9AM – Noon

Hi everyone,

Due to the significant rainfall Tulsa received over the past 36 hours, we’re postponing our Chandler Park trail work day. The trails are too saturated for safe or sustainable work, and we want to honor Leave No Trace principles by avoiding any unnecessary damage.

We’ll announce a new date soon once conditions improve!

Thank you for your flexibility and for caring about Tulsa’s trails and green spaces. We couldn’t do this without you!

See you on the next work day,

The Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition Team

Meet at the West Parking Lot in front of the Community Center

What to bring / wear:

Tools (optional)

***** Should you bring personal tools please clearly label them so you can make it home with what you brought.

*******note – we do not expect any one volunteer to provide everything on this list, pick one or two things

• Gloves
• Closed Toe Shoes
• Water

• Lopper/Pruner (with your name on them)
• Hand saw (non-power like a bow saw or folding saw) and small Axe/Hatchet

Project list:

After we work enjoy pancakes cooked up by the TUWC Board 🥞.

Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition is known for being an informed and activated group of volunteers and community members who come together to preserve, honor, and restore our natural areas, trails, and wilderness. As a fellow trail user, I find myself sometimes focused on the physical path made by my predecessors guiding me to a place in Nature scenic and treasured. I can admire the substrate my feet pass over under a canopy of a Post Oak forest, tall grasses, and small yellow-spotted butterflies dancing together battling wind with each wing-beat. While the trail is a path to such destinations, the native inhabitants of this area look upon us in this Spring season on a journey all of their own. Let us learn of their journey and allow me to introduce you to some of this season’s finest urban wilderness wildlife.

In this photo, six Tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) hatchlings are nested inside a utility pole, discovered during the installation of new lines. Utility companies will often separate the nest-cavity from the rest of the pole to preserve and protect the nest site. Their thoughtful black eyes wait for the sound of their mother’s call ‘peter-peter-peter’ before returning with nourishment.

Above, you can see the efforts of maintenance staff to seed areas with native wildflowers over the Winter season. The blooms of that labor contribute to the sustainability and beauty of our region, where the Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) butterfly visits Oklahoma’s state wildflower, Indian blanket (Gaillardia pulchella). Mistletoe (Viscum album) with its white blooms served as the first state flower for 108 years until 2004. In 2004, the hybrid tea rose, ‘Rosa Oklahoma’ became our current state flower. 

In our final images, we see the new life that Spring brings to our urban wilderness. Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) are one of many bird species that mate for life, often returning to successful nest sites each year. Preferring nest sites in the cracks and crevices of large rocks, the lower image is that of one new black vulture hatchling, fuzzy with the tell-tale black beak. A parent of this baby vocalized in their language to mind our distance. 

As we use our trails, may we be reminded that our animal and plant neighbors find their home under the same canopy we enjoy. Though we use the trail for different reasons, we can come together for the love of our wild urban neighbors, sharing the brilliant ecology that makes Northeast Oklahoma so rich and beautiful in diverse life.

Photos were taken along trails at Chandler Park, Tulsa by Patrick T. Hayes, April, 2024.