Former ENV Deputy, Ann Irwin, Dies Ann M
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A newsletter from TxDOT’s Environmental Affairs Division http://www.dot.state.tx.us/services/environmental_affairs Volume 12, Issue 1 Winter 2006-7 16 Pages Former ENV deputy, Ann Irwin, dies Ann M. Irwin, former deputy division various archeological sites. TxDOT gained recognition for its director of ENV, died Dec. 9. Ann received bachelor’s degrees achievements in the cultural resources She retired from TxDOT in December in anthropology and field, including 2004 after 27 years of service. Before English from the receipt of the Curtis becoming deputy division director of University of Kansas. Tunnell Award from ENV in June 2002 she was director of She received her Preservation Texas, the Cultural Resources Section (CRM), master’s in anthropology and the inaugural E. branch manager of the Archeology from the University Mott Davis Award Studies Branch and a field archeologist. of Pennsylvania and for Excellence in When she retired in December 2004, Ann completed coursework Public Outreach from went to work for Carter & Burgess, Inc. at the University of the Council of Texas Before joining TxDOT in 1978 Pennsylvania for a Archeologists. She she was curator for the Laboratory of Ph.D. in Anthropology. received one of the Anthropology and laboratory operations Ann received highest honors awarded manager at Washington State University; numerous awards over by TxDOT, the principal investigator on several projects, the years, including a Raymond E. Stotzer, Jr. including excavations of important Phi Beta Kappa. Her Award, in 1999. Paleo-Indian sites; research and editorial numerous fellowships She was admired assistant and teaching assistant at and grants included by her coworkers the University of Pennsylvania; and a Carnegie Institute Ann M. Irwin for her generosity, laboratory supervisor for several projects. Stipend, Woodrow determination, optimism Ann was also the field foreman for the Wilson Graduate Fellowship, University and unflappability. She was known Hell Gap Archeological Expedition and Institutional Fellowship and Teaching throughout the department as a skilled had served as a consultant to both the Fellowships form the University of negotiator. She was supportive of her Cheney-Cowles Museum and Rocky- Pennsylvania and grants for her work on staff and brought out the best in people. Reach Museum. She was a published the Lind Coulee Site in Washington State. Ann was an example of goodness author of many papers dealing with Under Ann’s leadership of the CRM (See IRWIN, Page 5) In this issue Mowing delayed to protect owls ENV’s Doug Mack By JENNY SADNICK Hermosillo, a member of the El Paso/ becomes the Environmental Affairs Division Trans Pecos Audubon Society. ‘Walking Quad,’ The El Paso District temporarily In response, El Paso District halted mowing this past summer on a Director of Maintenance Leo Betancourt Page 2 section of U.S. 54 in northeast El Paso postponed mowing in the area to avoid — to avoid disturbing the nesting season of damaging the nests and habitat. The Environmental burrowing owls. The district made the heavy equipment used to mow could Achievement Awards, decision after it learned that these owls have compacted the soil, complicating had nested in the right of way. the burrowing process for the owls or Pages 8-9 destroying their burrows altogether. — Burrowing owls are an endangered species in Canada and a Texas “watch- Mowing resumed in September, when Brownwood list” species, or species of concern. the fledglings were old enough to fend grain elevator Lois Balin, a biologist for the Texas for themselves and mowing no longer team earns award, Parks and Wildlife Department, brought posed a significant threat. Betancourt said, “I certainly felt that delaying the Page 11 the situation to TxDOT’s attention after learning of the situation from Richard (See PROTECTED, Page 10) Page 2 Winter 2006-7 Doug Mack beat paralysis By BLYTHE JEWELL order.” found his place at TxDOT. He met his Environmental Affairs Division Mack’s engaging temperament wife Julie a few years after college, and On the surface, Doug Mack seems may come from an unlikely source: the two were married in a Las Vegas like one of the guys. A project manager overcoming paralysis. At the age of 19, ceremony, where Mack opted to forego with ENV’s Pollution Prevention and the college freshman joined a group the tradition groom’s tuxedo for an Elvis Abatement (PPA) Branch, Mack’s work of friends to play basketball, a casual jumpsuit. They later had a son, Raleigh, helps make Texas transportation safer get-together that would suddenly and who is now 3 years old and, according to for all of us, regulating roadways and unexpectedly change his life. At the Mack, “made of pure energy!” structures built through contaminated gym, the group came upon an open After his recovery, Mack used his areas like landfills, superfund sites room with gymnastics experience to write a book titled “The and gas stations. His agreeable nature equipment and Walking Quadriplegic: Defeating has made him well-liked among his decided to try some Paralysis.” Published in December coworkers, and his dedication to his job of it out for fun. 2005, the book tells his inspiring story has made him well-respected. Their amusement and offers an inside look at life as a But beneath Mack’s easy-going quickly turned to quadriplegic and beyond. It is now professional demeanor lies a sense of tragedy when Mack available online at many retail determination that once saved him from dove headfirst into a sites, including Amazon. life as a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic. set of foam blocks, com (www.amazon.com) This determination led him to a new life typically used to and Barnes and Noble as a successful TxDOT project manager, arrest gymnasts’ (www.bn.com). (Find inspirational author and proud father and movement during the book’s web site at husband. training. The www.thewalkingquad. Mack started working for ENV in impact broke his com.) March of 1998. In his current position neck. With the with PPA, he provides a wide range During his successful release of services and works with a varied first month in of “The Walking group of TxDOT districts and divisions the hospital, Quadriplegic,” Mack including Right of Way, Advance Mack was able has now written a Planning, Design and Construction. to move only second book, a work Most recently, he worked with the small facial of fiction he hopes El Paso District to locate and remove muscles. Hope to publish soon. unexploded ordances, such as anti- for further Living in Austin with tank rounds, grenades and bullets, on a recovery was Julie and Raleigh, he former Fort Bliss shooting range before essentially continues to inspire detention ponds could be built there. nonexistent. those who know him Mack has great regard for his Told by doctors and those he reaches coworkers and a strong sense of respect that he was through his writings. for the work that TxDOT does. When not likely His weighty past has asked about his favorite TxDOT to survive not diminished Mack’s memory, he said, “The one thing that and certainly sense of fun, however. He will always stick with me is the manner would never walk may even be harboring a in which TxDOT employees work again, Mack refused to secret identity. According together as a team… It’s amazing to step accept the hopelessness to Dempsey, “Doug back and realize the overall scope and of his diagnosis and is an Elvis fanatic. grandeur of what TxDOT has actually chose instead to fight. I’ve seen pictures accomplished.” After months of painful – at his Las Vegas This earnest answer does not exactly rehabilitation, unblinking wedding, and reflect the light-hearted Mack that his determination and intense wandering the coworkers know. When asked about hard work, he walked out streets on Mack, Terry Dempsey, a team leader for of the hospital to resume Halloween PPA, said, “Because of his entertaining his life. – where he nature and easy-going style, he adds Mack went on looks just a little bit of lightness to the office to receive a degree in like Elvis. environment.” Environmental Sciences Maybe Former PPA team leader Dan Neal from Texas State he really adds, “Doug’s world revolves around University and, after a is Elvis in two things: (1) Taco Friday and (2) five-year stint with the disguise.” [his son], maybe not necessarily in that City of Austin, finally Winter 2006-7 Page 3 Sandbur Site decades in the making By JENNY SADNICK other local groups in South and Central Texas.” Environmental Affairs Division Distinctive stone tools left behind during that time have The Texas Historical Commission (THC) presented its been found at sites scattered from West Texas to the Gulf of annual Award of Merit in Archeology to the Environmental Mexico, but little is known about where they came from or Affairs Division’s Archeological Studies Program in July 2005. why the people who left them suddenly disappeared after A.D. According to 1600. It was a time of Mark Denton, early European contact Coordinator for State in northern Mexico, and Federal Reviews and archeologists at THC, the award suspect that some recognizes “superior cultural patterns of quality archeological later historical groups, field investigations, especially those of artifact analysis and inter-regional trade and report production interaction, may have associated with Cultural originated with these Resource Management early inhabitants. investigations performed “When people with at the local, state or a new technology, style federal level here in and toolkits appear Texas.” without precedence in a ENV was recognized region’s archeological because of a project record, their presence based in southeast may be the result of Texas, near the banks significant influences of the lower Colorado in the cultural and Wayne Young (in cap) and Frank Weir at Sandbur site.