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Nature Conservancy's Conservation Leadership Awards to honor City of Austin and Travis County on Sept. 27

Conservancy President Steve McCormick will give keynote address; Jimmy LaFave will provide music

Austin, Texas—September 18, 2006 —Travis County and the city of Austin will be honored during The Nature Conservancy’s 12th-annual Austin Conservation Leadership Awards Luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 27 in the Hilton Austin downtown, 500 E. 4th St.

Nature Conservancy President and Chief Executive Officer Steven J. McCormick will be keynote speaker for the luncheon, with Texas singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave providing musical entertainment. Austin Mayor Will Wynn is honorary chairperson of the event, which is co-sponsored by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the Austin American-Statesman. Co-chairpersons for the luncheon are Anne Schweppe Ashmun and Jane Schweppe Scott.

“The city of Austin and Travis County have taken leadership roles in recognizing the value of protecting the region’s rich natural resources for future generations,” said Carter Smith, Texas state director for The Nature Conservancy. “While the award is going to city and county governments, the people of Austin and Travis County are the real honorees.”

In May 1999, the city sought and received approval from voters for $65 million in bonds to purchase land to maintain open space and natural features on Barton Creek and over the Edwards Aquifer, its recharge zone and contributing watersheds in and around southwest Austin. The land protects Barton Springs and the overall quality of water in the aquifer. Last spring, Travis County voters approved a bond package that supported conservation of Reimers Ranch and Pogue Hollow, in addition to other parkland support and acquisition.

The city and county also are managing partners of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve system, a collection of properties in Travis County providing blocks of natural habitat that protect federally listed endangered species and other species of conservation concern. Properties dedicated to the preserve are owned and managed by numerous private landowners and several organizations. The preserve now encompasses more than three-quarters of the land needed to accomplish its goal to acquire and manage at least 30,428 acres for endangered species protection.

The Conservancy’s McCormick, who assumed leadership of the international non-profit in February 2001, will discuss the organization’s global focus and why conservationists in the United States must look beyond our borders to achieve conservation success. Partnership with a diverse array of groups and individuals has been an ongoing theme of McCormick’s tenure with The Nature Conservancy. Under his leadership, the organization launched joint projects with other conservation groups, agencies and corporations, and aggressively pursued public-private partnerships, including the collaborative ongoing effort with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve the management of dams across the country.

At the international level, the Conservancy helped broker complex and pioneering deals, such as a “debt swap” with Peru, in which the U.S. government agreed to forgive a portion of that country’s debt in exchange for a Peruvian commitment to invest $10.6 million in conservation projects over a period of 12 years.

Title underwriter for the event is land/water/sky, a conservation real estate company.
Individual tickets cost $100. To learn more, call (512) 494-9559, Ext. 103. 

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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 102 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.