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Severe ice storms and long, severe cold spells can create havoc on native trees, shrubs and some herbaceous plants, as may be soon evident in many parts of the Texas. Heavy, unusual loads of ice can completely break down some trees or at least break off many major limbs. And prolonged severe cold can damage or even kill some native trees, especially if weakened. These rare cold spells or ice storms can affect the health of the trees and you may want to cut off broken or cracked limbs. If live oak or Spanish oaks, be sure to paint the stubs to repel the insect carrying Live Oak Decline. Ideally, oak trimming is recommended for either the coldest month or the hottest month of your year when the insects are less active. But, this year Mother Nature did not give us that choice. I was lucky and did not have such ice damage, but many in the Edwards Plateau region did. Remember, if the damaged oak already has Live Oak Decline, do not move firewood or the affected limbs/wood to other locations as that helps spread this disease. If a tree has died and it is not a hazard, leave it standing for bird and small mammal nest holes and insects for food. That is a normal part of most ecosystems and enriches your wildlife diversity.
Last summer I did lose the top half of a nice young Hackberry tree I was encouraging to take the place eventually of an aging Live Oak next to my patio. We had 70mph straight wind damage and it snapped the trunk and topped the young tree, damaging its mature form, all you can do is some judicious trimming to shape it. Hackberries are decent shade trees and the berries are relished by numerous birds and small critters, plus deer browse the leaves. Often, I see a nice buck outside my window, nibbling on the Hackberry leaves now in reach.
You may have some damage to your succulent native plants such as prickly pear or yucca from the cold and ice. They may turn to mush after the water in their pads had frozen hard destroying the plant’s cells. I was lucky, mine were protected by good ground mulch, grass cover and 8 inches of snow. Snow is a pretty good insulator for severe cold. If you do have pear or yucca damage, about all you can do is wait it out and see if the roots will sprout when spring arrives – don’t get in a rush to remove damaged plants; give them a chance to recover.
My attention was caught by articles concerned for cold-killed milkweeds affecting Monarch butterflies migrating and breeding in Texas. I checked yesterday with one of my mentors Dr. Jake Landers for his opinion. He agreed that it is not likely milkweed suffered excessively as a good snow cover insulated them. Their growth and blooming may be affected some, but likely Monarch migration might be later too.
I am an ardent believer in keeping a dense plant ground cover and a heavy natural mulch of leaves and dead plants to prevent deep cold penetration and plant root damage. In summer that mulch protects your top soil from excessive heat and drought damage. If your property has trees, let the leaves lay where they fall and gradually break down into plant nutrients and organic matter. Your soil biota – earthworms, micro-organisms, etc. – will flourish and provide a better soil for your native plants of any kind. Do not mow your large sites except for some extreme reason. If you must, mow very high and let the cuttings fall –just as I advise on your home lawn or in a park. Taller plants shade the soil and keep it cooler, just as mulch does. Also, the taller your native grasses grow, the deeper their roots will be. Deep native grass roots, whether bluestems, Indian grass, grama grasses or whatever, will survive severe cold spells much better. It is extremely rare in most of Texas to have frozen soil of more than a few inches. There will be exceptions to be sure. If you are in Amarillo or Dalhart or Marfa, then expect longer, worse cold spells in the winters. But, the grasses and other plants native to that area are able to handle the cold in most cases. You may have some losses, but time and nature’s reseeding will usually aid in recovery. Most herbaceous plants will be dormant or are annuals and not as likely affected permanently. Rare winter events do occur such as in 1986 or this year. At times we can get rare severe cold spells that ‘throw out the book” – freezing clear to the Gulf Coast or to the Rio Grande Valley. That can cause native plant damage as the coastal ecoregion is not acclimated to such cold. If the prairie areas should have severe damage, you may want to consult a local agency and consider maybe having the bare and damaged area disced and reseeded to an approved native plant mix.
Trained in biology, botany and rangeland science, it was a natural for me to have a career advising large and small agricultural landowners in Texas and several Western states. In my position with Texas A&M I gave presentations and advised on home/office landscapes and the use of native plants, but earlier in my career I advised on rangelands up to 3 million acres.
I had many great mentors along the way, including agency conservationists, many landowners and ranch managers who improved my abilities in obtaining sustainability on our native lands not just for people, but for the health of native plant communities, soil and water protection, our native wildlife (from soil biota to deer) and naturally for the varied livestock also utilizing these Texas lands. I started my Texas range career at Brady then on to Victoria, with a long stay in the San Angelo region. Managing native rangelands in Central Texas was especially challenging with its varied rainfall, topography, eco-regions and a diversity of livestock – cattle, sheep and Angora goats, which along with too many deer, which made proper management tough. Most livestock have very diverse plant diets which complicates proper management.
My first ranch client in Brady was both a challenge and very rewarding. It was a couple retired from Michigan wanting to “be Texas ranchers and to thaw out”. The scary early part was that he was a retired vice president of Kelloggs, who bought a beautiful 300-acre abused ranch on a river, then built a nice home there. Luckily, he had been advised to seek help from my Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), USDA office in Brady. This is still my advice to any new acreage landowner – get qualified help. Almost every county in Texas (and the nation) has a USDA office and also another good source of help at the state AgriLife Extension office. These two agencies are great places for free help, information and land planning advice. They often can call in a regional expert for some issue that is more unusual. Both agencies are good information sources of cost-share programs which can assist you if needed. Perhaps your new property is too badly damaged from past abuses and total reseeding might be an option if you are in the livestock business or desire rapid improvement. Range reseeding can be very iffy and sometimes nature does not help and repeat treatments are required. Sadly all agricultural and natural resources agencies are lower funded and usually short staffed now due to several decades of government budget cuts. You may have to wait longer for help or you may decide to hire a private consultant if able. I would get references first and hire the right person for your area.
Back to Brady – after being warmly greeted and meeting his sweet wife, we got down at the kitchen table and started the Q&A over an aerial photo map of their ranch which delighted them. I had pulled the soils information too for their reference. Soils can be very different across Texas and Brady was a good example with varied soils, native plants and ecoregions.
To start, you need a plan. Large acreage or small, you need to set your goals for the property – what you want to do with it and what you would like it to be in a few years. If it’s a livestock property, do you want to set it up with a management plan for the livestock and goals either for increasing numbers or staying low? If a wildlife management guided plan, then you may need to obtain the advice of a wildlife biologist at one of the agencies. There are regions where the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has combined several adjoining small property owners or even ranches, into a single larger wildlife management plan. This makes more sense as most wildlife go over or through fences whenever they want or need to go for water or the native plants they need. Grouping landowners is also better for hunting management. Sure, you need very good fencing on your chicken yard, but it is easier and better, for wildlife population numbers to be able to move freely and have a larger tract of habitat. This is also true for small wildlife from cottontails to other critters (skunks, coons, fox, possums). Water is especially valuable and needs to be planned either by natural resources such as a creek or a well and water troughs. Remember, small urban sites will not support even one deer properly. Or one cow or one horse. Horses can be especially hard on pastures and require a lot of quality forage. If not enough grazing land, then pen them and buy feed. To annually support, without damage to your property, USDA often recommends from 30 to 50 acres per grown cow or horse or for 5 to 6 sheep, goats or deer. This varies by region, in wet and more lush Coastal or East Texas the acreage needed is much less. An accurate rangeland survey and estimate of animal carrying capacity is very desirable for good management of plant resources and healthy animals.
An inventory of the property is a basic part of any plan. You would not set up a home or business plan or budget without knowing your resources and income/expenses would you? The same holds true for sustainable property management. Inventory and map your fences, buildings, pens, water, roads or other key features. You need a map. Find out what type of soils you have – good deep soils, low fertility sands or rocky, thin soiled sites. A native plant inventory is a good idea as it tells the plant expert and you whether you are starting at “rock bottom” or in good condition; as well as how much diversity of plants you have. Study and learn the key common native plants on your property. Keep records on drought, severe freezes, floods, and so forth; as well as how each pasture was affected. While we all love pastures solid in beautiful bluebonnets or other wildflowers, they are indicators of previous poor rangeland management with very few groceries present for wildlife or livestock. Likewise, pastures solid in brush species such as junipers (cedar), sage, white brush, McCartney rose, mesquite, cactus, creosote bush, and yaupon will greatly limit the restoration of desirable native forbs and grasses. Discuss these issues with your agency experts and decide whether brush management (controlled burn, mechanical or chemical) is needed. A good diversity of wildlife will also be less likely in dense brush cover and raising livestock would be very tough. If you are fortunate enough to be on a creek, spring, or river then additional management issues arise. The greener and wetter area along permanent water features is called the riparian zone. It normally is the most productive area in a pasture due to the extra water and usually deeper, more fertile soils. Special attention should be paid to riparian areas to assure they are not overgrazed or abused by livestock or feral hogs. If a problem, experts with your chosen agency or maybe a river authority, can advise you on the proper management options. Riparian areas are key not only for prime forage, but to help manage flooding, hold bank soils in place, raise water quality, cool the water from shading and to improve fish habitat.
If property is fenced, what kind and condition of fencing do you have? Do you have any poisonous native plants which could affect any livestock or horses? If so, what are they and how to manage or remove? As a rule, the poorer condition of the rangeland, more poisonous plants will be present and offer the only forage for livestock.
What trees are there, approximate location on map and sizes? Are they reproducing? If not, you likely have too many deer or maybe hogs. Do you have any native shrub/bushes and if so, what kinds? Pecans and walnuts growing in riparian areas are especially beneficial to wildlife, along with acorns from any oak. Deer, turkey, squirrels and many other species relish nut crops, called mast. Normally, if you begin properly managing your property, keeping deer out or under control, you will start seeing new and more desirable native shrubs. Whitetail deer prefer shrubs and some low-hanging trees, as their protein level is higher than grasses. If you have large exotics – Axis deer, feral hogs, Aoudad sheep, Blackbuck antelope or other, then you have another management problem for your native plants, gardens, crops, fences and native deer. They out-compete our whitetails and as they are exotics, like feral cats, they do not belong in our natural environment. You probably need to get the advice of your local Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist on control or removal. Perhaps, if safe and legal, targeted hunting of the exotics can assist with the problem and improve your native plant diversity too.
In your native plant inventory, it is almost always advisable and best to hope for a wide variety of plants – from grasses to forbs (broad leaved, herbaceous plants), shrubs and trees. I even like some prickly pear and other thorny plants for good small wildlife protection areas and a broader range of flowers for our butterflies, wild bees and other insects. In most of Texas 12 eco-regions, these types are native and natural. While discussing soils and native plants with your local experts, find out what ecoregion you are in if you do not know. The NRCS will prepare a free plan map and soils map for your site and lay out a five year plan for your management decisions. Be sure to use your plan and revise as needed. You may notice that our native plants seem to have communities and certain plants are sometimes restricted to a specific soil or site. The NRCS will provide range sites on your map and descriptions in your plan. All of the US range regions and range site descriptions are available on a USDA computer location. Range sites are smaller areas of similar soils, geology and topographic features such as riparian or, on often cooler, wetter north slopes or the hotter, drier south slopes the plant species may be quite different. This affects your management and results. You won’t often find beautiful tall grasses growing on thin, shallow soils on a hotter site. Likewise, you only find buttonbush, willows, reeds, rushes and wetland plants along creeks on a riparian site.
Our native lands all evolved over thousands of years with differing climates and wildlife. In recent times they may have different native plants on them based upon the past human management, fires or mismanagement. Severe flooding, tornados, wildfire, windstorms/hail or severe cold events such as Texas just experienced can also negatively affect the plants you may see on your new property. Or Mother Nature shows her resilience and it comes back rather rapidly.
Enjoy your piece of Texas, share it with youngsters, preserve for the future and Vaya con Dios!
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