Project Bedrock February Newsletter

Announcements February 2024 Our mission is to promote that woody brush, including mountain cedars (junipers), is part of the solution to regenerate degraded Texas karst country. WHAT'S NEW Tightening Our Mission Focus To make our outreach more effective and reduce overlap with other nonprofits, we opted to tighten our mission focus. Our current mission is to promote that woody brush, including mountain cedars (junipers), is part of the solution to regenerating degraded Texas karst country. We will teach why we need to shift away from viewing brush on karst country as bad to viewing them as nature-based solutions we can learn to use or work with. We will demonstrate how we can learn to work with or use woody brush to reduce erosion, sink storm flows, increase deep carbon, etc. To support our work, we will build a Texas karst country library and a working partner network. New Research from Africa Shows How Closed-canopy Forest Survive Alongside Grasslands This paper is an amazing study of fire ecology of grasslands and forest and can be readily applied to Texas karst country. Basically, the research team found forests are protected from grassland fires in four ways. I've summarized these strategies here: LONG-TERM STABILITY Shade: forests create and sustain shade to reduce spread of sun-loving flammable grasses for 100s to 1000s of years. Sun: grasslands remain open to top-kill new woody saplings TOPOGRAPHY Protected areas: low spots tend to be safe from fire Slope induced wind patterns: can force fires to be carried around forests or leave regenerating forest untouched EDGE FUEL Fire buffers: dense, partly-shaded, vegetated edges surrounding the forest that contain less flammable C4 and C3 species to reduce intensity of grassland fires Forest Edge Canopy Trees: act with fire buffers to protect interior, more-flammable trees (for example, Texas Red Oaks in TKC). FIRE BREAKS Discontinuous cover: bare ground or recently reduced grass cover (such as caused by grazing, tornado, stampedes). Broken terrain: slows and/or redirects groundfires (common in Texas karst country, not Africa) Upcoming Zoom Juniper Presentation Elizabeth McGreevy will present a talk about mountain cedars (juniper trees) February 13, starting at 6:45 pm to the Balcones Canyonlands TXMN chapter meeting. If you're interested in joining, click the link below: https://zoom.us/j/96189254251?pwd=ZTgydVd0RmhuUDcwVEd2MC9VT2o4Zz09#succes s Congratulations to GEAA! This month our fiscal sponsor GEAA (Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance) is celebrating 20 years of working hard to protect our Edwards and Trinity aquifers. Good job GEAA! Edwards Aquifer Alliance has acted as our fiscal sponsor and board of directors. Our first step to becoming a stand-alone 501(c)3 was to build our own board of directors. Over the last few months we met with a number of qualified individuals. We now have four amazing individuals with the expertise, knowledge, and connections we need. VISIT OUR WEBSITE ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Announcements

February 2024

Our mission is to promote that woody brush, including mountain cedars (junipers), is part of the solution to regenerate degraded Texas karst country.

WHAT'S NEW

Tightening Our Mission Focus

To make our outreach more effective and reduce overlap with other nonprofits, we opted to tighten our mission focus. Our current mission is to promote that woody brush, including mountain cedars (junipers), is part of the solution to regenerating degraded Texas karst country.

We will teach why we need to shift away from viewing brush on karst country as bad to viewing them as nature-based solutions we can learn to use or work with. We will demonstrate how we can learn to work with or use woody brush to reduce erosion, sink storm flows, increase deep carbon, etc. To support our work, we will build a Texas karst country library and a working partner network.

New Research from Africa Shows How Closed-canopy Forest Survive Alongside Grasslands

This paper is an amazing study of fire ecology of grasslands and forest and can be readily applied to Texas karst country. Basically, the research team found forests are protected from grassland fires in four ways. I've summarized these strategies here:

LONG-TERM STABILITY

Shade: forests create and sustain shade to reduce spread of sun-loving flammable grasses for 100s to 1000s of years.

Sun: grasslands remain open to top-kill new woody saplings

TOPOGRAPHY

Protected areas: low spots tend to be safe from fire

Slope induced wind patterns: can force fires to be carried around forests or leave regenerating forest untouched

EDGE FUEL

Fire buffers: dense, partly-shaded, vegetated edges surrounding the forest that contain less flammable C4 and C3 species to reduce intensity of grassland fires

Forest Edge Canopy Trees: act with fire buffers to protect interior, more-flammable trees (for example, Texas Red Oaks in TKC).

FIRE BREAKS

Discontinuous cover: bare ground or recently reduced grass cover (such as caused by grazing, tornado, stampedes).

Broken terrain: slows and/or redirects groundfires (common in Texas karst country, not Africa)

Upcoming Zoom Juniper Presentation

Elizabeth McGreevy will present a talk about mountain cedars (juniper trees) February 13, starting at 6:45 pm to the Balcones Canyonlands TXMN chapter meeting. If you're interested in joining, click the link below:

https://zoom.us/j/96189254251?pwd=ZTgydVd0RmhuUDcwVEd2MC9VT2o4Zz09#success

Congratulations to GEAA!

This month our fiscal sponsor GEAA (Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance) is celebrating 20 years of working hard to protect our Edwards and Trinity aquifers. Good job GEAA!

Edwards Aquifer Alliance has acted as our fiscal sponsor and board of directors. Our first step to becoming a stand-alone 501(c)3 was to build our own board of directors. Over the last few months we met with a number of qualified individuals. We now have four amazing individuals with the expertise, knowledge, and connections we need.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE