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| CDRI Desert NewsFlash
June 2023
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Agave in front of the Powell Visitor Center, May 20, 2023, by Danny Hancock.
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Make plans now to celebrate
CDRI's 50th Anniversary
at
CDRI's 2023 BBQ & Auction
and support "your"
Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center
& Botanical Gardens!
Saturday, August 12, 2023
at the CDRI Nature Center & Botanical Gardens
Gates open at 3:45 p.m.
Your $30 dinner ticket includes:
* A scrumptious BBQ dinner prepared by Sanchez BBQ
* Beverages (beer, wine, tea)
* Silent Auction to get things started!
* Live Auction led by auctioneer Martin Stringer
* Music by Rick Ruiz
* Loads of fun seeing friends and making new ones
* CDRI's sincere appreciation for helping us in delivering our Mission
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You're Invited to Join CDRI's
2023 BBQ & Auction Host Committee!
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Please join us as we celebrate CDRI’s 50th Anniversary at the BBQ & Auction fundraiser on Saturday, August 12.
To kick things off right, we’re inviting you to join the 2023 BBQ & Auction Host Committee and show your support with an Underwriter’s donation of $250.
The event introduces new people to our site, nurtures existing friendships, provides operating funds for programs in the coming year, and helps fund our education programs for children who live within the TEA Region 18 service area. For a minimum donation of $250, you can make a difference!
As an Underwriter/Host, you receive the following:
- Two dinner tickets to the event
- A special commemorative host gift
- Acknowledgment in all event notices and publications
- Special recognition at the event as an Underwriter/Host supporter, and
- The knowledge that your generosity as an Underwriter/Host participant allows us to welcome all attendees to a wonderful evening while simply passing along our “out of pocket” costs for the food, beverages, and entertainment. Our intention is to keep this family-friendly event accessible to people at nearly all levels of means, which is our way of expressing thanks to our vibrant community of members, guests, and supporters.
We’re grateful for your support and looking forward to seeing you at the BBQ!
Many thanks!
The CDRI Team
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Save this date also!
CDRI Celebrates its Volunteers with a
Mid-Year Volunteer Appreciation Cookout!
A vital part of CDRI's team is its volunteers. In 2023, CDRI's volunteers helped excavate a new hiking trail and repair the old ones. In the garden, they moved boulders, cleared areas to ready them for planting, raked gravel, weeded, pruned, and watered plants. They repotted and labeled cacti. They helped with our educational programs and the Cactus & Succulent Sale. They led guided hikes to Modesta Canyon and Clayton's Overlook and led tours through the garden. And they met us twice for our Adopt-a-Highway cleanups, and we're only halfway through the year!
To thank our dedicated group of volunteers, we're holding an old-fashioned burger and hotdog cookout on Saturday, June 10.
Volunteers are invited to bring a friend who may be interested in joining this fun and dedicated team. And if you've thought about volunteering but are unsure how to get started, please come to the cookout. There are many ways in which you can volunteer at the Nature Center & Botanical Gardens.
Where: CDRI's Powell Visitor Center porch
When: Saturday, June 10, starting at 5:30 p.m.
What: Volunteer Appreciation Cookout
Please contact us to confirm your attendance. See you there!
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Agave Festival Marfa
June 1 - 4
Agave Festival Marfa is an annual festival celebrating agave and its influence on culture through food, film, music, science, and spirits. The Festival treats the agave as the indicator species for a region that is bi-national, multilingual, and deeply informed by indigenous culture and history. Through outstanding free and accessible programming, it brings communities together, including talks by preeminent historians, botanists, artists, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Tastings hosted by agave spirit producers, one-of-a-kind dining experiences, and performances by leading artists in contemporary and regional music make for an unforgettable multi-day event.
CDRI is delighted to participate in the festival again this year, marking our 6th year to lead tours through the Botanical Gardens and the Maxie Templeton Cactus Museum Collection. Jim Martinez, CDRI's Board President and co-author of Marfa Garden, will lead the tour on Friday, June 2, and CDRI's Head Gardener, Faith Hille, will lead the garden tour on Saturday, June 3. Reservations are required. Please note that both tours were filled within hours of opening the online registration.
All other programs at the festival are open to the public, free, and reservations are not required. Please access the Agave Festival Marfa website for detailed information about daily events.
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Could you say that name again?
Maybe more slowly? G-u-a-y-u-l-e
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The unassuming, somewhat scraggly shrub known as Guayule (pronounced Why-ooo-lee) (Parthenium argentatum) is a Chihuahuan Desert native shrub that has piqued the interest of a variety of manufacturers and researchers. Guayule is a member of the Asteraceae family. It’s a woody shrub with small gray-green leaves and bears tiny white flowers in the spring.
A Brief History
Guayule is well-known as a source of high-quality rubber. Its use dates back to Pre-Columbian Indigenous people who made balls for games using rubber from the plant. Guayule factories sprang up in Mexico in the early 1900s, with the rubber exported to the U.S. Although some rubber-producing factories in California existed, production didn’t pick up until the need for rubber presented itself during WWII due to supply routes in Asia being cut off. At that time, the USDA established the Emergency Rubber Project with a 30,000-acre plantation of guayule. However, the research program stopped at the end of WWII because it was cheaper to import rubber from Asia. So in 1946, when government funding ceased, Congress ordered the fields to be destroyed.
Guayule Back in the Spotlight
Since the end of WWII, rubber production has been dominated by businesses in Southeast Asia, with rubber sourced from Hevea brasiliensis trees. Low labor costs at those businesses have made it difficult for U.S. companies to compete.
Guayule has recently popped back into the spotlight, though, for two reasons:
1) a fungal infestation of Hevea trees has caused a steep drop in the rubber tree population, and
2) climate change and drought conditions in the Southwest have caused farmers to reevaluate their current crops (alfalfa and cotton) and instead look at guayule that thrives in hot and dry conditions.
Latex is extracted from the guayule stems and branches. Although the plant is cut back to the ground when it’s harvested, the plant remains in the ground and intact, allowing it to grow back. The undisturbed soil keeps carbon in the ground, and it also prevents erosion.
Uses of Guayule
With the decline in the availability of Hevea-produced rubber, a renewed interest in guayule has attracted the Bridgestone Corporation to Arizona. Bridgestone has invested more than $100 million in its efforts to commercialize guayule, with plans for sustainable commercial production of guayule rubber by 2030 and to make tires from 100% renewable materials by 2050.
In addition to producing rubber for tires, guayule latex is hypoallergenic, making it an important alternative for medical-quality latex gloves. The latex is said to be strong, stretchy, and soft.
When harvested, with the latex and resin extracted from the stems and branches, the plant’s woody stems are ground up, producing a dry, sawdust material called bagasse. This material can be made into particle board used to make furniture.
Bagasse is also a source of fuel, producing essentially the same amount of heat as charcoal. There is also current research using bagasse as a source of biofuel. Different from other plants used for biofuel, guayule does not compete with the food industry over arable land and water.
Other uses of guayule:
- Guayule resin can be used as a plant-based adhesive, possibly replacing the existing wood glue.
- The resin is also being researched as an insect repellant for cockroaches and mosquitos.
We don’t know if “guayule” will ever become a common household name, but some exciting applications are being researched. A day may come when you notice that many household products contain that scraggly desert plant with the funny name, guayule.
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Sources:
Scientific American, This Shrub Could Supply Rubber, Insect Repellant, and Glue, by Ula Chrobak, October 14, 2022. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-shrub-could-supply-rubber-insect-repellent-and-glue.
Guayule, a Renewable Resource for Natural Polyisoprene and Resin: Composition, Processes and Applications, Thomas Resenau, Academic Editor, January 27, 2021. https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/3/664.
Bridgestone Americas Press Center, Bridgestone Aims to Commercialize Natural Rubber from Desert Shrubs by 2030. August 29, 2022 https://www.tiretechnologyinternational.com/news/sustainability/bridgestone-aims-to-commercialize-guayule-natural-rubber.html#:~:text=Bridgestone%20aims%20to%20begin%20the,planted%20over%20the%20next%20year.
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Tinaja: ("tee-nah-hah") A small, water-filled depression in rock in a desert or dry area.
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Tinajas are a welcomed source of water for wildlife. The next time you're at the Nature Center, see if you can find a tinaja. Once you find one, you'll discover that they are in abundance!
The photos (below) were taken on Saturday, May 27, 2023, after having received 0.5 inches of rainfall the night before.
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Meet the Team!
We have put together a fantastic team, having rebuilt after Covid. The CDRI Team consists of its directors, volunteers, and paid staff. So, if you haven't met the staff at CDRI, it's made up of three full-time and two part-time employees who bring immense energy and joy to the Center.
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 | Going out to feed the birds on Saturday morning. Photo by Danny Hancock.
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| Lisa Gordon, Executive Director
Lisa has served as Executive Director since 2018. Prior to her appointment as E.D., Lisa worked at the Information Desk and was Gift Shop Manager, Membership and Volunteer Coordinator, and Education and Programs Coordinator. Her beginning "gig" at CDRI was a temporary position in the summer of 2014, in which she coordinated CDRI's BBQ & Auction. Lisa had so much fun that she asked if she could stay on, and fortunately, the folks at CDRI said, "Yes!" She loves how every day at CDRI presents itself as a new adventure. She's still having fun.
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Faith Hille Dishron, Head Gardener
Faith has worked as CDRI's Head Gardener for nearly two years. In addition to maintaining the Botanical Gardens and the cactus collection, last year, Faith implemented CDRI's plan for two new ornamental garden beds at the entrance to the Pollinator Garden. And this year, she and several volunteers have worked on developing the Native Grasses Exhibit.
Faith has been a great garden ambassador, always happy to answer questions posed by visitors. She also leads many of our tours of the Botanical Gardens.
First sight of the season's red velvet mites is always exciting. They're pretty cute -- for a bug.
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Ivory Harlow, Programs & Events Coordinator
Ivory began her employment last November. In addition to helping coordinate programs, Ivory connects volunteers to their various assignments, has become the "face" of our Facebook and Instagram sites, and has recently taken on the task of ordering merchandise for the Gift Shop.
With the development of the new grasses exhibit, Ivory has challenged herself to learn about and identify all 26 grass species that will be represented in the exhibit.
Ivory collects grass clippings to learn more about their identification.
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Katy Mendez,
Information Desk Host
Katy is our Information Desk Host from Sunday through Tuesday each week. She always has a bright smile and cheerful welcome for all who enter the Powell Visitor Center.
Katy will be our lead instructor for Critter Camp for Kinder - 2nd Grade children on June 19 and 20. Having an extensive background working with children and leading programs at Camp Fire Central Texas, in Austin, Texas, makes Katy a natural fit to lead this year's Critter Camp.
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Andrea Monroe, Maintenance & Site Manager
Andrea has an extensive background as an Emergency Medical Technician and Firefighter. With her calm, self-assured demeanor, she has taken on the task of Site Manager with ease and confidence.
You might see her on the weekend in Alpine or Marfa running her pop-up pizza business. She makes a "mean" Detroit-styled pizza!
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As you likely can tell, we have an exceptional team. We look forward to welcoming you soon to "the best rural nonprofit nature center & botanical gardens in Texas!"
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For your summer reading...
If you're looking for ideas for some great choices for nature-themed books to read this summer, check out the Nature Book Guide at www.naturebookguide.com.
Lisa Gordon is on the Book Recommendation Panel. Her book choice is Desert Terroir by Gary Paul Nabhan. Desert Terroir is available in the CDRI Gift Shop!
Gary will be CDRI's guest lecturer for the Roger Conant Distinguished Guest Lecturer Program on Thursday, September 28.
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| Volunteers needed for garden work
Spring and Summer are busy seasons in the garden. CDRI seeks volunteers for weekly watering, light pruning, and general beautification. Volunteers who can commit 2-3 hours each week will have an opportunity to "adopt" their favorite section of the garden. We'll provide tools and training to ensure you have an enjoyable experience and the garden looks its best!
If you can help, please email events@cdri.org, and include the day(s) and times(s) you would like to volunteer.
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| Programs & Visiting Groups - May 2023
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Living Things
CDRI's 1st Grade program about plants and animals
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The Girls' School of Austin
Hike to Modesta Canyon led by Roy Saffel
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Wonder School, Marfa, Texas
Garden tour and Scenic Loop hike led by Lisa Gordon and Ivory Harlow
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The University of Houston, School of Art
Hike to Modesta Canyon led by Ivory Harlow
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Interpretive Hiking Guide Training
Hike to Clayton's Overlook led by Marty Havran
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Before you go...
Be sure to reserve your tickets for the BBQ & Auction fundraiser!
Here are 10 reasons why you don't want to miss out on this year's event!
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We're looking forward to seeing you at the BBQ!
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Photo of CDRI's Powell Visitor Center by Danny Hancock.
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From the CDRI Team,
We wish you happy trails,
and we look forward to welcoming you soon!
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Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, P.O. Box 905, Fort Davis, TX 79734
432.364.2499
www.cdri.org
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