. We had arrived at the OSU 5k and it was HOT but still decided to walk it, where we start off it just a green straight way in and on the right you have a field to the left a ugly lot that just has a bunch of junk on it. As you go further into the course you get more deep into the wooded area and you can just hear all the bugs and the wind and smell all the plants and tress (bad for allergies but thank goodness took my medicine before). It is just so nice to get away from all the buzzes and beeps when you walk boomer or the neighborhood. Another great part is the big golden field you see when you come to the top of the hill. It reminds we of movies and I just wanted to go frolic and spin around it but of course it had a huge locked fence around it which was a bummer but I just cannot get over how beautiful that moment was.

My past week to me was very connected with my surrounding environment. I got to do one of my favorite things not wearing shoes and it surprised me beyond belief. Kobe and I had a unforgettable connection and we about got to enjoy the fresh air and I saw a golden field that will be my favorite spot to go to when I keep to take a breath to breathe and get away from everything for a minute. I am glad that I found these things this past week become a little bit more connected with our environment.   

Dreams Can Come True

Something that I always dream about is to build a “green” house or a home that is energy efficient and sustainable. The Lytle family in Oklahoma City is building their dream home; one that I wish someday to have, an energy efficient home. The home is “green enough for the Emerald green building standard of the National Association of Home Builders and Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification (Newsok.com Highest Green Standards).” This is something unique to the area and a model home to encourage surrounding people to go green. People can check out the house for a $9 charge, the collected money will be donated to state literacy organizations.

“The home is loaded with recycled materials and special touches, including the salvaged bar from the closed O’Connell’s Irish Pub & Grill in Norman (Highest Green Standards).” This home seems to be a symbol of the Lytle family, and how they want to keep our state clean. And try to help the environment as much as possible and not to have a home and say look I spent all this money to have a home like this I am so cool. They have gone to several conventions starting in 2008 to find the special green touches they can put into the house. I also find it very interesting that they recycled the bar from O’Connell’s; they could have found a bar at a convention that was built by all recyclable material. But instead they recycled in their own way.

Going to conventions was not enough for the Lytle family; they had to find the right builder, “we were looking for a builder that wanted to make this home their signature home (Highest Green Standards).”The Lytle’s said that finding a green builder was very difficult. Rose Creek the neighborhood the Lytle’s were planning to build in had ‘preferred’ builders, but once they took a look at homes they built the Lytle’s knew the shoe would not ever fit with them. In May 2008 the family finally found their builder the man known as Gilles. “Gilles was among the first in Oklahoma to build homes to federal Energy Star standards and with his Savannah Builders has specialized in homes with energy-efficient geothermal heating and cooling (Highest Green Standards).

When they finally got the ball rolling with Gilles and his building company the family knew that the shoe fit and they made the right choice. The Lytle’s said that Gilles seemed to have an understanding of the home we wanted to build and seemed excited about building the home. It is uplifting to see that this family was able to find the right builder and one that is known for his work. Today the house is built and Gilles says “it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s a ‘wow’ house. It’s totally different from anything Oklahoma City has ever seen (Highest Green Standards).” A family with a vision to be efficient and a builder with the right vision can make a small environmental footprint in Oklahoma City to help save our environment one day at a time.

The crews are now putting the last few little touches they need to do to have the house complete and ready for testing Tuesday April 17, 2011. If you are interested in seeing the home the Lytle’s built you can go to www.oklabuilt.com and check it out. We need more Oklahoman’s who have a vision like this, and put their small environmental footprint in Oklahoma. If Oklahoma could say thank you, I am pretty sure Oklahoma does in its own way to those that are protecting it like the Lytle family and Gilles’s Savannah Builders.

All photos are from oklabuilt.com

Article from http://www.newsok.com/article/3554835

ROCKing the Environment



Hutton Anticline at the Arbuckle Mountains
Picture taken by ME! Kate Kozicki
Feb. 19 2011

Rocks rocks and more ROCKS! Being a geology major I get to go on these amazing field trips of driving along the side of the highway getting out of the big white van and staring at the formations of the rocks, do not get me wrong they are super awesome I love what I do but I do hate those huge vans with a passion. My recent field trip was to the Arbuckle Mountains, they are super cool. But being in this class made me think about how rocks in our environment actually add a little something to Oklahoma.

When you are driving along the highway and you are in a part that has been blown out for the highway you see all the formations of the rocks and think why is it like that? Well there can be many reasons why they have folds or they look like they are standing up the list could go on. During our first stop to this anticline in the Arbuckle Mountains I climbed to the highest point and stood there to take in the view and it was breathe taking. I felt as though I was like an Indian scanning my native land and checking out where there might be a group of buffalo or if there were Europeans coming my way. It was defiantly a life changing experience that studying rocks has brought me.

Rocks to me are something when I am in the field something I can connect to the environment with. When I look at a huge blown out part of the highway I am able to see the history the rocks and see what they have gone through which helps me relate to what the actual on top of the rocks have also gone through. It is crazy to think of what Oklahoma looked like millions of years ago when everything was untouched, the land was flat no mountains just a huge area of blank of land, and to be able to stand at a high point at the Arbuckles and see the rolling hills now just makes you appreciate our land immensely more. I adore Oklahoma and believe we have one of the best state possible.

As I was in the huge white vans driving on the highway seeing parts of the Arbuckles that have been blown out for the highway it was still breath taking. All the different shapes and curves it is all the shapes and curves our land and environment has gone through out time. When I was in St. Louis visiting my dad their highways have tons of rocks lining their highways but they were ugly rocks, don’t get me wrong I love rocks but after seeing our Oklahoma rocks they were just icky. Our Oklahoma rocks are pretty and I feel that plays a large part into our environment. With the rocks we have we have many natural resources to support us and I find it a very mind blowing way to think of it like that.

From now on when I am driving the highway I like to look at the rocks surrounding me and just like to take in how they have been there forever and make Oklahoma just a little bit better than other places. We may not need an actual living breathing thing to effect our environment rocks to me have a huge impact to our environment for giving us the oil boom and mountains that are throughout Oklahoma. To anyone that has not spend time in the Arbuckle Mountains I think you should defiantly check it out and think like an Indian it really helps you appreciate our land and environment around us today.

If trees could speak

The Preserve protects the ancient oak and cedar crosstimbers barrier to the great plains. (Nature Conservancy)

         When I think of trees I have this image all the time of Pocahontas and the tree that would talk to er. The tree had an older ladies voice and she was full of knowledge of her forest. In Oklahoma we have an ancient forest that could probably talk of the stories and knowledge they have seen throughout their days there. These trees are part of the Keystone Ancient Forest Preserve; this preserve is there to protect the ancient oak and cedar crosstimbers barrier to the Great Plains. The preserve has some trees that date back nearly 500 years ago, one could only imagine what they’ve seen.

                “The winter trees of the Keystone Ancient Forest Preserve raise their twisted branches against whatever might come of this lastest weather assault sweeping across Lake Keystone (Nature.org).” These trees in the Keystone area have been there for nearly 500 years. No one has tried to cut or burn them down to create a spot for them because of the rugged terrain. These trees have been through it all from getting their tops knocked off from wind or broken limbs from the intense ice storms Oklahoma has. Even through the worst of worst the trees in the spring still create a beautiful sense just 15 miles out ok Tulsa, OK.

                The crosstimbers once covered 30,000 miles from Texas through Oklahoma and up to Kansas, “and they were here when the Europeans explorers wandered through the state and when Indian tribes called it home. They here before this was America (Nature.org).” To think if only these trees could speak about the times they have seen and what they think of their surroundings are today. The crosstimbers were named from settlers trying to travel through and the forest and it was nearly impossible to travel through. Even Washington Irving passed through the Ancient trees and wrote to people thinking about traveling through the keystone ancient trees “struggling though forests of cast iron (Nature.org).” Sadly today throughout the Oklahoma ancient crosstimbers there has already been about 80 percent lost due to clearing for grazing or crops or development.

Picture from Nature.org

                Until recently there have been no park of preserve dedicated to these ancient historic forests. The Nature Conservancy hope by creating this preserve, they can save what has not been lost of this majestic forest and have the same turn out as they did with the Oklahoma Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. It is good to know that the preserve is doing this for our ancient trees, you would not think that these trees are what you see when you are driving from Stillwater to Tulsa. The hidden treasures that Oklahoma has we need to keep a living and well to be able to keep our state live and well. These trees have gone through the ice, fire and droughts so we should give them the help now by protecting them from what we can.

This area of trees are a great symbol of Oklahoma that were a little rugged and a little touch to get around but once you step back and take a breath for a minute you will see the beauty we offer. I think that each time we drive by on our way to Tulsa or coming back we should just tip our hats and say thanks, thank you for making this place we inhabit a place of beauty and life. Only if these ancient trees could talk about the things they have seen. We need to do our best to keep the last remaining parts of the once 30,000 mile forest there to show others our history.

Its all about the grass

Oklahoma is well known for their tall grass prairies. The Nature Conservancy saved what was going to be “a kind of Yellowstone on the prairie (Tulsa World: Saving a prairie treasure).” A National Park that would have brought paved roads, hotels, campgrounds and other large developments. To the Nature Conservancy as Hamilton says “This place is about conservation, not tourism (Tulsa World).” As Oklahomans we are lucky that the Nature Conservancy saved the Tallgrass Prairies and make is all about the grass in the 1980s. In Tulsa World Saving a prairie treasure Michael Overall speaks about how the Nature Conservancy saved one our states treasures.  

            “In the mid-1980s, the federal government was planning to buy up thousands of acres of virgin grassland in Osage County to open a new national park (Tulsa World).” This federal government land would have ended up as a different kind of Yellowstone. Though when Overall was speaking to Mr. Hamilton he points out that if the government actually got a hold of the land there would have been a bigger economic impact for local economy but the government never did so the thought of the outcome is always in the back of his mind. Hamilton after that thought states that it’s still all about the grass.

A bison grazes on the prairie at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve on Sept. 3. TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World

             Around the 20,000 people that come to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve per year do not always come to see the grass but the majestic animals that help mow the thousands of acres. There are more than 2,700 roaming bison on the preserve. “But conservancy officials are fond of saying that the grass isn’t here for the bison; the bison are here for the grass (Tulsa World).” This line as a read it really popped out at me, the people that work on the preserve are really there for the grass and the things that help the grass. Other than bison there are other was that they conservationist help the Tallgrass around.

            “The preserve has developed a sophisticated system of controlled “patch burns” to mimic the role of natural grass fires used to play on the open prairie (Tulsa World).” With these kind of practices it allows the grass to grow back as the Tallgrass, if they did not do the burns the grasses would soon become woodlands. The conservation hopes that the practice of these burns will reach out to the people with private land that contain parts of the Tallgrasses. They would offer the landowners “financial compensation for agreeing to give up the right ever to disturb the natural tallgrass with plowing or development (Tulsa World).” This could lead to expanding the tallgrasses further then ever imaged.

            I am glad to come across an article like this known that we have Oklahomans really trying their hardest to preserve the great things of Oklahoma. That we have bison that need the grass; and the grass needs the bison. We have practices that go way back to old times to keep the tallgrass and natural as ever. After reading this article I am forever thankful that the government did not get a hold of this land and that the Nature Conservancy got a hold of it. One could only image what it would be like today if that happened.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090913_11_A1_Thetal251045

Sinkholes and Lead contamination OH MY

                When you think about Oklahoma you think of the beautiful tall grass prairies and unforgettable rolling hills. You never think of a town that is nearly deserted and looking like a ghost town. Sadly the small town of Picher, Oklahoma is about to be demolished over lead contamination. Only a handful of people still reside in the town of Picher, which in the 1920s use to have nearly 14,000 people living in it. In the past few weeks, there has already been a funeral home, restaurant, thrift store, apartment building and other structures demolished.

                Picher, Oklahoma home was once a town of mining and now the last remaining is the town pharmacy, Old Miners Pharmacy. . The pharmacist Gary Linderman says “I have an obligation to people. We are all creatures of habit and closing might throw them off.” This pharmacy in Picher is the only place that the handful of people still living there can get snack food, beverages, over-the-counter medicine and other necessities. One can only image the Old Miners Pharmacy is the only place you can go get those things, due to lead contamination. The processes we do, we need to be so much more careful so these things do not keep happening and leaving these areas of nothing in Oklahoma.

     In 1981 the federal government declared Picher a Superfund site and bought out about 900 homeowners and businesses. Lead contamination can have serious effect of animals, children, adults and the elderly. It is scary to think how those that are still living there are not being seriously affected by this environment. Picher has also suffered in the past years from sinkholes. That nearly swallowed the community into the old mines that are below Picher. The location that Picher is also in,  is a known area of tornados when they are in season ,which has also resulted in many of people of Picher to relocate.

                The government is leaving up a select few of the buildings in Picher, but they are to be remained vacant. They have left a church, mining museum, auction house and a building where mining equipment was sold. Due to the lead poisoning the school district and city government closed in 2009 along with the post office.  As deserted this place is there are still a few souls that roam the grounds of nothing but lead contamination and fields. Linderman states “I’m a farm boy; I’m used to the open spaces.” I personally think I would be one the people who would have left if there is nothing left but torn down memories and a pharmacy.

                Being a geology major and being somewhat leaning towards mining, things like this make we very sad. Because of something I am wanting to do, I could ruin a whole town and leave them with nothing. I feel for those in Picher and this should make our eyes open. We Oklahomans need to be much more cautious in what we do. Sometime small things could lead to a huge thing of nothing. Our Oklahoma companies need to defiantly learn from these things and know there are people’s lives that can be affected forever.