None The Nature Conservancy in Texas Press Releases Search All Press Releases Niki F. McDaniel Senior Media Relations Manager, nmcdaniel@tnc.org, 210-224-8774, ext. 217

Kresge Foundation awards $750,000 to Nature Conservancy of Texas

Funding will support education, outreach centers at gulf coast, Davis Mountains

San Antonio, Texas—May 18, 2006—The Nature Conservancy of Texas has received a grant for $750,000 from The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich., to help fund the construction of two education and outreach centers at Mad Island Marsh in Matagorda County on the gulf coast and in the Davis Mountains of Far West Texas.

The funds were awarded in the form of a challenge grant issued to the organization in 2001. The challenges to be met were for the non-profit organization to complete its For Texas, Forever capital campaign goal of raising $50 million, which was accomplished in 2004, and to raise an additional $6,137,600 for capital campaign projects, which was completed in December 2005.

“Through this challenge opportunity from the Kresge Foundation, we’re able to greatly expand our ability to reach out to our neighbors from our preserves out in West Texas and along the Texas gulf coast,” said Carter Smith, Texas state director for The Nature Conservancy.  

“Community-based conservation is a cornerstone of our philosophy, and to be able to provide educational opportunities in these rural areas is one way we would like to contribute to the communities where we work. At the same time, working with landowners to help them find effective ways to compatibly conserve their land is part of our mission, and the opportunity to assist Texas’ ranchers and farmers is a privilege.”

Smith noted that San Antonians Roger and Phyllis Sherman also helped fund the two new facilities.

Construction is expected to begin soon on an outreach and education center at the Conservancy’s Clive Runnells Family Mad Island Marsh Preserve on the Texas gulf coast. This preserve is the site of the Conservancy’s Coastal Education Program, which provides programs for schoolchildren in kindergarten through twelfth grade as well as teacher training programs in environmental and aquaculture education. The new facility also will provide outreach to area landowners for sharing agricultural practices compatible with conservation.

The 7,063-acre Mad Island Marsh Preserve is a complex of wetlands and coastal prairie where, during the annual Christmas Bird Count, more species of birds are counted than anywhere else in the United States and Canada. This land is especially important to waterfowl, with more than 16 species of ducks and four species of geese using the marsh during the winter. Other species found on the preserve include sandhill cranes, raptors and many songbird species, along with alligators, bobcats and white-tail deer. The marsh area provides habitat red drum, blue crabs, southern flounder and speckled trout. Mad Island Lake and its surrounding wetlands provide a critical nursery for a variety of marine life from adjacent Matagorda Bay. In addition, parts of the preserve serve as demonstration projects for compatible rice farming and cattle grazing, with those operations leased to local farmers and ranchers.

The McIvor Conservation Center at the Conservancy’s Davis Mountains Preserve was completed in 2005 as a vehicle for education and outreach to the community, intended to build conservation awareness and share best practices for conservation-compatible cattle ranching, hunting and other traditional local land uses.

____________________________________

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.