Property Evaluation for Ecological Laboratory Potential

The 1625 acre property is located in southeast Llano County about 15 road miles southeast of Llano. The property is roughly rectangular and longer north-south. Honey Creek, Straight Fork of Honey Creek, and several unnamed creeks and tributary flow eastwardly across the property. There are two ponds along Honey Creek. The property is within the “Riley Mountains” and has significant elevation changes. There are three high steep ridges on the property separated by Honey Creek and the Straight Fork. Along these drainages, elevation is at a low of 1260 to just under 1200 feet AMSL. From these drainages elevation rises to peaks of 1549, 1533, and 1500 feet along the north, central and south ridges. A rock cabin and 2 windmills are currently located on the property. A new home and paved roads were being constructed at the time of the site visit. The property was fenced for cattle internally and externally.

Habitat Description:

The Subject Property is dissected by several seasonal creeks and as well as Honey Creek. The vegetation shifts gradually from the area around the creeks (riparian zone), to the shrub dominated uplands (mesquite shrubland), and to the steep slopes and ridge tops (juniper-oak woodland). The riparian areas varied from park-like live oak savannahs with bermudagrass as the dominant herbaceous cover (photopoints 7, 14) to more dense and diverse riparian woodland (photopoints 3, 6,12). Trees found in this area included Live oak, Texas oak, sycamore, elm, scalybark oak, shagbark hickory, pecan, mesquite, and mature juniper. Juniper saplings, prickly pear, Texas persimmon, agarita, small mesquite, twist-leaf yucca, Frostweed, and occasionally Spanish dagger could all be found within this riparian zone. A golden eagle was found roosting in the cliffs above Honey Creek.

Vegetation shifted significantly as one moved up away from the riparian zone. Widely scattered mesquite and live oak were the only trees found in the mesquite shrubland,. Young brushy mesquite, prickly pear, agarita, tajillo, Texas persimmon, and lotebush covered over 75% of the area. The herbaceous layer was sparse and patchy. Three awn, curly mesquite, Texas grama, silver bluestem, and various forbs formed this layer mean it was present. Steep hills sloped quickly upward from the riverene bench. This juniper-oak woodland would have historically been a gallery forest of tall old growth juniper, live oak, and deciduous hardwoods that one could walk under and remained more moist than surrounding areas. That sort of habitat is home to a large number of neo-tropical songbirds including the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. While a diverse canopy of live oak, Texas oak, cedar elm, and other deciduous hardwoods still exists, the old growth juniper was removed over 50 years ago. In many areas juniper has re-established, but in higher than historic density and in a multi-stemmed growth form. At the time of the site visit, significant clearing of juniper re-growth areas was occurring. Herbaceous cover was again very sparse through this area and consisted mostly of little bluestem, Texas winter grass, cedar sedge, and Scribner’s rosette panicum. The tops of the ridges were more open and contained live oak, cedar elm and mesquite with similar shrubs as the mesquite shrubland. Herbaceous cover here was more significant and included little bluestem, tall grama, sideoats grama, silver bluestem, three awn, green sprangletop, Hall’s panicum, and various forbs.

The ponds on Honey Creek were lined with the more diverse riparian zone plants. The ponds also contained a very large amount of submerged vegetation and floating vegetation. These plants were possibly limiting the ponds ability to produce fish and frogs that would benefit other wildlife on the Subject Property.

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