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From the story, "On a Holland ranch, vestiges of a sea of grass," in the Temple Daily Telegram:

In about 1859, an awestruck New York journalist got his first look at the prairie grass that once blanketed much of Central Texas.

“We came out suddenly, as if a curtain had risen, upon a broad prairie, reaching in swells like the ocean after a great storm,” wrote Frederick Law Olmsted (who would later design New York City’s Central Park).

Remnants of this legendary sea of grass that covered Central Texas several millennia before Europeans arrived with their steel tools, turning the soil, and later fencing the prairie, can still be found in parts of Bell County today.

You just have to know where to look.

During fall and winter, a bunch grass commonly called little bluestem is easily identified – even to city folk.  ….

Read the full story at the Temple Daily Telegram.

In today’s Dallas Morning News Community Opinion section article, "Your very own big give," Todd White wish he had the money to protect Wallace Prairie, the well known prairie remnant in Rockwall County.

"If I had a spare $10 million, I would buy the Rockwall County land known as the Wallace Prairie (if they’d sell it to me) and dedicate it as a conservation preserve forever, thus keeping an area of unbroken blackland prairie intact for future generations to enjoy.

Todd W. White, Rockwall"

If anyone knows Todd, let him know about the Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT)!  He should be a member!  🙂

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) released a policy statement that advocates we consider the ecosystem services and ecological sustainability of biofuel sources, and highlights native prairie and native plants as an example:

"CONSERVATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES. A focus on ecosystem services will provide the foundation necessary for win-win scenarios. It is easy to design systems for maximum crop yields; over a century of agronomic research has shown that this can be done very successfully. Managing for other ecosystem services also provided by agricultural landscapes is less common but equally necessary.  Lower yields from an unfertilized native prairie, for example, may be acceptable in light of the other benefits provided by native plants in an agricultural landscape. These include:

• A complete and closed cycling of nutrients;
• Minimized flooding and increased groundwater recharge;
• Enhanced  carbon sequestration in the soil because tilling would be unnecessary;
• Fewer pests because habitat for insects and birds that prey on them is left intact;
• Genetic diversity;
• Reduced nitrogen and phosphorus runoff because no fertilizer is needed;
• Reduced soil erosion due to continuous soil cover;
• Reduced nitrous oxide production; and
• Pollinator habitat and resources."

Read the full article, "Biofuel Sustainability", on the Ecological Society of America’s web site.

NPAT is hiring an Executive Director!

Native Prairies Association of Texas (TX), Executive Director – NPAT seeks a full time Executive Director with a passion for conservation to lead the organization in its mission to conserve and restore the native prairies and other grasslands of Texas. NPAT is a land trust protecting over 1,200 acres of native Texas prairie, including critically imperiled tallgrass prairie.

Responsibilities include fundraising and donor relations, strategic planning, and community outreach in addition to overall management of the organization. Candidates should possess a successful fundraising record, strong communication and management skills, and experience with conservation. Salary and benefits are competitive and commensurate with experience. NPAT is an equal opportunity employer.

To apply, send cover letter, resume, and references to: (preferred) apply@texasprairie.org or NPAT, Search Committee, 2002 – A Guadalupe St. PMB 290, Austin, TX 78705-5609. Applications accepted until position is filled (please submit by March 31st, 2008).

Visit http://texasprairie.org/ for a full job description and more information about NPAT.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a great article about tallgrass prairie, prairie conservation, and the Flint Hills of Oklahoma and Kansas:

"I could have been in Africa. Before me the tawny savanna stretched unimpeded to a horizon where it met a vast ceiling of blue. The soft folds of land were stippled with grazing wildlife: enormous wildebeest-like creatures munching peacefully on the ochre carpet of grasses. This was Oklahoma, though the vistas that I surveyed were as beautiful, once as widespread and every bit as endangered as the grasslands thousands of miles away.

I had come to Oklahoma to revisit the tallgrass prairie that, as little as 100 years ago, covered 142 million acres of the country’s heart in a great swath that ran from Manitoba to the Gulf of Mexico. Today, less than 10 percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains, most of it given over to farming. The few enduring unbroken stretches lie in areas too difficult to cultivate: in the appropriately named Flint Hills of Oklahoma and Kansas."

Read the full article, Into the Bluestem Sea by Linda Watanabe McFerrin, on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web page.