Re: Re: NANFA-- OSRB Collecting

John Bongiovanni (bongi_at_cox-internet.com)
Mon, 1 Mar 2004 8:40:36 -0600

Interesting question. They are vernal pools. That's the word I was looking for. They are anywhere from 5 to 10 feet above the current river height. Last year these pools were teaming with Mud darters, slough darters, shiners, Pickerels, crayfish, salamanders and a variety of molluscs. This year the water appears to be collected rainwater with the river having not overflowed its banks. The only living things I found in the pools were water striders.

There are two dams upstream on the Sabine river, Tawakoni and Lake Fork Dams. These influence the flooding in the OSRB. With lake levels low there is limited or no release from the lakes. Therefore, flooding is unlikely to occur this year without significant rainfall in March and April.

John

>
> From: "Todd Crail" <farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com>
> Date: 2004/03/01 Mon AM 08:22:54 CST
> To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
> Subject: Re: NANFA-- OSRB Collecting
>
> Great report John. The "wetlands" photos... Were those the pools you had to
> navigate around? Are they vernal pools or were there fish in those?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John B" <bongi_at_cox-internet.com>
> To: "Nanfa" <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
> Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 11:03 PM
> Subject: NANFA-- OSRB Collecting
>
>
> > This "winter" in East Texas has been unusually mild and dry which has
> > made collecting at the Old Sabine River Bottom easily accessible to a
> > solo sampling trip. Typically, this time of year the Hardwood wetland
> > area is completely underwater. Logs that I've collected Mud Darters
> > under last spring in March are very high and dry. This allowed me to
> > work the banks along the oxbows and channel of the OSRB.
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/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org