SHELDON LAKE PRAIRIE: Restoring native prairies in 
Houston's backyard ... details ahead on Passport to Texas.
 
PTT from TPW and the SFWR Program 

Before Houston and surrounding communities took root, 
and farmers turned wild land into farmland, the area was 
covered in tall grass prairies.

We're restoring these croplands back to the historic tall grass 
prairies that they were fifty, a hundred years ago. :07

Robert Comstock is superintendent of Sheldon Lake State 
Park, outside of Houston. Four hundred acres in the park 
have been identified for restoration, and volunteers have 
already replanted 100 acres with native grasses.

And they're what we call rescuing grasses from, say, highway 
projects, construction projects all throughout the city. They 
bring them out here, and cut them up, and pot them into 
smaller pots, and then grow them out, and then transplant 
them into the prairie. :12

Comstock says he's already seen an increase in wildlife.

That's what's most exciting about this. A year or so after we did 
the first one hundred acres, our bird census has already 
documented close to a dozen species of birds that we've never 
seen before in the park. So there's tangible results right then 
and there that we're doing is good and is improving the 
environment and the habitat in the area. :19

Volunteers are always welcome to help with this project. 
Find more information at passporttotexas.org.

That's our show ... made possible by a grant from the 
sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program ... working to 
restore native habitat in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti. 





Total sound bite time:		 0:38.0
Maximum Script time:		 0:47.0 Suggested show time: 85.0 = 1:25