BRIT Ecoscapes

The BRIT Ecoscapes site lets you explore the different ecoregions of Tarrant County and helps you select the best native plants for landscaping.

Ecoscapes: Native Plant Predictor Tool

BRAND YOUR LAND with NATIVE TEXAS plants!

Connect your yard to the wild, untamed side of the Fort Worth area! Thriving Cowboy culture was created by Native Texas Prairies with occasional shade trees along riparian areas. Without them, bison, horses, longhorns and the people who depended on them would have starved to death! Help us give the “boot” to resource intensive landscapes! Those high falutin’ landscapes sure are using up our water!

Interested in converting your land back to some part of its original heritage? Here’s how:

Click on the header “My Landscape”.
Enter your address or an address very close to you.
Choose the second tab to see the list of recommended plants, based on your specific location.
Sort by plant form, growth period, foliage, water, light, soil and drainage conditions.
Print your list.
Click on Ecofactors, Native Plants and Resources links to learn more.
Head to a nursery to acquire.
Rinse and repeat.

Our Native Plant Predictor Tool uses your home address and pairs it with existing datasets to predict the native plants most likely to survive in your home landscape. We use a variety of factors (geology, hydrology and more) to provide a suggested list of natives. North Central Texas is incredibly diverse when it comes to the number of plants native to this place. To make things easier for the homeowner, we’ve started with a set of around 200 that are easily available in the nursery trade. See our Resources list for nurseries that stock native plants.

Why should you care about planting native plants?

Native plants support healthy soils. This helps to prevent erosion and provides a substrate for future growth of plants, including our food.
Native plants support insects. Don’t like bugs? If we don’t have insects, we will have much fewer birds and also fewer kinds of birds. This is because 95% of bird species feed insects to developing babies. No insects, no birds.
Native plants provide food for bees. Without bees—both domesticated honey bees and native bees—most food plants cannot be pollinated. However, bees need more food than crop plants can provide. Help make a diverse set of plants available to extend the timing and variety of pollen and nectar sources. Creating a pollinator stream like this will ensure healthier bee populations!
Native plants will save you money! In particular you can save on water costs and other inputs (fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide).

Department

Research

Contacts

Conservation Team

Phone: (817) 332-4441 x256

Email: conservation@brit.org

Jason Best

Director of Biodiversity Informatics

Phone: (817) 546-8697

Email: jbest@brit.org