Archive for August 23rd, 2010

LSLS: Flagler Ranch

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

This is Passport to Texas

Flagler Ranch is 36 hundred acres of Texas Hill Country. Since George Matthews purchased it in 1992, he’s used an ecosystem management approach. Before his stewardship, the land had suffered 100 years of abuse.

03—As far as being overgrazed by cattle and sheep and goats.

Louis Scherer III manages Flagler Ranch, which he said, had too many white tail deer.

15—And through MLD3 permits, we have got the whitetails population down to one in twelve per acre. Since we’ve done that and the other management practices, our weight per animal, and antler growth has almost doubled.

Flagler Ranch is the 2010 Lone Star Land Steward eco-region award winner for the Edwards Plateau. Jerry Turrentine is a consulting biologist for the ranch.

17—We’re trying to integrate various techniques into an overall ranch management plan. We’re looking at food plots. We’re going to bring back some rare plants through some plantings. We’re going to do some reintroductions of forbes and grasses…we’re trying to be a learning area for other ranches in the plateau.

Water is vital in any ecosystem, and Joyce Moore with TPWD says Flagler Ranch has done an exemplary job of collecting it.

10—And so what the Flagler ranch has been doing, which is very innovative, is they’ve been placing these spreader dams along these drainages to capture every bit of rain that Mother nature does provide.

Learn about the Lone Star Land Steward Awards on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show; the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.