Date: 03/18/2006

Number: 1

Altus and I went on safari today today to see how the drought had affected the milkweeds between the coast and San Antonio. We checked one pasture about 75 miles east of San Antonio that we know has had only rain twice since November and that was only in tenths of an inch. We found the grass brown, eaten close to the ground by the cattle, looking like a closely mowed dead lawn, with pasture patties, and dead brush trying to put on leaves scattered to break up the desolate picture. The only thing adding a bit of green was a few stressed Asclepias asperula ... widly scattered across the pasture. We've always done a density count in six foot squares where there might thirty to forty plants at the best locations. This year we had to walk out across the pasture and found the density to average more like a plant every thirty feet. We walked seven of the hundred acres and we estimate the crop right now to be less than ten percent of any of the last ten years. Cheching plants as we walke

Westhoff, TX

Latitude: 29.1 Longitude: -97.4

Observed by: Harlen E.
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