June 2023

​Mission: promote using mountain cedars and other nature-based solutions to regenerate degraded Texas limestone karst country.

WHAT'S NEW?

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Ashe Juniper Symposium Highlights

The Ashe Juniper Symposium held last month in Austin was a success--almost 200 people registered. For those who couldn't make it, the 2-day event was recorded. We should have the link by the time our next newsletter goes out.

Here are some of the highlights:

SLOW DOWN THE RAIN!

The HEButt Foundation, Project Bedrock, and the City of Austin each discussed the importance of reducing overland storm flows to soak more rain into the ground. Sure, dense vegetation intercepts more rain than sparse grass, but since we get flash floods and hot summers, it is more important to use dense vegetation to slow down those rains and reduce soil moisture evaporation. 

ECOLOGICAL SITE DESCRIPTIONS ARE OUTDATED

Many land planners use ecological site descriptions (ESD) to determine what vegetation cover types "should be." Since most ESD describe vegetation that is mostly grass or grass with scattered oaks, they held feed the myth that the eastern Edwards Plateau was mostly grassland. However, although many Hill Country lands historically had grass cover, more lands were well-forested. So why do ESD claim these areas were mostly grass? Because they were developed only using data from open rangelands in the 1940s/1950s. They did not incorporate descriptions of nearby natural areas, nor did they consider the vegetation impacts before the 1900s, which were significant and involved clearcutting of the region's forests.  As one scientist pointed out at the symposium, based on the ESD, the region could not have supported golden-cheeked warblers, a forest-dependent species. Bryan Christensen with the USDA admitted the ESD were biased towards ranching and needed to be outdated.

FOREST DENSITY REDUCES FIRE RISK

There is a growing trend to use frequent ground fires to reduce fire risk in old-growth timber forests. The concept is to thin the canopy to reduce canopy fires and to increase sunlight on the ground to promote grass growth. As Elizabeth McGreevy with Project Bedrock explained, this approach works for forests with tall trees such as spruce, fir, redwood, and pine. It does not work for our Texas Karst Country's dryland forests. Why? Because our trees are short. Our dryland, old-growth forests naturally combat fire spread by maintaining a dense, low growth that creates a more humid microclimate, reduces grass cover, and reduces interior wind velocities. According to Justice Jones with Austin Wildland Fire, such forests rarely burn. 

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