Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
On Friday, Palo Alto students and area corporate leaders participated in a field day at San Antonio’s Toyota plant, showcasing the company’s efforts to restore native grassland. A 20-acre plot was converted to native grassland at the site to demonstrate Toyota’s sustainability goals.
The plot was originally covered in invasive Bermuda grass before being converted to native grassland in 2020.
“At Toyota our value is harmony with nature. A healthy ecosystem is very, very important to Toyota,” said Toyota Senior Environmental Analyst Nikki Tanzer.
“We do have a wildlife habitat certification, and to maintain that certification, we continuously have to implement conservation projects," said Tanzer. "So that means it's on our business plan, it has to be done, and then you have to maintain those conservation projects and to meet those goals. So, it's a win, win and so we're helping now with native grasses and flowers.”
Toyota teamed up with Texas Native Seed, a program of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University Kingsville.
Tony Falk, Ph.D., is the Dan L. Duncan Endowed Director for the Texas Native Seeds program.
“So, what we're looking at is a 20-acre piece of Toyota's property where we had converted a stand of nonnative Bermuda grass over to native grassland, with the hope of eventually potentially reintroducing Texas Horned Lizards,” he said.
“So we started on this project in the spring of 2020. We completed the seeding in the fall of 2021, and ever since then, we've been just kind of allowing this habitat to develop into a mature native grassland.”
Joseph Plappert is an urban biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“I was standing here while they were giving a talk, and I counted 20 species out here, even though it's in this kind of dormant state within just eyesight, without even walking around. And there were reptiles like Whiptail lizards, butterflies like Reakirt's Blue and a variety of different brush species, trees and grass species.”
Among the persons touring the grassland site was Isabella Kibiger, who is majoring in biology with a concentration on zoology at Palo Alto College.
“I'm very impressed by what they've done, because in a lot of places, they'll just completely mow over all the grass, and they'll just get rid of it and just leave it as like a wasteland. But they've actually done a lot to give back to the community, and they've planted a lot of native seeds to keep it growing, keep it like new, like nurturing this land.”
The pinnacle of the project, according to Tanzer, will be the introduction of Texas horned lizards to the plot, which is expected to take place in the near future and will be carried out by the San Antonio Zoo.
