Don't do that...........

[James T]

I think you're right. Had a conversation with my local NRCS man about wildlife, quail in particular. I asked if the fireants were the cause of the demise of quail in my area and he said it was because folks plant non-native grasses that is not a natural habitat for them. May be he's right.

Bluestem, I'm told, is a native Texas grass. Gordo Bluestem and B Dahl are hybrids. The hybrids do very well in my area but they do like heavier soil. Switchgrass is also a native (to Texas) and I can't get a blade of it up. Already spent over $1K trying to establish it but not spending another penny. So I stick to Coastal, Bohia, T85, and Gordo Bluestem, all non-native. You gotta grow what you can and you'll never know until you try.

The quail like the WW B Dahl and it also supresses fire ants. It is also doing OK on the 7.8 pH clay I have.

I hear that it does well with mesquite, weesatch and black locust too!

 

[Lucky_P]

When you get down to it, other than the 'native warm season grasses', most of the forage species that the vast majority of us run cattle on are not 'native' to North America. Fescue, orchardgrass, bluegrass, timothy, Johnsongrass, bahiagrass, bermudagrass, virtually all of the clovers & lespedezas - are introduced species from Europe, Asia, Africa.