Eight years ago, Susan Nenney and her husband Louis Parks left Houston and headed for the country—the Hill Country just outside Wimberley, to be precise. Susan’s childhood experiences on her grandmother’s farm in North Louisiana instilled in her a deep love of nature and a desire to own her own land. When Susan and Louis moved to their small ranch near Lone Man Creek, a tributary of the Blanco River, they had only a cursory understanding of land management. But with the help of their neighbors and The Nature Conservancy, they have become effective, responsible stewards of their land. For Susan, the experience has been more than rewarding. It has been like coming home.


“I knew I had to get back to the land. It was time. We looked at different pieces of property and when we saw this place we thought, ‘this is it.’ We were reborn to the land, as they say, and finally able to put down roots. We loved this place immediately and wanted to help return it to its natural state. In many ways, it has become our passion.

“We have 27 acres that had been under an agricultural exemption and was heavily over-grazed. We knew we had a great seed bed, though, so we converted to wildlife management exemption right away. It was a very easy process that involved a little self-education. We came up with strategies for habitat restoration, supplemental water and erosion control, things like that. It has made me so happy to be steward of this land, to sow grass seed and clear cedar and put out extra water for the animals.

“A lot of our neighbors in this little valley feel the same way we do about conservation. We started to meet informally to discuss issues associated with the land. One couple wanted to conduct a plant survey and that’s how our relationship with The Nature Conservancy began. Then we asked the Conservancy to come help us trap feral hogs that were creating huge erosion problems.

“We were lucky to find this place, and we’re so thankful for our neighbors. Most of the area landowners now have their property under wildlife management, which is pretty amazing. We’re still novices at this, but our neighbors are a great source of knowledge and information and we take every chance we can find to cooperate. It’s nice to know that there are resources we can use, that there are people who will come out and share their expertise and help us. We’re all still learning. How could we possibly think we would know everything?

“Working with The Nature Conservancy helped us become more organized. They became sort of a fulcrum—a point around which we could share information and focus our efforts. That relationship has helped us appreciate what we have here. It has instilled in us a conservation ethic and shown us that there are moral consequences to how this land is managed. We need to fight to preserve what we have left and try to make it better.” 

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Dan Tharp (Louis Parks & Susan Nenney )