A 2021 FWAS Community/Civic Grants award
Earlier this year, the Fort Worth Audubon Society announced three $1,000 grant recipients. One of those recipients, the Great Plains Restoration Council, has already put the money to good use and sent us a wonderful report full of great pictures. Their project was grassland nesting bird habitat restoration through diversity and inclusion community engagement. They cut and cleared tree and brush on the Ft. Worth Prairie Park south of East Dutch Branch Creek. The grant money not only helped help fund tree cutting but provided some community work payments for young people working on the Prairie.
Jarid Manos, project manager for the Great Plains Restoration Council sent the following report to FWAS:
Great Plains Resoration Council update for Grassland Nesting Bird Habitat Restorartion
Check out the difference in the trailhead! The front entrance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Richardson Tract for the Fort Worth Prairie Park partnership was overgrown with trees and brush. The overgrowth completely shaded the native prairie.
In the historic absence of bison and fire, mechanical management helps keep the grassland open and alive.
Two crews mobilized. The chainsaw crew led by Jumbo Property Management a community-engaged Fort Worth Black-owned business. A second crew, consisting of 7 formerly incarcerated youth from Tarrant County Advocate Program (TCAP) followed. This crew removed downed limbs and cleared other brush. The Youth earn $10 per hour. The crews received introductory Ecological Health training.
The work week concluded with reseeding from carefully-sourced native Fort Worth Prairie ecosystem seed, and yoga on the prairie.
We have a lot more to work do, a couple years’ worth, but America’s 10,000-year-old native Fort Worth Prairie ecosystem is now one of the rarest ecosystems in North America.
While endeavoring to protect as much vulnerable wild prairie as we can add on to the Fort Worth Prairie Park preservation complex, we concurrently work to restore to 1800s ecological conditions what is already under protection.
The work in the field helps people and wildlife, costs about $1,000 a day, and increases prairie acreage.
We thank you as always for your financial donations and community engagement support! Preservation and restoration saves much of the vital Fort Worth Prairie as possible.
Also thank you to Congressman Marc Veasey, a thoughtful ecological leader, who came out to the Fort Worth Prairie to talk with and hike with our youth.
A conservation project photo journal – 2021 Restoration of the Fort Worth Prairie Park at East Dutch Branch Creek
Place your pointer on each photo for description. To advance to next photo, place pointer on photo and drag toward left of page.
Front entrance as of Aug. 2019
Front entrance to the Fort Worth Prairie Park south of East Dutch Branch Creek prior to start of prairie restoration work.
Removing removing overgrowth
Removing overgrowth of woody increaser vegetation like cedar elms and hackberries on the prairie.
Starting brush piles.
After photo
Ms. Marty Leonard, local philanthropist, business and community leader, conservationist and bird watcher, visits some of our youth and the prairie. With Nicholas, Dylan, and Carlos at the project site after brush clearing
Team members
Youth lunch discussion with adult advocates Vincent and Jarid (not pictured—he’s taking the pic.) From left, Dylan, Vincent, Brandon, Carlos, Nicholas, and Keaundre.
Restoration team joined by U.S. Congressman Marc Veasey
U.S. Congressman Marc Veasey speaking with some of the youth on a hike at a site where swale prairie merges up onto a prairie barrens shortgrass prairie ecosystem component of the endangered Fort Worth Prairie. Thank you Congressman Veasey for your caring about our Earth and young people’s future
Discovery of a Texas spiny lizard
Discovery of a Texas spiny lizard with his head stuck inside a shotgun shell. On land or at sea, plastic trash is a lethal danger to native wildlife and human health.
Texas spiny lizard rescued
He survived! Rescue of Texas spiny lizard from being trapped in the shotgun shell, via surgical removal with a manicure clippers that Johnny Muhammad from TCAP (Texas Coalition of Animal Protection) went and bought at Walmart.
Saved and released
Release of Texas spiny lizard back into the prairie
Work continues
Preparing to cut, separate and stack some more downed cedar elms and hackberries that had choked out the prairie.
Another wood pile needed.
Deciding on the 2nd pile location.
Managing the new wood pile
Youth planned the consolidation and compression of stacked tree limbs and branches, with Carlos (in photo gesturing) serving as Pile Manager to continually collapse the large volume into much less space.
Allelopathy on the prairie is where the native plant communities are killed out by tree and brush overgrowth.
Between these two piles is the main front swath that was cleared of trees, brush and plastics, and raked and prepared for seeding with custom-curated Fort Worth Prairie seed mix, courtesy of Native American Seed, Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, and Suzanne Tuttle and Michelle Villafranca.
Pausing for a photo before seeding.
A total of 7 formerly incarcerated youth, from our partner Tarrant County Advocate Program, worked on the site. They were paid $10 an hour, and taught the introductory lessons of Tier 1 of Ecological Health practices and principles, for which there is a certification. Notice we are using non-plastic bags, even for trash cleanup near the road. If we think about it, there is always a healthier, greener option these days.
A special seed
We purchased $600 worth of custom-curated, Texas-sourced native Fort Worth Prairie seed mix, plus received a donation of local collected Fort Worth Prairie seeds from the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge.
Pocket wetlands
A daylighted tiny prairie creek at the front. There are also a couple pocket wetlands on this trailhead swath that we cleaned up.
Ecological Health practices and principles
Yoga stretching on the Fort Worth Prairie: Stretching and releasing muscle tension at the end of a week of good, hard work. Ecological Health practices and principles teach physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being as part of hands-on ecological restoration and preservation.
Becoming part of something bigger:
Meditating on the prairie and learning tactical diaphragmatic breathing. Both meditation and diaphragmatic breathing can be used in any area of life, particularly during stress and/or consternation.
Supporting our youth and the prairie
Alice Barrientez (Apache/Comanche) from the American Indian Youth Council, who previously served as a "GPRC Mom" for participating youth in an earlier program years ago, came out to visit and re-engage
Bonus photo:
East Dutch Branch Creek — Fort Worth Prairie blue sky, sun, wind, grass and clean water. (And fish who don’t yet want their pics taken. ) We are grteful to Jarid Manos Founder Great Plains Restoration Council Thank you for the report and photos,
by Michael K. Francis and Jarid Manos
