February Chapter Meeting – Survivor Plants in Urban Areas

This presentation will look at plants that have survived, thrived and adapted to now living in a North Texas urbanized area.  Much of the metroplex was  grazed by early settlers prior to being converted to farmland beginning in the late 1800’s.  As the population grew the farms and ranches were mostly pushed out and replaced with asphalt and concrete surrounding homes and businesses.  Plan to attend to learn how plant diversity, both native and introduced, has changed over the past 200 years.  What makes a plant a survivor?  Over time man has created great changes in the flora of the region.  We will discuss historical plant communities and how they have changed, and what it would take to slow and reverse the present trend.

The West Fork of the Trinity River in Jack county with good riparian vegetation still present, thanks to good grazing management over a long period of time.

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Ricky Linex is a wildlife biologist having recently retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service where he worked 38.5 years. Over the previous 18 years Ricky served 52 counties in north-central Texas and and authored Range Plants of North Central Texas A Land User’s Guide to Their Identification Value and Management. His assistance to landowners and managers involved mutual education on how to better manage rangelands for sustainable use by livestock and wildlife. Knowing the plants and how to manage them is critical for success as a land steward.