b'Be patient now, lets take one more minute and talk about plants. This is my 50 thyear since borrowing a rake, shovel, and lawnmower and starting a nursery and landscape construction company in Flower Mound, Texas. Planted lots of trees, shrubs and grasses in my day. During a long, hot dry spell in summer of 1980, I learned value of planting local, native plantsinstead of those imported from foreign lands. I learned that natives know exactly how to live right here, without any extra careor precious water. Well, geez. Go back a page. U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.Youll see my reference to all theExposed: The Secret Life of Roots 2015chatter about water. Been talkin bout this for 45 years now. Speaking straightforward as INative prairies exhale pure oxygen. Simple. Prairies can. But lets go back over the ABCs and talkwere already here just 3 grandmas back. And the more about it again. prairie we can put back today, the more clean, fresh By studying nature and reading the land all theseair those prairies can give back to us tomorrow. Taller years, I learned the deepest and most beautiful storiesthe grass and flowers, the more cool, green shade is from listening to prairies. Over and over, they spokecast upon the earth, producing a cooling effect freely . just like rainforests Ive visited Centro America. given back to us. Would you believe our native tallgrass prairies inCoolinganother, much needed gift we can Texas were once doing the same job as Amazonappreciate, as each new summer seems to be getting rainforests? Yes, Tejano prairies, too, once served ashotter and longer than the last one.lungs of the earth. The prairies dense leaf biomass, her blades of grass, her waving wildflowers andBut back to waterthat same tall leafy prairie sparsely treed savannahs, once formed a living,biomass also efficiently intercepts rainfall. breathing fabric serving as protective skin on theTranslocating pure clean water from the heavens to delicate face of the Earth.the soil without letting mother lodes of it run off Through photosynthesis, tallgrass prairies anddown the hills causing the next great flash flood. wildflower meadows take in carbon dioxide and storeInstead, the natural gift of each raindrop soaks into it in the roots and soil. The taller and denser thethe ground where it falls. blades of grass, the more carbon is taken from the airDid you know native prairies and meadows have far and stored in the ground where it belongs. more biomass in their underground roots than in their Youve probably heard murmurs of Carbon Capturegreen leafy matter above ground? Deep fibrous roots or Carbon Credits. Well, now you know at least onecan reach down to 15 feet into the carbon-rich, simple form of what that is. There are other moreorganic soils. Healthy, intact prairies act like massive complicated and less natural schemes, too. In my highsponges. Soaking, cleansing and holding pure water to school educated mind, I always lean into approachesbe slowly released during times of drouth. and solutions to problems that are naturally simple and make practical sense.'