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doe jumping through tall grass, a baby armadillo fumbling through fallen leaves, an assassin bug on the hunt for a meal on an American basketflower. These are just a few examples of the diverse life that can be found at Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center. For Jones Park’s Forester David Jamar and Assistant Director Matthew Abernathy, a diverse ecosystem of plants and wildlife at the 312-acre greenspace starts with proper forest management. “What most people don’t know is what the forest is supposed to look like,” said Abernathy. Using aerial images of the Greater Houston region from the 1940s and other historical accounts, Jamar and Abernathy know the area that is now Jones Park was not always densely forested like it is today. In fact, much of the area was primarily open prairie with a variety of wildflowers, grasses, and large, mature trees. Today, the dense vegetation seen throughout Jones Park and most of the region is a stark contrast to the natural landscape of the past. “You would have the bottomlands, like an open forest, and anywhere seasonal streams drained into larger bodies of water, you would have a greater abundance of trees and shrubs. Everything else was prairies,” Jamar explained.
Why is the Landscape Different Now? The devastation caused by forest fires, flooding, or freezing temperatures seems contradictory to the idea of preserving plants and wildlife. For Mother Nature though, the destruction can restore the natural balance of an ecosystem and spur new growth. Wildfires are one of the few types of natural disasters people have been able to combat or prevent, thanks to better firefighting capabilities and precautionary measures. As a result, one of nature’s most important ways of maintaining itself has been neutralized to some extent. Jones Park staff partnered with the Texas Forest Service in 2013 to create fire breaks – forested areas that have
been intentionally cleared of vegetation – to prevent the spread of fire into the residential areas along the park’s boundary. The fire breaks were implemented to help protect the subdivision’s residents, but they also helped restore the plant species in those areas along the fence line. Aside from nature, early settlers also played a role in disturbing the region’s ecosystem with farming. Later, the timber industry boomed as pines and other trees were heavily harvested, even as recently as the 1990s. Without a significant presence of wildfire, farmers, and lumberjacks, prolific underbrush and invasive species have grown unchecked.
Science and Elbow Grease Precinct 4’s Parks Department is determined to restore the forests at Jesse H. Jones Park & Nature Center using science and plenty of elbow grease. Cutting through forest underbrush with a machete is an on-the-job perk for Jamar and Abernathy. They’re passionate about ridding the park of unwanted undergrowth, but more importantly the reasons why.
wildflowers are pushed to the forest edge, which reduces the diversity in plants.
“Everything in the forest is in a competition for resources: light, water, nutrients,” Jamar said. Because yaupon is so aggressive and thrives in a variety of conditions, it can quickly become a dense layer that prevents light from reaching the soil. Jamar and Abernathy begin by reviewing the documented images from around 80 years ago to see where the landscape was more of an open forest with thinner canopies and more grassland. They next select a small area – perhaps a quarter-acre site – and conduct a survey of the vegetation. “There’s a purpose and science behind it,” said Abernathy. “We’re not just arbitrarily cutting. We’ll walk through to identify the key species that need to stay – the big trees, the canopy trees, the unique species.” The next step is removing the dense stands of yaupon and invasive species by hand to see what comes back up in a year or so. If there isn’t variety in what returns, they know it was probably historically just those species in the cleared section. “If we have amazing regeneration, then we know we did the right thing,” Abernathy said. For example, devil’s walking stick is
"A healthy ecosystem is a diverse ecosystem." “Probably 90% of what we’re removing is native yaupon,” said Jamar. “But even native plants can be invasive if they’re not properly managed. Other examples include cattails, grapevines, and peppervine.” Many of the forests in southeast Texas, including those in Jones Park, are overrun by invasive vegetation, including yaupon. As a result, species like sparkleberry, American holly, sassafras, sumac, fringetree, grasses, and
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