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How to conserve endangered species from extinction
How to conserve endangered species from extinction
How to conserve endangered species from extinction
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Longhorn cattle grazing in the shade of oak trees, family and friends enjoying a meal in a patio, a child under the graceful branches of a Live Oak. What image stands out in your mind when you think of Texas? There’s a good chance that the picture that comes to your mind has trees in it.
You have a place in the country- or you are considering purchasing property. Most rural properties contain a lot more trees than a city location and they need more maintenance. Today we are discussing the specific area of Bastrop County, Texas and some of the challenges and pleasures of owning forested property here.
To help you, we will discuss:
The natural environment of the area
Why you want to take care of the trees you have
Which native trees are
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you likely to find on your property What do trees need and how an arborist can help you care for them How planning before you build or clear land saves healthy trees Whether you can combine a beautiful landscape with fire resistant planting The Unique Tree Ecosystem of Bastrop County, Texas Whether you are a long-time resident or a newcomer to the Bastrop County, it’s helpful to know something about the underlying ecosystem.
This area lies in two Vegetation Regions: The Post Oak Savannah and the Blackland Prairies. The U.S.D.A. lists thirty separate soil series in the county, which makes it one of the most complex soil profiles in the state which complicates tree care.
Texas ranks second only to Florida in the United States as having the most native and naturalized plant species. There are 64 North American Oak species. 44 of them are native somewhere in Texas. An amazing 90 species of trees have adapted to this area, allowing a wide selection.
The average yearly rainfall for the area is about 36 inches humid with mild winters and hot summers. The Gulf of Mexico significantly affects weather in the area almost all year. The heaviest rainfall occurs between September and May. Disturbances in the area can produce torrential rainfalls during the hurricane
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season. Vegetation is dominated by Post Oaks and Blackjack Oaks and you may even have Loblolly Pines, part of a remnant colony known as the Lost Pines area. The Post Oak Savannah favors the sandy soils while water-tolerant hardwoods, cottonwoods and Black willows comprise the Colorado flood plain vegetation. As you move up the tributaries and away from floodplains, you see hackberry, elm, yaupon, mesquite, Eastern Red Cedar. A Sense of Place Depends on the Natural World, Especially Trees You’ve found the perfect piece of property.
It may be a wooded ranch with towering pine trees, enormous mature oaks and other hardwood trees dot the rolling pastureland. A natural spring feeds a pond where you can picture yourself catching a few perch to grill on a summer evening under the shade of the pecan trees.
Your rural vacation home on a hilltop overlooks a valley with majestic loblolly pines dotting the valley while Whitetail deer graze in the distance. Just the place to relax after spending the weekend jockeying through city traffic and non-stop meetings.
You and your wife are designing the house of your dreams to put in the middle of the great piece of ranch property you found. It will have room for horses and still maintain habitat for doves, turkeys, deer and waterfowl. Live oaks, post oaks, mesquite, hickories, elms and yaupon thickets line the creek bottoms.
Trees are the first and most important consideration in the landscape design. They increase property value, save energy with their shade, and improve our life with their beauty.
Benefits of Trees on Your Country
Property For those living in rural areas, forests play an especially important role in soil stabilization. Trees prevent soil from washing away and polluting streams and rivers, hold banks in place and maintain soil productivity. Tree canopies intercept rainfall, lessening the impact of raindrops on soil which is held together by forest leaf litter, tree roots, and other understory vegetation. This allows precipitation to soak into the soil, recharging aquifers and reducing flooding. To many of us the most important value of trees is their beauty and the value they add to the scenery. The sound of a breeze through pine boughs or rustling the leaves of an oak tree is relaxing. Protecting the biodiversity of a region, bird watching, attracting wildlife and knowing we are preserving the land to hand down to future generations are all part of the joy of owning land that has trees on it. Hiking and camping are much more enjoyable as part of the forest. 94% of land in Texas is privately owned, putting most of the responsibility for maintaining this important aspect of our environment on individual property owners. If you are fortunate enough to own property with mature trees, you want to protect them and ensure their continued growth. Mature trees add about 15% to the actual value of your property and take many years to reach substantial size. Your property may contain a mix of native trees, naturalized trees, and your favorite accent specimens. Native trees, are those that grow without cultivation, a naturalized tree is one that was introduced from other regions but has escaped cultivation and now grows freely.
Sidney Investments would like to be advised on the possibilities of keeping that land in timber production and the operations necessary for the management of shortleaf pine. Sidney has come to Hall-Tree Silvicultural Consultants for a description of the silvicultural procedures involved, and the firm will then perform an economic analysis, checking the current market prices for the implementation of those procedures before making a decision on the purchase of this property. The 360 acre tract that Sidney Investments is considering is located in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. The elevation of the site does not vary much, ranging from 400 to 460 feet above mean sea level. The soil, primarily composed of sand and silt, is quite mesic and highly drained.
These are very difficult questions for me personally to answer because I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I have seen the beauty of the old growth forests first-hand.
Due to the moderating effect, this ecozone has long, mild summers (18 to 22°C) and cool, short winters (-3 to -12°C), with around 720 to 1000mm of precipitation, and 180 to 260 growing days annually. The Westerlies can also alter the weather quickly in this ecozone.
There are 10 different ecosystems which are Pineywoods, Gulf Prairies and Marshes, Post Oak Savanna, Blackland Prairies, Cross Timbers and Prairies, South Texas Plains, Edwards Plateau, Rolling Plains, High Plains, and Trans-Pecos. The area extends into Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. “The terrain is rolling with lower, wetter bottomlands that grow hardwood trees such as elm, mesquite and ash. This region is home to a variety of plants and animals that like woodlands and shorelines.” (Texas Parks and wildlife, n.d.)
Plants in the Taiga are important because the majority of the land is dense conifers. In the Taiga there are acres sometimes miles of the exact species of plant. Plants adapt to the climate so not all plants can thrive or survive so there is not a huge variety of plants. Spruce, fir and hemlock are the most abundant trees in the Taiga and some deciduous trees include poplar, birch and aspen. Evergreens have special adaptations in their shape that help support them when it snows. Tamaracks are one of a few trees other than evergreens that do lose their leaves and lives in the Taiga.
When people see new construction or a recently paved road, they often do not realize the sacrifice that was made to create these luxuries. Most people pass some form of construction on the way to their jobs or school every day. This simple fact sparks questions regarding what this area looked like before it was inhabited by humans. Illinois forests have undergone drastic changes in the decades since European settlement. Only 31 % of the forest area present in 1820 exists today. (Iverson Pdf) Tearing down trees to build new structures isn’t bad if done in moderation, in some ways with time and good planning its wonderful. However, anyone that hunts or claims to be an outdoorsman will relate to the incomparable feeling experienced when alone in the woods and far from the hustle of the urbanized world.
Texas was never a big empty space. The Spaniards and later the French who came here discovered cultures that were centuries old. But history, and the museum itself, begins with European colonization. The history of Texas, one of the signs says, was shaped by the way the different groups of people who came to Texas responded to the land and to each other. So land, and interaction between different groups of people, would be used a lot in the telling of this story of Texas, I assumed.
The expansion of agriculture and railroads helped form Texas’s present economy. The invention of the steam engine not only allowed people to move across the country in 7 days, instead of 6 months, but it also allowed crops and livestock to be carried to markets and places where they would be sold anywhere in the country. They could be moved to another farm in Texas as well. Since it’s such a large state, railroads were a necessity for travel, and general transportation. The railroad-building boom lasted 40 years. The production of cotton in Texas introduced some of the first slave-based cotton farms, and was the dominant crop for a very long time. After this event, Texas’s economy was forever changed.
Dani and I stand in the sun waiting for the “men” to catch up. The view was worth Quill’s whining and navigating through the snow. The breeze catches in the bright green and gold of new Aspen leaves whispering around the lake. The Pine trees scent the air and bask in the sun to steal its warmth from the forest below. The trees are a dark canopy along our path permitting only a few patches of the raised finely mulched trail to a beam or two of sun. Framed like a photo three pencil lead gray peaks rise above a lower sweeping curve of pines. They look close enough to walk over the ridge and touch them. Boulders precariously cling to the side of the mountains. The perfect deep blue early summer sky is the perfect backdrop.
surrounded by a garden, field of crops, and hills. The barn is only a short walk away. Nearby, is a
The Western forests are drastically different from what they were like before the European settlement. In pre-European time, the forests were open and park-like with only 25-35 trees per acre surrounded by areas of open grasslands. One could easily ride a horse through the spacious forest. This, however, is not possible in today's forests. Today, for example the Ponderosa pine forests, have over 500 trees per acre, creating thick dense areas of trees, brush, and bushes (President Bush, 4). The pre-European forests were subject to frequent low inte...
We were surrounded by old trees and spotted lots of cacti. We would also see a few squirrels here and there. Our trail had a view of the other side of the mountain which was stunning. We
When many people hear about the term “landscape”, they immediately think that it means “nature”. The natural landscape does play an important role in our society but what is more important is the landscape that we make and occupy. So, what exactly is “landscape”? The term can be illiterate in many ways but the definition given by the European Landscape Convention is perhaps the most useful and widely agreed one. It states that a landscape is ‘an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and human factors.’ This definition captures both the idea of landscape being physical like a tract of land, but also something that is mind and social shared, something that is perceived by the people. When it comes to Landscape Architecture, the International Federation of Landscape Architects says that ‘Landscape Architect conduct research and advise on planning, design, and stewardship of the outdoor environment and spaces, both within and beyond the built environment, and its
I used to go there to sit down on a rock and watch the town and my trees. There was a very old tree, a maple tree, with a huge trunk. The others were smaller, three in the back, three on my left side and the old maple tree on my right. There were flowers, many kinds, white, yellow, purple and blue. It was nobody's place. Nobody owned that hill, but it was beautiful and peaceful and I dreamed many times about a white house over there.
Forests are vital for life and have many important functions. They are home to millions of species and protect soil from erosion. Along with this they produce oxygen which is vital for human life, store carbon dioxide and help control climate. They also provide humans with shelter, food and medicines vital for life.