Spicewood Ranch has evolved from a cattle ranch into a laboratory for management of native plants and habitat.

Chris Harte acts like a proud papa as he points out a grove of tiny green, white and red flags sprouting alongside a gravel road cutting through his Hill Country ranch.
The flags mark the locations of post oak, Mexican plum and Eve’s necklace seedlings. To Harte and David Mahler, an ecologist with Environmental Survey Consulting who has directed restoration work at Spicewood Ranch for the past 29 years, they also represent another victory in a quest to restore the property to its state before cattle and goats moved in…Read more on Austin American-Statesman