August 20, 2009

Park officials are moving heaven and earth to try and get freshwater to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  Whooping Cranes and many other animals call this place home and right now it’s a desert.

The freshwater ponds have all dried up and workers are busy deepening the ponds in case rains hits.  They want to capture as much water as they can but the dozer actually hit water.

Don Alonzo of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says, by deepening these water holes you can see the groundwater percolating through the bottom and if we did just a little bit deeper we’ll actually get water immediately and not have to wait on precipitation.  He also said, they are calling it, their water for wildlife project.  They are restoring windmills, converting windmills from wind power to solar power and deepening man-made water holes.  They are also removing the vegetation from the perimeter to minimize the predation of whooping cranes.  Throughout the process, something the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service was not expecting but have seen an increase in are alligators in the area

Read the entire article »