Visitors

The Visitors and Recording Group is composed of Jessica and Leslie. This group was responsible for gathering the information from all the groups and recording it so that it can be referred to for future references. They also wrote down information from different field-trips to put in the record book.

Brent Stafford (January 4, 2006)

Brent is a co-director of the GBWAP, a collaboration between Earth Force, YouthLaunch, The Galveston Bay Foundation and other supporting local organizations. As a former public school science teacher in Texas, Brent understands the potential that today's youth have for effecting change and the enthusiasm and motivation that comes with environmental science based service-learning projects. Brent's educational background includes a BS degree in Environmental Science & Technology and advanced degrees in Secondary Science Education and Environmental Engineering. Brent's research interests include the production, fate, and transport of biofuels in the environment, ecological risk assessments, and the ecology of aquatic systems. Brent has been associated with The Chinquapin School Senior classes for (? years). This year he visited the Senior class of 2006 during our Environmental Science class in January. He went over our objectives necessary to complete our project that are mentioned (link to objectives). He proposed for to consider a project at the Sheldon Lake Reservoir and we accepted it. We looked at: water quality, land use, species inventory, needs of species, food webs and chains, relationships between species, history of the reservoir, the functions and values of Sheldon Lake. He continues to work with us throughout the project when we visit Sheldon Lake and collect our research materials. We will be show-casing our restoration project on May 5, 2006.

Billy Cooper (March 01, 2006)

Billy Cooper, a Biology major very much involved with Sheldon Lake, is known as "Doctor of the Lake". He worked with the building and managing of Sheldon Lake and was present at the Opening Day of Sheldon Lake in 1958. Billy knows much about Sheldon Lake and provided us with useful information. He informed us that Sheldon Lake is 1200 acres and faced many problems in earlier years. Some of those problems were bad vegetation, poor water quality, invasive species, and overfishing. Billy Copper is very proud to say that Sheldon Lake has overcome many of these issues. When Sheldon Lake was recovered, ducks, geese, and numerous fishes were inhabiting the lake. Mr. Cooper was a great information source and was very nice to bring orchid seeds to our class. We immediately planted the seeds and are now growing in our greenhouse. Billy D. Cooper started his professional career with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as a biologist in 1953. He worked for two years in the Austin area and moved to Houston in 1955. His work in the Houston area consisted of building and developing Sheldon Reservoir and working with private lake owners in fisheries management. In 1958 he was put in charge of the Sheldon and Huntsville Fish Hatcheries and the public and private waters in the 29 counties surrounding Houston. In 1963 Mr. Cooper resigned from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and started a private consultation and management company. The company engaged in the building and managing of private lakes from Mexico to the Canadian border. During the past 37 years, over 750 lakes, ponds and fountains have been visited and/or managed. Other work for the company has included working on pollution problems, vegetation control, commercial fish production, fish surveys and related lake work.

Mrs. Webber (January 5, 2006)

Mrs. Webber visited us from the Audubon Society. The Audubon Society was founded in 1969 to help conserve, protect and promote birds and wildlife. Her job is to teach about birds and their habitats. The Audubon was named after a Frenchman named John Audubon who wrote diaries on birds and was the first person to study their migratory paths in the 1700's. He created paintings of birds that were very accurate and life sized. He would track birds by attaching a string to their feet and would wait for them to return after the seasons changed. What We Learned: Extinct Birds The Passenger Pigeon contained the largest population of birds but later was forced to extinction in 1914. Because of the loss of the Passenger Pigeon, protection for birds was created but it was too late for the pigeon. After Audubon's Death Feathers became really popular. A lot of wealthy people wanted them for their clothing. The result was the first Audubon in Massachusetts created by two women who were upset about the matter. 1917 was the first law past to protect birds. It was called the "Migratory Act". The act states that you can't pluck or kill birds that aren't native to an area. Another way of helping birds that came about was the National Wildlife Refuge which was involved in helping migratory birds. After migrating, the birds wold return from Central America because the competition for food and breeding grounds decreased. Important Facts About Birds FACT: If all the birds on the planet were to disappear, our planet would be destroyed by in less than 3 months by insects. The smallest bird is the “Hummingbird Bee"

Robert Cromstock (January 13, 2006)

Robert Cromstock Robert Comstock is the director of Sheldon Lake Reservoir and is a part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife. What we learned? In the 1920's, Sheldon was an open land prairie and not a reservoir. In 1943, a reservoir was built as a Water Supply for War and Armco Steel; then the city of H. Water Supply used it. Not until 1953, Parks and Wildlife bought Sheldon Lake. In the late 1970's, the lake was drained, refilled, and stocked with Florida bass, which are bigger than Texas bass. The shallowness of Sheldon Lake is four to six inches. The area is 2500 acres and it's a water fowl habitat. Many people use it for environmental research. The environmental issues that face Sheldon Lake is urbanization and the invasion of invasive species. It holds four out of the five mos noxious plants in the world: the water hyacinth, hydrilla, salvinia, ferel hogs, and the grass carp. In the last few years, Sheldon Lake has become more urbanized and is operated as a park facility rather than a wildlife facility. The park convinced the developers that there were green ways and so 300 acres were added to the property to the north. The watershed supplies water to the reservoir where all development is. In the summer, less water goes into the reservoir, which makes the reservoir very dry. It is closed to all boats during the winter due to migratory birds. The south end of the reservoir is treated with herbicides to clean it out. This allows the flow of the economy when more boats and people wish to come. The economic cost to manage the reservoir is $35,000 a year. The changes that have been made to Sheldon Lake throughout the years are: it was made deeper, and it was made into a reservoir and swamp. The biggest changes are: the growth and development, and the changing of habitat, which has shifted the wildlife population. Recently, a Water Treatment Plant is being built in order to release water into Carpenter's Bayou, which flows into the reservoir. Hopefully, ten years from now people will surround it and call it a biological island.

Ingrid Norris (January 12, 2006)

Ingrid Norris is the education programs manager of the Galveston Bay Foundation. She visited our environmental science class and taught us the importance of water sheds. With the help of a model simulating a community, we learned how water sheds work and how crucial they are to the health of our surrounding bodies of water.

George Guillen (March 27, 2006)

Environmental Institute of Houston University of Houston-Clear Lake We met George Guillen at Sheldon Lake on January 26. He offered us a lot of information on the lake and contributed greatly to our understanding of it's ecosystem. He taught us that understanding the importance of the lake allows us to see how things have changed and how they effect water quality. He helped us restore Smoothe Cord Grass and California Bull Rush Grass to the river. We were able to put in a gate to block fish and other insects from eating the grass away too soon. The grass we planted was to re-establish the natural habitat of the area and to provide fish and insects food to eat after the quantity of the grass increased. Effects & Distribution - development of the land - morphology-(shapes, bends, and turns) - bottom sediment-(hard, muddy, or sandy) * Flow of Lake (velocity of water) * Thermocline-(change in water temperature) * Invasive Species Vocabulary to Learn: Riparian Zone-land near the body of water Subtrate- the bottom of the river (muddy, silty, and sandy)

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