October 19, 2009
Hello Arroyo Partners:
The weather over the last couple of days has been great. It is the perfect time to plant native trees, grasses and wildflowers. Not only are the native species beautiful, they also require much less water to survive in our South Texas Heat. So go out and plant a native tree, grass or flowers right now!
Over the weekend, I attended the Pharr Out Kids Nature Day and the McAllen Green Living Festival. Both events were very well attended and very informative. The Arroyo Colorado watershed model was on display at the Pharr Out Kid’s Nature Day. The model was on display with The Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center exhibit. It is great to see these types of events in the Rio Grande Valley. I want to congratulate the Cities of Pharr and McAllen for holding such great events for the community.
Here is just another reminder. The Arroyo Colorado Watershed Partnership will be having the Habitat workgroup meeting and the quarterly Steering Committee meeting this Thursday (October 22). The Habitat workgroup meeting will be held from 2 to 4 pm. The Steering Committee meeting will be held after the Habitat workgroup meeting from 4:30 to 7 pm. Both the habitat workgroup and steering committee meetings will be held in the Rio Red Classroom at the TAMUK Citrus Center in Weslaco, TX. I would like to thank Magic Valley Electric CO-OP for sponsoring the food and refreshments for the Steering Committee meeting. Please make an effort to attend these meetings.
The Texas Stream Team will be having a volunteer monitor training workshop on Saturday, November 21 from 8:30-4:30 pm at the Rio Red Classroom at the TAMUK Citrus Center in Weslaco, TX. There is a limit to the slots available for this workshop. Anyone that is interested should contact me and reserve your slot as soon as possible. I hope to hear from you soon as some of the slots have already been filled.
Please mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
- 4th Annual Spooky Science Fest: Creature from the Llano Grande. Saturday, October 24, from 6pm-10pm at the Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center.
- Texas Butterfly Festival hosted by the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce on October 22 through 24. Call 956.585.2727 or email: tourism@missionchamber.com for more information.
- Texas Stream Team volunteer training workshop. Saturday, November 21, from 8:30 am-4:30 pm at the Rio Red Classroom at the TAMUK Citrus Center in Weslaco, TX.
I was able to make it out to the Mansfield jetties on October 11th. It was a little rough but definitely worth it. We caught 2-37” bull reds that we tagged, 1-27” red, 3 trout and 5 gafftop catfish. Someone on the boat also lost what was probably the biggest red all night. I hope he made it home, because we left him at the dock. The reds are probably more active after this last cold front that came through on Friday. I did not make it out this weekend, maybe next time. I know I’ve been telling a lot of fish stories so just in case you need the proof - see attached.
Looking ahead, Jaime J Flores