Friends of Hagerman NWR Foundation - Rewilding Sticker Hill

Rewilding Sticker Hill

By Karen Glenn, Texas Master Naturalist

Sticker Hill is the nickname of a small hobby farm, located in far northwest Grayson County, near Gordonville, Texas. The property sits in the East Cross Timbers ecological region of north Texas, where the Blackland Prairie meets the post oak/hardwood forests. Beginning in 2018 the property became an experiment in rewilding or returning the land back into native habitat for songbirds and native pollinators. The farm consisted mostly of coastal Bermuda, sandburs, and cockleburs when the project started, but slowly the property is returning to a diverse mixture of native trees, deep-rooted prairie grasses and native forbs (flowering plants). The small acreage now hosts over 120 distinct species of plants and animals (and counting).

What a Spring it has been! The rain has certainly made things grow around here. I have noticed a lot of small persimmons on the ground, so the crop is probably not going to be very big this year. I am not sure if it is from water-saturated soil, but many of the unripe fruitlets are on the ground. We received over 9 inches of rain in May and over 4 inches, so far, in June. What a wet season, but thankfully things are beginning to dry out a bit. It was a fun time to pull invasive plants up, though. The privet is taking over this year. Every time I go outside a new privet sprout or bush is hiding in the understory!

Once the sun came out this month the plants on the property grew like weeds. Speaking of “weeds”... the current star of the landscape this month is tall gaura, aka longflower beeblossom or Oenothera filiformis. This plant is no longer considered a species of gaura and has since been reclassified in the Onagraceae, or Evening Primrose Family. Old habits die hard. I will probably always call it gaura. Most people consider this plant a weed, but I have learned to embrace and appreciate it here on the farm. Tall gaura was introduced here by a round bale of hay, collected next to the Fobb Bottom Wildlife Management Area, near Willis, Ok. Those bales of hay came with tons of wildflower seeds, which most ranchers would be upset about, but I was thrilled! I first noticed it in the pasture in 2012, and now it is everywhere I look.

Photo: The "weed" of the month, tall gaura, aka longflower beeblossom or Oenothera filiformis. This is a tall native plant with delicate pink and white flowers that blooms from June until November.

My number one rule on this property: If it is being used by local wildlife, birds, or beneficial insects, it stays. Rule number two: If it stays, it has to learn to share its space well. Gaura follows both rules, so it stays, for now. This plant knows how to share the landscape, with a little attention. This year it is mixed with another tall pollinator plant, late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), and they are both sharing space nicely.

Gaura is a tall annual on my place and reseeds in thick patches, so it sort of takes over empty space. The good news: it cannot stand mowing and pulls out of the soil easily, so it is easy to keep out of an area you do not want. Just note

that if left on its own it will ramble. What I like most about gaura is the amount of cover it gives for small mammals and birds to forage underneath, as well as its place in the plant community on the farm. We tend to get mostly colorful songbirds nesting on the property, and the tall gaura gives them foraging cover and protection from overhead predators, like the local Cooper’s hawks.

Tall gaura is also an “airy” plant, which allows dappled sunlight to reach the ground. The plant is very leggy with a strong central stem and very few lower leaves. It will drop lower leaves throughout the growing season, until it is basically flowering tops waving in the breeze by fall. This allows other plants to grow and fill in the spaces close to the ground. Perennials will eventually push the shallow-rooted gaura out of the way as they become established, so it has enabled desirable native forbs to self-seed, germinate, and become established in the pastures. This eventually gave me the idea of using small, circular clearings in the gaura thickets as protected areas to help reestablish native grasses and forbs in the pastures. Opening up the space allows desirable perennials to have the sun they need while protecting them from high winds and competing neighbors. Unwanted gaura is easily mowed, pulled up, or cut at the base with loppers. It has worked pretty well in the areas where this method was used.

Another wonderful thing about tall gaura is its generous gift to the native cavity-dwelling wasps and bees, who count on having sturdy stems to raise their brood and overwinter. Birds also use the stems to perch and feed on the winter seeds left behind. If the stems are in an unwanted area, they are easily moved to another part of the yard, so the wildlife still has access to the substrate to help them survive the winters. At first it was tempting to remove all the stems left behind, but I have found having a little patience pays off. Almost all of the stems will drop to the ground and go back into the soil by Spring. If cleaning up is necessary, try to wait until the warmer months

Photo: Plant life under the tall gaura. Arrowleaf clover, Trifolium vesiculosum, has done especially well this year. The strong woody stems are all tall gaura.

of Spring before removing the plant material from the property. This gives the pollinators resting inside a chance to emerge and move on to greener pastures.

Photo: Early May on the farm (2023) the arrowleaf clover, Trifolium vesiculosum is filling in space. There are dried stalks of last year’s tall gaura, Oenothera filiformis, still peeking through the vegetation. Most of the stalks have fallen over and are returning to the soil. In another month gaura will dwarf the clover!

While you may not want to let this plant take over your place, Oenothera filiformis is a great native for naturalizing an area. Just be aware that it will crowd out shallow rooted grasses, which was a plus for me, as I was trying to get rid of coastal Bermuda and stickers. It has been quite effective. It is now difficult to find a sticker on Sticker Hill! Everything cycles through this landscape, so if I don’t like the view, I know it will change in just a few weeks. Meanwhile, I will share this space with the native plants and critters and realize that we all must learn to share the space that we live on. Rewilding is teaching me to relax and enjoy the cycles in nature. I hope to continue sharing some of these experiences with you as the seasons change here on Sticker Hill.

Rewilding Sticker Hill: What May Grow Without the Mow?

Article and Photos By Karen Glenn, Blackland Prairie Master Naturalist

Article II of Our Rewilding Series

Photos by Jennifer Vince-Recksiek

Large properties, such as Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, can do big things to build habitat and provide support for birds, wildlife, and pollinators in our area. A larger property has many options. Entire sections of habitat may be managed, thanks to a dedicated work force and heavy equipment like tractors and excavators, which support larger projects. They provide major support for our local wildlife. Smaller property owners may not have access to all these options, but they can still make a substantial impact on the local flora and fauna by providing native vegetation that local food webs count on. Think of smaller properties as steppingstones between larger sections of native habitat. Species often need a place to rest or forage when moving from one area to another, but as humans we tend to create sterile environments around our homes. If an insect shows up, or we see a leaf chewed on, it is normal to reach for the pesticides. We want to eradicate anything/everything that threatens the perfect order we work hard to maintain around our abode. If a weed pops up in the lawn, it must go. We tend to want a perfect monoculture, uniform and trimmed, to show others we care about our property.

Unfortunately, very few things can survive in a monoculture, but this is the way we style our modern lawns. Somehow, we have lost sight of the fact that extensive lawn care is a relatively new thing for this land. The first lawns were manicured golf courses and huge estates, where there was labor available to do the work necessary to beat back unwanted plants. Thomas Jefferson is credited as one of the first to replicate a manicured lawn at his Monticello Estate at the beginning of the 19th century. Most individual landowners used their yards to grow vegetable gardens or feed livestock at the time. It is easy to forget lawn mowing was not widespread until recently, when lawn equipment became affordable and designed for smaller properties.

Individual lawn mowing became widespread only in the past 60-75 years. The first rotary powered lawn mowers became available in the late 1940’s, and since then we have cleared off most of the plants that nature depends on and replaced them with nonnative grasses, forbs, and trees. The seeds of invasive plants have entered our natural areas, causing even more loss of the forage plants our local ecosystem depends on. If each of us adds a few of the important native plants here and there, we can provide a scaffolding system of support to help species get from one fragmented habitat to another. This can make an enormous difference in the success of native flora and fauna. Think of your property as a steppingstone in between available habitat. Your addition may be the difference in survival of numerous species, by providing food and shelter in areas where native plants have been all but eliminated. We can all support native pollinators and songbirds in small ways that add up to big impacts on our local species. Doug Tallamy, one of my favorite authors, refers to this concept as “Homegrown National Park.” I highly recommend his books if you are interested in joining this project.

If you are interested in rewilding a smaller property, there are two basic paths you can choose. The first path is more direct, expensive, and labor intensive. It works best for smaller properties, like traditional lawns and requires removing nonnative plants entirely and replacing them with native species where possible. It may or may not be successful, depending on the soil, insect communities on property, and other ecological factors, but it is quick and efficient. Even small yards can make a big difference by establishing a pollinator garden and/or creating edges around an existing lawn. These plantings are by choice, quickly set up, and the rewards are easy to observe. Container gardening can work with limited spaces, such as a patio or the balcony of an apartment. No space is too small to have influence. What takes time to develop are all the inter-relationships between the soil, plants, and animal species. One thing for sure, if you grow it, they will eventually show up. It may take a year or two, but you will start to see how the plants are being utilized by the local fauna. That hard part is seeing eaten leaves as a sign of success, rather than harm!

Photos by Jennifer Vince-Recksiek

Larger spaces can become expensive and labor intensive to convert to native landscape over a season. For this reason, we picked a more natural, passive rewilding strategy. Plants have been introduced naturally on Sticker Hill, through the seed dispersal systems found in nature. Many of the reintroduced natives were planted by birds within the first couple of years. The birds, joined by wind, ants, and even small mammals, such as mice and squirrels, add new plantings to the mix over time. The animals in the habitat will quickly bring in the native plants they forage on. Most of us in this area live on small fragments of Blackland Prairie, often intermixed with hardwood forests, making up the Cross Timbers Ecoregion, which used to cover north Texas and southern Oklahoma. Sticker Hill is situated on a small strip of the Cross Timbers region, so we concentrate on having a diverse mixture of native trees and prairie plants.

While slower, I have found this more passive method results in a diverse community of native plants that are used right away. New additions grow quite well and have usually been in place a couple of seasons by the time I find them! Of course, this method requires patience and a change of perspective from what looks good to our eyes to what works best for the habitat. I move some plants around to other places on the property slowly, over time, after identifying them, learning about their growth habits and their place in the ecosystem, and observing their preferred growing conditions on this property. We save seeds from the more desirable volunteers. Getting to know what is already present on my small fragment of habitat helps me to recognize invasive species when they appear, which is another important task when restoring native species. The earlier they are removed, the better!

The first two years of rewilding were quite difficult on my eyes and shifting perspective. Pioneer plants are usually the first to arrive. These are often dispersed by the wind and tend to be annual, weedy, and opportunistic. It took about 3-5 years for some of the more desirable annual and perennial plants to become established. We are now in the eighth year since we began allowing the place to go back to nature, and the rewards are enormous. Most of our time is spent walking around taking pictures, discovering new species, thinning out areas that are overgrown, and selectively removing woody plants, which tend to begin taking over the habitat within 5-7 years. Observing succession as it occurs and helping to shape the plant community is a relaxing pastime. Developing a close relationship to one’s own piece of land gives time to slowly learn new plants, which is much less intimidating than trying to learn about hundreds of native plants that may be found in our area! One may adjust as they go. Apps, like iNaturalist, take the guess work out of identifying plants, which has made rewilding much easier than the days of having to key down every plant or find a local expert!

My main focus is native pollinators, especially bees, which tend to prefer flowers from three huge plant families providing food for birds and pollinators in north Texas: the Asteraceae (composite, or sunflower family), the Fabaceae (legume, or bean family), and the Rosaceae (rose family, which contains most of our fruit trees, vines, and shrubs). These three large families provide both humans and wildlife with important nutritional resources. They come in a variety of sizes, growth forms, and blooming times, which makes them excellent members of a native habitat. There are numerous specialized relationships between pollinators and other plant families, but these three are great to start with.

On morning walks this month, the bumble bees have been working hard gathering pollen and nectar from the bright yellow patches of Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). This native annual has formed thick patches interspersed with the tall gaura in the pastures. It happily reseeds itself each year. Partridge pea leaves host the larva of many butterfly species. This plant appeared early and has become well-established in the pastures.

The partridge pea’s cousins, the Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis) and the yellow puff (Neptunia lutea), are relative newcomers to the property. All three of these members of the legume family support many pollinators with their bright yellow flowers. As a bonus, small mammals and birds forage on the seed pods, which are quite edible. The roots of these native legumes help add nitrogen to the soil. The bean family is highly diverse, and its members make excellent additions to the native landscape. From trees and shrubs to small, delicate plants, like the yellow puff, there are bound to be useful members of this family that will work well in your own native plantings. I encourage you to get out there and see how many you may already have lurking about the place!

Rewilding Sticker Hill: The Fall Bloomers Are Here!

Article and Photos By Karen Glenn, Blackland Prairie Master Naturalist

Article III of Our Rewilding Series

Marsh fleabane, Pluchea odorata, on the left has blooms that range from almost white to striking deep purple. The late boneset, Eupatorium serotinum, on the right, has bright white flowers. These two clumps are growing in the partial shade of a large boxelder tree, Acer negundo, a member of the maple family (Sapindaceae). These plants are 3-4 years old and are around 4-5 feet tall.

Early Fall has become one of my favorite times of the year. The Fall bloomers are beginning to take over the landscape. As I mentioned in a previous article, the three most common plant families providing food for birds and pollinators in north Texas are the Asteraceae (composite, or sunflower family), the Fabaceae (legumes, or bean family), and the Rosaceae (rose, which contains most of our fruit trees, vines, and shrubs). This is the time of year for the sunflower family to shine. There are so many fantastic fall bloomers in this huge family of flowering plants. The two composite plants that get the most Fall visitors on Sticker Hill are late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) and marsh fleabane (Pluchea odorata). Out of the two it is difficult to say which gets the most activity. Late boneset seems to get more butterflies, while the marsh fleabane attracts a bigger variety of different pollinator types. They will produce blooms until frost, providing pollinators with important, late-season resources to help get them through winter.

A Southern Plains bumble bee (Bombus fraternus) foraging on late boneset (Eupoatorium serotinum).

An unidentified skipper butterfly sipping nectar from late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum)

Late boneset was the plant that really caught my attention when I began rewilding this property. The butterflies, and other pollinators, went crazy over this plant. It is usually covered in tiger swallowtails, which have not been common to see this season, so far. I am not sure why, but hopefully they will return next year. There has been a lot of development in our area, which has drastically cut back on our wild places where useful “weeds” are allowed to grow, so I rarely remove boneset, even if it comes up in a place that I wouldn’t normally want it to. It seems to be a plant many pollinators use for late season nectar, plus it is a beautiful plant, even before the blooms come in.

Late boneset is native across the eastern half of the United States and will grow in just about any soil and under most conditions. It is a perennial, so it will come back year after year, becoming larger with prolific blooming. It has handled the lack of rain this year like a champ. After blooming it produces seeds for birds to feed on all winter. As a bonus it is deer resistant. Even my goat leaves it alone! If you are having trouble with critters eating your flowering plants this may be an excellent choice to try. According to several sources this plant also attracts beneficial predatory insects that help control other insect pests. It may be propagated by seed and readily self-seeds if left alone.

An American bumblebee (Bombus pensylvanicus) on marsh fleabane (Pluchea odorata)

A closeup of Western ironweed, Vernonia baldwinii, growing in full sun and moist soil on the edge of a pond.

When I first discovered marsh fleabane on my property, I thought it was a similar plant, Western Ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii), which is another excellent plant for a pollinator garden that blooms early April to October. Fleabane did not pass the smell test. As its Latin name suggests, marsh fleabane (P. odorata) releases an interesting fragrance. Some people call the plant sweetscent, although I do not find it very sweet smelling. Think flowery camphor. The scent is still somewhat pleasant, and it seems to draw in the pollinators. Mine is usually covered in bumble bees. It has a different growth habit depending on its location and resources, but it prefers habitats that are moist, hence the marsh in its name. I have found it grows quite well in most locations, although the colors are not as vibrant when grown in harder packed, drier soils and/or partial shade. It will grow in all light conditions: shade to full sun. It is pickier about having wet feet than bright light.

Marsh fleabane is native perennial in Texas, although some sources will call it an annual in northern regions. It is a close relative of camphorweed, which explains the hint of camphor in its scent. It begins blooming from early summer through frost, so it is an excellent addition for both its beauty and utility. It is also deer resistant, so it may be a good choice for lower places that tend to stay moist. It also grows quite well over lateral lines! It will freely self-seed.

Gray Hairstreak by Laurie Sheppard

Revisiting last month, the tall “Gaura” (Oenothera filiformis, in the evening primrose family) is finally blooming like crazy, and the entire pasture is buzzing with activity. The foraging bees are getting so much pollen they can barely fly away! It is somewhat comical watching them travel from flower to flower, loading their back legs with so much extra weight they wobble in the air. Much of the season this plant is somewhat scraggly looking as it prepares for its turn to shine, but from now until frost, it will be a graceful, early morning “all you can eat buffet” for the local bees and other pollinators. One might think that bumblebees would have a hard time foraging this plant, but several were observed successfully gathering resources from the delicate flowers.

Another common name for tall Gaura is beeblossom. In the past I never noticed much activity on the blooms out in the pasture, so I didn’t understand why it would be called beeblossom. Early one morning I stepped outside to hear loud buzzing. It sounded like a swarm or hive was hiding inside the stands of Gaura. It was quite a show with honeybees, native bees, wasps, and all manner of pollinator insects flitting through the flowers. Within a couple of hours after sunrise most of the nectar and pollen has been harvested for the day, and the bees are few and far in between. Afterwards a few reconnaissance flights are made, where foragers search for blossoms that may have been missed during the early morning. I am not much of a morning person, so I had missed the heavy traffic in the wee hours of the morning. This made me realize how important it is to make observations at different times of the day all through the seasons. Making observations at the same exact time of day, every day, may result in missing a lot of activity!

If you would like to create a little wild space, put in a pollinator garden, or maybe try a few new plants, I highly recommend adding some members of the sunflower family. There are hundreds to choose from, and you probably have several already present. Asters, goldenrods, and almost all the daisy-like native wildflowers are great choices for attracting more butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. I encourage you to get to know your land. Explore and try to find out where your property fits in with the local ecosystem.

I spent the first couple of years walking around, taking pictures of new plants, and identifying them on iNaturalist. Once identified, I looked up information about their place in the ecosystem. Are they an annual or a perennial? When and how do they reproduce? What are their growth habits? Do they support local pollinators or desirable wildlife? When you know what is on your property, you can discover new arrivals much easier. This is also a great time to make plans for removal of any invasive species! I try to walk around at least once a week and spend time searching for new plants and taking pictures about once a month. With a phone camera and iNaturalist it does not take long to get to know your flowering plants. It may take a year or two to discover a new arrival, depending on the size of your space. Sometimes it takes a while for a native perennial forb to become established and flower. Chances are you already have some great natives waiting for their chance to shine with a little encouragement.

Another member of the sunflower family, blue asters are a great, easy to grow Fall plant.

Rewilding Sticker Hill: Trying to Succeed at Succession

Article and Photos By Karen Glenn, Blackland Prairie Master Naturalist

Article IV of Our Rewilding Series

One thing I really love about the concept of rewilding is the opportunity to take things slow. It is a process of working with nature and looking at a habitat from the perspective of native flora and fauna. Farming and gardening are mostly based on a human perspective of land use. Permaculture practices were movements towards rewilding, and while building a permaculture is much better for the native habitat, the practices still focus on a human-needs perspective. While I add my own food plants here and there, true rewilding looks at things from the perspective of what is best for all the members of the habitat: soil microorganisms, plants and animals. With modern practices we have increasingly gone to war with the natural processes that have taken place on this land for tens of thousands of years. A rewilding perspective realizes nature is much better at taking care of itself than we are, because we are not aware of all the pieces present on our land and how they all interact. There are many species we are not even aware of co-habiting with us. The hardest thing about rewilding is letting go of our human perspective enough to release control. Thinking as an observer and member of the local ecosystem, instead of the sole master of it.

The leaves of Peppervine (Nekemias arborea) were popular with foraging insects this year. Earlier in the Spring the leaves were eaten by a number of caterpillars and other insects. Even so, the vines produced loads of berries this Fall. Looking at things from a wilding perspective, those chewed up leaves mean success! The organisms that ate the leaves are, at the very least, meals for something else higher up the food chain.

Once mowing and clearing stops in a habitat the native plants will attempt to reestablish themselves. Letting that happen - the new buzz word is nonmanagement- allows the habitat to go into its recovery mode. A well-kept lawn tries to stop this repair system in the natural habitat. This is why it is so difficult to keep weeds out of your lawn. They are relentless in their duties! My goal is to help keep my small piece of land in a mid-secondary succession stage. The first 3-4 years were spent observing the land and getting to know plants as they appeared. Annuals tend to show up first, followed by perennials. Once the perennials become established the habitat begins to settle into a more stable mixture of plants and animals. Now it is time to manage the woody growth togive the forbs the room and light they need to remain in place. The battle is much slower paced than trying to keep a weed-free lawn!

When we establish a lawn, build new homes, or grow acres of crops in a previously wild area the original habitat on the property responds in the same way as destruction from fire, floods, or any other major disturbance. If the damage is great enough primary succession begins. If the habitat is partially damaged the repair may begin in an early secondary succession stage. Photo credit: Copyright Shutterstock.com

Weedy annual native plants will be the first to arrive within a disturbed space as pioneer plants. They usually produce a ton of seeds, and this is the constant struggle we find ourselves in: fighting weeds to keep the perfect lawn or garden. From the habitat perspective this space has been severely disturbed, and pioneer plants come in to cover the soil, repair the damage, and make way for the habitat to become established with native grasses, forbs, and trees. Once they do their job they are replaced within 3-5 years with perennial species, trees, and shrubs, which provide important food and shelter in the habitat. Within a few years the pioneer “weeds” will give way to longer-lived native forbs and grasses. This is why the first couple of years are the hardest. It requires patience, leaving the system alone to do its work.

As humans we tend to want everything to be in neat rows and perfect rectangular beds.

Societal pressure dictates everything must be a controlled and a uniform length. Square corners and straight lines look pleasant for human eyes. It shows human effort and control. Meanwhile, native plant communities, when left on their own, tend to be diverse and messy. Try to find a monoculture of grass or fruit trees growing in a perfectly straight line out in nature, without some kind of disturbance influencing where the seeds settle. Build a fence and soon a line of trees will form in a neat line.

Large patches of Plantago lanceolata, or Narrowleaf plantain, popped up the first year. Plantain is a common pioneer plant genus and often among the first to appear in disturbed sites. It has slowly begun to disappear as other plants have moved in.

Long after old fences deteriorate and disappear, their positions remain marked on the landscape. These are old fence lines on a pasture west of Gordonville, visible on Google Earth. The developed land’s appearance stands in stark contrast with the native tree-lined areas around the creeks.

It is easy to fall in love with diversity on the property. It isn’t so easy to fall in love with the messiness of some seasons, but everything deserves time to rest occasionally, and a native habitat is no different. There are a few bare spots here and there due to the lack of rain. Several species of ants are abundant on the property, and I have noticed antlion pit traps have been popping up in the sandy areas. A few adults have been spotted in the yard, but I never seem to have my camera when they do. It is much easier to take pictures of their larval homes! The larval stages of this insect require relatively undisturbed, bare ground to successfully reach adulthood, and it may take up to two years to fully develop into a winged adult. Most of their life span is spent in the larval stage eating ants and other small insects that fall into their traps. Antlion pit traps used to be everywhere when I was a kid, but I do not see them much anymore. Now that I know they are here I will make sure there is always a bit of bare ground for them to go through their 2-year pupating stage.

Signs of my ant-eating brigade, antlion pit traps. They are members of the Myrmeleon genus. Sticker Hill has quite a few antlions in residence. These larval homes are found in a sandy area, below a huge sugar maple tree, where ground cover is sparse. Inset photo of antlion larvae by Jim Moore, 2013.

I never noticed adult antlions in the habitat, until I started looking for them. They resemble small, dull-colored damsel flies with club-shaped antennae. Antlions, damselflies, and dragonflies do an immense job of controlling pest species in the habitat. Their numbers automatically adjust to match the forage available, although their appearance sometimes lags behind their prey items by a season or two. It is tempting to reach for the pesticides, but waiting usually pays off with a permanent solution. All we have to do is get out of their way and not interfere with their work. The native plants and animals already have systems in place to restore balance and heal the land. When we learn to work with these systems, instead of against them, beautiful things begin to happen.

An antlion, Myrmeleon sp. (Neuroptera: Myrmeleonidae), adult. Photo by Drees. More information about antlions and other beneficial insects may be found in the Texas A&M AgriLife - Field Guide to Common Texas Insects. This guide is a good resource for learning about the insects in our area.

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