AT: NPSOT Houston

“Deep Resilience: Learning the Song of Our Land“
By John Jacob Ph.D.

Professor – Texas A&M and Texas AgriLife Extension Specialist, and Director – Texas Community Watershed Partners

Presentation Summary
New development and common landscaping techniques damage not only the native flora and fauna habitats that we see at the surface but wreak havoc on the soil ecology beneath our feet. By assessing the current soil health and identifying the end goals of a project, successional measures can be taken to improve drainage, retention, nutrient storage, and filtration for proper soil function and the establishment of desired vegetation. Jared will discuss five soil functions, the inhabitants beneath our feet, and ways to use local plants as tools to address common landscape dilemmas.

Flooding is part of life on the Upper Gulf Coast of Texas. We cannot control flooding, we can only control the impacts. To live well on this flat coastal plain, we must recognize that flooding happens—in fact, we must embrace flooding. Bayous and rivers flood—they need to flood to preserve the aquatic integrity of our land. We must first and foremost reclaim our floodplains. Our floodplains have more than enough capacity to weather a Harvey and perhaps even worse. We cannot reclaim our entire floodplain endowment in just a year or two—this will be the work of generations, perhaps 50 years. We must also protect our headwaters—this is where our wetlands are—another natural endowment that we are losing. John will discuss efforts of the Texas Community Watershed Partners in these causes and show how you can personally participate and support the organization’s activities.

About the Speaker
Dr. John Jacob is the director of the Texas Coastal Watershed Program, and Professor and Extension Specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension through the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Science. His current project, Coastal CHARM (Community Health and Resource Management), focuses on enabling coastal communities in Texas to improve quality of life in cities and towns while preserving and enhancing the natural coastal environment. Jacob holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Texas Tech University, and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, all in soils and natural resources. He is registered as a Professional Geoscientist with the State of Texas and is a Professional Wetland Scientist.