None The Nature Conservancy in Texas Press Releases Search All Press Releases Niki F. McDaniel Phone: (210) 224-8774, ext. 217 E-mail: nmcdaniel@tnc.org

Nature Conservancy receives Texas Parks & Wildlife grant for coastal conservation-education programs; Children and adults to learn about ecology in classrooms and outdoors

SAN ANTONIO -- January 15, 2004 — The Nature Conservancy of Texas has been awarded a nearly $30,000 grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to support conservation education along the Texas Gulf Coast. The grant will be divided among the Conservancy’s conservation-education programs in Texas City, Matagorda County and Brownsville. The grant was provided to The Nature Conservancy through Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Community Outdoor Outreach Program.

Funds from the $29,445 grant will be used to enhance ongoing environmental education programs at each of the three sites. Educational programs that examine prairie and marsh ecosystems through hands-on, science-based activities are offered to children ranging from age 6 through high school, with additional programs offered for adults, including educators. Last year, these programs reached more than 3,000 participants.

"The purpose of The Nature Conservancy’s conservation-education effort is to increase appreciation of the importance of biodiversity, heighten awareness of natural systems and people’s place within them, and to nurture the development of a conservation ethic," said Catherine Porter, the Conservancy’s coastal conservation education and outreach coordinator in Texas. "We are very grateful to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for its commitment to conservation education."

Programs receiving grants are based at the Conservancy’s Texas City Prairie Preserve in Texas City, Clive Runnells Family Mad Island Marsh Preserve in Matagorda County and Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve in Brownsville.

"The programs also provide outreach at multiple additional sites, spanning the Texas Gulf Coast from Houston to Brownsville," Porter added. "These areas are under-served or not served at all by programs such as these, and we try to increase our reach by offering the programs free to participants."

The grant will support the education programs in the following ways.

1. Texas City Prairie Preserve will use the funds to reach out to local under-served school districts. Preserve education coordinator Mitch Philpot will visit local schools to talk with students about their local environmental heritage and will also provide opportunities for schoolchildren to visit the preserve for hands-on science and outdoor recreational instruction. For example, kayaks will be purchased to allow exploration of area wetlands, providing an outlet for children to enjoy the outdoors and learn about the environment.
2. Mad Island Marsh Preserve, located along West Matagorda Bay, will use the funds to enhance both ongoing educational programming and a summer camp provided in conjunction with the YMCA in Victoria. Each year at the preserve, Cathy Porter and early-education specialist Dianne Stroman provide educational programming for more than 1,500 schoolchildren in kindergarten through 12th grade and some 300 college students and adults. Grant funds will be used to purchase new equipment, such as kayaks, binoculars and nets as well as provide funds to cover summer-camp fees.
3. At Southmost Preserve, in addition to leading field trips, nature walks and tree-planting opportunities for students, outreach coordinator Donna Berry will use grant funds to take programs into area schools, libraries and museums to teach community members about the area’s diverse bat populations. The preserve also will host a series of Project Wild teacher workshops that will bring conservation-science education into the classroom.

To learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s coastal conservation education programs in Texas, call Mitch Philpot at Texas City Prairie Preserve, (409) 945-4677; Cathy Porter or Dianne Stroman at Mad Island Marsh Preserve, (361) 972-2559; or Donna Berry at Southmost Preserve, (956) 546-0547.

For information about how to apply for a Texas Parks and Wildlife Community Outdoor Outreach Program grant, visit the program Web page, www.tpwd.state.tx.us/grants/coop/, where a grant application can be downloaded. Or, call Darlene Lewis at (512) 912-7145 or Dana Lagarde at (512) 912-7056. CO-OP grant application deadlines are Oct. 1 and March 1. Grant writing workshops for this summer will be announced in late spring.

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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 16 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 90 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.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is the state agency responsible for state parks and fish and wildlife conservation. It operates 122 Texas state parks, 51 wildlife management areas and eight fish hatcheries. Through its grant programs, the agency provides tens of millions of dollars in state funding each year for city and county park projects across Texas. The agency operating budget for 2003 was $245 million. It employs about 3,000 workers statewide, with fisheries and wildlife biologists and game wardens that serve every Texas county. Complete information is available on the department Internet site (www.tpwd.state.tx.us).