MeganO;Connell_CommunityConservation

Prairie Research Program

Biodiversity and Floristics

The Prairie Research Program (PReP) includes projects related to natural resource management, ecology, native vegetation, and stewardship of prairie and rangeland habitats. We collaborate with landowners to investigate plant biodiversity metrics, often associated with disturbance events (past and present).

Each of these projects involves plant identification, vegetation surveys, documentation and monitoring, and data collection in the field, as well as organization and analysis of data. Some of the projects also include an educational and outreach component involving collaborating organizations and individuals. Students who would like to volunteer with the program—including those majoring in Natural Resource Management, Rangeland Ecology and Management, or a similar curriculum or those broadly interested in field botany— should contact Dr. Brooke Best.

Current Prairie projects:

Biodiversity Assessment: All Saints’ Episcopal School

Native Tallgrass Prairie Remediation: Private Ranch

BRIT Urban Prairie

Living Laboratories: Private Ranch

Rolling Plains Rangeland Restoration: Wind Farm

Research Team

Related Articles

BRIT News

PRESCRIBED BURN PLANNED FOR BRIT PRAIRIE

In conjunction with the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, Fort Worth Botanic Garden is hosting an Urban Prescribed Burn Workshop tomorrow Friday March 3. This professional education event will involve a live controlled wildland burn activity on the Botanical Research Institute of Texas prairie at the corner of University and Trail Drive at 2 p.m.

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Newsletter

Art and Science Meet in New Exhibition “Illuminations”

The worlds of art and science interact in fascinating ways in a new exhibit opening Feb. 17 at the BRIT Building. “Dornith Doherty: Illuminations: Past, Present, and Future of Fern Research” presents new large-scale artworks that engage with the past, chronicle the present and project our possible ecological futures.

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BRIT News

Dornith Doherty Art Exhibition Opens Feb. 17  

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden is pleased to present “Dornith Doherty: Illuminations: Past, Present, and Future of Fern Research,” an art exhibition free and open to the public from Feb. 17 through Jun. 30 at the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall in the BRIT building at 1700 University Dr. Fort Worth, Texas 76107. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information, please call (817) 332-4441. 

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Newsletter

Herbarium Reaches Transcription Milestone with 52,000-plus Specimens Fully Digitized

The herbarium is the heart of research at the Garden. A major priority of the herbarium is to digitize the collection by photographing the specimens and transcribing the related information recorded by botanists. Staff and volunteers made significant strides in reaching this goal last year. “The herbarium ended 2022 with complete transcriptions of 52,674 specimens,” says Herbarium Collections Manager Ashley Bordelon.

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