Chelsea Edwards from Houston’s own Fox 26 visited with NDC Executive Director DeAndra Ramsey and Head Naturalist Eric Duran on a recent trip out to learn more about the Nature Discovery Center and Russ Pitman Park. She shared a piece she put together highlighting our summer programs for children, families, and adults, helping bring awareness to the Greater Houston Area about one of the area’s best kept secrets. We’re definitely fans of dropping the secrecy and spreading the word about our mission to ignite lifelong curiosity, understanding, and respect for nature through education. Please feel free to share this video with family and friends and help us broaden our audience this summer and for years to come!
In honor of World Bee Day I’m sharing this recent social media post from Eric Duran, Head Naturalist.
The oblique longhorn bee also called the sunflower bee is one of our gorgeous and helpful native bees. This gorgeous little insect was recently seen flying around with its friends in the wildflower garden in front of the nature center building. We plant an encourage native Texas wildflowers to help our native pollinators. Come by the Nature Discovery Center soon and see some of our gorgeous little native bees.
Twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall, we try to count all of the living wild species of plants, animals, slime molds, and fungi that we can find in Russ Pitman Park, where the Nature Center is located.
This counting of species is referred to as a “BioBlitz”. It’s an important part of understanding the life at the Nature Center, and how it may be changing over time. We want to be able to answer questions about population trends, introduced non-native species, and general biodiversity.
Our staff naturalists conduct this count, along with volunteer naturalists and biologists. For many institutions, a Bio-blitz is just one day, but we have a limited staff and relatively small volunteer corps, so our bio-blitzes usually last for about 2 weeks. This month, because of busy schedules and even fewer available volunteers, we decided to make the Fall BioBlitz last for the entire month of October. We may just move to having both our Spring and Fall BioBlitzes last a full month in the future.
As a practice, we like to enter much of our observations into E-Bird and iNaturalist, so that our data is accessible to biologists around the world and through time, going forward. That way, our local data can become part of big picture scientific data.
This was a really successful Fall BioBlitz!
This year, we counted 359 total species, which was comparable to last year’s Fall Bio-blitz count of 361. This number is still more than 2020 and 2019. The relatively cooler weather this year, and lack of rain before and during the BioBlitz probably negatively impacted the species count.
As with most of the counts we do, we found a few new species for the park (at least as far as we know from records). Although the Wandering Glider is the most widespread dragonfly in the world, we had yet to add it to one of our BioBlitz lists. We were also finally able to add Black Saddlebags, another common dragonfly, as well as the common fall butterfly, the Sleepy Orange. The Fireflag Plume Moth was a totally new species for the park, as were the Black-shouldered Drone Fly, the Australian Cockroach, the Flat-faced Longhorn Beetle, and the Trainwrecker mushroom.
It usually takes 2-4 weeks to get all of the species, that we photographed, identified, so that we can compile an accurate count. As far as we know at this, time, we’ve IDed everything we can, and we are ready to present to you the final version of the Fall 2022 Bio-blitz for the Nature Discovery Center in Russ Pitman Park!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at eduran@naturediscoverycenter.org.
Thank you!
All photos by Eric Duran. CC BY-SA– Some rights reserved.
Blue Mistflower, an important fall blooming wildflower
PLANTS: (150)
There are of course way more than ___ plants in Russ Pitman Park.
The Nature Discovery Center, however, already has a rather voluminous and exhaustive plant list for the park. Thus, the naturalists who participated in the first Bio-blitz did not attempt to document all or even most of the plants in the park. Participants simply noted plants they found interesting, observed fruiting or blooming, or thought may not already be on the official park list of plants.
During future Bio-blitzes, we will invite plant specialists to help us survey more systematically, for a more thorough accounting of plants present in the park.
After a thorough search, the Board of the Nature Discovery Center is thrilled to announce that local conservationist and environmental educator DeAndra Ramsey has joined the Center as their new Executive Director. Ramsey comes to the Center from the Houston Zoo where she worked for ten years in the Conservation Education department connecting communities to wildlife and natural spaces.
“We heartily welcome DeAndra to the NDC team and know she will connect very well with our NDC community” says Board President Kristen Buck. “DeAndra has a robust passion for nature and a breadth of experience in environmental and conservation education programs, project management, volunteer and outreach programs, and cultivating community partnerships.”
DeAndra Ramsey grew up along the Gulf Coast of Texas with a love of animals and nature. Since graduating from Texas A&M University with a B.S in Biomedical Science, Ramsey has worked in the conservation community for over 15 years. Beginning in 2003, she became an active community speaker, engaging the public with programs on the natural history and conservation of bats. She began her career at the Houston Zoo in 2010, where she was involved in conservation initiatives including pollinator conservation and prairie habitat restoration. Ramsey was awarded the title of Conservation Champion for her work with the Texas Bat Monitoring project she has led at the Houston Zoo along with facilitating the partnership between the Houston Zoo and Bat Conservation International. Ramsey also works with Buffalo Bayou Partnership to further conservation education efforts in relation to our amazing urban wildlife we have right here in Houston. Now, alongside her husband, she is raising her son to have the same empathy for wildlife she has.
“I am excited to be a part of the Nature Discovery Center, a place where urban communities can connect with nature and see the value in our native plants and animals that surround our wonderful city. People often overlook the wonders of nature that are here in our backyard. The Center allows our communities to explore our natural spaces and I can’t wait to grow the relationship our community has with the world around them and with the Center itself.”
When DeAndra Ramsey accepted the job of Executive Director at the Nature Discovery Center earlier this month, she knew that she would be challenged with leading the Center through its continuing recovery from the pandemic. She was eager to support Center staff in their ongoing efforts to find creative and safe ways to connect the community with nature during these difficult times. What she did not expect was to be faced with with the toughest first weeks on the job ever tackled by any Director in the Center’s history. The unprecedented deep freeze we just experienced was a trial by fire, and Ramsey met the challenge, managing staff and animal care concerns and overseeing critical park preparations in communication with the City of Bellaire, all while still “learning the ropes”.
Ramsey is excited to bring her expertise in community engagement, conservation education, and environmental advocacy to the Nature Discovery Center. She recognizes that the Center’s mission to ignite lifelong curiosity, understanding, and respect for nature through education is a critical component of inspiring and empowering visitors to take action and make a difference in the natural world.
Bailey Kinney, Development Director of the Nature Discovery Center, recently received a Junior League of Houston (JLH) Community Assistance Grant of $10,000 on behalf of the Center. Thanks to the Junior League’s support, the Nature Discovery Center will offer on-site camp scholarships and reach beyond location limitations with creative Nature on the Go programs. These programs will ensure more children are able to participate in hands-on nature education this year.Pictured with Bailey are representatives of the JLH, and Licorice, one of the Center’s beloved ambassador animals.
Debakey High School Senior Morgan Lipman has always been interested in the nature she could find close to home, in her own yard and in the Westbury neighborhood she has grown up in. Her decision to conserve and raise public awareness about local wildlife through her Girl Scout Gold Award Project was a natural choice.
Morgan created a website and virtual nature trail, posting QR codes (as well as nature labels and signs) along a section of trail in her neighborhood that link to informative text, and to videos and pictures of local animals and plants. She also organized a community clean up day for the Westbury Nature Conservation Trail that runs between Hummingbird Street and Bankside Drive. It is Morgan’s hope that by bringing awareness to the abundance of wildlife close to home she will encourage her community to be better caretakers of nature, reducing litter and pollution, and protecting natural areas for future generations.
About the Girl Scout Gold Award Since 1916, girls have been making meaningful, sustainable change in their communities and around the world. The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn, acknowledges the power behind each Gold Award Girl Scout’s dedication to not only empowering and bettering herself, but also to making the world a better place for others.
Nature Discovery Center naturalists and educators are proud to serve as mentors, guides, and resources for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts working to make a difference through projects in our nature park and in our greater Houston area community. Mary Ann Beauchemin, our recently retired NDC Senior Naturalist and Park Steward, served as a Project Advisor to Morgan as she worked on the content of her website and created labels and signs for the Westbury Nature Conservation Trail.
Mary Ann Beauchemin, recently retired NDC Senior Naturalist and Park Steward, was recently interviewed by Nivien Saleh of Houston & Nature podcast. Please check out their discussion about environmental education here (Episode 9, January 1, 2021).
The Center’s two Discovery Rooms will be reopening slowly, with added precautions in place, as we continue to heed the health and safety advice of City, County, and State officials. We know that each family has to weight their own personal risks in deciding whether or not to visit the Center during this transition time, but we want you to know our re-opening plans so that you can make the best decision for your family.
Our rooms will be touch free until it is safe to add interactive elements back. All hand lenses, binoculars, puzzles, books, toys, and loose specimens have been removed. But we encourage you to come in and visit our live animals and see the specimens we have on display in enclosures. The Discovery Rooms will be disinfected throughout the day with CDC recommended cleaning products for the safety of our guests, volunteers, and staff.
For now, our plan includes the following additional precautions:
Restricted Hours: Saturday’s ONLY beginning May 16 from 12 pm – 3 pm (possibly switching to Sundays ONLY after May 30)
Limited Attendance: 12 visitors at a time will be allowed inside the Center. Kids must be supervised by an adult at all times.
Masks will be required inside the Center.
One Way Flow in and out of the Center (please observe directional signs on-site)
Hand washing will be required in the upstairs bathroom before entry to the Discovery Rooms.
Individuals and groups should practice social distancing from unrelated visitors, whether inside in the Discovery Rooms, or outside waiting on the porch.
We hope to see your family when you feel comfortable returning to the Center!
Please know that we are happy to continue to welcome you and your family to the Center’s Discovery Rooms free of charge. We do welcome donations to help cover our operating costs, including staff time and animal care, and the additional costs we now face in protecting visitors, volunteers, and staff from the virus.
Touch-free donations may be made online here, or in person at the Center via the credit card “Dip Jar” located on our entry information table just inside the front door. We appreciate your support during these difficult times!
The Nature Discovery Center presents weekly online content you can count on during these unusual times. Here is our schedule for the remainder of April.
For those of you not on Facebook, you can find our Facebook Live Videos embedded here on at our website at the following links:
Our temporary closure due to COVID-19 has now been extended to April 30. We will continue to monitor the guidelines of the CDC and the policies and recommendations of Harris County, the City of Bellaire, the City of Houston, and the State of Texas. And we will make further modifications to our closure schedule if and when it becomes necessary.
Center Staff will be contacting program participants and those who had events scheduled during the extended closure window about refunds and any attempts to reschedule programs and events to later dates.
Take care, and please enjoy some time in nature while social distancing (if it is possible) until we see you again!