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