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Scholarship Recipient

Alexandria DiMaggio


Alexandria DiMaggio

Alexandria DiMaggio

Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Year Received: 2020

Master of Science in Range and Wildlife Management

Response of Tanglehead to Prescribed Fire and Cattle Grazing

Born and raised in the small South Texas town of Pettus, I spent most of my childhood either in a hunting blind, on a fishing boat, or in a Brahman cow pasture. My love for wildlife and livestock has always been a large part of my life and there was no surprise from my family when I decided my career path should follow. After graduating from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s in Rangeland Ecology and Management I was honored to have an opportunity to pursue my Master’s in Range and Wildlife Management back in South Texas with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.


South Texas is known for its diverse vegetation and abundant wildlife, however, several counties in the area are experiencing a phenomenon that puzzles many range professionals. Tanglehead is a native, perennial bunchgrass that has become invasive over the past 20 years due to several anthropogenic changes. Thought of as a beneficial component of the landscape in the past, it has now become a nuisance to many landowners by creating monotypic stands of dense coarse forage that is unpalatable to cattle, unusable to quail, and chokes out other native plant species important to wildlife. My study uses the combination of prescribed fire and cattle grazing to reduce tanglehead cover and increase the species richness of the plant community to improve habitat for Bobwhite quail and whitetail deer. I applied prescribed fire to patches of dense tanglehead and allowed cattle to move freely throughout the pasture. Cattle selectively graze the patches because of the increased protein value of the lush regrowth. This repetitive, intensified grazing of the tanglehead eventually kills and/or greatly decreases the size of the plant and allows for other native species to grow and compete once again. I hope to provide landowners and range professionals with an efficient method of using the tanglehead as a forage for cattle through prescribed fire and repeated-selective grazing, while restoring the pristine wildlife habitat that this part of the country once expressed.

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