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One of the most noteworthy accomplishments of 2008 occurred in new territory for the Conservancy — the Southern High Plains of the Texas Panhandle. There, the Conservancy's new Yoakum Dunes Preserve covers a 7,100-acre expanse of rolling grassland within the Southern Shortgrass Prairie Ecoregion. Grasslands are among Earth's most threatened and least protected natural systems.
The Conservancy boldly anchored its work in this region with the purchase of the 6,000-acre Fitzgerald Ranch. The property, which lies in Yoakum and Terry counties, contains habitat for a number of species of conservation concern, including the lark bunting, western burrowing owl, scaled quail, Cassin’s sparrow, ferruginous hawk and pronghorn.
The preserve is also home to the lesser prairie chicken, a keystone grassland species that was once common throughout the Southern High Plains. Since 1900, the lesser prairie chicken population has decreased by 97 percent, and the remaining numbers are under growing threat from loss of habitat. The bird is now considered a candidate for listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Its future hinges in part on the success of conservation efforts in and around this new preserve.
The initial acquisition was bolstered by the purchase of two adjacent tracts totaling more than 1,100 acres. Each of the three purchases was made possible through our partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which supplied a matching grant to help fund the acquisitions and is assisting in the monitoring and stewardship of the preserve. Additional grants from ConocoPhillips and two Lubbock-area organizations — the C.H. Foundation and the Helen Jones Foundation — also contributed to the creation of Yoakum Dunes Preserve. The Conservancy hopes to buffer the preserve with at least 3,000 more acres of adjacent land to create a 10,000-acre contiguous protected area.
Texas’ Southern High Plains face fragmentation and conversion of the land for human uses, including exploration and extraction of wind, oil and gas energy and the large-scale conversion of land for irrigated crops and livestock grazing. Additionally, the ecological health of the area is at risk from the suppression of naturally occurring fires and the spread of invasive and non-native species.
Named for the Lea-Yoakum Dunes system characterized by deep sand with vegetated dunes rising to 30 feet high, the preserve is part of a series of dune systems straddling the border shared by Texas and eastern New Mexico. Conservation work at Yoakum Dunes Preserve dovetails with work being done just across the border in New Mexico at the Conservancy’s Milnesand Prairie Preserve, which protects nearly 19,000 acres of temperate grasslands and is managed by our Conservancy colleagues in that state.
Yoakum Dunes Preserve provides a conservation foothold in an underrepresented part of the state, and is a springboard for the Conservancy to protect important and threatened landscapes such as playas, grasslands, springs, saline lakes and prairie rivers.
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Nature picture credits (left to right, top to bottom): Photo © Jim Bergan/TNC (Yoakum Dunes Preserve); Photo © Janet Haas (Pronghorn); Photo © Austin Business Journal (Laura Huffman); Photo © Rebecca Flack/TNC (Frio River); Photo © Danny White/TNC (Oysters); Photo © Clay Carrington/TNC (Attwater's prairie chicken); Photo © Will van Overbeek (Richard Garriott); Photo © David A. Williams (prairie grass); Photo © Janet Haas (pronghorn); Photo © TNC (Lennox Woods Preserve); Photo © Lynn Mc Bride/TNC (Caddo Lake); Photo © Insite Architects (Pearl Brewery Design); Photo courtesy of Dick Bartlett (Dick Bartlett)
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