The grant that made a prairie

What Pastures for Upland Birds does

PUB is a Texas Parks & Wildlife program that helps private landowners turn pastures and hay fields of exotic grasses back into native grasses and wildflowers. TPWD provides technical guidance and cost-share help, such as herbicide, native seed mixes and the use of a no-till seed drill, while the landowner does the work on the ground.

The goal is grassland bird conservation. Native prairie feeds the insects, seeds and small critters that birds like meadowlarks, bobwhites and, ahem, shrikes depend on.

TPWD's Pastures for Upland Birds program →

What PUB did for this land

• Before: about 18 acres of pasture and hay field, dominated by King Ranch bluestem, an exotic grass.
• The first in the county: Stokes Prairie became the first PUB project in McLennan County.
• Planting day, March 12, 2018: the field was drill-seeded with 19 native grasses and wildflowers, from a PUB seed mix plus a native wildflower blend.
• Since then: 14 of the 19 seeded species have been confirmed, and people have logged more than 100 species here.

Want the whole flight? Read The Story, or meet the neighbors in the Field Guide.