SAN ANGELO - Dr. Darrell Ueckert, range scientist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at San Angelo, was named a Regents Service Fellow Recipient by the Texas A&M University Board of Regents.
Ueckert was among 18 of the A&M System’s top faculty and staff from across the state to receive the honor for making a lifetime commitment to public service.
“We are proud to have one of our own at the San Angelo center honored with such a prestigious recognition,” said Dr. John Walker, resident director of research at San Angelo’s Texas A&M University Research and Extension Center.
“Darrell has been stationed at San Angelo’s center for 24 years. During that time he has established himself as the leading range ecologist in Texas. He has successfully channeled his tremendous drive and energy into several far-reaching range improvement programs.”
“His best known work is perhaps the popular “Brush Busters” campaign, now used to control millions of acres of noxious brush in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Dr. Ueckert teamed up with his Extension counterpart at the center, Dr. Allan McGinty and others to better communicate the Brush Busters’ individual plant treatment techniques to the general public.”
Mesquite control alone using Brush Busters methods adds about $30 million per year to the Texas economy through increased livestock production and helps save at least 300 billion gallons of water formally wasted by brush, Walker said.
“Dr. Ueckert was also responsible for discovering that excellent pricklypear control can be realized on rangeland through integrated use of prescribed fire and the herbicide picloram,” Walker continued. “This technology was widely accepted by the research community and has been implemented by many southwestern landowners.”
“Other highlights of Darrell’s career include research using drought-tolerant shrubs for livestock forage and improved wildlife habitat,” said Walker.
The regents service awards were designed to honor professors and senior-level researchers and service delivery professionals who have provided exemplary service not only to their university or agency, but also to the community, state, nation, and the world. The awards are among the highest honors given by the A&M System Board of Regents.
Ueckert and the other recipients will each receive a $9,000 monetary award, an A&M System medallion for academic regalia and a commemorative certificate.
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