Camp Bowie, Texas
Last Edited: 5/5/2010

Background - Camp Bowie, a Texas Army National Guard training site of 8,755 acres, is located just south of Brownwood, Texas. This installation is in the NABCI Oaks and Prairies Bird Conservation Region (BCR21), and is covered by the PIF Bird Conservation Plan for Edwards Plateau (Physiographic Area 53). As a part of the Cross Timbers and Prairies ecological region (TPWD), it features patchy plateau live oak and midgrass savanna with water sources that are restricted to seasonal (or intermittent) streams, pothole ponds, and stock ponds. MAPS stations are located in a variety of habitats including oak woodlands, mixed scrub and mesquite.

Management Issues - Existing management plans for Camp Bowie include fire management and the restoration of wet-season riparian corridors that will require the removal of stock ponds, and re-establishment of the natural watercourses and native vegetation. MAPS is monitoring the effects of both post-breeding fire management and riparian restoration as well as the recent exclusion of cattle grazing, particularly for three species of concern: Bewick's Wren, Field Sparrow, and Painted Bunting.

In the middle of the 2008 MAPS season (June 16) a hot wildfire swept through the Mesquite banding station which burned most vegetation to the ground and defoliated most trees (see above, PowerPoint presentation). The post-fire avifuana featured unusually high numbers of adult and young Bewick’s Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Lark Sparrow, and Ladder-backed Woodpecker. The 2009 MAPS data for this station is expected to reveal more details of the avifuanal community change that will result from reduced woody vegetation and increased forb biomass (versus grasses) that typically follows a warm-season burn. The increased number of snags will likely attract woodpeckers and other cavity-nesting species. The information resulting from this monitoring effort is expected to be useful to management in assessing the impact of warm-season fire on the avifuana of late-successional oak prairie.

MAPS Monitoring (1994-2008) - The MAPS Station Information file contains descriptions and geographic location information for the six MAPS stations that have operated at Camp Bowie since 1994. Google Earth generated maps of the Camp Bowie location (BOWI) and of each station (BEDR, DEVI, MESQ, MOCK, NIGH, STON) show the specific arrangement of the nets and the associated vegetation.

Installation Contact:
Jacob McCumber
Wildlife Biologist
jacob.mccumber@us.army.mil
Tel: 512-782-5315

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