Verse of the Week

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

The land is located in an area of the Blackland Prairie ecosystem that stretches from the Red River to San Antonio, covering more than 14 million acres Hundreds of years ago, central North America was predominantly grassland - amber waves of grain - stretching south to north from Texas to Canada and east to west from Illinois to Montana The root systems of the various grasses reached ten feet or more into the ground, making the plants drought tolerant and providing rich nutrients for the millions of grazing bison as they migrated. The prairieland grasses carried rainfall deep into their roots, returning it to the groundwater, reducing flooding and sustaining life on the prairie for man and wildlife.

Now fast forward about 200 or so years Our communities have been built, covering the ground with impervious surfaces; our crops yield their abundance but deplete nutrients from the soil and, by comparison, have shallow root systems Rather than the rainfall soaking back into the groundwater, it runs along the surface, causing erosion of top soil and flooding in our cities

Our field trip was hosted by Kelby Archer, Coordinator for the Center for Environmental Studies at Austin College We walked several of the fields which have been divided into sections of about 10 acres, and each area is managed with different practices of periodic cutting, cattle grazing and burning Mr Archer told us about volunteers from our communities, the Alpha Delta Chi sorority and college students who have worked on the land, conducted research projects and collected data through the years to track the progress of restoration and the impact of a return to cultivation in certain areas of several types of native grasses

A diorama has been built demonstrating the impact of rainwater falling onto two sections of land One section represents our current landscape, a mix of shallow-root grasses, trees and compacted soils One section represents a landscape covered with native grasses Water is released overhead to represent rainfall and drainpipes and jugs are placed to catch surface runoff and groundwater recharging. After allowing time for the water to drain/soak in, it was obvious that most of the water in the “current landscape” side had run off the land and not soaked deep into the soil. The native grass landscape had very little runoff, with most of the water soaked deep into the earth It

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 2002, there have been field trips from 37 schools and more than 11,000 students Their program is TEKS-aligned to teach children through hands-on activities More information is available at Austincollege edu, Sneed Prairie Field Trip Program

There are four grass species that are dominant in our Blackland Prairie area They are Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Indiangrass and Switchgrass The diagram provided by harpethrivercom shows the height of the plants and the depth of the roots as compared to a typical turf grass.

The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center provides in-depth information about the care and feeding of thousands of plants. Their extensive database can be found at wildflowerorg and they provide the following descriptions (Information edited for length )

Little False Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is an ornamental bunchgrass with finetextured foliage that forms very dense mounds 18-24 inches in height Slender, blue-green stems appear in August, reach three feet by September and become radiant mahogany-red with white, shining seed tufts in the fall Color remains nearly all winter In winter, the seeds, fuzzy white at maturity, are of particular value to small birds

Big Bluestem or Turkeyfoot (Andropogon gerardii) has fingerlike seed heads that somewhat resemble a turkey’s foot It reaches a height of 12 feet in favorable bottomland sites Big Bluestem is a warm season, perennial bunchgrass with blue-green stems four to eight feet tall Fall color is maroonishtan Overgrazing and land destruction have reduced it to mere patches of its former range Part of the problem is that cattle love it so much - some ranchers refer to it as ice cream for cows - and it cannot take concentrated grazing; the seasonal grazing of migratory bison is what it’s evolved to cope with

Yellow Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) is a tall, bunching sodformer, three to eight feet in height, with broad blue-green blades and a large, plume-like, soft, golden-brown seed head This showy perennial’s fall color is deep orange to purple This is a beautiful grass with a somewhat metallic golden sheen to its flowering parts It is an important associate in the tallgrass prairies and is relished by livestock It appears to be favored by