 |
| Knotroot bristlegrass, Hermann Park |
Looking out my backdoor, I see a maple tree towering twenty-five feet overhead. In the front yard there are two mismatched oaks and two loblolly pine trees, and similar pairings are planted in almost every yard in my Houston subdivision. Were it possible to travel back in time 200 years, the landscape in my neighborhood would look very different. For one, the only trees visible for miles around would be those few growing along the bayous. For another I would be standing in an open prairie. Needless to say, it is human beings who are responsible for bringing this urban forest to the gulf coast prairie.
Of course, I can't go back in time any more than I can turn back the clock on the changes we have brought to the landscape. However, we can mitigate the damages, and in pockets across Harris County, volunteers have done just that by restoring prairies in Deer Park, Katy, and Armand Bayou Nature Center. There are also prairie pockets near the Museum District in Houston.
As part of my training to become a Texas Master Naturalist, I have worked at Project Blazing Star, three prairie pockets in Hermann Park. Named for three species of wildflowers, the restored prairies require constant maintenance.
 |
| Bracketed blazing star (Liatris bracteata) |
 |
| Prairie blazing star (Liatris bracteata) |
My work at Project Blazing Star has been two-fold, removing invasive species and defining the edges of the largest prairie. The former has required a lot of work by hand, digging at the roots of dewberries or isolating the invasive growth inside buckets (for herbicide spraying), and the latter has involved laying a heavy layer of mulch along the edge of the prairie (to protect it. It's not the most glamorous work, but it is richly rewarding and is vital to maintaining the fragile ecosystem.
 |
| Invasive dewberries |
You may be asking yourself why it matters, why the prairies need to be restored. The answer is complicated. In part, the restoration means a return to natural form, a return to the ecosystems that were in place long before humans altered the landscape. There are plants, insects, and animals that have come back as native plant species are reintroduced. Those living things play vital roles in keeping the ecosystem in working order, providing food, shelter, nesting sites.
 |
| A fellow intern mulching the prairie edge |
In a larger sense, natural ecosystems help to maintain the health of larger systems. Those prairie grasses create deep root systems that break up and aerate the soil, helping the earth better absorb excess water during a flood. Ultimately, there are other practical reasons we need to protect and nurture our environment. Our self-preservation, as well as that of our children, depends on our being good stewards of the earth. The resources we often take for granted are finite.
 |
| A Master Naturalist and an intern identifying plants |
There's an ethical dimension as well. We share this planet with all living creatures, and as Vandana Shiva notes, as "members of the Earth family, our first and highest duty is to take care of Mother Earth … "(167). Shiva elaborates that "'Earth rights' refers first and foremost to the rights of Mother Earth and our corresponding duties and responsibilities to defend those rights" (167). Just as we have the right to live and thrive, so do the life forms that surround us.
 |
| Common boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) |
Works Cited
Shiva, Vandana. "Earth Rights." Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World." Ed. Martin Keogh. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2010. 166-69. Print.