Nature Conservancy protects nearly 50,000 acres in Texas in 2007

Conservation easements with willing private landowners account for most of the land conserved

San Antonio — January 31, 2008 — The Nature Conservancy protected 49,805 acres of Texas lands and waters in 2007 that provide important habitat for native animals and plants, the non-profit conservation organization announced today. Officials with the organization noted that the lion’s share of that land was conserved through voluntary agreements with landowners – called conservation easements – that limit development of the land while leaving it in private ownership.

“The land we’ve been able to protect over the past year is unprecedented in terms of the diversity of the landscapes where we’ve worked, touching all corners of the state,” said Jeff Francell, The Nature Conservancy’s director of land and water protection in Texas. “This demonstrates how much Texans care about conservation, from voters who support protecting water resources with public funding to private landowners who protect their lands with conservation easements.”

Francell noted that nearly 37,000 acres of the land was protected through donations to the Conservancy of 15 separate conservation easements on private lands by willing landowners. Conservation easements provide a way for landowners to donate or sell their right to develop the land to a qualified conservation organization or agency. In order to maintain the conservation value of property, these easements restrict the way the land may be used and the easement remains attached to the land in perpetuity, regardless of future ownership.

Jason Corzine, the organization’s Central Texas regional manager, worked with a variety of private landowners to place conservation easements on their property in the Hill Country, where populations are among the fastest growing in the nation and the threats to wildlife habitat and water resources are severe.

“Water is the reason the Hill Country is such a beautiful and biologically rich part of the state, and the rivers of Central Texas are critical to ecological health and human well-being,” Corzine said. “The conservation commitment of landowners along the Pedernales, Guadalupe, Blanco and Frio rivers is making a vital difference in the protection of these resources for future generations.”

Francell also pointed out that the Conservancy assisted the cities of San Antonio and San Marcos in purchasing land or conservation easements that conserve nearly 6,000 acres for watershed protection. Those purchases include 5,666 acres in the Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zones to safeguard San Antonio’s primary source of water and 251 acres in San Marcos to protect San Marcos Springs. Both efforts were supported by voters through ballot initiatives.

The Nature Conservancy also purchased land outright or received donations of land totaling 6,945 acres in various parts of the state, Francell said.

“More than 15,000 acres of the land conserved in 2007 preserve grasslands, which are among the least protected and most threatened habitats on Earth,” Francell said. “With 90 percent of the planet’s grasslands lost to agriculture use, urbanization and fire suppression, grassland protection is a major focus of the Conservancy’s work worldwide.” (Learn more at nature.org/earth/grasslands.)

In addition to securing land for conservation through accepting conservation easements or purchasing property, the Conservancy also donated its 1,500-acre South Padre Island Preserve to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for inclusion in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge during the past year.

Highlights of The Nature Conservancy’s Texas conservation achievements in 2007 include:

• A donated conservation easement on a historic 10,265-acre ranch that includes the headwaters springs for the Guadalupe River: The land represents the largest conservation easement donated to The Nature Conservancy in Texas. The North Fork of the Guadalupe River runs through the property for about a mile and a half. In addition to conserving the springs and the river, the easement protects habitat for rare black-capped vireos and golden-cheeked warblers, as well as aquatic habitat for Guadalupe bass. The land contains the tenth-largest cave in Texas. The Conservancy also accepted a donated conservation easement on an additional 400 acres on a second historic ranch that conserves land on the Guadalupe River in the rapidly developing corridor along U.S. Hwy. 281.

• Two conservation easement donations totaling 3,400 acres on properties on the Pedernales River: One of these properties includes more than a mile of riverfront directly across from Pedernales Falls State Park. The other is a large ranch encompassing both sides of the Pedernales near historic Hamilton Pool and Milton Reimers Ranch Park. These land-protection efforts were the organization’s first conservation easements in its Pedernales River Project. Protecting these properties will help preserve the scenic corridor along the Pedernales River for generations to come.

• The Conservancy’s first major land-protection projects in the Texas High Plains and the Panhandle: The group purchased the 6,000-acre Fitzgerald Ranch in Yoakum and Terry counties and accepted donated conservation easements on two private ranches in Collinsworth and Hemphill counties totaling 8,842 acres. These lands conserve grasslands, caprock canyons, a portion of the Washita River and habitat for the lesser prairie chicken, which is a candidate for listing as an endangered species.

• The Conservancy’s first conservation easement in the Fort Worth Prairie: An easement donated on a 285-acre family farm in Parker County protects imperiled grassland birds and other wildlife and is located in the Barnett Shale, one of the nation’s largest natural gas fields.

• A conservation easement donation of 6,000 acres on a private ranch in Real and Uvalde counties west of San Antonio: The land protects Edwards Aquifer recharge features, including springs and a portion of the Dry Frio River that contains water year round, as well as habitat for the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. This is the Conservancy’s first conservation easement in the area since the launch of its Western Rivers Project, which helps landowners conserve the Frio, Nueces and Sabinal rivers.

• A conservation easement on 697 acres of the San Francisco Ranch section of the historic Yturria Ranch in the Rio Grande Valley: This easement connects two previously existing conservation easements on the property. The now contiguously protected land provides habitat for migratory birds, rare plants and as many as 11 ocelots, a critically endangered species. This easement was purchased by the Conservancy using a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant administered through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s ConocoPhillips Spirit of Conservation Migratory Bird Program and a grant from the Kleberg Foundation. Support for the project also was provided by El Paso Corporation.

• A donation of 57 acres of virgin tallgrass prairie at Clymer Meadow by a private landowner whose family has owned the land since the 1850s: The property, adjacent to the Conservancy’s Clymer Meadow Preserve north of Dallas, adds to the diversity of the preserve with a different composition of grass species. The family has worked with the Conservancy for 13 years to maintain the prairie through conservation management practices and is a member of the organization’s Texas Land Stewards’ Society. The land donation brings the total of Clymer Meadow Preserve to 1,045 acres.

• A donated conservation easement on 670 acres of a private ranch on the Blanco River: In Kendall County, this land provides habitat for golden-cheeked warblers and is on both sides of the Blanco River, which runs through the property for about 1.5 miles. This represents the first conservation easement in the Conservancy’s Blanco River Project.

• The purchase of several tracts of land on South Padre Island totaling 888 acres. The Conservancy plans to transfer this land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for inclusion in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. This purchase was funded with a North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant administered through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Ducks Unlimited, with the Conservancy serving as a sub-grantee.

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The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns more than 30 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 100 voluntary land-preservation agreements. The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved 750,000 acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.