PLANT AND HABITAT PROTECTION

September 21, 2001
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas

David Bezanson, executive director of the Natural Area Preservation Association, the oldest and largest land trust in the state, with 35,000 acres and 50 preserves under protection, gave a presentation on the priorities in plant community and ecozone protection in Texas. In his geography master thesis at the University of Texas at Austin, Mr. Bezanson compiled records on 120 plant communities in the state, discovering how many acres were protected in private or public (local, state or federal) preserves, and how much pressure there might be on unprotected remnants from sprawl, agricultural development, reservoirs, and other forces. Based on this research, he found a number of interesting trends in the state:

Of the 2 million acres protected in Texas, 48% lies in Big Bend. This is certainly fortunate for that high desert ecosystem, but indicates that other areas, such as those closer to population centers and more generous rainfall, are underprotected. For instance, while 5% of the Big Bend lies within preserves of some kind, only 0.001% of the Panhandle is protected.

In East Texas, there is more conservation land per capita than any other part of the state, but this does not seem unwise to Mr. Bezanson, given the high land use pressures from sprawl, logging and reservoirs, and the great natural and wildlife values that the area boasts. As an example of these pressures, he cited the longleaf pine system, which once covered 1 million acres, but was heavily logged in the early 20th century, and later replanted to commercial slash pine species. Longleaf now only covers 10,000 acres, just half of which is protected. As a second example, he mentioned the hardwood forests that are found in East Texas, and which can have as many as 180 species of trees and shrubs. Unfortunately, if all projected reservoirs are built in East Texas, this bottomland hardwood ecosystem will largely disappear.

In Central Texas, Mr. Bezanson discussed the fate of the blackland tallgrass prairie, which once spread from the Red River to San Antonio, covering more than 12 million acres. At this time, fewer than 10,000 acres remains statewide, most in fragile 5- to 10-acre hay meadow remnants. Ann Hamilton asked if any of the owners of these remnants were being contacted and told of the preciousness of these prairies, and the options for their protection. David said that individuals and the Native Prairie Association of Texas were seeking out these owners, but that often they confronted similar stories of feuding and absentee owners.

In South Texas, Mr. Bezanson reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been remarkably successful in both purchasing and restoring lands along the lower Rio Grande, but that water demand and population increases in the Valley, where human numbers have tripled since 1970, threaten to outstrip any conservation work.

Mr. Bezanson also reviewed the situation in the Hill Country, where he noted the need to protect the area’s canyon forests, rivers and springs, and Llano granite domes and cliffs. These and other Hill Country features are being threatened by sprawl from Austin and San Antonio, bidding up land prices and fragmenting large ranch habitat.

In the Panhandle, the conservation focus is on the playa lakes, which provide key stopover sites for migrating ducks, geese, cranes and shorebirds. While there are 20,000 playa lakes in north Texas, many are vulnerable to runoff from cropped areas, feedlots, and oilfields. Only 5 playas are protected in Texas.

In West Texas and the Trans Pecos, conservationists such as Mr. Bezanson are most concerned about the fate of the desert springs, half of which have already run dry due to aquifer pumpage over large contributing zones, making it costly and politically difficult to protect these critical springflows. The springs are valuable as sources of water for birds, deer, antelope and other desert area wildlife, but are essential to the endemic fish and invertebrates found only in the springs themselves.

In sum, David Bezanson said that his group’s goal is to raise money and awareness, to purchase representative tracts, to find conservation buyers, or to encourage existing owners to protect their lands.

Questions and Answers - Bezanson Presentation

Q: How was the Texas land protection report compiled? David explained that he contacted managers of federal preserves, grasslands and forests, state parks, wildlife management areas, and local open spaces, and compiled the information in a database and GIS-developed map. He emphasized that the summary report he presented to TEGG only touched on the 10 most endangered and significant ecosystems. Actually, his thesis covered 120 plant communities, there are more than 30 major plant communities in the state with less than 1000 acres protected.

Q: Have such recent Nature Conservancy preserves as Southmost Ranch and Love Creek been included in Mr. Bezanson’s survey? He said that they were, and that the Conservancy had been a key contributor to the study, and had a copy of his thesis. He feels that the Conservancy is doing a good job on protecting ecologically important areas, particularly since it is less politically vulnerable than groups like Texas Parks and Wildlife. However, some of this land protection effort needs the deeper pockets of the state, as the costly acquisition of Love Creek has shown.

Nichole Briscoe said that Parks and Wildlife is still short on land acquisition money, and will likely remain so for the near term, despite the bonds on the ballot for this fall. These $90 million in bonds are largely for infrastructure backlog work, not for new land purchases. However, since the Legislature’s reluctance to fund new park purchases has often been based on the maintenance backlog, perhaps a successful bond vote will clear the way for new state funding.

Q: Were there any promising models for land protection: for instance, did Mr. Bezanson think that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife effort in the Valley might be something to imitate elsewhere? Mr. Bezanson said that he thought it was a good effort, in particular due to the work on restoring old cotton lands to native vegetation.

Q: Where would funds best be spent in Texas to protect critical habitat? Mr. Bezanson thought that two areas were most promising: 1) east Texas, where land prices were relatively low, population centers were close, and biodiversity was very high, and 2) central Texas prairies, which were highly endangered and yet in small enough pieces where small amounts of money could make a critical difference.

Q: Could Mr. Bezanson give an update on the liquidation of International Paper’s 800,000 acres of east Texas woodlands acquired last year from Champion Paper? Mr. Bezanson explained that he thought that much of the land would likely rotate into ownership by other large timber products companies, since the land is being sold in costly 100,000-acre plots. However, he hoped that the U.S. government would buy some of the former Champion lands that surround the Big Thicket National Preserve, and other properties that are in the Angelina bottomlands.

It was noted that Pete Gunter, a professor at UNT, had updated the Big Thicket preserve and ecozone map, which might be helpful to public or private entities trying to enlarge the park or create buffers around it.

Q: Mr. Bezanson was asked to describe the Nature Conservancy’s ecoregional plan. Mr. Bezanson said that the Conservancy was doing its usual fine job, but that he was concerned that its five-year pace might make some of the results less relevant, since development and land pricing might make protection difficult once the plan was complete.

Q: Why should land acquisition and stewardship be important to funders, compared with other environmental needs, such as education, advocacy, research, etc.? Mr. Bezanson was unwilling to say that acquisition was most important, but he felt that we would regret not protecting some of these remnants if we look back 100 years from now.

Plant and Ecosystem Protection [Ted Barkley, BRIT]:

Ted Barkley is a research associate at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, BRIT. BRIT holds a collection of over 7 million botanical specimens and 70,000 research volumes, contributes to research monographs, offers outreach programs to teachers and students, and mounts collection expeditions to such botanically rich areas as Papua New Guinea. Dr. Barkley is involved there in research on the sunflower group of plants; formerly he taught botany at Kansas State University and managed research at the 9000-acre Flint Hill prairie, the largest tallgrass remnant in the U.S.

Dr. Barkley explained that prairie has a key role in the U.S. history and economy. For example, the Erie Canal was built largely to allow barges from the fertile prairie states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana to bring wheat and corn to the mills at Buffalo, New York, and from there to New York City to sell as flour to western Europe. With capital raised from these grain sales, New Jersey entrepreneurs were able to buy the first operable U.S. locomotive, the John Bull, to help open the North American continent to railroads.

He also finds that the prairies tell a story about the much longer ecological history of America. For example, the great prairie of the Midwest was formed out of the warming trend and glacial melting of 20,000 years ago. By contrast, the relict prairies of the Connecticut Valley, Shenandoah Valley, and Long Island were created out of the cooling phase that occurred 6000 to 7000 years ago.

In view of the critical role of prairies in the U.S., Dr. Barkley feels that it is essential to understand better how prairies function - how photosynthesis works in these grasses, how nematodes and small mammals work in the soils, and how the large grazers, the bison and cattle, contribute as well. He emphasized Aldo Leopold’s point here - that no single part or species stands alone - that it is the whole community that must be protected in order to protect each member of the community.

Unfortunately, most of the virgin prairies that remain in the U.S. are in small fragments, and in pieces that were on the extreme western ends of the great prairie, in an area that was too dry to farm. He finds that they no longer make up a true, robust ecological community. The remnants are certainly too small and fragmented to support the bear, buffalo, mountain lion, and elk - the macro species - that once inhabited and supported the prairie. These prairie tracts are now only ghosts or museum pieces.

In view of erosion of the prairie, Dr. Barkley is sometimes asked whether it is possible to return to a pristine ecosystem, either in the prairie or elsewhere. He finds that this is the wrong question, since what is "pristine" depends on timing, since a climax system will be different depending on climate. He also thinks we need to ask whether it is worth trying to restore or protect a plant species that may only be rare because of its location on the fringe of its true range, or because it is a cultivated species that is seldom or never found in the wild (such as striped tulips).

Questions and Answers - Barkley Presentation

Q: Given the typical small size of Texas prairie remnants, is it worth trying to protect them, not for themselves, but perhaps as sources of seed for restoring prairies elsewhere? Dr. Barkley said that protection was useful, but that it was important to keep in mind that some prairie species, such as big bluestem, did not usually reproduce by seed, but by rhizomes. In those cases, plants would need to be dug up and sprigged in order to help with restoration elsewhere.

David Bezanson said that there was a need to preserve prairie and other ecosystem remnants if only to maintain the full suite of biodiversity, and to protect unusual variants. For instance, there are rare dogwoods that have adapted to chalk soils that would be of great interest to landscapers in the Hill Country.

Q: What was Dr. Barkley’s opinion about genetic engineering in agriculture? Dr. Barkley said that all crops are engineered, mostly long ago by pre-literate man, who sped up and directed natural evolution by choosing and breeding odd plants that thrived in middens. He did feel that there is a difference between splicing genes within a species, and across genuses and orders.

Q: Does BRIT maintained specimens of crop seeds, given the big drop in the numbers of seed varieties now propagated and sold in the U.S.? Dr. Barkley said that BRIT did not hold crops in their herbarium, but noted that he was less worried about crops such as sorghum which are relatively young and still have lots of variation and diversity and resistance to disease. He is more concerned about older, less variant crops like wheat that many be more vulnerable to blight.