Restoring Your Texas Grasses are the basic fabric of the prairie Texas Native since they are uniquely adapted for life in Native Prairie the open. Most plants grow from their tips Native prairie restoration can be a Native Prairies – to add length. By contrast, grass grows rewarding activity with benefits ranging from its base, emerging from a bud at, or from increased water quality to greater just under, the soil where the sensitive diversity of wildlife. Various approaches Threatened Habitat can be utilized based on available Prairie growth tissues remain protected from the elements and from grazing. In periods of resources. See the reference section for additional research. extreme heat or cold, grasses become dormant. Roots of some native grass Remnants species extend 10-15 feet into the soil and The North American Prairie is one of the can extract moisture from deep Certifying Your Texas most endangered ecosystems on Earth-- underground during dry periods. perhaps even more endangered than the Native Prairie Remnant Most large parcels of Texas native prairies South American Rainforest. Up to 99.5 percent of the prairie has been destroyed in Although prairies may be grasslands in have been destroyed by turning the rich just the last 125-150 years. terms of sheer volume of vegetation, soil into cropland, urban development, or about three out of every four plant species mismanaged rangeland. The area known as the Great Plains was found there are wildflowers. once the largest grassland prairie on earth However, Texas contains thousands of and covered over a quarter of the small acreage parcels that have remained continental U.S. along with portions of in native prairie. Texas Master Naturalists southern Canada and northern Mexico. The has created a project to identify, recognize, prairie stretched from the Rocky Mountains and potentially certify such a parcel as a eastward for over 800 miles and extended Texas Native Prairie Remnant. more than 3,000 miles from north to south. Certification is granted after a site The grasslands of North America began to inspection, plant inventory, and historical form about 20 million years ago. Created perspective has been collected and from sediment washed out of the Rockies analyzed. Recipents receive a mounted over millions of years, the plains also highway sign acknowledging the site. included rubble from glaciers and windblown deposits of silt, sand, and clay. For more information contact the Texas All of this rested on the bed of what was Master Naturalists – Gideon Lincecum once a shallow inland sea. The Rocky Chapter: Mountains also intercepted the flow of moist air from the Pacific and dried out the Texas Master Naturalists – Gideon Education interior of the continent, producing a climate Lincecum Chapter Preservation that favored grasses over trees. Texas Native Prairie Project 1305 East Blue Bell Road, Suite 104 Stewardship Brenham, TX 77833 Monarch Butterfly on Plains A Project of the Texas Master http://www.gideonlincecum.org Coreopsis Naturalists Prairie FIRE REFERENCES Fire was an important element in both forming and maintaining the prairie. In the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Management eastern prairie, there is enough rainfall to Institute support trees as well as grasses. Fire http://ckwri.tamuk.edu/ helped the tallgrass prairie by retarding tree and shrub growth. Since prairie plants Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center evolved with fire, their deep roots remain http://www.wildflower.org/ BISON/COW unharmed and in a short time, the plant will grow again. The ashes then act as fertilizer. Historically, large herds of bison, Natural Resources Conservation sometimes as large as 1,000 animals, Historically, burns occurred with regularity Service ranged the prairies and savannahs, where in Texas, usually in the summer. In natural http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/ Plant Identification they would consume quantities of grasses, prairie ecosystems, fire not only gets rid of trample organic matter, and then distribute accumulated thatch, it also helps reduce Texas AgriLife Extension Service seed into the disturbed soil. The grazing woody plant invasion and stimulates the http://tce.tamu.edu/ pressure was not continuous, and the large growth of many native grasses and NATIVE PRAIRIE FACTS herds would move on allowing the wildflowers. Timing of burns and the choice Tallgrass prairies once covered over grassland to recover. Today, cattle of a cool burn versus a hot burn will have 400,000 square miles of North America. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department ranching with rotational grazing and haying different effects on species composition. Less than one percent remains. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/ provide a similar impact. A prescribed burn is a useful and America's grasslands are home to more Native Prairies Association of Texas necessary maintenance tool since the than 7,000 species of plants and animals. prairie plant community evolved under a http://www.texasprairie.org periodic fire and grazing regime. A 70% decline in grassland bird species Conducting a safe prescribed burn requires and populations is due to the drastic expertise and planning. Be certain to check decline in native prairie habitat. local regulations and permit procedures. A good native prairie would contain over 250 species of vascular plants that would SPONSORS WATER play host to a variety of microbiotic and Native prairies act as exceptional water macrobiotic organisms. filtration systems. Water quality improves as water is filtered through the depths of Forest regions contain about 20-50 tons of the native prairie, rather than running off topsoil per acre. An acre of tall grass prairie into a stream, lake, or sewer. Pollutants contains as much as 250 tons of topsoil. are filtered out, and local aquifers are recharged. An additional benefit is that the Highly diverse mixed stands of native soil is stabilized, and erosion is reduced. prairie plants are 240% more effective at Prescribed Native Prairie Burn CO2 sequestering than a single grassland monoculture and more effective than trees! Prairie species adapt to natural rainfall conditions from flooding to drought. .