Jeff Quayle was the botanist that led the tour of the Fort Worth Prairie
Park that I set up this spring. This is a very beautiful tall grass prairie
remnant and we must work to save it. I will email Jared to see what we can
do to help.



Eileen Porter



_____

From: Jeff Quayle
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 6:29 PM
To: CTMN
Subject: Fw: [TexasPrairieCoalition] Fort Worth Prairie in need



Forgive me if you already received this from Jarid Manos.



Jeff Quayle





----- Original Message -----

From: Great Plains <mailto:greatplains@...> Restoration Council

To: TexasPrairieCoalition@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 3:58 PM

Subject: [TexasPrairieCoalition] Fort Worth Prairie in need



Hi Everybody,



As you know the 2,000 acre Fort Worth Prairie Park is still in danger. I
know how hard we all work in Texas to preserve even small parcels of less
than a hundred acres of native prairie, especially tallgrass.



With the Fort Worth Prairie Park we still have an opportunity to preserve
something of a significantly larger scale, which in turn will build a much
greater awareness and constituency for protecting __any__ remaining native
Texas prairies.



Currently, there is a very small handful of officials who are trying to
'poison the well" by blithely saying the place has no ecological value, is
not big enough, etc. Of course, this is crazy, but it is what some people
will do, without any factual basis.



We all know that the Prairie Park holds very important and rare habitats,
and we're told by TCU that it is even rarer and more unique than previously
thought, due to its seeps, wetlands, and barrens area.





GPRC needs help here :





1.) Is there some way we can get a botanical assessment going?

2.) Can anybody provide an official certification or scientific study
showing how much of the Prairie Park is original, unplowed prairie?



It is very obvious, standing in the swooningly-rich, highly biodiverse
abundance of this property, how valuable it is, but we need some official
written documentation.



3. We also need help in getting it permanently protected. GPRC has held off
the bulldozers for two years. We can't do it alone. We're up to our
eyeballs in success and we need help. (Our new 12,000 acre project out west
in Foard County is really taking off- the first prairie dog town has already
been built with the first reintro scheduled by our Plains Youth InterACTION
kids slated for next month._



If you saw all the church groups and children's groups and senior citizens
who have came out into the Fort Worth Prairie Park just this year alone and
were so enlivened, enriched and educated by this remaining tallgrass
wildland, you would see how much human value the Prairie Park has provided
too. It is a chance to protect a little bit of prairie wilderness right at
the urban edge.





The Texas General Land Office wishes to meet in December regarding this
land.



The time is now where we need more help and muscle to permanently protect
this important parcel of the once 1.3 million acre Fort Worth Prairie
Ecosystem. Where will the declining grassland birds and monarch butterflies
who come up each spring nest if it is paved?



Can we get some strong help here?



Thanks!



Jarid













"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." -- Mother Jones



Jarid Manos

Chief Executive

Great Plains Restoration Council

PO Box 1206

Fort Worth, Texas 76101

817 838 9022

www.gprc.org

"Serving our Youth, Protecting our Prairie Earth"

----

Board Member

Black Vegetarian Society of Texas

www.bvstx.org



--

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