View Photos taken during workday on Sundown.Smugmug.com
Article by Lynn Travis of Devon Energy

Rony Zetik moves the plants from the dock to the new tree plot area west of the tractor shed.

November 18, 2008—It was a picture perfect day for the 2008 Sundown Island Fall Workday.  Devon Energy volunteers joined Audubon Society Warden Chester Smith and family and friends making a total of 18 volunteers. This is Devon’s 11th workday supporting Sundown Island.  Tim Wilkinson, Nancy Posey, and Rony Zetik were the boat captains for smooth glassy rides to and from the island. 

Chester Smith, his daughter Nancy Posey and Lynn Travis of Devon Energy went out the day before to scout out the island, cut paths, and lay out a plan for the workday.

Devon bought a group of 5 gallon ebony trees from our native plant grower Mike Heep in Harlingen.  These were joined by 6 trees cultivated Bill Van Wie, Devon’s Vice-president and General Manager.  Bill grew and nurtured these trees planted two years ago from Sundown Island seeds.  Ebony trees are full of thorns, but the birds love to build their nests in the crooks and dense shelter of their branches.

Digging holes for the much larger than usual 5-gallon plants became a daunting task taken on by Ethan Perry.  Steve and Dennis led the planting and watering tasks to expand the ebony grove.  Whew—that was some serious work guys!

Jennifer White, Ethan Perry and Steve Tripp put the finishing touches on the tree plot with the five-gallon ebonies.

Lynn Travis’ long-standing concern about identification of the location of the small plant plots once the sunflowers grow tall created an opportunity for an experiment.  Nancy and her husband Rick created PVC “teepees” painted florescent pink on top and placed over the new plots in hopes of protecting them from traffic to help identify the plots for future weeding and watering.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Trees planted two years ago in the dredge spoil sand (Northwest) were thought to be lost when sands shifted right over the top of the plot.  To our surprise we found that about twenty of the Huisache trees survived!  Priscila Ochoa and Martha Rodriguez separated ten new Huisache saplings and
added these to the survivor plot.

Molly Eckelson has been volunteering on Sundown Island since 2003. Here she is helping to plant new trees in the plot on the west side of the island.

Brenda Eckelson and her daughter Molly worked on the western part of the island to plant native granjeno or spiny hackberry trees where some volunteer salt cedars have taken root. Fire ants have also invaded the area making for some quick planting!  Hopefully the cedars will provide protection for our new plot of hackberry trees.

Jared and Molly have been Sundown volunteers since they were kids, Jared since our first workday in 2001 and Molly since 2003, and now they are leaders on the workday projects.

The live oak, cedar, and ebony trees near the shed are thriving thanks to annual weeding, watering, and fertilizing.  Jennifer and Jared have personally taken on this area, and what a difference we’ve seen the past few years - most of the trees are over 8 feet tall now.

Jarred White with Warden Chester Smith. Jared started his first workday in 2001 and has been a regular volunteer since.

Gary Eckelson was in charge of the fire ant treatment. He drove the tractor with a spreader to lay down the chemicals for the fire ant treatment.  Fire ants are a major contributor to the death of chicks, especially for those birds that nest on the ground.

Rony Zetik fixed windmill, hurray! Several attempts to fix it with rigged parts failed during previous trips to the island. Rony brought the part and the right tools and had it pumping water into the ponds in no time. Later, Gary Eckelson walked the water distribution lines to the ponds and made repairs as needed.

Devon’s Barbara Van Horn coordinated the workday and organized the Devon sponsored lunch for the volunteers. Jennifer White brought her highly anticipated brownies for the whole crew.  

As Steve Trip pushes down on the new pier post, Rony Zetik and Gary Eckelson jet the water out to sink the post. Tim Wilkinson and Chester Smith supervise.

Sometimes Chester leaves the most challenging task for the end of the day.  He had plans to jet in post at the pier. Tim made a second trip back to Port O'Connor to pick up the piling. Tim and Chester gathered a group who took on the challenge. The purpose of the post was to keep the boat from sliding under the dock during low tides. The post was sunk, but not attached during workday.  A couple of weeks later, Rony Zetik and Chester returned to the island.  Rony bolted the post to the pier then.

Hurricane Ike had little impact to Sundown Island.  The gutter that directs water from the roof of the shed to the cistern had blown off.  Thankfully, the cistern was already full of water, so we used all the water on the trees. The gutter was reattached so there will be plenty of water for next another visit. 

After lunch everyone had a chance to check out the beach with “Super Duty” trash bags of course.  Marcy Spears, Dennis Walden, Priscila and Barbara took photos while Ethan walked the entire circumference of the island.  

The barrier islands blocked much of the Hurricane Ike debris from Sundown Island, but there was an increase in amount and size of the trash. Peggy Wilkinson and Nancy Posey turned in a cute barnacle encrusted black “Mary Jane shoe,” a dehydrated hammerhead shark, and pink plastic flamingo. Other finds included a duck decoy, toilet seat, and a superman toothbrush. The winning items this year were a handwritten message (not in a bottle) found by Priscila and a kitchen sink.

The Sundown Island friends from the General Land Office, (actual owners of Sundown Island) will make a pass after workday to remove the consolidated debris and trash bags.