| Fast Facts |
location
3.5 hours from El Paso
ecoregion
Chihuahuan Desert
project size
90,000 acres
preserves
Madera Canyon, Davis Mountains
public lands
Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis National Historic Site
partners
ranchers and other private landowners, Buffalo Trail Boy Scout Council, Davis Mountains Education Center, University of Texas McDonald Observatory
natural events
hummingbird migration and festival, near Labor Day; monsoon rains bring forth wildflowers, June–early October | |
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In Texas, where more than 97 percent of the state is privately owned, working with private landowners like those in the Davis Mountains to protect their land is essential to meet conservation goals. |
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Puertacitas Mountains.
© Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis |
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The mountains rise like a purple mirage out of the mesquite flats of West Texas. This is what Texans call the Trans-Pecos—beyond the Pecos River, the rainfall meridian, west of which marks desert. But the Davis Mountains, climbing skyward to 8,300 feet, are cool and forested—an anomaly in an arid land.
An isolated mountain range surrounded by desert and grasslands, the Davis Mountains are a “sky island.” Scattered across the Southwest, sky island ranges receive more precipitation than do the plains below, creating a true island of life for many plants and animals uniquely adapted to the cooler climate and higher terrain. |
Klein cholla.
© David Muench |
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Once the domain of the Mescalero Apache, the range was named for Jefferson Davis, who, in 1854, as U.S. Secretary of War, ordered a fort built in the rugged mountains to protect stage coaches and emigrants traveling westward. From the ancient pictographs that color canyon walls, to ranch gates with colorful names like U Up U Down burned into wood, the long and fabled history of the people of the Davis Mountains is evident. | |
The night skies over this remote part of wild West Texas are the darkest in the nation—so dark that astronomers count the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, near Fort Davis, as one of the best places for deep-space gazing in the world. But those night skies risk being lit up with an influx of new residents, many of whom come to build vacation homes in the mountains. Development also taxes water resources and fragments habitat. The Nature Conservancy encourages private landowners to place conservation easements on their land to prevent future subdivision and, in many cases, has found conservation-minded individuals to buy properties for sale.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Texas. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
creeks, springs, evergreen forests, aspen groves, Montezuma quail, Mexican spotted owl, Rio Grande chub, mountain short-horned lizard, Mexican black bear, Livermore paintbrush, Big Bend blackheaded snake
stresses
habitat fragmentation from sub-division, overuse of water resources from a growing population, overgrazing, lack of a natural fire regime
strategies
acquire land, secure conservation easements, restore ecosystems, encourage conservation management of private land
results
more than 90,000 acres in conservation management, including some 70,000 acres protected through donated conservation easements | | | | |
