Austin, TX– December 15, 2022– The University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center joins the Prairie Project, an initiative that brings together Texas A&M, Oklahoma State University, and University of Nebraska, each collaborating to advance research, teaching, extension, and faculty/student experience within the network.

As the botanic garden and arboretum of Texas, the Center is an organized research unit and field station in UT’s College of Natural Sciences and shares common goals with the Prairie Project. Both entities provide educational and research opportunities in urban and rural environments hosting research, education and outreach activities that advance understanding about natural resources, landscape management, water resources and biodiversity.

“Our forty years of work towards plant conservation, land management, education, and solution-based research, provides an additional layer of experience and opportunity to the Prairie Project network,” said Matt O’Toole, director of land resources . “We are excited to open our doors and landscape to additional research efforts at the Center.”

Sean Griffin, director of science and conservation has a shared sentiment about the future, “This new collaboration represents an exciting step towards connecting our work at the Wildflower Center with the larger community of fire researchers and practitioners nationwide. We look forward to working together to advance our shared mission of increasing the use and acceptance of prescribed fire as a key tool for preserving grassland biodiversity.”

The Center’s landscape is a mixed oak-juniper savanna, along the Balcones Escarpment, possessing intermittent drainages, and a network of cave and karst features. Its native plant conservation outreach touches millions of people annually in Texas and the Southern Great Plains.

In alignment with the Prairie Project, the Center’s efforts focus on plant conservation, resilient landscapes, invasive species, ecological restoration, land management and inspiring the next generation of land stewards. Find more information here and find more information about the Prairie Project here.

About the Prairie Project:

The Prairie Project is a collaboration between research, teaching, and extension faculty from Texas A&M, Oklahoma State University, and University of Nebraska. Together with ranchers, teachers and students from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska we are learning and sharing our knowledge from the most current research and management experience to tackle the problems of woody plant encroachment, more extreme climate, and increasing wildfire. Our goal is to not only maintain livestock production but increase it while simultaneously providing the vital ecosystem services the Southern Great Plains provide.

About the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center:

The University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center was founded by Lady Bird Johnson and Helen Hayes as the National Wildflower Research Center in 1982 and later renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1997. The Center is the state botanic garden and arboretum and welcomes more than 230,000 people into its gardens annually. It carries out its mission to inspire the use and conservation of native plants through its research, education and outreach programs.