Ike McWhorter Interview, Part 2 of 2

INTERVIEWEE: Ike McWhorter (IM) INTERVIEWERS: David Todd (DT) DATE: October 8, 1999 LOCATION: Silsbee, Texas TRANSCRIBERS: Lacy Goldsmith and Robin Johnson REEL: 2055

IM: Yeah, this this area is very, very dry, xeric forest. It it has to do with the the deep sands that I was talking about being laid down at one time as by the river, by Village Creek. These sands are very deep. They're very porous. Rain just percolates right through them and leaves the surface real dry and sterile.

And so you get a lot of species like the Prickly Pear Cactus, that you see growing here, occurring on these sand hills. You also get a lot of very, very small, real dainty plants that grow in this real harsh environment.

A lot of them have they're either succulent like the cactus, or they have hairy leaves on them to hold moisture or just very reduced leaf surfaces. All these are adaptations to to survive in this real harsh environment.

Although we get 60 inches plus rain fall every year, on these sand hills. It it just drains right through. And so you you don't get the get the lush vegetation that you would think would occur in that type of a environment. (Misc.)

IM: Okay, we're we're down on theon the creek bank now. And you can see where the nice sand bars, that occur along Village Creek. They're one of the highlights for the canoe trip, when ca-canoe along and stop at one of the sand bars and get out and get your feet wet.

This is a real beautiful area. You can see, look back in here, this is a Cypress Slew, coming in at the base of the of the bluff that we just came of off. The the sand hill. And you can see some of the flowers, the Red Cardinal Flower and a lot of the ferns and things that grow in this this wet area.

There's a lot of seepage springs that come in off that bluff, that why it's so wet here. Of course, when the creek is up it floods also, so, you've got a real wet environment in here. You've got Tupelo and Cypress Trees, River Birch, things like this that really add a lot of diversity to this area. It's a good wildlife habitat also.

DT: Can you tell about the kinds of fish you might find in the creek, or the kinds of birds in the trees?

IM: Well, this is this this bottom of the forest are really habitat for a lot of the bird species, migratory species. You'd you would probably see things like Hooded Warblers and Parula Warblers and Pine Warblers, things like that utilize this habitat. There's a lot of wading birds that you might see on the creek.

The Great Blue Herring and Little Blue Herring and and things like that. As far as fish go, the fishermen seem to do pretty well out here. Catfish and and and Bass are real popular sports fish. And and then of course a lot of animal life, the White Tailed Deer, the River Otter, Beaver, things like that, that you'll see along the creek bank here also.

DT: Do you find any rare species like the Paddlefish, out here?

IM: No. There there's a reintroduction for Paddlefish and there may be some. There may not be some in this area. I'm not real sure. They're reintroducing them into the river systems. This is, by the way, a a tributary of the Neches River. So it's a it's a real important water corridor for the Big Thicket area.

Village Creek in right in the center of the Big Thicket water shed, which drains a huge area. And and is really designated as a a corridor unit for Big Thicket National Preserve, outside of Sandylands. So we're part of the whole system that that protects this very unique and beautiful stream. (Misc.)

IM: These are called Cypress Sloughs. And they're old abandoned channels which now, of course they carry flood waters, and there typically wooded wooded areas with Cypress and Tupelo trees. A lot of understory vegetation that you see here. This one is has water in it all the time, primarily from the seepage springs that come out from below the bluffs.

Water percolates down through the sand on the uplands and comes out in these slews, forming little springs; spring heads. You can see a lot of the Cypress knees in here, those are actually part of the root system of the Cypress Trees.

And we don't know exactly what their function are. They we know that they give the tree support in this real wet environment. They tend to slow the water, collect silt and clay around them, which holds the tree in place. There may be other functions also.

DT: Could you tell about some of the ferns that you see out here?

IM: Well, there's several different species of ferns. I think the dominant fern here is the Chain Fern that pretty well has a continuous cover of most of this area. And you got the Plume Grass and several other grass species, several shrub species here that that there's a Button Bush and a few others, Ash Tree, River Birch.