North America’s most endangered ecoregion is in North Texans’ backyards. Well, at least it was. Tallgrass prairies are in trouble across North America.
Travelers across the continent once called the region, which used to cover more than 170 million acres, a “sea of grass”. Now less than 4% of that remains, according to the National Park Service.
Texas’ tallgrass prairies aren’t faring much better, to put it plainly.
The Blackland prairie is unique to Texas — and most of it is already gone. The ecoregion once extended from the Red River to the Gulf Coast. Now, less than 1% of the original Blackland prairie vegetation remains — and it’s scattered across the state in parcels, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
As rapid development threatens the prairie’s remaining patches, the loss comes at a cost to the region’s natural beauty, heritage and environmental health. Prairies help with carbon sequestration, flood control and help clean groundwater — for free.
The disappearance of native grasses means that Texas residents and institutions will have to make up the difference.
Prairies are also called upside-down forests.
The “real show” for a prairie’s ecosystem is underground, said Carly Aulicky, who has a PhD in biology and works as an outreach and stewardship director for the Native Prairies Association of Texas. The nonprofit organization and land trust work on conserving and restoring native prairies, savannas, and other Texas grasslands.
For example, bluestem, a tall grass characteristic of Texas Blackland prairies, has roots eight- to 10-feet deep in the ground, Aulicky said.
It’s not just grasses that have deep roots. Even some flowers have roots that also can be eight- to 10-feet deep — or more.
Compass plant, a wildflower in the sunflower family that can be observed in the Blackland prairie, has roots that regularly hit 15 feet deep, she said.
The Blackland prairie’s rich soil helped make Texas rich.
The fertile Blackland prairie soil is some of the richest in the world, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
It’s partially responsible for North Texas’ rise to economic success, NPAT executive director Kirsti Harms said.
Some of the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s first families recognized the soil’s value — both economically and agriculturally.
Late Dallas real estate mogul Walter Caruth certainly did. Caruth moved to Dallas in 1848. His former family farm included large swaths of land that eventually became Uptown, Highland Park and University Park. He reportedly called the prairie’s soil “the most fertile black earth in Dallas County.”
By the mid-1920s, much of the prairie was lost to farming.
The prairie’s disappearance didn’t happen overnight — but the process has been “very fast,” said environmental scientist Lorelei Stierlen, who is in charge of conservation and restoration for the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center in Lucas.
It happened over the course of about a century, she said.
By the mid-1920′s, more than 80% of the original vegetation was lost to farming, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In the past several decades, urbanization has continued to reduce the remaining prairie, the organization says.
Plowed prairies can be restored within a decade. Sometimes, with good weather, significant progress can be seen in as little as five years.
But once a prairie is plowed — it’ll never be the same again.
“You can never fully replicate the intricacies or biodiversity with a restoration,” Aulicky said.
The prairie protects North Texas’ water and cleans the air. It also helps with flood control.
An acre of Blackland prairie can hold up to 250,000 gallons of rainfall.
The prairie’s ability to hold water helps clean and filter North Texas’ water. It also helps prevent flooding.
The deep roots of tall grasses and wildflowers also help capture carbon dioxide and store vast quantities of it underground in the soil — and it’s the subject of ongoing research.
That’ll be “increasingly important” because of the climate crisis, Aulicky says.
The Blackland prairie is very biodiverse.
One square foot of prairie can contain more than 45 plant species, according to NPAT.
The prairie ecosystem is dynamic, too.
Some orchid species can pop up for a couple of days — and then they disappear, Aulicky said.
No one knows exactly how much of the remaining prairie is protected.
The vast majority of what’s left of the prairie is privately owned, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists estimate that somewhere between 10,000 and 13,000 acres are being protected and managed as native prairies.
That’s .1% of the ecoregion’s original 13 million acres.
Visitors can enjoy what remains of the prairie at several North Texas preserves.
North Texas has plenty of places where you can still get “absolutely swallowed by grass” — as Aulicky put it — that reaches up to six feet tall.
Some of these preserves are restored prairie patches, meaning they were plowed at some point.
Some other North Texas preserves enable visitors to relish the beauty of a prairie that has never been plowed.
Here’s a list of North Texas prairies (including Blackland and other types) that are open to the public.
