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Niki F. McDaniel
Senior Media Relations Manager, nmcdaniel@tnc.org, 210-224-8774, ext. 217

Family donates conservation easement on 10,000-acre South Texas ranch to The Nature Conservancy of Texas

Six generations of historic Fair Oaks Ranch heritage to be preserved

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Berclair, Texas—April 4, 2006—Only a generation ago, brother and sister Richard Lucas and Leslye Weaver grew up living the cowboy way of life on their family’s Fair Oaks Ranch in South Texas.

Richard recalls a tradition of his childhood that happened every spring: “The cowboys would leave the ranch headquarters early in the morning with a remuda of horses. We’d follow the horses to the Tank Pasture – they knew the way. It would take us three days to gather the cattle in the pasture. We’d ride one horse in the morning to work the cattle, have lunch, and ride another horse in the afternoon. I imagined this was much like it was for my forebears.”

Today, Richard and his wife Kimberly live in Houston, as do Leslye and her husband David Weaver. But they remain passionately involved in the ranch that was founded by Richard Minchin Lucas in 1859, and where their past and their future reside.

The desire to keep this 10,843-acre heritage ranch intact and as close as possible to its original state – where cattle are still worked by descendants of the original cowhands and where gates are still held in place by the original hand-hammered hardware – recently led the Lucas and Weaver families to donate conservation easements on their property to The Nature Conservancy of Texas.

A conservation easement – a legally binding negotiated agreement to limit development and preserve the natural character of the land that stays with the property, no matter who owns it – knits the past to the future and the interests of a ranching family to an organization that conserves land and water for native animals and plants.

“Our decision to donate a conservation easement was the end result of a number of things we considered over time,” said Richard Lucas. “We always talked about how to keep the ranch intact and keep the family involved in ranching. The benefits were that it could help us keep the ranch the way it is and keep it in the family.”

As Richard and Leslye’s parents began aging, their concerns for the future of the ranch increased. The family formed a limited partnership to operate the ranch. Richard and Leslye’s mother, Geraldine Gillespie Lucas, died in 1999. Richard M. Lucas Sr., their father, died in 2004.

The Fair Oaks Ranch is a cow-calf operation, meaning calves are bred on the ranch and stay with their mothers to the age of six or seven months, and then are sent off to be grazed on improved pasture and eventually sold. The ranch is recognized as a Century Ranch by the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Family Land Heritage Program, honoring farms and ranches that have been in continuous agricultural operation by the same family for 100 years or more. On the Fair Oaks Ranch, the family operation has continued through six generations.

Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Richard M. Lucas Jr. is an active member of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and he now serves on that organization’s board of directors. His great-grandfather, Cyrus Brohier Lucas, was among the first Texas ranchers to introduce the Hereford breed. His grandfather, Richard Pryor Lucas, in partnership with Richard’s father, helped take the registered Hereford breed to nationally recognized levels.

For the Lucas and Weaver families, engaging in what amounts to a permanent partnership with The Nature Conservancy was not an instinctive match. But when an acquaintance familiar with conservation easements suggested they might consider that land-conservation tool, Richard Lucas contacted the organization despite some reservations.

“There is a perception among many landowners in South Texas that The Nature Conservancy was very liberal, that the organization might not have the same goals as South Texas ranchers,” Richard said. “I had concerns about giving up control of our land.

“When I first came into the conservation easement process, I had doubts about how much could be negotiated and concerns about ranching processes being curtailed. But all our concerns were addressed – protecting our water rights, allows for oil and gas exploration and allowing a minimal amount of subdivision for family homes.”

He says he overcame his reservations by doing research on conservation easements and by meeting with Nature Conservancy staff. “Our goals were pretty compatible from the beginning,” Richard said. “But what convinced me was learning that the staff members we got to know were willing to listen, willing to negotiate to keep both parties happy. The Nature Conservancy staff made every effort to accommodate any concerns we had.”

Richard’s brother-in-law David Weaver adds, “Their range management objectives were similar to ours, and they matched our desire to keep the ranch intact without succumbing to development pressures.”

The relationship took some time to solidify, and the Conservancy’s experience with land-conservation agreements and 53-year organizational history helped. “We had to develop a certain amount of trust. The resources and sophistication of The Nature Conservancy played a big role in that,” David said. “We were concerned about where our easement might end up in the long term, who would hold it over generations. The Nature Conservancy is going to be here for the long haul.”

Richard also appreciates the practical land-management assistance he receives through the conservation easement. “The most tangible benefit is the help we get from The Nature Conservancy in efforts like controlling brush and increasing native grasses, and advice from biologists in increasing game,” he said. “We have the ability to tap into The Nature Conservancy’s expertise.”

The Nature Conservancy of Texas’ interest in the Fair Oaks Ranch is in helping the family to continue to protect an outstanding example of native coastal grasslands, South Texas brushland and freshwater marshes known as “prairie potholes.” Traversed by both Blanco and Mucorrera creeks, the land provides habitat for a wide array of indigenous wildlife species, including for rare plants, declining grassland birds and the Texas horned lizard and Texas tortoise.

“The Lucas and Weaver families are conserving land that represents Texas’ ranching heritage as well as our natural heritage,” said Carter Smith, the Conservancy’s Texas state director. “Having the opportunity to work with private landowners like these to help them keep their family ranches intact is a privilege. With more than 90 percent of Texas in private ownership, we cannot overstate the importance of land and water conservation by willing private landowners, and we applaud the dedication of this family to ensuring these resources will be protected for future generations.”

Wade Harrell, coastal prairies project director for the Conservancy in Texas, noted that the family’s dedication to land stewardship has kept their 10,843-acre working cattle ranch intact for more than 140 years of ownership, “Good land management through six generations has ensured that important conservation values, such as protecting watersheds and wildlife habitat, continue to flourish on Fair Oaks,” he said. “The family’s recent donation of a conservation easement to the Conservancy further exemplifies their commitment to the land.”

Specifically, the family donated two conservation easements on two separate parcels of their ranch, one on 10,259 acres in southwest Goliad County and another on 584 acres in eastern Bee County. Conservation easements typically limit development and subdivision of the land, and stay permanently with the land regardless of whether it is sold or inherited by new owners, Harrell explained.

For Leslye Weaver, the easement represents the preservation of her family history, her personal history and a future still to be experienced by both families, including the Weavers’ children, Alexander, 21, and Suzanne, 20, both now in college, representing the sixth generation of the ranching family.

Leslye was raised on the ranch with her brother and grew up helping her brother and father round up, vaccinate and de-horn the cattle. She fondly recalls her grandmother, who lived in the ranch’s original headquarters, and laughs about the days when their phone was on a shared “party line.” When Leslye and Richard were in college, they would bring their friends down to stage rodeos and have hunting parties.

When their own kids were small, she and David frequently brought them to spend time on the ranch, Leslye said. Today, their daughter still loves horses and their son is beginning to enjoy hunting and wildlife.

There will be more family memories to be made on the Fair Oaks Ranch. Richard and Kimberly Lucas are planning to move back to the ranch in the future. Leslye and David Weaver plan to build a second home there. “We’re thinking of building in the same architecture as my grandmother’s house,” Leslye said. “There’s a spot over on the southern part of the ranch that has a nice vista, where the land is surprisingly rolling.”

Downloads:

Fair Oaks native grasses - © Wade Harrell/The Nature Conservancy (JPG, 187KB)
Image Caption: Native grasses thrive on the Fair Oaks Ranch, where the Lucas family has kept their land much as it was when the ranch was established nearly 150 years ago.
Fair Oaks historic HQ - © David Waver (JPG, 437KB)
Image Caption: The original ranch house, also called Fair Oaks, has not been modified and remains a fine example of early prairie architecture. It was built of heart pine lumber shipped by boat from Florida to Indianola and freighted by ox teams to the building site.
crown tickseed- © Bill Carr/The Nature Conservancy (JPG, 166KB)
Image Caption: Crown tickseed is a rare plant that lives on the Fair Oaks Ranch. It is an annual forb found growing in deep sand.

Background: Fair Oaks Ranch History

Background: Fair Oaks Ranch Ecology and Conservation Value

Background: Fair Oaks Ranch Land-preservation Agreement

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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 nearly 1 million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped protect more than 117 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns 35 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 70 voluntary land-preservation agreements. 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.