Tag Archives: Nebraska

The Dimming of the Sun

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Solar Eclipse, Ravenna, NE, 21 Aug 2017, ©2017 Ted Lee Eubanks.

Nothing prepares you for a total eclipse. Then, nothing prepares you for your first volcano, geyser, tornado, hurricane, or earthquake, either. Words fail when forced to describe natural phenomena that engage all of the senses.

Words are enough to relate the science of an eclipse. The moon passes between the earth and sun, and blocks the sun for a brief moment. Even though the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, it’s also about 400 times closer to Earth than the sun.

From earth’s position, the sun and moon look to be approximately the same size. The moon, therefore, perfectly blocks the sun when it passes between the sun and us. The moon completely darkens the body of the sun, leaving the corona exposed. The moon crosses the face of the sun in what seems like a brief moment. In the most recent eclipse, totality (the moment when the sun is completely blocked by the moon) only lasted about 2 ½ minutes.

“Fingernail” Sun, Ravenna, NE, 21 Aug 2017, ©2017 Ted Lee Eubanks

Those are the facts, a pitiful left-brain explanation for a right-brain experience. The swift drop in temperature, the silence of the birds, and the gradual dimming of the sun until it blinks out for too brief of a time; none of these things can adequately described. Simply put, the eclipse has to be experienced to be perceived.

I took photographs, several hundred if I am not undercounting. Photographs are inadequate as well. But, they do give me a way of remembering how I felt standing in the elementary school grounds in Ravenna, Nebraska, sharing this brief glimpse of the universe with a few hundreds of my awed kinsmen.

Ted Lee Eubanks
24 Aug 2017

“Diamond Ring,” Ravenna, NE, 21 Aug 2017, ©2017 Ted Lee Eubanks

Paths to Cross

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Custer's Meadow, Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas by Ted Lee Eubanks
Custer’s Meadow, Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas by Ted Lee Eubanks

January is the month for writing. The time is perfect. The holidays are completed, clients lazily make their way back to the office, and I get to avoid the cold north. I try to stay on the road during the warm months, and when Christmas arrives I start the tedious process of collecting and collating all of my thoughts and work in the reports that are required. I have spent most of this month ensconced in my office, failing away at the keyboard while my two cats watched approvingly.

The reports are done. The drafts for the first phase of the Caribbean birding trail interpretive plan, the Nebraska Sandhills Journey interpretive plan, and the ecotourism strategy for Kansas are all in circulation. Today I finished the final presentations for my workshops at NCTC next week, and I am making travel plans to return to Kansas for work on the byways later in the month. Yes, there is pride that comes with accomplishment. I try not to linger long in self-satisfaction, though. To be perfectly honest, a month in the office leaves me stir crazy.

I thoroughly enjoy the field work, I confess. There is nowhere I would rather be than out rather than in. But I have learned to appreciate my writing time as well. I do like to see the finished product, that magical moment when text, design, images, and insight come together in something singular.

I also found time this month to continue working on efforts to conserve Shoal Creek in Austin (my home). I created a blog for that effort several months ago. A number of stakeholders have joined me in creating a new organization, the Shoal Creek Conservancy, and the blog has been retooled to fit the needs of the organization. I enjoy this volunteer effort, and my time along the creek has opened my eyes to the incredible resource that it represents.

Fermata is well into its second decade, and I marvel at what we have accomplished over those years. More importantly, though, I am anticipating the next project, the next challenge. There is never a moment for rest in this business. Contracts are finite, and the demands of life are eternal. Hopefully our paths will cross during this new year.

Ted Lee Eubanks
29 Jan 2013

Retrospective

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Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you…Satchel Paige

Looking back is a luxury that we can rarely afford. Fermata is a consultancy; we live from contract to contract. The good news is that we stay busy. The bad news is that we rarely get the opportunity to look back over our accomplishments.

Monument Rocks, Kansas, by Ted Lee Eubanks
With the year’s end approaching, perhaps we should take the time to consider our work. For example, I am currently helping Kansas develop an ecotourism strategy. Governor Brownback and Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KWPT) Secretary Robin Jennison brought me into the project to facilitate the development of the strategy. This coincides with our work on interpretive plans for the 11 Kansas byways, as well as the writing of an interpretive plan for the state byways as a whole.

This is not our first project where we have worked directly with the governor. Several years ago we developed the Maine ecotourism strategy for then-Governor Baldacci. In Pennsylvania we worked with Governor Tom Ridge, then continued with Governor Ed Rendell. The results of that decade-long collaboration were the Pennsylvania Wilds and another 4 Conservation Landscape Initiatives (CLIs). We began the birding trail craze in Texas with Governor Ann Richards.

Jamaican tody (Todus todus), Windsor Research Centre, Jamaica, by Ted Lee Eubanks
We are also completing the final draft of an interpretive plan for the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway in Nebraska. Our work in Nebraska dates back to the 1990s when we looked at socio-economic benefits of the Platte River for the EPA. Even then I spent time in the Sandhills, one of the iconic American landscapes.

Our interpretive work for the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB) has extended across the Caribbean as well. Recently I completed an interpretive strategy for Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Grenada. Last week I worked in Jamaica with the Windsor Research Centre, conducting a workshop on sustainable recreation and tourism as a development alternative. We hope to continue our work on the Caribbean Bird Trail this next year, extending its reach throughout the Basin.

Aguas Blancas, Dominican Republic, by Ted Lee Eubanks
We have also continued our work with URS on the San Antonio River. In the next few months we will look at the value of the lower river as a wildlife corridor that connects the Texas Hill Country with the Gulf of Mexico. The San Antonio River Authority (SARA) is the client, and we are excited to be able to continue our work in this fascinating and little-known region of Texas.

When I started Fermata in 1992 I thought that I would focus on birds and nature. Little did I know where the trail would lead. Now we work in cultural and historical landscapes as much as with nature. Our services now span the interpretive range from planning to products. Yet one trait ties all of these disparate parts together. We are still driven by curiosity, by a simple need to reveal “beautiful truths.”

Ted Lee Eubanks
Founder & President

The Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway

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Sandhills, Nebraska by Ted Lee Eubanks
The Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway stretches along Highway 2 from Grand Island to Alliance, Nebraska. The byway begins east of the 98th Meredian, at the edge of the humid, forested east. The byway ends west of the 100th Meredian, in the arid, treeless grasslands of the west. With each mile a different sentence in the great American story is inscribed. The Sandhills is an iconic American landscape, a land that fundamentally changed the way Americans view the country and themselves. Fermata is honored to be developing an interpretive strategy for this byway.