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Monday, February 25, 2019
Amber waves of grain making a comeback Members from the Grayson County Master Gardeners met for a field trip on a mild sunny day last November at the Austin College’s Sneed Prairie Restoration project. The site is 100 acres of land about 10 miles west of Sherman off Old Southmayd Road, north of Highway 82. It was formerly the Clinton and Edith Sneed family farm and was donated to Austin College in 1984.
is a very effective demonstration.
At our monthly general meeting in February, Mr. Archer and Dr. Peter Schulze, Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Austin College, gave a presentation on the worldwide impact of grassland ecosystems and the history of the Sneed Project. The site hosts field trips for area schools to teach a course on land use, ecology and conservation. Since the Spring of The land is located in an area of the 2002, there have been field trips from 37 schools and more than Blackland Prairie ecosystem that stretches from the Red River to San 11,000 students. Their program is TEKS-aligned to teach children Antonio, covering more than 14 through hands-on activities. More million acres. Hundreds of years information is available at ago, central North America was Austincollege.edu, Sneed Prairie predominantly grassland - amber waves of grain - stretching south to Field Trip Program. There are four grass species that north from Texas to Canada and are dominant in our Blackland east to west from Illinois to Montana. The root systems of the Prairie area. They are Little various grasses reached ten feet or Bluestem, Big Bluestem, more into the ground, making the Indiangrass and Switchgrass. The diagram provided by plants drought tolerant and harpethriver.com shows the height providing rich nutrients for the of the plants and the depth of the millions of grazing bison as they roots as compared to a typical turf migrated. The prairieland grasses grass. carried rainfall deep into their roots, returning it to the groundwater, reducing flooding and The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center provides in-depth sustaining life on the prairie for information about the care and man and wildlife. feeding of thousands of plants. Now fast forward about 200 or so Their extensive database can be years. Our communities have been found at wildflower.org and they provide the following descriptions. built, covering the ground with (Information edited for length.) impervious surfaces; our crops yield their abundance but deplete Little False Bluestem nutrients from the soil and, by (Schizachyrium scoparium) is an comparison, have shallow root ornamental bunchgrass with finesystems. Rather than the rainfall soaking back into the groundwater, textured foliage that forms very dense mounds 18-24 inches in it runs along the surface, causing erosion of top soil and flooding in height. Slender, blue-green stems appear in August, reach three feet our cities. by September and become radiant Our field trip was hosted by Kelby mahogany-red with white, shining Archer, Coordinator for the Center seed tufts in the fall. Color remains nearly all winter. In winter, the for Environmental Studies at Austin College. We walked several seeds, fuzzy white at maturity, are of particular value to small birds. of the fields which have been divided into sections of about 10 Big Bluestem or Turkeyfoot acres, and each area is managed with different practices of periodic (Andropogon gerardii) has fingercutting, cattle grazing and burning. like seed heads that somewhat Mr. Archer told us about volunteers resemble a turkey’s foot. It reaches a height of 12 feet in favorable from our communities, the Alpha bottomland sites. Big Bluestem is a Delta Chi sorority and college warm season, perennial bunchgrass students who have worked on the with blue-green stems four to eight land, conducted research projects feet tall. Fall color is maroonishand collected data through the tan. Overgrazing and land years to track the progress of destruction have reduced it to mere restoration and the impact of a return to cultivation in certain areas patches of its former range. Part of of several types of native grasses. the problem is that cattle love it so much - some ranchers refer to it as A diorama has been built ice cream for cows - and it cannot demonstrating the impact of rainwater falling onto two sections take concentrated grazing; the of land. One section represents our seasonal grazing of migratory bison is what it’s evolved to cope current landscape, a mix of with. shallow-root grasses, trees and compacted soils. One section represents a landscape covered with Yellow Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) is a tall, bunching sodnative grasses. Water is released overhead to represent rainfall and former, three to eight feet in height, with broad blue-green drainpipes and jugs are placed to blades and a large, plume-like, catch surface runoff and soft, golden-brown seed head. This groundwater recharging. After showy perennial’s fall color is allowing time for the water to deep orange to purple. This is a drain/soak in, it was obvious that beautiful grass with a somewhat most of the water in the “current landscape” side had run off the land metallic golden sheen to its flowering parts. It is an important and not soaked deep into the soil. associate in the tallgrass prairies The native grass landscape had very little runoff, with most of the and is relished by livestock. It water soaked deep into the earth. It appears to be favored by
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Howe Youth Softball 2019 team rosters 6U Team 1 Coaches Chris Barrett and Nielsen Jones Evelyn Ore, Genevieve Noble, Erin Noble, Audrey Barrett, Emma Teel, Charlie Pech, Hana Lawson, Maci Kuykendall, Brooklyn Halladay, Ava White. 6U Team 2 Coach Alyssa Thomas Stella Thomas, Tatum Tolbert, Payton Cartwright, Avery Landino, Paisley Davis, Brooklynn Escamilla, Kaydence Shirley, Emma-Lynn Gray, Leena Fullenchek. 8U Team 1 Coach Alison Boyd Kylee Simms, Kennedy Garner, Emma Alvarez, Raegan Mckinney, Shannon Hejnes, Lainee Turner, Payton Hightower, Kinley Willits, Kenzleigh Simms, Bella Stevens, 8U Team 2 Coach Christina Reynolds
Parker, Novalee Webb, Ema Brown. 10U Coach Bradleigh Herbert Tabitha Bjorn, Somang Lawson, Ava Herbert-Muse, Alyssa Russell, Allyson Dobecka, Isabel Henley, MaKenzie Edgett, Elizabeth McLaughlin, Mariska Hathorn, Hadlee Phillips, Madison Wade.
Elizabeth Dobecka, Sydney Brewer, Ava Abernathy, Kahlynne Moore, Lilly McDaniel, Mckinnley Reynolds, Neallee Rogers, Brynnadi Blaylock, Abigal Clark, Delaine McCloud,
12U Coach Zack McCollum
8U Team 3 Coach Alexa Brunner
14U Coach Twana Stubblefield
Taylor Brunner, Katelin Patterson, Adaline Carter, Jenni Whitmire, Mary-Kate Douglas, Maylem Murillo, Brooklyn Bjorn, Kassidy
Talia Bjorn, Khara Jordan, Kayley Laubin, Jentry Dotty, Ryleigh Craven, Marry Burris, Payton Stapelton, Teaghan Stubblefield, Emma Denison.
occasional flooding and repeated burning and sometimes forms nearly pure stands in the lowlands. It is a warm-season grass with rich gold-and-purple sprays of flowers and seeds in the fall. The bright yellow flowers contrast attractively with the blue-gray foliage. The grass stays low most of the year and then gets tall before blooming in early autumn. Like Little Bluestem, Indiangrass is best planted en masse or in a wildflower meadow. Its deer resistance is high, it provides seeds for birds, and it is a larval host to the Pepper-and-Salt Skipper butterfly.
Avi Acevedo, Riley McCollum, Olivia Dimayuga, Zoe Thompson, Dakota Campbell, Tori Stevens, Lauren Catching, Ryleigh Jenkins,
(sometimes with orange tints) in autumn, fading to tan-beige in winter. The foliage clump is topped in midsummer by finely-textured, pinktinged, branched flower panicles which hover over the foliage like an airy cloud. Panicles turn beige as the seeds mature in fall with the seed plumes persisting well into winter. Seeds are a food source for birds. Switchgrass generally performs best in full sun; it will grow in part shade but begins to lose its form in too much shade, growing more openly and possibly falling over. It will slowly spread by slightly creeping rhizomes. Plants may self-seed in optimum growing conditions but The Missouri Botanical Garden cultivars may not come true from website is another resource for plant seed. databases and provides the following information on With the work that is progressing at Switchgrass (edited for length). the Sneed Prairie, the best practices Their web page is for grassland restoration will be Missouribotanicalgarden.org. achieved. To join a tour or volunteer at Sneed Prairie, visit Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is Austincollege.edu, Kelby Archer, a Missouri native ornamental grass Coordinator. Additional resources which was an important component about establishing native grasses can of the tallgrass prairie which once be found at Texasprairie.org. This covered large areas of the State. It article was compiled by Marigay occurs in both wet and dry soils in Black, Grayson County Master prairies and open woods, gravel Gardener. Grayson County Master bars and stream banks and along Gardeners Association is a non-profit railroad tracks throughout most of 501(c)(3) organization sponsored by the State. Switchgrass is a clump- the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension forming, warm season grass which Service. Reach us by email at typically grows to three feet tall. mastergardeners@co.grayson.tx.us, When in flower, flower panicles by phone 903-813-4204, our web may bring total plant height to six page feet. It features medium green graysoncountymastergardeners.net, leaves which turn yellow or our Facebook group.
