Scrub, shrubs, and trees consisted of shrubby mesquite (Prosopis sp.), juniper (Juniperus sp.), cottonwood (Populus sp.),
shinnery oak (Quercus havardii), soapberry trees (Sapindus sp.), and hackberry trees (Celtis sp.).
Packsaddle WMA covers ~6475 ha of mixed-grass prairie supporting abundant grasses, forbs and extensive cover in a the dwarf
shinnery oak Quercus havardii on rolling terrain ranging approximately 579-762 m a.s.l.
Among specific topics are the legal status of the lesser prairie-chicken, genetic variation and population structure in prairie grouse and implications for the conservation of lesser prairie-chicken, public and private land conservation dichotomy, grasslands of western Kansas north of the Arkansas River, and ecology and conservation in Sand
Shinnery Oak Prairie.
(101.) Following the Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to list the dune sagebrush lizard in December 2010, the state governments of Texas and New Mexico, private landowners, and oil and gas companies developed an unprecedented 650,000-acre conservation plan to preserve the
shinnery oak dune habitat of the lizard.
Natural vegetation was characterized by a community of sand
shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) or sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia; Dhillion et al., 1994; Peterson and Boyd, 1998) on predominantly sandy soil or sandy clay loam.
Caption: The dunes sagebrush lizard is a rare species found only in
shinnery oak dune habitat in southeastern New Mexico and adjacent Texas.
The lizard lives in the
shinnery oak, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has said that drilling threatens the lizard's habitat, as does the removal of oak for grazing.
In general, white oak acorns are a favorite everywhere,
shinnery or live oak farther south, with red oaks a close second, followed by pin, black and shingle.
Locals refer to this area as "the
shinnery." Most old timers have plenty of gripes about the landscape: grassburs, sand fleas, catbrier, etc.
Ecology and conservation of lesser prairie-chickens in sand
shinnery oak prairies, p.
Ballinger and McKinney (1968) reported four patternless morphs of 17 individuals in a population of marbled whiptails in the southern end of the Mescalero-Monahans
Shinnery Sands Ecosystem in Crane County, Texas.
The lizard's native habitat is in eastern New Mexico and West Texas, and the federal agency says that habitat is threatened by ongoing oil and gas drilling and the removal of
shinnery oaks for cattle grazing.