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Research at the Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Chicago has found that native prairie plants and prairie soils hold more carbon than crop land and plants.

"Beyond growing crops like corn and soybeans, prairie soil is better than soils found in other parts of the United States at retaining carbon dioxide" said Roser Matamala, a terrestrial ecologist in Argonne’s Biosciences Division who was the lead researcher of the two projects that measured the intake and release of carbon dioxide of the different soils and plants.  Her research also found that native prairie grasses absorb much carbon dioxide than crop plants.

Read "Argonne, UIC researchers get the dirt on prairie soil" at anl.org for more information.

When: Saturday and Sunday, July 28th-29th
Where: Clay and Archer Counties, TX

Come see large amounts of native prairie in and around the Henrietta Prairie!  See native grasses, native flowers and other native plants, and probably grassland birds, butterflies, and other native pollinators.

The Henrietta Prairie region is the western part of the Cross Timbers and Prairies (Clay and Archer Counties) in a transition zone between the tallgrass prairies of the region and the mixed-grass prairies of the Rolling Plains.

Jim Edison says "this area looks like the Flint Hills [of Kansas/Oklahoma] in terms of scale" of the amount of native prairie that still exists, so it should be an impressive prairie trip for fans of native prairies, grassland birds, and native plants! (more…)

The 80th Texas Legislature has approved additional park funding.  Articles say TPWD got about 90% of the funding requested, but the way it was structured is not a long term funding fix.

Funds for new park acquisition are mostly restricted to a specific park near Fort Worth and for use by local and county governments for parks, which seems to preclude prairie conservation with the funds unless a local or county would conserve prairie in a park using the local grant funds.

Other articles about the increases funding:

• Tyler Morning Telegraph: Parks Department Happy With Legislature’s Budget
• Houston Chronicle: House bills nearly double state parks’ budget
• Environment Texas: Details on Parks Funding Victory
• B and B Blog: Parks funding: "a tremendous short-term victory", but long term is "unfinished business"

A Prairie News Update has been emailed to the Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT) email list!

You can also read it on the NPAT web site.  Contents include:

• Upcoming Prairie Field Trips and Events
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Prairie Property For Sale
• Restoration/Grant Opportunities
• Other News

Subscribe to the NPAT-announce email list to receive Prairie News Updates and other prairie field trip and event announcements.
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Wildflower Tour of Bear Creek Ranch – June 9, 2007 – Saturday 10am-1pm

Owned by the Dixon Water Foundation, the 1700 acre Bear Creek Ranch supports deep soiled tallgrass prairie, limestone glades, and streamside forest. Come see this spectacular part of the Fort Worth Prairie.

The Nature Conservancy’s Jim Eidson will talk about natural history, and Robby Tuggle, ranch manager, will talk about sustainable grazing.
Located at 2701 Bear Creak Rd., Aledo, TX 76008 (west of Fort Worth). Click here for directions.

For more information, contact the Nature Conservancy’s Jim Eidson, 903-568-4139, jeidson@tnc.org. Also see the field trip flyer.

“I can sit on the porch before my door and see miles of the most beautiful prairie interwoven with groves of timber, surpassing, in my mind, the beauties of the sea. Think of seeing a tract of land on a slight include covered with flowers and rich meadow grass for 12 to 20 miles…” – John Brooke, an early settler in the tallgrass prairies of Texas, 1849

Out of the original 20 million acres of beautiful Texas tallgrass prairie, less than 1% remains due to suburban sprawl, plowing for row-crop agriculture, and improper overgrazing during the last 150 years.

Our current generation is the last chance to save this important piece of Texas’ cultural and natural heritage, and with Texas’ high projected population growth we must act now to save these special places.

As a fundraiser for the organizatons, I created CafePress stores with logo clothing, mugs, and bags for the Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT) and the Austin chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT).

NPSOT-NPAT 2007 Symposium store
Native Prairies Association of Texas (NPAT) store
Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) – Austin chapter store

Show your love of Texas prairies and native plants by wearing these shirts while raising money for these worthy organizations.  Proceeds benefit NPAT and NPSOT-Austin in their respective missions.

The Blackland Prairie, part of Texas’ tallgrass prairies, once occupied 12 million acres of Texas, from the Red River near the Oklahoma border, south through Dallas, Waco, Temple, and Austin down to San Antonio.  The tall prairie grasses and flowers created extremely rich soils, which led to most of the Blackland Prairie being plowed for agriculture.

Perhaps only one-tenth of one percent of Texas’ beautiful Blackland Prairie remains in native hay meadows or places too rocky to plow, and many of these endangered places are slowly disappearing over time to the plow and development.

There are people who care about the prairie and search for remnants of the Blackland, hoping to find a special piece of what was and experience it as those who first came to Texas did and maybe even protecting some of the ever decreasing gems that remain.  Matt White is one of these people, and he tells an incredible tale of both destruction and hope in Prairie Time – A Blackland Portrait.
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