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Lisa Williams
digital pager (956) 384-5740, lwilliams@tnc.org or Niki F. McDaniel,(210) 224-8774, x 217, nmcdaniel@tnc.org, The Nature Conservancy of Texas

Nature Conservancy creates Las Estrellas Preserve in Starr County

Endangered star cactus protected on 415-acre former ranch

Images for Download Below

Rio Grande City, Texas — December 1, 2004 — The Nature Conservancy of Texas on Tuesday announced the purchase of a 415-acre ranch in Starr County north of Rio Grande City in order to create a new nature preserve. The new Las Estrellas Preserve represents the first protected area for the federally endangered star cactus (Astrophytum asterias), which is found only in Starr County and a few places in Mexico.

The property was purchased from the family of the late Elias and Adela Guerrero, Rio Grande City natives who recognized the unique natural beauty of their land and wished to see it preserved, said Lisa Williams, The Nature Conservancy’s Tamaulipan thornscrub project director, who coordinated the purchase. Funding for the project, she added, was provided by grants from 3M and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Guerrero family’s willingness to sell the land at a bargain-sale price also helped make the purchase possible, she said.

"The family’s stewardship of their land played an important role in preventing the destruction of the star cactus found on the property," Williams said. "For the past four years, the Guerrero family granted the Conservancy a conservation lease on the tract, which authorized us to manage the property, prevent trespassing and conduct ecological monitoring."

Research designed to implement the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan for star cactus is already underway on the property, Williams noted, adding that scientists are conducting reproductive biology studies and are monitoring the star cactus population for evidence of illegal cactus poaching for sale to unscrupulous collectors.

The new preserve also will serve as a base for development of a landscape-scale conservation project by the Conservancy, to include providing landowner conservation assistance, community outreach, conservation education, rare-species research and a multitude of partnerships. "This acquisition will ultimately benefit not just the animal and plant species on the land but also the human community as a whole," Williams said. "Wildlife recreation is an important part of the economy of Starr County, and protecting biological diversity helps maintain recreational value of the land."

Situated on the Mexican border in an area conservation scientists call the Tamaulipan Thornscrub Ecoregion, Starr County historically has been known to scientists as a biological "hot spot" for its unique plant and animal assemblages. Its combination of floodplain forests, undulating caliche hills and extensive brushlands harbor some of the greatest biological diversity remaining in the Rio Grande Valley.

Of particular significance are the ramaderos, a Spanish-language term used to described the broad, heavily wooded drainages that are aligned in a general north-to-south direction, ultimately running into the Rio Grande, Williams said. These areas provide important cover for wildlife species traveling or migrating through the arid gravel hills of Starr County. They often harbor rare animals that depend on the small amount of moisture that can persist in the bottoms of these intermittent creeks.

The new preserve area is of particular interest to botanists due to its complex of rare plant species, many of which are not found outside of the Rio Grande Valley. These include Runyon’s cory-cactus, Fitch’s hedgehog cactus, Texas shrimp plant, Mission fiddlewood and St. Joseph’s staff. In all, at least 16 species of rare and unique plants and animals, such as the Texas indigo snake, can be found on this relatively small property.

But the star of the show, according to Williams, is the severely imperiled star cactus, a spineless succulent with yellow flowers. Its survival in the wild is in jeopardy due to habitat destruction as well as an extreme threat from the cactus-poaching trade that thrives through the sale of rare species of cactus to collectors worldwide. At the time of its discovery in December 2000, the star cactus on what is now the Conservancy’s new property represented the largest known population of this species in the world.

Williams said that due to the dangers to the star cactus and other rare plants from cactus poachers, the new Las Estrellas Preserve will not be open to the public on a walk-in basis, although eventually there will be programmatic access provided for interested visitors.

Additionally, the preserve will be closely monitored to prevent trespassing, she said, and anyone found trespassing will be prosecuted.

Images for Download:

Las Estrellas3 - © Lisa Williams (JPG, 219KB)
Image Caption: The thornscrub of Starr County harbors many unique plants and animals.

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The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States and have helped protect more than 83 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns 33 Texas nature preserves and conservation projects and manages another 27 projects through voluntary land-preservation agreements with landowners, The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved close to a million acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.