The houston toad (anaxyrus houstonesis) is a federal and state protected endangered species, as well as a species of greatest conservation need (sgcn G1 S1) in the texas conservation action plan…

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2 awarded the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department a $499,844 Formula Grant under the State Wildlife Grants program (CFDA 15.634) from September 1, 2023 to December 31, 2026. The grant will support efforts to conserve the endangered Houston toad through restoration of its pine-oak savannah habitat on private lands in eastern central Texas.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will hire a conservation delivery specialist to work with private landowners throughout the Houston toad's range on implementing habitat management practices such as selectively removing understory brush, applying herbicides, and conducting prescribed burns. These restoration tools will allow sunlight to reach the forest floor and improve the structure and composition of degraded savannah ecosystems to benefit the Houston toad. A subaward of $100,000 to the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy will support providing technical guidance and conservation actions for the Houston toad on private properties. The goal of both prime and subawards is to enhance restoration capacity and restore functional pine-oak savannah habitats critical to the recovery of the Houston toad and other imperiled wildlife species in the region.

The houston toad (anaxyrus houstonesis) is a federal and state protected endangered species, as well as a species of greatest conservation need (sgcn G1 S1) in the texas conservation action plan (2012) that is endemic 9 counties in the xeric, sandy lost pines and post OAK savannahh ecoregions of eastern central texas (forstner and dixon, 2010). Range wide monitoring suggests IT is at historically low occupancy and abundance levels. The main threat facing this species is the loss and degradation of functional pine-OAK savannah ecosystems. Much of the post OAK savannah has been converted to agricultural production. However, without active processes such as fire, even the remaining pine-OAK savannahs rapidly transition (within 10-15 years) from an open understory with a diverse ground cover layer of warm season bunch grasses and forbs to an understory infested with woody brush. These degraded savannahs are a hazard for both humans and wildlife due to the excessive woody fuel for wildfires and they also reduce productivity and result in a state shift to a more mesic understory with little light reaching the forest floor (sparks ET AL., 2012). Fortunately, we have the tools in place to restore these degraded savannahs. Selectively removing the understory brush layer using a forestry mulcher, allowing sunlight to penetrate to the floor and following up with herbicide and prescribed fire has been demonstrated to have positive impacts on the structure and composition of savannah ecosystems (mitchell ET AL., 2005 mcinnerney ET AL., 2020).here we propose to enhance our abilities to implement these restoration tools on private property to improve habitat for the houston toad. We propose to hire a dedicated conservation delivery specialist to increase our capacity to work with landowners throughout the range of the houston toad and to provide cost-share funds to private landowners willing to implement habitat management practices. While the target species of this project is the houston toad, numerous other sgcn species that rely on open pine-OAK savannah habitats will benefit from this restoration work, such as northern bobwhite quail (colinus virginianus).