Advisory Committee Update
Our advisory committee is finally complete with nine members. The final member to join our effort is April Sansom, Executive Director of Selah Ranch. Let’s welcome April!!
Legislation & Interception
On Monday, we attended the hearing of SB 1927 in the Texas Senate Local Government Committee. The bill, initiated by Rep. Ellen Troxclair and proposed by Senator Adam Hinojosa, proposed grouping all Ashe junipers, regardless of size, with dead and diseased trees to reduce the ability of cities to regulate their urban tree cover. Elizabeth McGreevy, speaking for herself, explained the bill would undermine Project Bedrock’s work to develop a landowner decision-making tool.
When Sen. Hinojosa introduced his bill, he claimed the trees were detrimental to water supplies because they intercept rain.
Let’s examine this issue. These trees do intercept rain. Most vegetation does. When there’s a light rain, the sun comes out quickly and can cause most of the rain to evaporate. However, Texas karst country is often subjected to severe flash flooding. Dense canopies will capture and delay heavy rains. As the rain falls through slower, less soil damage will occur.
As you can see in the graph below, interception varies based on rainfall intensity. When averaged, mountain cedar interception is less than a healthy cover of native prairie grasses (the Zou and Clarke studies). Yet, it is more than a sparse cover of degraded grass (the Curly Mesquite and Side Oats studies).
Decision-Making Tool Update
We now have a step-by-step outline for the decision-making tool called D-MAP. That’s short for decision-making analysis and planning tool. We’re excited by the progress and look forward to any feedback. Please send comments to our Program Director.