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Re Arnold Davis

Title: Re Arnold Davis
In response to an inquiry regarding the posting of the death of Arnold Davis, I am posting two things:  my own comment to our Texas listserve, and an email that Arnold himself wrote to introduce himself to that listserve.  

lee

From Lee Stone:
I heard today from James Alderson at the State offices of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that Arnold Davis has passed away.  He did not have any details.

Arnold was a true friend of the prairies.  He worked closely with Dr. Geoffrey Stanford, the founder of the Native Prairies Association of Texas, and was a founding member, and one of the four signers of our state charter.  Arnold was largely responsible for the Proceedings of the Tenth North American Prairie Conference held here in Texas.  He was our President, as well as serving on the board for a number of years.  He was the person who recruited me onto the board.  Arnold was a passionate and sweet man, and my prairie mentor.

Some of you will remember Arnold's thoughtful and helpful e-mails to the NPSOT-NPAT listserve.  He was an experienced native grasses/wildflowers person with much experience in restoration.  Arnold was the first manager of the first Plant Materials Center in Texas.  The Plant Materials Centers are under the NRCS and have been responsible for providing for commercial production many of the native plants used in restorations today, including side-oats grama, indiangrass, switchgrass, partridge pea, purple and white prairie clover, and many others.

by Arnold Davis:
We get caught up in the electronic whizzez and forget we are in fact real people. It is quite refreshing to be able to attach a background and interests resume to a name. My personal introduction follows.

To fill in a bit of my hysterical background I am now over 70 years old, and as you can guess I have kicked a lot of clods. I wish I could say all of my career in the Soil Conservation Service (34 yrs) was spent in working with the natives.

Not So! Three years was spent at the National Plant Materials Center at Beltsville, Maryland where I worked with plant introductions from all over the world. I established them in small plots, recorded notes on performance and determined potential value for solving a recognized problem someplace in the US. Now I have admitted to the black side of my career, the deep dark secret. This phase did introduce me to many plants, and it reinforced my belief and dedication to the natives.

It might be frowned upon now but I introduced the midwest warm season grasses to the Northeast US for warm season pasture in a cool season climate. This practice has caught on and gained momentum and as I understand it now it is a common part of grazing systems. Can you imagine big bluestem becoming an invasive species in an area where it once grew and is no longer found, it is hard for me to worry about this even if it does happen.

Then we transferred to Knox City, Texas where I founded the SCS Plant Materials Center. This was the glory time in my career. I concentrated on the natives, primarily grasses and studied genotypes of the main species collected in the wild from all over Texas and Oklahoma. What a revelation. The differences were astounding, the selections for the commercial market were successful and the contribution to grazing, wildlife, erosion control has been a source of pride.

Then I coordinated the field testing program of the native candidates in Texas and later out of the Regional office over the 12 southeastern states and sub-tropics. We made the first assembly of indiangrass in Alabama and Georgia and found the same magnificant variations in in all plant characters.

I did not want to brag about this, it is only that I get all enthused and hopped up about the practical use of the native plants. If you can help some old boy make a better living off of his land and protect the native ecosystem in the process you have helped all of us. And this feels good.

I have many ideas churning around in my head, some of them in the computer in various stages of completion. I must complete them and distribute the paper, if only as a challenge for debate. Hope to get this done someday.

Please tolerate my long winded rambling dissertation. I love to write and when I find a willing ear I tend to overdo it. Thank you for your tolerance, lets get together sometime.

With Warmest Regards    
Arnold G. Davis
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