Across the Fence

by Bill Rinehart

Karen Harris and Carl Wilhite Interview

One of the mainstays of The Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is its volunteer program symbolized by a cadre of docents dedicated to meeting and greeting visitors at the preserve. Docents also operate the prairie oriented Visitor's Center and serve as trail guides for groups wishing to experience the mystic of the prairie firsthand.

Karen Harris and Carl Wilhite

I recently worked a shift at preserve headquarters with two experienced docents, Karen Harris and Carl Wilhite. They shared with me their thoughts and experiences gained from several years serving as docents at the Tallgrass Prairie. Their comments and feelings are presented here.

Harris teaches Biology to high school students at Holland Hall in Tulsa. This fall represents her 25th year as a teacher. She taught at Bishop Kelly for several years prior to her present assignment at Holland Hall. She initially participated in a couple of volunteer workdays at the preserve before the docent program began in 1994. Harris was a member of that first docent class.

Because of her early volunteer work, she had been to the prairie before and knew what a beautiful place it is. As a believer in the core values of The Nature Conservancy, she figured that the docent program provided her an opportunity to visit the prairie from time to time and assist what she considers the best conservation organization in the world. Harris feels that being a docent has given her a sense of pride in being able to do work with the Conservancy, associate with other docents, and meet visitors who come to the prairie.

The docent experience also has given her lots of anecdotes that she can share with her students. When she takes her students to the prairie she gives them a series of questions to think about on their way. For example, at the very beginning when they first get on the bus she asks them if the prairie is a homogeneous or heterogeneous environment; that is, is the prairie the same or is it different. They almost all answer after taking the bus ride through the prairie that it's homogeneous because it all looks the same to them.

After taking a walk on the trail she asks them to look for different things and asks them to give the different plants their own names. When they are finished, it's amazing to her how they all come to the conclusion the prairie is heterogeneous. Another tactic Karen uses is to stop on the trail and ask the students to just listen to what they can hear. They then realize that for most of their lives what they hear are some mechanical or human-produced sounds. Being on the trail is an entirely different experience for them because on the trail all they hear are nature-produced sounds.

One of her most gratifying experiences as a docent occurred this past spring when she took a group of middle and high school students from a TU Camp to the prairie. It was a hot day and when they started out, some of the students kept saying how hot it was, asking when it was time for lunch, asking why they had to go on this trip, and saying they didn't want to be here. Harris told them they're out of school now and that she wasn't going to teach them anything. She just wanted them to think about and experience the day. By the end, they were asking her questions.

Some of the boys were complaining they hadn't seen any snakes. When the group stopped at the bridge over Sand Creek, one very observant girl spotted three different kinds of snakes under the bridge. The sun was beating down, the day had gotten hotter, but the kids didn't notice because they were enthralled at the sight of the snakes. Harris finally said to them, "Hey, it's hot out here. When's lunch?"

Harris feels the visitors who come to the prairie are the most interesting people you could hope to meet. A lot of them have had experience with other prairies or other natural areas. Many of them are professionals and scientists and as such are naturally very curious people. The prairie is so far away from the beaten path that visitors have to be interested in something like this to make the trip. Part of the enjoyment for her of coming up from Tulsa to the prairie is meeting people.

Harris says that although the interactions with the people are important to her, the biggest thing is just the experience of being up here in this very special place. She says that even in the hot summer, just driving through, it's enjoyable and in the cooler times being able to get out and walk the trail is a wonderful experience. Lots of times on the way home, she'll take the Bison Loop to try to find the herd. When she locates them, she'll turn off the car, roll down the windows, and just listen to the bison. It's hard to explain, she says, but it's an experience that is very different from everyday life.

Harris feels that being a docent allows her to get to see the changes in the prairie over the seasons. That's something a one-time visitor doesn't really experience. Visitors might happen to come when the baby bison are here or they might happen to come when the prairie coneflower and butterfly weed are in bloom, but maybe they might miss that. She says lots of visitors come and want to know where the tallgrass is, but they're not here at the time the grass has flowered or set seed. The prairie to her is beautiful every single time she visits it and it changes so that every time she visits, it's something different.

Wilhite is retired from the Chevron Companies where he was a project leader with the Chevron Information and Technology Center. He has been a docent for over four years and became a docent because it gives him something to do in retirement and because he enjoys being on the Tallgrass Prairie. He appreciates the smells it produces and the beautiful vastness of the place. He says being a docent has been an enjoyable experience for him and that he looks forward each month to work his shift at the preserve.

He feels most of the visitors who visit the prairie are very knowledgeable people who know a lot about the Conservancy and the Tallgrass Prairie. He's particularly impressed by how far some of them have come, often out of their way when they're on vacation, to see the place. One of his most enjoyable experiences was to visit the corrals during Roundup last fall during docent day. He especially enjoyed watching the ranch hands bring in the herd because then he could officially see and hear a thundering herd of American Buffalo.

Another enjoyable experience was when he brought a friend up and while on the county road, they were stopped by a large group of bison. He said it probably took the animals about 30 minutes to move out of their way. He and his friend enjoyed the whole time watching them go by, listening to them and watching the little calves. Wilhite said it was a once in a lifetime chance to be right in the middle of the herd.

One of the most appreciated experiences Carl has is just being outside and seeing the critters firsthand, watching the birds, smelling the air, and watching the grass grow and change during the seasons. When the Yellow Finch birds come through and he looks out over the landscape, it appears to him that a bunch of dandelions are jumping up and down. He feels it's a shame more people couldn't be docents and experience what he enjoys about the Tallgrass Prairie.