LEGACIES: BILL NEIMAN: Meet a man from Junction whose 
seed of an idea took root in Texas ... on Passport to Texas 
Legacies ... 
_______________________________________________

Passport to Texas Legacies from Texas Parks and Wildlife

As a landscaper and nurseryman, Bill Neiman used to 
"clean up behind the bulldozers." He created lawns and 
gardens for newly built homes ... until he realized he could 
be a better steward of the land, and cover more ground 
with seeds than with plants. 

"The power of seeds kept growing within my mind of what more 
I could be doing. And I started trying to find where would I get 
these seeds. And I came to the understanding that in my own 
homeland place; the Blacklands -- the upper Blacklands - point 
zero zero four remains. Four thousandths of a percent. This 
prairie once covered twelve million acres only a hundred to a 
hundred and fifty years ago. And we have -- in a blink of an eye 
-effectively extincted them down to this small percentage. 
That's when I found that instead of cleaning up behind the 
bulldozers, it would be smarter to get in front of them."

Neiman went on to found the Native American Seed 
Company, in Junction ... and cultivates native seeds for 
the Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana bioregion.

That's our show for today ... produced in cooperation with 
the Conservation History Association of Texas. Visit them 
on the web at texaslegacy.org. For Texas Parks and 
Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.