A prairie is a diverse ecosystem of native grasses and flowering plants (forbs) with prairie wildlife, soil, geology, and fire playing an integral important role.

Westcave Preserve is located in the Hill Country of the Edwards Plateau, one of eleven ecological regions of Texas. The Edwards Plateau is an uplifted and elevated region originally formed from marine deposits of sandstone, limestone, shales, and dolomites.  During the Cretaceous Period, one hundred million years ago, this region was covered by an ocean. The western portion remains a relatively flat elevated plateau, whereas the eastern portion, known as the Hill Country, is deeply eroded. Historically, this ecological region was a mosaic of plant communities, with Mixed Grass Savanna and Prairie presumed to have been a large component of the landscape. Over the years, the prairies of the Hill Country have all but vanished from our landscape due to fire suppression, overgrazing, and other human impacts.

In early 2016, Westcave reintroduced fire, by way of a prescribed burn, as part of the prairie restoration process. The goals of this land management tool was to safely reduce invasive and non-native plant species, and to encourage a native, diverse vegetation community. Prescribed burns are essential to help create a native prairie restoration area to help control woody, invasive species, and non-native grasses. This would lead the way to revegetate the area with native grass seeds and flowering forbs. After the burn, staff and volunteers till, reseed, and till the plot again. In the Fall, the prairie area is  reseeded again with native flowering forbs to provide forage for wildlife. Photo points have been established as a means to monitor the progress and re-establishment of grass and forbs over several years’ time. It consists of repeat photography of an area of interest over a period of time, with photographs taken from the same location and with the same field of view as the original photo. The prairie restoration area will be sustained through periodic burns, reseeding, and monitoring.