Time to Get Outside

Through the glass a close-up

   The City of San Marcos has more than 1,000 acres of natural areas. The San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance built and maintains 33 different trails with 22 miles available for mountain biking, hiking, running and enjoying nature. While the natural areas serve many different purposes including flood mitigation and water quality, they should also be considered outdoor classrooms.

   SMGA promotes many guided hikes and walks.  More information can be found at on this blogpost the LOOP or on our Facebook page, San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance.  -- LJ

   Get outside for some exercise and education!

Monthly              First Saturday            Monthly Bird Walk with Stephen Ramirez &
                                                                      Colton Robbins  (San Marcos Bird Walk -- Facebook)

                                Second Saturday       Monthly Bug Walk with Gabby Cole 

                                                                     (San Marcos Bug Walk – Facebook)

                                Second Sunday          Monthly Edible Plant Walk with Adam Saucedo

                                                                         http://www.nativeplantresearchinstitute.org/contact/  

                                                                         (Plant Walk in subject line)

                                                               

March                   Saturday  4                  Poke E Man Go Hike with Dynhara Rios

                                                                      at Spring Lake Natural Area at 1 p.m.   Rescheduled

                                Saturday 18                Plant Walk with Minnette Marr in Prospect Park
                                                                      at 9 a.m. 

                                Saturday 25                Pokeman Go Hike with Dynhara Rios
                                                                      Spring Lake natural area 1 p.m.

April                      Saturday 15                 iNaturalist app Walk with Dr. Ben Schwartz 

                                                                      at Meadows Center at 8 a.m.

May                       Saturday 20                Tree Walk with city arborist Kelly Eby at the
                                                                      Discovery Center (430  Riverside Road)  at 9:45 a.m.

Brandon Ross is guest speaker at Annual Meeting Feb. 12

  SMGA is pleased to announce we will have Brandon Ross as a guest speaker at our meeting. Brandon is Special Projects Manager for the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department. Brandon manages the planning, land acquisitions, design and construction of the Howard W. Peak

San Antonio Greenways map

Greenway Trail System, a growing network of multi-use hike and bike trails along San Antonio waterways.

  San Antonio voters have approved a sales-tax in four separate elections to provide funding for its linear park system, which now includes 53 miles of improved trails and many more miles that are under design or construction. 

  Brandon will discuss challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned from San Antonio’s experience. More info on the San Antonio trail system:

 http://www.sanantonio.gov/ParksAndRec/Parks-Facilities/Trails/Greenway-Trails 

  Cities are realizing the benefits in property values, physical fitness, transportation options, nature appreciation and flood mitigation to creating these greenways. And it's easier to incorporate greenways before development happens rather than after the infrastructure is already in place. The San Marcos Transportation Master Plan due out in the Spring of 2017 incorporates a Greenways Master Plan that moves people on foot, bike and other wheeled devices with sidewalks and trails.  --MT & LJ

Bug Walk in the Spring Lake Natural Area

  More than 20 curious minds explored the natural area January 14th.  Led by graduate student Gabby Cole we looked under leaves, around the bark of trees and under rocks. We were rewarded with many-legged creatures, even a few without legs. All fell under the magnifying glass for further inspection and were returned, live, after we learned about each of the critters.
  Our youngest explorers were particularly adept at finding the smallest of creatures, and of course, they were the most curious.
  The walks take place at 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Check out Gabby's facebook page, San Marcos Bug Walk, for the February location.   -LJ





A list of the bugs we saw:

Harvestmen (daddy longlegs) – Order Opiliones

Millipede – Class Diplopoda

Stone centipede – Order Lithobiomorpha

Black carpenter ant – Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Wolf spider – Family Lycosidae

Jumping spider – Family Salticidae

Geometrid moth – Family Geometridae

Anacua tortoise beetle (tracks/signs) – Coptocycla texana

Cochineal bug – Dactylopius confusus   

Short-horned grasshopper – Family Acrididae

Red imported fire ant – Solenopsis invicta

Ground beetle – Family Carabidae

Termite (tracks/signs) – Order Isoptera

Terrestrial Mollusk (land snails) – Phylum Mollusca