The 2008 Joint Meeting of the Society for Range Management and the America Forage and Grassland Council. |
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
18
Texas GLCI - Growing Partnerships in Texas
Mark E. Moseley, USDA, NRCS, 727 E. Durango Blvd., A505, San Antonio, TX 78206
The Texas Coalition of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative is an organization of organizations and individuals who want to foster the stewardship of privately owned grazing lands in Texas , which compose 66 percent of the states’ land area. The primary partner of the Texas GLCI is the USDA-NRCS, who in turn provides trained specialists to work on privately owned grazing lands. To accomplish their goal of increasing the awareness of grazing lands, Texas has four regional GLCI’s. Each of these also addresses issues and opportunities specific to their area. Texas GLCI plays an important role in finding innovative solutions for landowners. A result of their efforts have been greater participation in workshops and tours, more grant applications have been received and GLCI has been asked to be a cooperative partner in an increasing number of range resource related events. Some of their more successful endeavors include a traveling display, producer grant program, media campaign, Texas grazing management handbook, ecological site development, public school curriculum guides, tours, plant identification books, Texas record book, rangeland hydrology projects, and promotional material such as pasture sticks. The Coastal Prairies Conservation Initiative is a major cooperative effort between partners such as Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, The Nature Conservancy, Coastal Prairies GLCI, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Sam Houston RC&D. This endeavor, initiated in 1995, was a journey to restore native coastal prairies. Additionally, a goal was to re-introduce the endangered Attwater’s prairie chickens back onto the prairie. An exciting result of this project is that after several years of cooperative prairie restoration with private landowners, the Coastal Prairies GLCI will be the holders of Safe Harbor Agreements with an anticipated release of Attwater’s prairie chickens in the summer of 2007.