Prairie  Restora+on  at  Sheldon  Lake  State  Park  

Restoring  Agricultural  Lands  to  Prairie  

Andrew  Sipocz  Texas  Parks  and  Wildlife  Department  

State  Parks  Division  Andrew.sipocz@tpwd.texas.gov  

Why  Are  You  Doing  This?  

•  Na+ve  Pasture/Hay  Field  •  BuKerfly/Pollinator  Habitat  •  Urban  Na+ve  Plant  Garden  •  Hun+ng  Area/Lease  •  Plant  and  Wildlife  Conserva+on  

This  will  determine  how  you  will  go  about  much  of  your  restora+on  work  

What  Are  The  Site  Constraints?  •  LiKle  funding  or  staff,  most  of  the  work  funded  by  grants  and  done  by  volunteers  

•  Future  management  must  be  inexpensive  and  not  labor  intensive  

•  Difficulty  with  contracts  or  out  of  Department  site  use  

Methods  Done  in  phases  as  money  and  staff  +me  becomes  available  and  volunteers  are  ready  to  move  on  to  the  next  sec+on  

Heavily  dependent  upon  prescribed  fire  to  manage  and  prepare  the  site  

Sheldon  Lake  State  Park  Prairie  Restora+on  

Why?  •  To  provide  visitors  with  a  view  of  an  authen+c  coastal  prairie  landscape  (prior  to  severe  altera+on)  

•  To  conserve  Texas’  coastal  prairie  plant  and  wildlife  species  (Biodiversity)  

Goals  Topographic  restora+on  

Reestablish  the  en+re  suite  of  species  once  found  in  the  Park’s  prairies  

What  Are  The  Current  Site  Condi+ons?  

•  At  Sheldon  the  site  had  been  land-­‐leveled  for  rice  and  had  been  farmed  with  corn  and  other  row  crops  

•  Prior  to  that  the  site  had  been  inundated  for  10  years    

•  Residual  plant  species  were  a  typical  mix  of  agricultural  weeds  

Sheldon  Lake  State  Park  Prairie  Restora+on  

How  Was  It  Accomplished?  

•  Adap+ve  Management  •  Each  phase  has  been  accomplished  differently  

•  Always  learning  and  never  sa+sfied  (normal  condi+on  for  prairie  restora+onists)  

Get  To  Know  Your  Site  

•  Holocene  and  Beaumont  Geologic  Forma+ons  (Coastal  Terrace)  o Meander  ridges  with  channel  scars,  ponds,  mima  fields  o Interdistributary  Valleys  (flats  and  very  broad  swales)  

•  Lissie  Geologic  and  Willis  Geologic  Forma+ons  and  Older  o  Original  fluvial  deltaic  topography  has  been  erased  through  erosion  o  Ponds  and  mima  fields  o  Salt  dome  ridges,  faults  o  Creeks  

Texas  Coastal  Prairie  (Clay  Plain)  Geologic  Seang  

Holocene  –  during  Pleistocene  high  stands  the  Brazos  and  other  rivers  were  not  entrenched  and  

did  this  across  the  coastal  plain  

Sheldon’s  Geologic  Seang  and  Soils  

•  Beaumont  derived  from  San  Jacinto/Trinity  River  sediments  (sandier  than  Brazos  River)  

•  Two  very  prominent  meander  ridges  with  two  valleys  o Lighter  (loams  and  fine  sands)  soils  on  the  meander  ridges  with  lots  of  historic  ponds  and  mima  mounds  

o Heavier  (clays)  soils  in  the  intervening  valleys  

Beaumont  Coastal  Terrace  Geologic  Seang  

•  This  is  known  as  a  site’s  Topoedaphic  Sequence  

•  Each  unique  set  of  soils  and  topography  supports  a  different  group  of  plant  and  wildlife  species  

Different  Types  Of  Soil,  pH  Levels,  Degree  Of  Wetness  

How  Did  We  Determine  Sheldon’s  Historic  Plant  Communi+es?  

•  Historic  photos  •  Soil  maps  (Beware  of  inclusions  –  10-­‐acre  mapping  units  and  errors)  

•  Detailed  topographic  maps  or  LIDAR  •  Nearby  Reference  Sites  for  each  topoedaphic  seang  •  Geologic  seang  •  Soil  cores  and  soil  tests  •  Field  experience  

lots  and  lots  of  field  experience  –  visi+ng  rela+vely  undisturbed  reference  areas,  being  aware  of  their  

management  history  and  topoedaphic  seang  and  having  decent  botanical  skills  are  necessary  

Historic  Photos  and  Topographic  Maps  

Nearby  Reference  Sites  Same  set  of  historic  

photos  and  topographic  maps  were  viewed  for  the  

reference  sites  

Soil  Pits  To  Verify  Aerial  Photos  

Seeding/Plan+ng  

•  Natural  plant  communi+es  develop  through  differen+al  germina+on  and  survival  of  seeds  and  seedlings  ! A  broad  mix  of  species  uniformly  seeded  across  a  site  will  form  

different  plant  communi+es  dependent  upon  the  various  topoedaphic  seangs  

! You  may  desire  to  create  different  seed  mixes  in  order  to  not  waste  seed  

•  Use  of  sprigs  avoids  this  stage,  so  probably  best  to  leave  things  as  they’re  found  at  reference  sites  ! You  get  what  you  plant  where  you  plant  it,  you’ve  bypassed  the  prairie’s  

“sor+ng  out  stage”  ! Large  or  vegeta+vely  aggressive  species  may  crowd  out  those  that  would  

normally  be  found  in  that  microhabitat  

Sheldon  Seeding  •  Phase  I  used  a  wet,  mesic  and  dry  seed  mix  all  of  which  were  

derived  from  AKwater  NWR  fall  harvests  and  addi+onal  commercially  grown  seed  

•  Phase  II  and  II  used  a  single  mix  largely  derived  from  fall  harvests  of  the  Univ.  of  Houston  Coastal  Center  with  AKwater’s  added  for  increased  liKle  bluestem  density.    This  mix  was  mostly  Andropogon  glomeratus  and  A.  virginicus  with  about  40  other  species  of  grasses  and  forbs  (whatever  was  ripe  during  the  Thanksgiving  harvest).    The  Andropogon  matrix  seems  a  good  way  of  keeping  out  weeds  (Vasey  Grass,  Australian/Asian  Bluestems)  while  allowing  interplan+ng  and  interseeding  to  occur  later  on.  

•  Recent  San  Jacinto  SHS  used  a  seed  mix  harvested  from  the  Dick  Benoit  Prairie  Preserve  in  League  City  with  100+  species  including  all  topoedaphic  sites  typically  found  on  the  Beaumont  Terrace  prairies  

San  Jacinto  SHS  Single  Mix  “ecosystem  in  a  bag”  (Benoit  Prairie  in  League  City)  

Sheldon  Plan+ngs  •  The  plan+ng  program  is  a  long  term  undertaking  to  increase  the  cover  and  

diversity  of  na+ve  prairie  plants  in  the  restora+on  area;  this  is  typically  referred  to  as  interplan+ng  and  interseeding  (plan+ng  and/or  seeding  into  a  prairie  that  has  been  either  degraded  from  past  management  or  was  established  through  seeding  but  is  species  depauperate)  o  Seed  mixes  used  at  Sheldon  were  derived  from  single  harvests  and  only  

contain  what  was  ripe  at  the  +me,  thus  the  need  to  add  species  to  the  restora+on  

•  Volunteers  collect  and  grow  many  species  of  locally  collected  grasses  and  forbs,  both  through  digging  and  transplanta+on  of  culms  and  germina+on  and  propaga+on  of  collected  seed  

•  Some  seed,  especially  larger  forb  seed,  is  directly  sown  onto  the  restora+on  site  

•  More  effort  is  being  given  towards  matching  species  and  site  condi+ons  versus  earlier  wholescale  grid  paKern  plan+ng  of  uniform  species  mix  

Why  Be  Cau+ous  About  Plant  Collec+on  Loca+ons  When  Sprigging  and  

Choosing  Seed  Harvest  Loca+ons?  

•  The  same  species  or  similar  genotypes  (phenotypes)  are  likely  to  be  found  on  the  same  soil  types  and  topographic  seangs  regardless  of  distance  apart  (ex.  Dunes  Paspalum,  Gulf  Coast  Cordgrass,  Prairie  Cordgrass,  Jamaica  Sawgrass)  

and  yet  •  Divergent  genotypes  may  grow  next  to  one  another  where  the  

topoedaphic  sequence  is  steep  (changes  quickly).    Differen+al  seed  germina+on  and  seedling  survival  keeps  the  gene+cs  sorted  (June  Grass).  

•  Sprigs  will  grow  wherever  you  plant  them,  even  if  not  typical  of  that  site.    They  maybe  displacing  other  poten+al  species.  

Sheldon  Phase  IV  

Sheldon  Prairie  Management