Talk:Texas Blackland Prairies

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Texas portal This article is supported by WikiProject Texas (assessed as Mid-importance).

Ecoregions Mid‑importance

	This article is supported by WikiProject Ecoregions, a collaborative effort to help develop and improve Wikipedia's coverage of ecoregions. The aim is to write neutral and well-referenced articles on these topics. See WikiProject Ecoregions and Wikipedia:FAQ/Contributing.EcoregionsWikipedia:WikiProject EcoregionsTemplate:WikiProject EcoregionsEcoregions
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Soil Low‑importance

	Earth sciences portal Texas Blackland Prairies is within the scope of WikiProject Soil, which collaborates on Soil and related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information.SoilWikipedia:WikiProject SoilTemplate:WikiProject SoilSoil
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

It is requested that an image or photograph of Texas Blackland Prairies be included in this article to improve its quality. Please replace this template with a more specific media request template where possible.

Wikipedians in the following regions may be able to help:

Grimes County, Texas
Lamar County, Texas
Falls County, Texas
Ellis County, Texas
Hunt County, Texas

The Free Image Search Tool or Openverse Creative Commons Search may be able to locate suitable images on Flickr and other web sites.

Upload

[Untitled]

Can you people put which Indians lived in that area?please. THANK YOU

Gallery / photos to keep in article

WP:IG states

a gallery consisting of an indiscriminate collection of images of the article subject should generally either be improved in accordance with the below paragraphs or moved to Wikimedia Commons.

and

A gallery section may be appropriate in some Wikipedia articles if a collection of images can illustrate aspects of a subject that cannot be easily or adequately described by text or individual images.

My main objection to the gallery is that it doesn't illustrate aspects of the subject: it has two photographs of the Clymer Reserve (which does reflect the what the ecoregion looks like), and a number of photographs of flowers on ranchland. Because of human land use, those ranchland photographs do not represent the ecoregion.

What I've done in my latest edit is to keep the two photographs of the Clymer reserve in the article itself (per WP:IG), and then copied the original gallery in a new gallery at Commons, with larger thumbnails.

Happy to discuss with editors to come to a consensus or compromise. — hike395 (talk) 19:23, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The gallery is anything but "an indiscriminate collection of images". The images in the gallery are carefully considered, representing the full range of the region including the main corridor and the southern tier, with images from northern, southern, eastern, and western counties, locality specific, with dates (most have geographic coordinates and elevations available on Wiki Commons).

You stated " My main objection to the gallery is that it doesn't illustrate aspects of the subject"

In fact they illustrate several aspects of the subject, including the San Antonio Prairie, the Fayette Prairie, seven different counties, restoration areas, feral rangeland, and one of a cultivated area, through four months and two seasons. The flowers in the photograph are native wildflowers, typical of the area in the spring, and several species are identified in the captions.

" those ranchland photographs do not represent the ecoregion"

I could not disagree more. Those ranchland photographs represent exactly what the ecoregion looks today. There are no pristine, natural blackland prairie left. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 99.9% of the Blackland Prairie is lost to other land uses. (https://texasprairie.org/blackland-prairies/) The 0.1% of the prairie, like Clymer Reserve and others, are largely restoration areas, restored habitat, not pure and undisturbed habitat in natural state, and cattle graze on Clymer Reserve and other preserves. A distinction is often made between "tame pasture" and "rangeland".

WP:IG. states "Some subjects easily lend themselves to image-heavy articles for which image galleries are suitable, such as plants (e.g., Lily)" Surely if plants and Lilies merit galleries, then 19,400 sq. miles of ecosystem sustaining hundreds (if not thousands) of plant species merit a gallery (several common and characteristic species of native wildflowers identified).

Many peer reviewed, academic press books on the subject use images of ranchland, e.g.

David J. Schimidly. 2002. Texas Natural History: A Century of Change. Texas Tech University Press. Lubbock, Texas. xv, 534 pp. ISBN 0-89672-469-7
Matt White. 2006. Prairie Time: A Blackland Portrait. Texas A&M University Press. College Station. 251 pp. ISBN 1-58544-501-0

Books and websites on the subject often illustrate the region with images of ranchland. websites too. http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/texasEcoRegions/BlacklandPrairies/

WiLaFa (talk) 08:03, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

OK, we can keep the gallery of ranchland photographs. But there shouldn't be redundant images in the gallery and the article. WP:IG says the gallery should illustrate aspects that cannot be easily ... described by ... individual images. I pulled three photographs out (including one in the infobox), I'm fine with the rest remaining in the gallery. — hike395 (talk) 08:20, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]