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Come back to this page each day to read another entry from Frederick R. Gehlbach's almanac of suburban natural and unnatural history, "Messages from the Wild," which chronicles the world of a forested ravine in central Texas.
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A cloudy cold day is for working wood, and the great ice storm of 1996 will take weeks to reckon with. First I clear fallen branches and trees on our ravine trail, cutting some into fireplace logs. Chainsaw noise would drown messages, and earplugs or headphones would block awareness, so I resort to hand sawing, which takes a long time. I bring another load from the outside woodpile into the garage and put the newly cut logs on one end of the pile. Cold-clumsy wood roaches, ground beetles, centipedes, carpenter ants, spiders, and termites fall out and are swept up and put back into the woods. These aren't worrisome, because nature's natural checks are on hand. But when neighbors call a pesticide company to treat their house, forcing their termites to search for new food, watch out! |
Frederick R. Gehlbach is Professor Emeritus of Biology and Environmental Studies at Baylor University. His ecological studies have taken him from New Zealand to Slovakia and, in the Americas, from Alaska and Newfoundland to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. His research interests include the life-history strategies of small owls, small burrowing snakes and urban wildlife ecology.
From MESSAGES FROM THE WILD: AN ALMANAC OF SUBURBAN NATURAL AND UNNATURAL HISTORY by Frederick R. Gehlbach, Copyright © 2002. Courtesy of the University of Texas Press.
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