Shawn Bishop is following in some big footsteps. He is a direct descendant of frontier Texas naturalist Gideon Lincecum, who first observed and wrote about Texas flora and fauna in the early 1800s. Lincecum corresponded with Charles Darwin about the agricultural ant (more commonly known today as the harvester ant or red ant) and recorded the Choctaw tribe’s language and traditions in the Choctaw’s own language.

The move from the Dallas suburbs to Kountze in Southeast Texas was not that far in terms of actual mileage but a world away all the same for Shannon Pankow and her family. The Pankows found themselves four miles from the nearest small town and 20 miles from the nearest big town.

The fact that we now know how many crop wild relatives there are in the United States might be news to some, especially those who have never heard the term. As their name implies, crop wild relatives are related to domesticated crops, forages and herbs but they grow wild.

Cajuns know a thing or two about food so it's not surprising that Stanley Jobe came across the multiplying onions he grows by way of Louisiana. He grew up in Orange, Texas, not far from the Cajun wilds, where his father, Edward Stanley Jobe, worked for the DuPont Chemical Corporation.

Anybody who has been to Stiles Farm near Thrall in Williamson County over the last half century might have met Frank Griffin — he’s been working there since well before the establishment of the Stiles Farm Foundation in 1961.

Spring is a season of peril for Texas' oak trees. That's when the tiny beetles that transmit the dreaded oak wilt disease are the most active and when the trees are at their most vulnerable. It's also a time when people need to refrain from pruning or otherwise wounding oaks because doing so creates an opening for the beetles to inflict their damage.

In 1987, during the depths of a crisis that threatened the traditional family farm, the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) developed a project called the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, or ATTRA. The idea behind the service was to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to manage their land for the long term in order to keep it healthy and productive.

The effects of the drought can be seen in a lot of places if you know where to look, especially if you're a cattle raiser and have to look at them every day. You can see the drought in a dwindling cow herd and in pastures that are dead or dormant, and even on the menu at the local fast food restaurant.

Sept. 6, 2012 - Salvador Salinas was appointed State Conservationist for the state of Texas at a time when it looked like there wouldn't be much of the state left to conserve after a long summer of record heat, drought and wildfires.

Sept. 6, 2012 - There was a time, not that long ago, when Vance Mitchell ran his ranch the same way that five previous generations of ranchers in his family had done it, and the way most people did it at that time. He put all of his cows into one or two big pastures, put hay out for them to eat when the grass was gone and he put bulls out in the spring.