{"id":26139,"date":"2020-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-professors-lead-am-system-team-in-grassland-project\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T14:30:27","slug":"tarleton-professors-lead-am-system-team-in-grassland-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-professors-lead-am-system-team-in-grassland-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Professors Lead A&amp;M System Team in Grassland Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, August 4, 2020<\/p>\n<p>STEPHENVILLE, Texas &mdash;&nbsp;A pair of Tarleton State University professors heading an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across The&nbsp;Texas A&amp;M University System were highlighted in a recent Agrilife Today online presentation.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Darrel Murray and Dr. Adam Mitchell are lead investigators in a research, education and outreach program relating to grassland revitalization in Texas, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture&rsquo;s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership has been in development since 2014 and evolved out of a proposal to merge disciplines in ecology, management, conservation, engineering, political science, economics and social sciences to address knowledge gaps pertaining to ecosystem-scale land management decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The common thread in our work is grassland research,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;However, each of us brings different experience, skills and perspectives that will enable us to conduct research relating to topics identified as top priorities of landowners and grassland managers in Texas.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The research will focus on developing innovative approaches to revitalizing, managing and conserving land to uniquely solve modern landowners&rsquo; issues and meet their needs while contributing to society.<\/p>\n<p>Murray said projects like this promote the A&amp;M System&rsquo;s role in helping solve societal issues as a public institution. &ldquo;With a large urban and suburban population in Texas, we want to remind everyone of the connection and value of surrounding grasslands.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Another key component of the USDA grant-funded project is to provide high-impact learning opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, specifically those who might be underrepresented in these fields as professionals.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This program will leverage ongoing grassland research by facilitating coordination among partners,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;It also will increase the capacity of TAMU system institutions to recruit, retain and educate a diverse population of graduate and undergraduate students in agriculture and natural resource programs.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Others on the team are Dr. Caitlyn Cooper, AgriLife Research, Vernon; William Fox, AgriLife Research, Temple; Jeff Brady, AgriLife Research, Stephenville; and Cameron Barlow, BRIT, Fort Worth.<\/p>\n<p>Plans are in place to begin research and phase one of the three-year project in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on Texas A&amp;M&rsquo;s role in the Restore Texas Grassland Revitalization Partnership, email Fox at&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:w-fox@tamu.edu?subject=Restore%20Texas%20Grassland%20Revitalization%20Partnership\">w-fox@tamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&amp;M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today&#8217;s scholars into tomorrow&#8217;s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.<\/p>\n<p>Contact: Phil Riddle<br \/>817-484-4415<br \/><a href=\"mailto:priddle@tarleton.edu\">priddle@tarleton.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;A pair of Tarleton State University professors heading an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across The&nbsp;Texas A&amp;M University System were highlighted in a recent Agrilife Today online presentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research"],"acf":{"image":null},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-369-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/category\/academics-research\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Academics &amp; Research<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Academics &amp; Research<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on August 4, 2020","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on August 4, 2020 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025 9:30 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Open Texas landscape with shrubs and grass under a clear sky.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54060,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26139\/revisions\/54060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}