…and you can possibly too – contact your extension office!
So, one action I’m taking, now that I live half my time in East Texas looking after my Dad’s farm, is restoring the mixed forest that used to cover the land. Think Louisiana, pine and mixed hardwoods, cypress, swamps, and even occasionally alligators – we are close to the border – but also far enough away that we are a bit drier. The forest is called the Pineywoods of E. Texas.
Cherry bark oak, I think.
My Dad’s 200-acre farm has gorgeous remnants of the forest along draws, creeks, ponds, and over three bogs. For instance, we have at least 7 species of oaks in our forest: White, Schumard Red, Laurel, Cherry Bark, Post, Live, Water, etc. My goal is to restore at least 60 acres of scrubland in the southwest and southeast corners that was clearcut for timber and gravel harvesting. The southwest is scrub, with great animal life, but the soil is missing and so the trees are struggling. It’s mostly sweetgum, a secondary forest tree that then helps build shade for oaks and pines to grow. But I want to ensure that Pineywoods diversity returns. I wrote a grant to get help from the state of Texas, but as they are focused right now on helping Central Texas regions recover from drought, I knew I wouldn’t get it; I didn’t. Still, I have my plan together now.
The southeast corner is a pasture that Dad’s cattle rarely use, and it’s extremely bumpy to try to get hay off of. The solution – plant trees, with the possibility of selective harvesting later. So, with the county extension officer, we planned and submitted a proposal, which not only would provide seedlings but would provide for us to also remove invasives, highlighted with yellow highlight – Chinese tallow trees and privet especially.
So we wrote a plan for this. The extension agent and I submitted a grant application for part 1, planting the trees. I thought it was for $3000, and hoped to follow up with an application to fight invasives. Nope – the agent only requested $854 for 2180 seedlings and labor. whoop.
And, we got it – a total of $854. whoop again.
How we’re going to find a vendor for $600 for digging up the soil and hand-planting, I’m not sure. I need to talk to the agent. Maybe I can do some of it and get a mini, tiny, paycheck and some needed exercise.
This award is somewhat underwhelming. But we did get the money to get started, and we’ll try for more to do the watering AND fight the invasives!
Cheers everyone!
One of our three bogs….