1 00:00:00,070 --> 00:00:02,153 (swoosh) 2 00:00:08,711 --> 00:00:11,734 - [Narrator] Texas will be affected if numerous rare plants 3 00:00:11,734 --> 00:00:15,006 are added to the threatened or endangered list 4 00:00:15,006 --> 00:00:17,690 by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. 5 00:00:17,690 --> 00:00:20,410 Researchers with Tarleton State University 6 00:00:20,410 --> 00:00:22,821 have determined specific areas of the state 7 00:00:22,821 --> 00:00:24,682 that have existing populations, 8 00:00:24,682 --> 00:00:28,290 or that could support these plants. 9 00:00:28,290 --> 00:00:30,200 - From a planning perspective, 10 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:31,033 what it means 11 00:00:31,033 --> 00:00:32,130 is if they're in an area 12 00:00:32,130 --> 00:00:34,217 where they're gonna be disturbed by a project, 13 00:00:34,217 --> 00:00:37,280 we have to go through a separate coordination process 14 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:38,450 with the Fish and Wildlife Service 15 00:00:38,450 --> 00:00:40,460 before the project can be environmentally cleared 16 00:00:40,460 --> 00:00:41,293 and go to construction. 17 00:00:41,293 --> 00:00:44,000 So that adds time and energy and effort 18 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:45,847 to the planning process. 19 00:00:45,847 --> 00:00:47,460 - We determined 17 species 20 00:00:47,460 --> 00:00:50,520 that were considered as rare, 21 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,106 and which needs to be taken care of at this point. 22 00:00:54,106 --> 00:00:57,530 So the need basically was to figure out 23 00:00:57,530 --> 00:01:00,443 what are the potential distribution of these species 24 00:01:00,443 --> 00:01:02,500 in the state of Texas. 25 00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:04,831 - They go in and they basically take known locations 26 00:01:04,831 --> 00:01:06,914 and habitat parameters 27 00:01:06,914 --> 00:01:09,420 that are described from those known locations, 28 00:01:09,420 --> 00:01:11,890 and they plug those into a GIS-based model. 29 00:01:11,890 --> 00:01:14,240 And it predicts areas on the landscape 30 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,700 where you would expect to have similar habitat conditions. 31 00:01:16,700 --> 00:01:19,560 - So basically what we have the output of the project 32 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,874 is we have distribution maps for all these species. 33 00:01:22,874 --> 00:01:24,710 - And then they send a team of folks out 34 00:01:24,710 --> 00:01:29,349 to go and actually look in these higher probability areas 35 00:01:29,349 --> 00:01:31,300 and try to determine 36 00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:34,440 if the plants are actually there, or if the communities 37 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:36,885 of plants that are found with them are there. 38 00:01:36,885 --> 00:01:39,800 - Let's say if TexDOT has certain project, 39 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,860 and they can overlay the location of their project 40 00:01:42,860 --> 00:01:44,476 above these maps, and they can see 41 00:01:44,476 --> 00:01:46,930 whether any project will interfere 42 00:01:46,930 --> 00:01:49,190 with distribution areas of these species. 43 00:01:49,190 --> 00:01:50,023 - So we really wanted 44 00:01:50,023 --> 00:01:52,793 to have a broad group of stakeholders involved, 45 00:01:52,793 --> 00:01:57,620 so that these models would be useful to TexDOT, 46 00:01:57,620 --> 00:01:59,171 but also useful to the regulatory agencies 47 00:01:59,171 --> 00:02:01,850 for other purposes as well. 48 00:02:01,850 --> 00:02:04,810 And so if there's things we could do with these models 49 00:02:04,810 --> 00:02:07,160 to make them more useful, not just for our purposes, 50 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:09,415 but also for the other stakeholders, 51 00:02:09,415 --> 00:02:10,910 then that was something 52 00:02:10,910 --> 00:02:12,570 that we talked about potentially doing. 53 00:02:12,570 --> 00:02:14,300 - [Narrator] For more information, 54 00:02:14,300 --> 00:02:16,280 and to find the publications for this project, 55 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,730 please visit the TexDOT research library 56 00:02:19,730 --> 00:02:21,263 at the link shown below.