South Texas Natives: a collaborative regional effort to meet restoration needs in south Texas

Abstract

South Texas Natives (STN) is an initiative started in 2001 to develop and promote native plants for the restoration and reclamation of public and private lands in south Texas. At the urging of concerned conservationists and private landowners, STN has developed commercially viable sources of native seed and conducted research to discover effective restoration strategies that can be used by private landowners and government agencies to restore native plant communities. STN grew out of a strong partnership among the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service E “Kika” de la Garza Plant Materials Center, Texas AgriLife Research, Rio Farms Inc, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, and private landowners of south Texas. Plant development efforts center on the release of commercially viable, multiple origin germplasms selected with an awareness of the commercial requirements for production but grounded in genetic and ecosystem function parameters. In addition to plant development efforts, extensive restoration and revegetation research is conducted by STN to develop usable methodology and much-needed guidelines for restoration in south Texas. Current restoration research emphasis centers on providing techniques for the diversification of areas dominated by invasive exotic grasses.