Nature Conservancy buys 10,000 acres in Davis Mountains
Land will be added to Davis Mountains Preserve; interpretive nature trail planned
San Antonio, Texas— July 6, 2004 — The Nature Conservancy has purchased 10,000 acres in Far West Texas from a longtime ranching family in the Madera Canyon area of the Davis Mountains, the wildlife-habitat conservation organization announced today.
The land connects the Conservancy’s 18,000-acre Davis Mountains Preserve and 4,000-acre Madera Canyon Preserve, bringing the total of Conservancy-owned preserve land in the Davis Mountains to 32,000 acres. The Davis Mountains represent a rare "sky island" ecology – mountains islands rising out of the "sea" of the Chihuahuan Desert – and provide habitat for animals and plants found nowhere else on Earth.
"This land purchase will help prevent incompatible development and habitat fragmentation, protecting the Madera Creek watershed and maintaining its natural recharge into the Igneous Aquifer," said Carter Smith, Texas state director for The Nature Conservancy. Located on Highway 118 near the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory, some of the land will be open to the public for hiking and wildlife watching, Smith added, noting that the land surrounds a popular roadside park on a scenic loop now enjoyed by both locals and tourists.
With its high biological diversity and rugged beauty, the Davis Mountains region has been "discovered" in recent years, Smith said, first by Texans seeking relief from the summer city heat, and now by visitors from across the nation and beyond, wanting to own a piece of one of the few remaining truly wild places in Texas. The Nature Conservancy hopes to keep a significant portion of that wildness intact though the creation of nature preserves as well as by helping families keep their ranches intact, Smith said.
The land being purchased belonged to the Eppenauer family for 70 years, and Smith said that the Conservancy has been working with the Eppenauers for 15 years to assist them in conserving their family ranchland. "This transaction helps facilitate a family’s wish to keep the remainder of their ranch intact," he said.
The Nature Conservancy is paying $4.4 million to buy the land – owned in part by family members and in part by Frost Bank Trust on behalf of the family – and will need to raise $6 million in donations to fund the land purchase, pay start-up costs to turn it into a nature preserve and create an endowment to fund future preserve stewardship.
James King, the Conservancy’s West Texas program manger, said that adding the land to the Davis Mountains Preserve will allow the Conservancy to better manage fire and improve rangeland health as a tool for watershed restoration. Additionally, Madera Creek contributes significantly to the recharge of the Igneous Aquifer system, which provides drinking water for many people in Jeff Davis County and Balmorhea, as well as water for area ranches. Since the land includes highway frontage on both sides of scenic Hwy. 118, the purchase will help maintain the wild beauty of the land, he said.
The public will be able to access the land through an interpretative nature trail that will be constructed to provide opportunities to enjoy the beauty and biological diversity of the Davis Mountains, King said. The trail will be a loop design, taking visitors across Madera Creek and up through pinion-oak-juniper woodlands, where hikers will be able to enjoy a commanding view of Mount Livermore, at 8,378 feet the highest peak in the Davis Mountains. Upon reaching the overlook point, hikers will be able to view the ponderosa pine habitat that defines Madera Canyon.
The trail, planned by Conservancy staff with assistance from local volunteers, will be built with hand tools to ensure minimal impact on the habitat and aesthetics of the area, King said, and pedestrian gates will be placed at both trailheads to prevent motorized vehicle access. A trailhead sign will be located at each end of the trail, along with an interpretive sign describing the local ecology, including the plants and animals that may be viewed along the trial. Additional signs will help hikers navigate the trail.
King added the trail is being developed in partnership with Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the National Park Service and the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute in addition to volunteers.
Carter Smith said this purchase represents the third and final phase of preserve land purchases in the Davis Mountains, beginning with a portion of the U Up, U Down Ranch to create the Davis Mountains Preserve, followed by the 4,000-acre Madera Canyon Preserve land and now the Eppenauer land.
Photo Caption Information:
Horizontal Image (maderacanyon1.jpg): The Nature Conservancy has purchased 10,000 acres in the Madera Canyon area of the Davis Mountains that will become part of the Davis Mountains Preserve. Photo by John Karges/The Nature Conservancy.
Vertical Image (maderacanyon2.jpg): A purchase of 10,000 acres for preserve land by The Nature Conservancy will help protect Madera Creek's watershed. Photo by John Karges/The Nature Conservancy.
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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 102 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.
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