{"id":15893,"date":"2026-02-26T18:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=15893"},"modified":"2026-02-26T18:02:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:02:01","slug":"skywatch-friday-pearl-jackson-crosstimbers-preserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/?p=15893","title":{"rendered":"Skywatch Friday &#8211; Pearl Jackson Crosstimbers Preserve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Earlier in February on a nice day a group of volunteers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tulsaurbanwildernesscoalition.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.tulsaurbanwildernesscoalition.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition<\/a> joined staff members from the Nature Conservancy to do some trail work the Conservancy&#8217;s newest preserve in Oklahoma, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.org\/en-us\/get-involved\/how-to-help\/places-we-protect\/pearl-jackson-crosstimbers-preserve\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nature.org\/en-us\/get-involved\/how-to-help\/places-we-protect\/pearl-jackson-crosstimbers-preserve\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Pearl Jackson Crosstimbers Preserve<\/a> in Creek County, Oklahoma, just 20 or so miles from Tulsa. The Preserve, which is not yet open to the public, is 12,000 acres of hickory and oak intermixed with tallgrass prairie. The previous landowners had used fire to control invasive species and the land is in really good shape. The man who donated, what had been a ranch, to the Conservancy gave up fortune in development. Such generosity blows my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWRLBZ\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098413119_a23d7cc5dd.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So we all met in the Conservancy&#8217;s office on the property and got a briefing on the work to be done. The staff had started a rough trail from a proposed trailhead to a sporadic waterfall. So we were going to take loppers, saws, axes, pick axes, and other tools to remove limbs blocking the way and rocks that were on the trail.  The trailhead was about a mile from the office so we shuttled people down there in four wheel drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWQm6J\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098135516_1c509676b6_c.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>My Subaru, with 77,000 miles, finally got a little mud on it as I took people down to the trailhead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWQxrj\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098173656_ce55be9d21_c.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So we took off down the proposed trail doing our thing. I am guessing the trail was about a mile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWRKrs\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098409144_5bf1580c08_c.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The land is gorgeous. Very rocky and extremely old hickory and oak trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWSgV9\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098511670_4b82de2212.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWQkNz\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098134521_859c221dbb.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Down at the waterfall. No water over it today as it hadn&#8217;t rained recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rWSfJX\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55098507715_c59e0641b3_c.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And here is the intermittent waterway that bring water to the waterfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr wp-block-embed-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2rYBPEu\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55118324780_ee87b14277.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot_26-2-2026_154413_www.instagram.com pearl jackson work day\" width=\"459\" height=\"315\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And a good time was had by all. The staff said that they plan to open portions of the preserve to the public  but they have a lot of issues to work out beforehand. I&#8217;m guessing that it is going to be a least a year or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m linking with <a href=\"https:\/\/skyley.blogspot.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/skyley.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><strong>Skywatch Friday<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier in February on a nice day a group of volunteers from the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition joined staff members from the Nature Conservancy to do some trail work the Conservancy&#8217;s newest preserve in Oklahoma, the Pearl Jackson Crosstimbers Preserve in Creek County, Oklahoma, just 20 or so miles from Tulsa. The Preserve, which is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4023,2193,1296,4022,1271,3638,1235,1172],"class_list":["post-15893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skywatch-friday","tag-crosstimbers","tag-nature-conservancy","tag-oklahoma","tag-pearl-jackson-crosstimbers-preserve","tag-skywatch-friday","tag-trail-work","tag-tulsa-urban-wilderness-coalition","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15895,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893\/revisions\/15895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogisden.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}