The Texas Prairie Wetlands Program is administered and funded by the USDA-NRSC, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Ducks Unlimited. Cost-share assistance (75 to 100%) is available to restore, improve, and create wetlands on private lands for waterfowl management. A 10 to 15 year wetland management plan and written agreement is developed jointly and is carried out by the landowner. NRCS and Ducks Unlimited write the management plan, survey, and design any need water control or earthen structures. The landowner agrees to follow the management plan (Wetland Development Agreement) for the life of the contract.

The Wetland Reserve Program is a federally funded program that administered by the NRCS. There are two basic requirements for the wetland to be eligible: The wetland hydrology must have been altered, and the wetland must be restorable. Applications are reviewed and compete on a statewide basis for Wetland Reserve Program funds.

Wetland Restoration Cost-Share Agreement – The landowner agrees to a minimum 10 year contract in return for cost-share (75%) to restore the wetlands. The landowner agrees to manage and sue the area according to the Restoration Plan.

30 Year Conservation Easement – The landowner sells a 30 year easement to the NRCS for 75% of the appraised agricultural value of the land. NRCS pays 75% of the cost to restore the wetland. Management and use of the land during the easement period is granted to the landowner by NRCS through a management plan. The landowner is allowed some use of the land through the restoration plan and by making compatible use request, which must be approved by the NRCS.

Permanent Easement – The landowner sells a permanent easement to the NRCS for 100% of the appraise agricultural value of the land. NRCS pays 100% of the cost to restore the wetland. A permanent easement is attached to the deed. The landowner agrees to manage the land according to a wetland management plan written by the NRCS to benefit native plants and waterfowl and describing acceptable uses of the land.

When it comes to good-for-wildlife grasses, native grasses are of course the only way to go. Good grasses over much of the Great Plains would be species such as big bluestem, little bluestem, Indiangrass, sideoats grama, and switchgrass. Switchgrass really works good in drainages and wetter areas within grasslands. Also, if you want the cream of the crop grass try some eastern gamagrass.

All native grasses are quite palatable to livestock, so you will have to watch the grazing pressure, especially during establishment, but eastern gamagrass is like candy to them. White-tailed deer are said to like it eastern gamagrass, but very few landowners have this grass species on their property because of past overgrazing. However, I’ve seen gamagrass growing over 7 foot in height!

If you want to kick-start some beneficial forbs for upland birds and deer, then I’d also recommend planting some Illinois bundleflower, partridge pea, Englemann daisy, maxmilian sunflower, and some purple praire clover.

Keep in mind that native grass seed is expensive, but much better for wildlife and even cattle grazing over the long run. You can get more information from www.bamertseed.com or www.seedsource.com. Also, some of these places have prepared grass/forb seed mixes that are ready to go.

“This additional funding will enable even more landowners to protect environmentally and economically important agricultural land and preserve the resources that are so critical to the health and prosperity of our rural communities,” said Don Gohmert, NRCS state conservationist for Texas. “The funding will assist landowners in protecting Texas grassland and conserve a resource base on which we all depend.”

GRP helps landowners and operators protect working grasslands, including hay land, pastureland, native grasslands and certain other lands through rental contracts or conservation easements. NRCS and USDA’s Farm Service Agency jointly administer the program.

For information on eligibility, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit NRCS onlinefor more information on enhancing your grassland wildlife habitat.

“Now we are controlling the water with the landscape,” said George Ozuna, the deputy director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Texas Water Science Center. Until now small-scale studies on parcels up to 50 acres have shown juniper removal from the Edwards Plateau might result in an increase of stream flow and groundwater recharge equal to about 5 percent of annual rainfall.

If proved true on a watershed scale, that would be a significant additional source of water for drought-prone South Texas.
“We would be silly not to try it out,” said Neal Wilkins, with the department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University.

Ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Geological Survey designed their study to look at the impacts of removing young junipers — commonly known as mountain cedars — by analyzing two similar-sized and neighboring drainages in the Honey Creek State Natural Area.

After setting up a baseline study of the hydrologic budget of both — the amount of water that falls as rain, balanced with the amount that evaporates, runs into streams or seeps in the ground — they performed brush management practices to remove 75 percent of the junipers from one of the watersheds in 2005. The trees were removed so as not to disturb endangered species.

Five years later, they now believe they have enough data to measure changes to both the water quality and quantity. A paper is expected to be published by the end of the year with the results.

Regardless of the recharge rate, the $300 cost per acre to remove trees is justified by protecting water quality and improving wildlife habitat, said Phillip Wright, a range management specialist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The quality and quantity of the water that flows into the Edwards Aquifer and thus out of taps in San Antonio is dependent on the type of land that catches the rainfall.

If the land is covered in native grassland with waist-high grass, the water will be guided into the topsoil and then filtered as it seeps into the aquifer and then via springs into the creeks.

If the land is covered with junipers, some 40 percent of it will be caught in the brushy trees’ thick branches and will evaporate, having never touched the ground.

If the land is covered with pavement and rooftops, the runoff will quickly be moved unfiltered into streams and rivers, often bypassing the aquifer entirely.

“We are really kind of fragile, and it’s really kind of scary because of what is happening in the Hill Country,” Ozuna said.

Overgrazing, fire suppression, land fragmentation and sprawling development, and the construction of vacation and retirement homes have all reduced grassland coverage. In its place: thick stands of junipers and impervious cover.

“The offsite benefits are much greater than the onsite benefits,” Wright said of juniper removal. “We are trying to educate these new landowners that everything they do affects water quality.”

The results of this study are important because they clearly demonstrate that how the land and habitat is managed does have a large scale effect on water supplies. That being said, does this new research conflict with earlier studies showing that recharge may be enhanced through brush management?

No. Brush management, where used appropriately and followed up by best management practices is one important means towards land restoration and increased overall capacity for absorbing rainwater. This latest research highlights the fact that land management practices that improve land condition will have a beneficial effect on groundwater recharge. Previous research conducted at the field or small watershed scale suggests that recharge is higher under grasslands than cedar woodlands.

Collectively, this body of research lends support to the argument that large scale land restoration can have long term benefits to groundwater recharge and spring flows at regional scales. Thus, grassland restoration that includes judicious brush management followed by proper grazing management and other treatments such as prescribed fire, represents a good prospect for increased groundwater recharge in the Edwards Plateau.