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Volunteer Hanna Braaksma and biologist Dayna Schneider monitor a wild pig within a fence. Pigs are trapped via remote cell-phone powered trap cameras. University of Illinois employees help Army civilians monitor traps.
Photo by Scott Summers, DPW Natural and Cultural Resources
Photo by Gil Eckrich DPW Natural and Cultural Resources volunteer
Photo by Gil Eckrich DPW Natural and Cultural Resources volunteer
Photo by Scott Summers, DPW Natural and Cultural Resources
A prescribed burn is going on today on Fort Hood in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service from Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, and with Fort Hoodâs Natural and Cultural Resources Management Branch.
The burn began at 11 a.m. Monday and is being done at a training area on the west side of Fort Hood, according to a news release from Fort Hood.
Winds are blowing out of the southwest to the northeast.
If youâve taken a country drive in central Texas, or if youâre familiar with the landscape of Fort Hood, you have noticed forested slopes of mesas and canyons. Most of those dark evergreen trees are cedars, also known as mountain cedar or Ashe juniper. About half of them are beginning to change color â and not because of a change in season. Soon, local allergy sufferers will wisely stock up on allergy antidotes and try to avoid the great outdoors.
From about December to February cedar trees take advantage of any wind to get pollinated. The males, laden with amber-hued limbs, release copious amounts of microscopic pollen, which from a distance looks like an off white puff of smoke. The females produce purple berries (actually cones) in which they receive pollen. Wind pollination is effective but very inefficient, as most of it gets wasted â leaving a yellow film on our cars, windows, and outdoor furniture. Inevitably some pollen grains also end up in our sinuses,
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