The Nature Conservancy offers 'green' holiday gifts for Texans

Earth-Friendly giving helps the planet and honors loved ones

A gift of conservation will benefit ecologically important places such as the Davis Mountains in Far West Texas. Download larger image (430 KB)  © Debbie Brient/The Nature Conservancy Explore "green" holiday gifts from The Nature Conservancy.

SAN ANTONIO—Dec. 8, 2008—For last-minute holiday gifts that will enhance the receiver’s connection to nature and contribute to a healthier planet, The Nature Conservancy of Texas suggests a variety of environmentally conscious choices for honoring friends and loved ones.

“To give the gift of nature to those we care about is a loving statement about our shared values and our sense of hope for the future,” said Laura Huffman, Texas state director for The Nature Conservancy. “A gift of membership in The Nature Conservancy or support for the protection of critical habitat for wildlife is tremendously rewarding both to give and to receive.”

Recipients may help support conservation work in Texas and throughout the United States or have a global impact by supporting tree planting in Brazil, coral reef restoration in Indonesia or conservation of critical grasslands in Africa, Huffman added.

Gifts choices begin at $10 and are available by going to nature.org. Many gift selections provide the recipient with related fact sheets about the projects they are helping support, maps and personalized certificates, and all gifts include a year’s subscription to the award-winning Nature Conservancy magazine.

Such gifts can be especially rewarding to young teens, helping them gain a greater appreciation for nature and conservation early in life, and learn about the ways in which they can help make a real difference in protecting the planet, now and into adulthood, Huffman said.

Members and non-members also can sign up online to receive the Conservancy’s Great Places monthly electronic newsletter at no charge by going to nature.org/texas. Great Places includes updates on the organization’s work in Texas and beyond, including open preserve dates and special field trips.

“In Texas, the Conservancy is working to conserve the ‘sky island’ mountain ranges of the west, the high plains and Blackland Prairie of the north, the longleaf pine forests of East Texas, the bays and estuaries along the Gulf of Mexico and the beautiful, life-giving rivers of the Hill Country,” Huffman said. “A simple gift membership in The Nature Conservancy will help support all this important work to protect Texas’ wild animals and wild places for the future.”

Other gifts available through The Nature Conservancy include opportunities to:
• Plant trees in Brazil as part of the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign
• Protect habitat in Australia Gondwana Link region.
• Conserve the pristine lands and waters of the Northern Rockies
• Give carbon offsets to reduce the impacts of global warming
• Adopt the imperiled coral reefs of Palau in Indonesia
• Help the many endangered plants and animals of the Appalachians
• Protect the last remaining stands of the Southern forests in the United States
• Adopt an acre of rainforest in Costa Rica
• Conserve African grasslands and the lions, cheetahs and elephants that depend on them
• Shop The Nature Conservancy’s marketplace, where members receive a 10 percent discount, for a variety of other green gifts

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.  To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 18 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 117 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns more than 30 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 100 voluntary land-preservation agreements. The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects some 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved 750,000 acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.