South Texas Natives, Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 2015 Page: 1
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ativesA publication of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
at Texas A&M University-KingsvilleN\ ?v
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C,arrz Gemas litl blese in a sad oil restoration
__t Z1 . ` ", .planting I in the South Texas: Sad ht r/4 ,yt: <.~Native seed releases for
sandy soil restoration in
South Texas
By Forrest S. Smith
Savvy quail hunters know that
good quail country in South Texas
is often characterized by gopher
mounds, native bluestem grasslands,
and sandy soil. Many of these
areas represent the premier wildlife
habitat in the region, especially for
bobwhite quail. In large part, these
sand, sandy loam, and loamy sand
soil wildlife meccas exist today
because most of these areas were
unsuitable for cultivation, lacked
surface water and soil nutrients
allowing for habitual overgrazing,
and would not grow exotic grasses
available for use in past decades. As
a whole, much of the sandy land inSouth Texas has, and will continue
to be used primarily for grazing, and
increasingly such country's primary
value is for quail hunting.
Although many sandy rangelands
in South Texas have been relatively
insulated from disturbances that
negatively impacted the native plant
communities in the past, times are
changing. Man-caused disturbances
are today widely impacting these
"sweet spots" as commonly as
other sites in the region. For
example, in just the last decade in
the South Texas Sandsheet, large
scale disturbances from wind farms,
oil and gas pipelines, uranium
exploration, electric transmission
lines, and transportation
infrastructure improvements have
occurred. More of each is ahead in
all likelihood. These activities have
created substantial need and demand
for native seed sources for use onives
Spring 2015
Volume 9, Issue 1sandy rangelands in South Texas.
For the past 5 years, one of South
Texas Natives' priorities has been
developing seed sources for use
on sandy soils, in hopes of helping
landowners maintain these wildlife-
critical rangelands that increasingly
face impactful disturbances.
Most native plant communities
on sandy soils in South Texas are
grass dominated in undisturbed
states, and have extensive seedbanks
of forbs and legumes. We have
long worked with many of the
dominant grasses found on these
sites, including little, seacoast,
and big bluestems, switchgrass,
and Yellow Indiangrass. But along
with these late seral grasses, we
have also spent considerable time
developing seed sources of early
seral grasses, many of which are the
true keys to successful reclamation
of sandy sites after disturbance.
Early seral grasses for sandy
soils we have or are working with
include hooded windmillgrass,
slender and hairy gramas, red
lovegrass, southern witchgrass, and
sand dropseed. Our focus on native
grasses, instead of forbs or legumes
for sandy sites has been guided by
patterns of degradation observed on
sandy soils in the past decade and
a half. Many observations suggest
that without the reestablishmentof competitive native grass cover
(which is typically lost in most
man-caused disturbances), and
despite naturally strong forb and
legume communities in seedbanks,
disturbed sandy soils are especially
prone to invasion by guineagrass.
As a result, most all native plants1
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Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. South Texas Natives, Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 2015, periodical, Spring 2015; Kingsville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1659805/m1/1/: accessed May 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.