b'Then the doctors arrived. landscape from seed on the 5-acrewith their Texas cattle ranching development several years ago.and cotton farming empires were These women were theThis meeting was supposedlybuilt upon tallgrass prairie and the professional-type people whoall about a 12x12x12 triangularpriceless, dark, rich organic soils.coach pregnant mothers to bringshaped bed in front of an empty new life into this mostly manlyoffice building they were interestedI spoke of the hottest summer on world. They schedule maybe 50in. I was excited to be there. record just past. How the rainwater appointments a day betweenharvest system was not even the two of them. You know theThe greeting was brief, right to theturned on to irrigate this prairie modern medical healthcarepoint. The doctors realtor was sicklandscape until August. How drillclipboards, waiting rooms,in bed with Covid. The two realtors100 years ago, before Rain Bird vital signs, exam rooms, and anrepresenting the empty buildingand Toro, no one ever dreamed eventual rushed 5-minutes-per- stepped back and let me takeof watering the prairie with our patient visit with the doctor. questions from the doctors. It wentprecious, finite, clean waters. No straight to rapid fire: one fertilized, sprayed weeds, or So here we are ~ last hour ofmowed prairies before John Deere daylight before the doctorsand the Marlboro men came into schedules kick back into gearWhat is your planbeing. Monday morning. Am trying toto clean up this landscape?put myself in their shoes. Got mySeeing the doctors grimace and best vibrant passion and positiveWe do NOT like all this tall grass anddig in their heels, I kept weaving energy to share and discuss all theweeds. Are you going to remove it,threads. Documenting a sharp things I love the most about ourand when? collapse in the lower levels of Aditya Datta Texas native prairie. the trophic insect biomes due to widespread loss of our local native vegetation. Laid out the Monarch Butterfly migration story. Expressed concerns of how we seemed to have introduced alien species without even a thought of the long-term impacts to future generations.I colored my homemade words to evoke visions of infinite evolutionary webs of life. How each and all of us are very specifically inter-dependent upon the holistic diversity of plants. Plants are the sole organisms on earth that transform energy from the suns light and produce food and fiber for all other forms of life. Over thousands of years, insects and animals have co-evolved 1927 Wichita grass house photo by Edward Curtis, Library of Congress with these native plants, forming symbiotic relationships crucial for Idea wasbe on hand for theI came back quickly, weavingtheir mutual survival. Each unique real estate ladieshelping twothreads with the short history of theplant specie plays a specific role in doctors looking for a new officeland here. Even name of the streetthe functionality and holism of the spaceand teach them aboutLong Prairie Road speaks to myecoregion in which it lives . these a well-established native prairierelations. The story of those whoddelicately balanced interactions are landscape. Sounded easy. Id builtcome before. How even our recentdisrupted by invasive, non-native this 100% native Blackland Prairietwo to three grandfathers ago,plants introduced in recent times.'