Wildlife, Local Communities Benefiting from Native Habitat Restoration in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley.
When approaching a thicket of the “mean and thorny” plants that make up Tamaulipan thornscrub habitat, it’s easy to initially question how anyone could comfortably live in or with it. Even early explorers in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley wondered what to make of it.
“Could all this thorny jungle and chaparral have been created in vain?” asked Rio Grande Valley ethnographer Capt. John. G. Bourke in 1895. “No… the more we examine into the great scheme of nature, the more do we see that nothing has been made without some purpose.”
Though Bourke posed the question as part of a quest to find out how the local vegetation could “make men wiser and happier,” today we know that this ecologically and economically valuable habitat provides an array of important ecosystem functions for wildlife and the local community.
This essential habitat hosts more than 1,200 plant species, 519 bird species, and 316 butterfly species, including 45 federal and state threatened or endangered species, in one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America.
Peer within this dense foliage and you could find many unique and rare birds, including ferruginous pygmy-owls, buff-bellied hummingbirds, green jays and blue buntings. Look even lower, and you (or more likely a well-placed trail camera) could even spot one of the United States’ only endangered ocelots in the wild.
“It’s the dense understory that makes it really beneficial for ocelots,” said Mitch Sternberg, South Texas Gulf Coast Zone Biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Thornscrub is really kind of a safe haven for them.”
The benefits to the region go beyond supporting native wildlife populations. Thornscrub helps provide carbon sequestration, erosion control, economic gains in ecotourism, recreational opportunities, and pollinator services for the local community.
“All of these plants are doing wonderful things – converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, supporting pollinators to help the agriculture industry, hosting birds that draw in bird watchers,” Sternberg said. “And beyond that, the whole outdoor economy for this area, including hunting and fishing on the coast here, is a huge industry when you look at hotel stays and boats and ammunition.”
Thorns and All: Conservation Partners Show Love to Thornscrub Habitat in South Texas | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
When approaching a thicket of the “mean and thorny” plants that make up Tamaulipan thornscrub habitat, it’s easy to initially question how anyone could comfortably live in or with it. Even early explorers in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley wondered what to make of it.
“Could all this thorny jungle and chaparral have been created in vain?” asked Rio Grande Valley ethnographer Capt. John. G. Bourke in 1895. “No… the more we examine into the great scheme of nature, the more do we see that nothing has been made without some purpose.”
Though Bourke posed the question as part of a quest to find out how the local vegetation could “make men wiser and happier,” today we know that this ecologically and economically valuable habitat provides an array of important ecosystem functions for wildlife and the local community.
This essential habitat hosts more than 1,200 plant species, 519 bird species, and 316 butterfly species, including 45 federal and state threatened or endangered species, in one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America.
Peer within this dense foliage and you could find many unique and rare birds, including ferruginous pygmy-owls, buff-bellied hummingbirds, green jays and blue buntings. Look even lower, and you (or more likely a well-placed trail camera) could even spot one of the United States’ only endangered ocelots in the wild.
“It’s the dense understory that makes it really beneficial for ocelots,” said Mitch Sternberg, South Texas Gulf Coast Zone Biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Thornscrub is really kind of a safe haven for them.”
The benefits to the region go beyond supporting native wildlife populations. Thornscrub helps provide carbon sequestration, erosion control, economic gains in ecotourism, recreational opportunities, and pollinator services for the local community.
“All of these plants are doing wonderful things – converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, supporting pollinators to help the agriculture industry, hosting birds that draw in bird watchers,” Sternberg said. “And beyond that, the whole outdoor economy for this area, including hunting and fishing on the coast here, is a huge industry when you look at hotel stays and boats and ammunition.”
Thorns and All: Conservation Partners Show Love to Thornscrub Habitat in South Texas | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service