Charro Ranch Park Report

May 14, 2022

Michael Meves

On Saturday, May 14, 2022, eight Hays County Master Naturalist volunteers braved the hot weather and helped with maintenance at Charro Ranch Park in Dripping Springs, Texas. It was a busy day for some of us, combining some early morning work over at the Dripping Springs Festival of Flight and our usual work at Charro Ranch Park.

Our new native plants are looking healthy, and so far the deer are leaving them alone. Volunteers Maeva Ducos, Beth Barham, and Dick Barham have been visiting regularly to keep the plants watered and to protect them with deer repellant. We certainly didn't expect this much work to keep them watered in the spring. Volunteers Deb Niemeyer and Stephanie Holtzendorf pulled weeds, replaced mulch, and generally tidied up the gardens. Sue Harding is ordering identification signs for all the plants, and these will be placed in the upcoming months.

Sharon Meves, who is becoming quite the expert on native plants and grasses, pulled invasive Johnson grass around the bridge. There is much more grass to pull, so this will be a focus for future efforts.

Volunteers Dick Barham, Craig LaRobardier, Neal Sutton, and I helped create some brush barriers with juniper trimmings to block "non-paths," where we don't want visitors to walk. I had identified a big post oak near the bridge area, which I wanted to highlight better for visitor viewing. We cleared away much of the juniper around the base of this tree to make it more viewable from the walking path. We were careful to remove junipers only on the east and north sides of the tree. On our way back we cleaned up an old campfire area with a lot of broken glass and tin cans. As always, Irene Bonde was there doing a great job picking up litter along the parking area and FM 150.

The photo doesn’t do justice to this beautiful live oak.

Charro Ranch Park is a northern Hays County treasure and has so much more to enjoy. Come out and see for yourself !