Passport to Texas

Hiking Enchanted Rock.

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This is Passport to Texas

You’ll find fragile ecosystems called vernal pools on the summit of Enchanted Rock.

They’re little formations—weathering pits that have formed over the years—and they’ll collect rainwater. And there are little lifeforms that grow in them: fairy shrimp and other invertebrates. And, it’s their own little, small ecosystem in there.

Dough Cochran is superintendent at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country.

A scientist was doing some tests on invertebrates – testing the different kinds of algae that were present in the water. And he notices over the past three or four years that blue-green algae had been increasing in these pools of waters. And that’s an indication of pollution.

Pollution caused unintentionally by visitors who bring their dogs to hike the summit with them, and then interact with the vernal pools.

We see a lot of pets and humans going in these waters and wading through them, drinking out of them (the people don’t drink out of them, but the pets do) and in some cases they’re doing things they’re not supposed to be doing in there.

Animal waste that seeps into the pools raises the nitrogen level of the water, and disrupts ecosystem stability.

Tomorrow, learn of a new regulation intended to help nature regain her balance on Enchanted Rock.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti