Photo: Longhorns, Austin, Texas. © 2017 Delena Norris-Tull
Road logs for Texas
These notes were taken while driving between Montana and Texas.
Summarized and prepared by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita, University of Montana Western.
[Note: all the road logs were recorded by myself or my traveling companions, Laura Tull or Debra Noble, as we drove. We occasionally stopped to verify species or collect specimens for later identification. Thus, we only recorded what we could see from the road, and could readily identify at driving speeds. Thus this evaluation is not thorough, but provides the impressions of what we observed.]
(This is part of the trip south from Montana to Texas.)
September 9, 2017: See New Mexico road logs.
September 9, 2017:
Texas Road Log
Texas State Highway 87
We entered Texas from the northeast corner of New Mexico. We had been seeing a lot of snakeweed in the overgrazed cattle rangeland in New Mexico. Once we entered Texas, we did not see it anymore.
Texas right-of-ways are full of grasses, which at this time of year are very tall, and have not been mowed. This is by design – the Texas Dept of Transportation policy is to mow after the native grasses have set seed in the fall.
We see lots of yuccas in right-of-ways.
We passed through, or north of, the Rita Blanca National Grassland.
There are large acreages of agriculture in the northwestern section of the state.
At Dalhart, we saw lots of corn fields. In town, there are lots of amaranth and tumbleweeds along the roadways.
A few miles south of town, we get back into heavy grasses along roadways. We don’t see any yucca for a while.
There is lots of agriculture: corn, sorghum, cotton, grasses (hay?), and a number of fallow fields.
Dumas, Texas – large windmill farm, hay fields, Remington Seed Corn area
This land is above the Ogalala Aquifer, which explains why there is so much agriculture here.
South of Dumas, cattle rangeland with healthy looking sagebrush habitat.
Further south, there is a lot of cholla.
Further south, there is yucca and creosote bush. Creosote bush is an indicator species for the Chihuahuan Desert, but does grow beyond the boundaries of the desert. But has the desert expanded its range into overgrazed areas? There are scattered mesquite. Grasses are thick in the right-of-way.
September 10, 2017
State Highway 84, south from Dumas
Just north of Amarillo we see lots of mesquite
South of Amarillo, the right-of-ways have lots of tall grasses – looks healthy.
Canyon, Texas, I-27
West Texas A&M University exit - there is a prairie dog town along the side of the road, in the right-of-way, at exit 106. There are cattails in the river.
South of Canyon, roadside with thick unmowed grasses.
Farmland appears relatively weed-free: pumpkins, corn, sorghum. There are also cattle.
South of Happy, Texas, there are some weeds in the center-strip, but there are still thick unmowed grasses in the right-of-way.
Plainview, Texas, lots of cotton. Lots of high-power lines.
Plainview to Lubbock: More large fields of cotton, corn, pumpkins. Roadsides with dense unmowed grasses. The cotton waste is composted and sold as compost.
Post, Texas: Oil drilling. Highly eroded clay soils with ATV tracks running through them. Heavy mesquite encroachment.
East of Post: Large wind farm.
Near Sweetwater: Cotton, oil drilling, large wind farm. We notice that the windmills are not noisy. Roadsides with thick grasses, some mesquite.
The land near the agricultural fields appear to be healthier than the areas around the oil wells. There appear to be very little weeds within the farmed fields. The land within the wind farm is being farmed with cotton.
Southwest and southeast of Sweetwater: Two more large wind farms on hilltops.
Between Sweetwater and Abilene: Lots of mesquite and junipers. There is oil drilling both within farmed fields and non-farmed fields. Heavy mesquite infestation. Dense areas of prickly pear.
Abilene: Dense infestation of mesquite and prickly pear. Mesquite provides shade for the prickly pear and other plants.
Brown County Line to Brownwood: Still many dense stands of mesquite and prickly pear.
South of Brownwood (Mills County): we are now in the Texas Hill Country. Dense stands of mesquite and prickly pear. Fields with copious snow-on-the-mountain. Roadsides with dense grasses (healthy or invasive?).
We are now getting into the Hill Country habitat: lots of live oak, ashe juniper, and cedar elm. Soil looks limey. We see Johnson grass, giant reed (invasives). Goats, cattle, horses. Yucca, pecans sumac.
Goldthwaite: We see a few windmills. South of town, there is a large wind farm within the ashe-juniper hills.
Agriculture: pecans, cattle, and signs to sell “cedar” (which is ashe-juniper).
This appears to be a relatively healthy Hill Country habitat with occasional dense stands of ashe- juniper, and fewer stands of mesquite than to the northwest.
October, 2017:
(This is the Texas section of a trip back north from Texas to Montana)
Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park was a gift from Texas to the nation. It was deeded over to the US government in 1944. The park encompasses 1250 square miles, and is slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.
There are several major ecosystems within the park. The lowlands are desert. The vast Chihuahuan Desert stretches from Mexico to New Mexico and the southeast corner of Arizona. The Rio Grande river forms the southern boundary of the park. The Chisos Mountains, with peaks to 7835 feet high, are completely enclosed within the park, include oak-juniper-cholla at lower elevations, and conifers in the higher elevations.
Conditions of vegetation in the park appear to be excellent. I saw few invasive species in the desert and mountains. But along the Rio Grande, the river banks are covered with abundant salt cedar, giant cane, and Bachharis halmifolia? (a native species used for erosion control in the Dust Bowl years, but now considered invasive). In the Rio Grande village picnic area, there are giant salt cedar trees (over 100 feet tall???) with massive trunks. There was evidence of some trees being cut down.
We were shocked to discover that the national park no longer has a botanist on staff. That position was eliminated about a year ago. One of the largest national parks in the nation now has only one scientist, the Chief of Science, on staff.
The roadsides were in the process of being mowed.
Texas state highway 90 – Alpine to Marfa
The ranchlands have abundant grasses, mostly invasive grasses? – Johnson grass, KR bluestem. There is also quite a bit of Russian thistle, yucca, prickly pear, mesquite, and perhaps snakeweed.
West of Marfa, there is an area with creosote bush. The ranches have burned areas. We start to see abundant four-winged saltbush, as we are entering the salt flats areas of west Texas.
West of Valentine, there are more small areas of creosote bush. In areas where there is not much creosote bush (i.e., the more disturbed areas), there are denser stands of mesquite, yucca, and Russian thistle.
Does creosote bush keep out the invasives and moderate the prevalence of mesquite and yuccas?
Valentine to Van Horn
There are extensive creosote bush areas (Chihuahuan Desert), and we are moving into the mountainous areas. Red clay soil. We pass a large pecan farm, and a farm with short red fruit.
While there are extensive areas with creosote bush, we are not seeing ocotillo since we left Marfa. Is this due to a change to sandy soil?
North of Van Horn
Limestone soil. Creosote bush with dense grasses growing densely around the creosote bush. Is there switch grass? Native grasses? It is not KR bluestem. We are seeing ocotillo again (an indicator species for the Chihuahuan Desert), prickly pear, mesquite, and yucca in this area as well.
Moving further north, into clay soil, we see creosote bush without ocotillo. The Permian Basin is to our east, with oil drilling. We see the Guadalupe Mountains National Park reef to the north. We see limestone soil as we approach the mountains.
We see creosote bush, mesquite, and yucca from the road, but ocotillo is less prevalent.
As we approach the Guadalupe Mountains, what types of grasses are among the creosote bush?
Along state highway 62, we are now in the Guadalupe Mountains, within the national park. Near McKittrick Canyon, there are lots of junipers, pinyon pine, but still some creosote bush, prickly pear, and yucca. We see a lovely stand of madrones near Nickle Creek. It’s a desert habitat with high mountain habitat juxtaposed.
In the disturbed areas of the ranchlands there is a huge area of agave. There is also quite a bit of cholla, and some snakeweed?, and lots of grasses (invasives??).
We pass along part of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the historical cattle trail run by Ted Loving and Charles Goodnight, who drove cattle, particularly longhorns, in the 1860s from Goodnight, Texas to New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.
This trip continues with the October 2017 New Mexico Road Log.
Links to additional Road Logs:
Road logs for Texas
These notes were taken while driving between Montana and Texas.
Summarized and prepared by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita, University of Montana Western.
[Note: all the road logs were recorded by myself or my traveling companions, Laura Tull or Debra Noble, as we drove. We occasionally stopped to verify species or collect specimens for later identification. Thus, we only recorded what we could see from the road, and could readily identify at driving speeds. Thus this evaluation is not thorough, but provides the impressions of what we observed.]
(This is part of the trip south from Montana to Texas.)
September 9, 2017: See New Mexico road logs.
September 9, 2017:
Texas Road Log
Texas State Highway 87
We entered Texas from the northeast corner of New Mexico. We had been seeing a lot of snakeweed in the overgrazed cattle rangeland in New Mexico. Once we entered Texas, we did not see it anymore.
Texas right-of-ways are full of grasses, which at this time of year are very tall, and have not been mowed. This is by design – the Texas Dept of Transportation policy is to mow after the native grasses have set seed in the fall.
We see lots of yuccas in right-of-ways.
We passed through, or north of, the Rita Blanca National Grassland.
There are large acreages of agriculture in the northwestern section of the state.
At Dalhart, we saw lots of corn fields. In town, there are lots of amaranth and tumbleweeds along the roadways.
A few miles south of town, we get back into heavy grasses along roadways. We don’t see any yucca for a while.
There is lots of agriculture: corn, sorghum, cotton, grasses (hay?), and a number of fallow fields.
Dumas, Texas – large windmill farm, hay fields, Remington Seed Corn area
This land is above the Ogalala Aquifer, which explains why there is so much agriculture here.
South of Dumas, cattle rangeland with healthy looking sagebrush habitat.
Further south, there is a lot of cholla.
Further south, there is yucca and creosote bush. Creosote bush is an indicator species for the Chihuahuan Desert, but does grow beyond the boundaries of the desert. But has the desert expanded its range into overgrazed areas? There are scattered mesquite. Grasses are thick in the right-of-way.
September 10, 2017
State Highway 84, south from Dumas
Just north of Amarillo we see lots of mesquite
South of Amarillo, the right-of-ways have lots of tall grasses – looks healthy.
Canyon, Texas, I-27
West Texas A&M University exit - there is a prairie dog town along the side of the road, in the right-of-way, at exit 106. There are cattails in the river.
South of Canyon, roadside with thick unmowed grasses.
Farmland appears relatively weed-free: pumpkins, corn, sorghum. There are also cattle.
South of Happy, Texas, there are some weeds in the center-strip, but there are still thick unmowed grasses in the right-of-way.
Plainview, Texas, lots of cotton. Lots of high-power lines.
Plainview to Lubbock: More large fields of cotton, corn, pumpkins. Roadsides with dense unmowed grasses. The cotton waste is composted and sold as compost.
Post, Texas: Oil drilling. Highly eroded clay soils with ATV tracks running through them. Heavy mesquite encroachment.
East of Post: Large wind farm.
Near Sweetwater: Cotton, oil drilling, large wind farm. We notice that the windmills are not noisy. Roadsides with thick grasses, some mesquite.
The land near the agricultural fields appear to be healthier than the areas around the oil wells. There appear to be very little weeds within the farmed fields. The land within the wind farm is being farmed with cotton.
Southwest and southeast of Sweetwater: Two more large wind farms on hilltops.
Between Sweetwater and Abilene: Lots of mesquite and junipers. There is oil drilling both within farmed fields and non-farmed fields. Heavy mesquite infestation. Dense areas of prickly pear.
Abilene: Dense infestation of mesquite and prickly pear. Mesquite provides shade for the prickly pear and other plants.
Brown County Line to Brownwood: Still many dense stands of mesquite and prickly pear.
South of Brownwood (Mills County): we are now in the Texas Hill Country. Dense stands of mesquite and prickly pear. Fields with copious snow-on-the-mountain. Roadsides with dense grasses (healthy or invasive?).
We are now getting into the Hill Country habitat: lots of live oak, ashe juniper, and cedar elm. Soil looks limey. We see Johnson grass, giant reed (invasives). Goats, cattle, horses. Yucca, pecans sumac.
Goldthwaite: We see a few windmills. South of town, there is a large wind farm within the ashe-juniper hills.
Agriculture: pecans, cattle, and signs to sell “cedar” (which is ashe-juniper).
This appears to be a relatively healthy Hill Country habitat with occasional dense stands of ashe- juniper, and fewer stands of mesquite than to the northwest.
October, 2017:
(This is the Texas section of a trip back north from Texas to Montana)
Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park was a gift from Texas to the nation. It was deeded over to the US government in 1944. The park encompasses 1250 square miles, and is slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.
There are several major ecosystems within the park. The lowlands are desert. The vast Chihuahuan Desert stretches from Mexico to New Mexico and the southeast corner of Arizona. The Rio Grande river forms the southern boundary of the park. The Chisos Mountains, with peaks to 7835 feet high, are completely enclosed within the park, include oak-juniper-cholla at lower elevations, and conifers in the higher elevations.
Conditions of vegetation in the park appear to be excellent. I saw few invasive species in the desert and mountains. But along the Rio Grande, the river banks are covered with abundant salt cedar, giant cane, and Bachharis halmifolia? (a native species used for erosion control in the Dust Bowl years, but now considered invasive). In the Rio Grande village picnic area, there are giant salt cedar trees (over 100 feet tall???) with massive trunks. There was evidence of some trees being cut down.
We were shocked to discover that the national park no longer has a botanist on staff. That position was eliminated about a year ago. One of the largest national parks in the nation now has only one scientist, the Chief of Science, on staff.
The roadsides were in the process of being mowed.
Texas state highway 90 – Alpine to Marfa
The ranchlands have abundant grasses, mostly invasive grasses? – Johnson grass, KR bluestem. There is also quite a bit of Russian thistle, yucca, prickly pear, mesquite, and perhaps snakeweed.
West of Marfa, there is an area with creosote bush. The ranches have burned areas. We start to see abundant four-winged saltbush, as we are entering the salt flats areas of west Texas.
West of Valentine, there are more small areas of creosote bush. In areas where there is not much creosote bush (i.e., the more disturbed areas), there are denser stands of mesquite, yucca, and Russian thistle.
Does creosote bush keep out the invasives and moderate the prevalence of mesquite and yuccas?
Valentine to Van Horn
There are extensive creosote bush areas (Chihuahuan Desert), and we are moving into the mountainous areas. Red clay soil. We pass a large pecan farm, and a farm with short red fruit.
While there are extensive areas with creosote bush, we are not seeing ocotillo since we left Marfa. Is this due to a change to sandy soil?
North of Van Horn
Limestone soil. Creosote bush with dense grasses growing densely around the creosote bush. Is there switch grass? Native grasses? It is not KR bluestem. We are seeing ocotillo again (an indicator species for the Chihuahuan Desert), prickly pear, mesquite, and yucca in this area as well.
Moving further north, into clay soil, we see creosote bush without ocotillo. The Permian Basin is to our east, with oil drilling. We see the Guadalupe Mountains National Park reef to the north. We see limestone soil as we approach the mountains.
We see creosote bush, mesquite, and yucca from the road, but ocotillo is less prevalent.
As we approach the Guadalupe Mountains, what types of grasses are among the creosote bush?
Along state highway 62, we are now in the Guadalupe Mountains, within the national park. Near McKittrick Canyon, there are lots of junipers, pinyon pine, but still some creosote bush, prickly pear, and yucca. We see a lovely stand of madrones near Nickle Creek. It’s a desert habitat with high mountain habitat juxtaposed.
In the disturbed areas of the ranchlands there is a huge area of agave. There is also quite a bit of cholla, and some snakeweed?, and lots of grasses (invasives??).
We pass along part of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the historical cattle trail run by Ted Loving and Charles Goodnight, who drove cattle, particularly longhorns, in the 1860s from Goodnight, Texas to New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.
This trip continues with the October 2017 New Mexico Road Log.
Links to additional Road Logs: