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

Newsletter

Why All the Latin? Taxonomy, Binomial Nomenclature and Carl Linnaeus

When you visit the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, you will notice signs identifying the plants. In the Japanese Garden, for example, you will see signs that read “Acer palmatum (Japanese maple).” Many people know that the part of the name in italics is the formal name of the plant, written in Latin (more or less.) Some people might even know that Acer palmatum is the genus and species of the tree more commonly known as Japanese maple. But why? What is the purpose of giving plants names in a dead language?

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Row of bright blue and white bluebonnets
Newsletter

The Botany of Bluebonnets, Texas’s Favorite Flower

The bluebonnets are in bloom across North Texas, splashing waves of blue across hillsides and plains. Conditions this year were just right for brilliant display of color, and you can expect to see families plunking their kids down in the middle of blooming patches for photos all weekend.

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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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