Saving a Skyline in the Rough

“When you’re not living it day to day, you lose that emotional attachment to the land," Dickinson said. “And when that happens, successive generations move from a philosophy of stewardship to a philosophy of self-interest. You just don’t know what will happen when we’re gone. Where does the land all go and to whom?”

That question has reshaped the landscape across West Texas. Ranching is no longer as lucrative or culturally rooted as it once was, and many families have sold to the highest bidder—often resulting in subdivided, transformed lands. 

Dell Dickinson and his brother, Terry, envisioned a different future for Skyline.

Operation Conservation

While many of Dell’s neighbors have changed over the years, one remained constant since the 90s: The Nature Conservancy’s Dolan Falls Preserve. Over decades, TNC and partners have secured conservation easements on 65,000 acres around the Devils River. A few years ago, Dell started asking whether his family’s scenic more than 6,600-acre Skyline Ranch could be protected as well.

“His family was not in a position to donate the entire value of the conservation easement, but they were interested in a bargain sale, a below-market sale,” said Jeff Francell, TNC's director of land protection in Texas.

Even at a reduced price, the deal was a stretch for everyone involved. But the ecological stakes were high. The Devils River watershed is one of the most intact landscapes left in Texas. More than 360 bird species migrate, nest, or winter here, and the presence of federally listed species—including the Devils River minnow, which survives only in the clearest spring‑fed waters—signals a level of environmental health that’s increasingly rare across the state.

Then two unexpected partners—the Department of War’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program and Compatible Lands Foundation (CLF)—stepped in.

Dell’s ranch sits in an area that is actively used for military flight training. In fact, he sees and hears training aircraft overhead most days. Incompatible development, especially tall structures like large power lines, could not only interfere with military flight training operations in Val Verde County but could also negatively impact water quality in the Devils River system.

Given their vested interest in preserving this space, The REPI Program and Compatible Lands Foundation were able to provide additional funding for the property, and TNC and CLF partnered to co-hold the Skyline Ranch conservation easement to protect the ranch.

Support also came from The Horizon Foundation; the WoodNext Foundation, a fund of a donor-advised fund program; a private donation by John Eddie Williams; and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) through its Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program. TPWD also leases two campsites along the Devils River for multiday paddlers—sites whose views will now remain scenic and wild. The remaining value of the easement was donated by Dell and Terry Dickinson themselves.

“It’s rare that we have this many supporters come through in such a significant way to conserve a piece of property,” said Francell.

The View that Endures

For Dell, the easement is more than a legal agreement—it’s the continuation of his family’s relationship with this land. It’s a place he knows better than anyone, revealed in the ease with which he points out distant mountains, tucked‑away trails and the rocky ranch road that leads toward the river, hidden beneath canyon and scrub.

Now, driving through the ranch, Dickinson passes untamed brush and a canyon-cut river—scenes that aren’t so different from those that his grandfather saw before him. The decision Dell and Terry made ensures that future generations of Texans, paddlers and wildlife will all inherit that same view: rugged desert, wide-open skies and turquoise bends of the Devils River, protected forever.