- [Narrator] With thousands of acres of roadside
right-of-way, TxDOT wants to ensure that native vegetation
thrives in these areas.
It's vital for the environment,
including to help with erosion control,
but it also allows TxDOT to meet federal mandates
for using native plants.
This project focuses on the work of researchers
at Texas A&M University Kingsville,
and how their restoration efforts designed to help
landowners is now benefiting everyone that travels.
- What's important about native right-of-way
is we were getting back to more of a regenerative
type of right-of-way where the right-of-way
takes care of itself through nature.
- It's very important to have the native seeds
from an area where they originated from,
and that those plants can perform well there.
The various ecosystems of Texas, or ecoregions
if you will, far West Texas has desert grasslands,
far East Texas pine woods with a native grass understory
and variable rainfall throughout.
The different plants just don't perform
all the way across the state.
- The process that Texas native seeds uses to develop seed
releases that are then used for TxDOT revegetation
and provide into the commercial industry
is we have individuals that go out,
and make collections from wild populations.
We then bring that material back,
grow it out in the greenhouse.
Those populations are then transplanted into the field
and data is collected on those transplants for two years,
and select usually between two and four
of those original populations.
We grow each of those in isolation
for an additional two to five years,
until we have sufficient enough seed stock on hand
to then be able to provide to a commercial grow.
- When they go out and they test the seed,
and they look at the seed and they grow the seed out,
they make it available, commercially available
where the state of Texas can then if that be TxDOT,
or whomever it might be can come in and purchase
that seed for the plantings in the right-of-way.
- We have six different regional projects
within the state of Texas,
and we stationed those strategically
to get the variable climates,
and the variable ecoregions of the state,
so that we can test these different seed sources
in all areas of the state and see where they can be used
in areas where they won't be able to be used.
That helps us narrow down the area of adaptation for TxDOT.
- One of the specific ones
that we've been working on recently is pollinator habitat
to try and identify those specific species
that'll provide pollinator habitat.
Another one that's been throughout the process
is finding height appropriate species,
those species that maintain a lower growth,
so that we may be not have to mow
as often as we've traditionally done.
- TxDOT is really utilizing our expertise
and native plant development, and our ability to test
different plants in different ecoregions within Texas
to really dial in and create recommendations
that they can use to be successful
in all the different ecoregions
and ecosystems within the state.
- We've got new projects coming online,
looking at how we can do different drill seedings.
We can do hydro seedings, different application methods.
Along with that, we can look at using cover crops,
or different times of planting,
all of those different kinds of research methodologies
to really figure out how best to establish that vegetation
now that the seeds on the commercial market.
- The direction we going,
I would love to see us to go all native.
Is it possible?
It's going to be a long haul, It's not going to be easy,
but we'll get there, we'll get there.
- [Narrator] For more information
and to find the publications for this project,
please visit the TxDOT research library
at the link shown below.