A Long Look Ahead: William L. Bray and Early Texas Conservationism.

Despite his marked intellectual indebtedness to Coulter and his mentor's massive 588-page tome, Bray's scholarship dovetailed with that of his classmate and later University of Chicago ecologist Henry Chandler Cowles; the latter's pathbreaking research on habitat succession in the Indiana Dunes near Chicago sparked concerted efforts to protect this imperiled plant community.11 As Bray noted about his own work, it too focused on "the study of plants in their natural environments", that is, in their ecological relationships.12 The organizational structure of Bray's dissertation reflected its innovative methodology. 48 Bray, " I The Timber of the Edwards Plateau i , 25; making extensive use of Bray's foundational report is Lisa O'Donnell, I Historical Ecology of the Texas Hill Country i (Austin: City of Austin, Wildland Conservation Division, 2019), < http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=321715 > [Accessed Feb. 9, 2021]. 61 Bray, "The Timber of the Edwards Plateau", 29. 62 Rodgers, I Bernhard Eduard Fernow i , 482-485; Frank N. Edgerton, I A Centennial History of Ecological Society of America i (Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, 2015), 1-28. 63 Faust, "William L. Bray"; Anders S. Saustrup, "Bray, William L." I The Handbook of Texas Online i , < https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bray-william-l > [Accessed Dec. 22, 2020]. Graph: Ecologist William L. Bray (1865-1953) was an expert on the vegetation of western Texas and one of the state's first conservationists; he taught at the University of Texas and Syracuse University. [Extracted from the article]