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Partnership created between Texas A&M-Commerce, The Nature Conservancy to study wildlife conservation at new nature preserve

University students will explore ecology and offer community educational outreach

SAN ANTONIO - January 21, 2004 - A partnership between Texas A&M University-Commerce and The Nature Conservancy will facilitate the study and conservation of a globally imperiled prairie wetland at the newly created Cowleech Prairie Preserve in southern Hunt County, according to spokesmen from the university and the non-profit wildlife conservation organization.

The partnership between The Nature Conservancy and Texas A&M University-Commerce will be formalized in a memorandum of agreement during a signing ceremony at 2 p.m. Monday in the McDowell Administration Building on the Texas A&M-Commerce campus.

Purchased by The Nature Conservancy last summer, the 86-acre Cowleech Prairie Preserve is a bottomland meadow containing an unusual wetland complex of flooded grassland, ponds, sloughs and streamside woodlands. The land has never been plowed, which makes it especially unique since bottomlands, because of their inherent fertility, were the first choice for farmland of both European settlers and agricultural Native Americans, according to experts at the two organizations. Home to a wide variety of butterflies, birds and aquatic life, the preserve habitat is generally described as eastern gamagrass prairie, based on the plant types represented there.

The preserve is contained within a meander of the Cowleech Fork of the Sabine River. It is believed that the fork was named for a Shawnee Indian chief, Cow Leach, who is noted in historical references as among Native Americans living in the vicinity in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

The agreement between the partners gives students in the university’s recently established Wildlife and Conservation Science Program an opportunity to do the groundbreaking biological surveys and studies to understand the ecology of this rare habitat and the wildlife that depends upon it, as well as to help develop plans for habitat conservation on the preserve.

Program director Jeff Kopachena, Ph.D., said the Wildlife and Conservation Science Program is intended to provide students with a comprehensive view of conservation and to contribute to conservation research, as well as regional conservation planning and public education.

"Our objective is to build this program by developing partnerships with area conservation organizations and agencies. Ultimately, we hope that these partnerships will facilitate the development of comprehensive regional conservation plans," Kopachena said.

"The agreement we are signing with The Nature Conservancy is an important milestone for our program. It offers our students and faculty the opportunity to study a globally imperiled community and to participate in its management and restoration," Kopachena added. "As importantly, it provides our students with valuable exposure to the holistic ecosystem and landscape-level approach to conservation that is the hallmark of Nature Conservancy practices."

In addition to a site for field study for university students, Texas A&M University-Commerce plans to use the preserve as a venue for educating teachers about natural history and environmental science, and for conducting public outreach to Hunt County local schools.

"Conserving this irreplaceable part of Texas natural history must be a community project," said Jim Eidson, The Nature Conservancy's ecoregional manager for the region. "A partnership like the one we are developing with TAMU-Commerce not only considers biology and natural-resource protection, but how the land can be of greatest value to the larger community. It is our intention and hope that the Cowleech Prairie Preserve will provide a tremendous educational resource – a living laboratory – to students from kindergarten through graduate school throughout east and north-central Texas."

Preliminary research shows that Cowleech Prairie Preserve provides habitat for a wide array of wildlife, particularly butterflies and birds, Eidson noted.

Scores of butterfly species have been seen on the preserve, including swallowtails, sulphers and whites, gossamer wings, snouts, longwings and brushfoots. Ducks include wood ducks, blue- and green-winged teals, northern pintails, American widgeons, and canvasback and redhead ducks.

Other birds seen there include herons, abundant marsh wrens, northern harriers, sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks, dickcissels, loggerhead shrikes, and savannah, grasshopper and Le Conte’s sparrows.

Image for Download:

Cowleech Prairie Preserve - © Jim Eidson/The Nature Conservancy (JPG, 396kb)
Image Caption: Cowleech Prairie Preserve, a rare wetland complex owned by The Nature Conservancy, will be the site for studies by students in the Texas A&M University-Commerce Wildlife and Conservation Science Program.

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The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 83 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In the Lone Star State, with more than 70 nature preserves and conservation projects on private lands, The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved more than 920,000 acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.