Pack & Paddle

OS Members can participate in a 100-mile trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho from July 29-August 3rd, 2021 with Aggipah River Trips. We have until January 1, 2021 to fill this 24-person trip, after which Aggipah will open the trip to others. For those riding with Aggipah the on-river cost is $2399 per person. For those riding in a private boat the on-river cost is $1686.50 per person. A 25% deposit ($600 or $422) is required before January 1st to hold the reservation. For more information on the trip and the address to send your deposit is: Aggipah River Trips PO Box 425 Salmon, Idaho 83467 Bill Bernt www.aggipah.com 208-756-4167 bill@aggipah.com Feel free to contact Stewart Noland at 501-831-8809 or stewartnoland51@aol.com with questions as well since he plans to participate in the trip and will help coordinate off-river logistics such as pre-trip lodging and vehicle shuttles.

This is the eleventh episode of my trips to visit as many of the fifty US States’ highest points. This time it’s a week in the inter-mountain west to bag Idaho and Nevada in August of 2020. This trip was set up when my backpack on the John Muir Trail for July 2020 was canceled by COVID- 19. Mt. Whitney was to be the goal of that hike. This left me in shape but nowhere to go. I saw that no permits were needed for Idaho or Nevada, so I set this trip up as a replacement. The trip started on August 18th with a flight to Salt Lake City, Utah from Little Rock. I rented a small SUV with the ground clearance I would need for access to Nevada’s high point and got the hiking supplies I would need to do my attempt of Borah Peak, Idaho on the 20th. Flying during COVID was not too bad. You had to be aware of your surroundings and made sure you had stuff to eat on the plane as all they passed out was water and packaged snacks. The center seats were left open on the plane. Overall, I felt folks [...]

The article Fred Paillet presented about pawpaws should be required reading for every Ozark Society member.  My estimate is that 95% of the population would not be able to identify this tree, and perhaps 99.99% have never had the pleasure of tasting the fruit.  It’s time for a change.  It’s time to grow your own and share the bounty. I had my first taste of a pawpaw on a hike down in the bowels of the West Prong of the Mountain Fork of the Mulberry River about 1988.  I was with Dr. Compton, and others, searching for virgin timber on a warm September day.  We turned to go up Wellcave Hollow when Dr. Compton pointed out lots of pawpaws on the forest floor. Being new to the Ozarks and never having seen a Pawpaw before, I picked one up for a taste. What a pleasant surprise on a September day, especially when you are thirsty.  What did I just taste?  Mango? Banana? Peach?  From that point on I was hooked on pawpaws. Later I found out that Dr. Compton had a grove of pawpaws growing on his property and he suggested I take a few and plant them at my [...]

You see them in the leaf litter in late summer on hikes in our oak and hickory woodlands. They look like tan golf balls, complete with the stippled surface texture that helps golf balls fly a little farther than they would with a smooth surface. But these balls are light as a feather, with parchment thin skin and an array of cobweb like strings for an inner texture. Ozark hikers often wonder what sort of fruit these are and where they came from. It turns out these are but one of many different varieties of leaf gall created by insects as part of their life cycle. There are lots of different structures developing out of oak leaves when their growth process is hijacked by insect pests for their own purposes. More than 800 insect species create galls on oak twigs, and over 700 of them are wasps. These particular galls are so perfectly symmetrical that many observers figure they must be some kind of exotic fruit and not just a deformed oak leaf. Some leaf galls are not nearly as noticeable as the papery balls described here. In the case of the round “golf ball” structures in question we have [...]

Much has been going on for the OSF. The youth grant program is underway, and “Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Arkansas” is published. To get the youth grants started, board member Roslyn Imrie worked with community partner volunteers to define the grant criteria and select the best projects. For the trees book, board member Ken Leonard worked with the authors to complete the large manuscript and coordinated with state agencies and donors for resources and support. Both projects were well received by the public because they are clearly linked to our mission of education. The trees field guide continues the OSF tradition as a publisher of books. And the grants program introduces a new focus on youth engagement in conservation. Two additional activities are planned, the OSF Endowment Fund and the award for excellence in environmental writing. The Endowment Fund will assure our organization has longevity well into the future. The Endowment Fund will be part of an updated OSF financial strategy for annual budget and investment decisions. The award for excellence in environmental writing is planned for launch in March 2021, avoiding competing for public attention with the new book. Board membership has changed recently. Rex Robbins has [...]