Subscribe |  Donate  |  Shop  |  Endowment  |  Careers  |  Contact

Land Conservation and Stewardship

“One Thing After Another”: Rural Texans Faced The Same Storm — With Unique Hardships

“One thing after another”: Rural Texans faced the same storm — with unique hardships

As humanitarian aid workers in Armenia and South Sudan, Jerry and Meaghan Kenney have huddled around wood stoves to keep warm and bathed with buckets for lack of water. But the couple didn’t expect they’d need such survival skills to get through the winter storm at their home outside Hudson, in deep East Texas. The Kenneys, who have a 1-year-old and 3-year-old, had only intermittent power and water last week, and remain under a boil water notice. Read more from…

Read More
Hays Trinity Groundwater – Water-Wise Speaker Series

Hays Trinity Groundwater – Water-Wise Speaker Series

The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District has announced its 2021 Water-Wise Speaker Series. Subject matter experts will discuss a variety of water topics important to Hays County residents.  Hays County is listed by the US Census Bureau as the second fastest growing county in the United States. Great schools, good housing, proximity to growing business opportunities, and a beautiful landscape are all drivers for our growth.  Its most precious resource is water. The Trinity Aquifer deep below has a limited…

Read More
Axis Deer Management Project Underway In Hill Country

Axis deer management project underway in Hill Country

Axis deer are an exotic game species first introduced in the Texas Hill Country in the 1930s. Since then, the population has grown exponentially, leading to groups launching an Axis Deer Control project. There are currently more than 6,000 free-range Axis deer in Texas, according to data from the Texas Invasive Species Institute. Read more from Texas Farm Bureau here. 

Read More
Texas Parks And Wildlife Honors Black Conservation Heroes, Past And Present

Texas Parks and Wildlife honors Black conservation heroes, past and present

Though often unheralded in their own times, Black contributions to conservation, parks, outdoor recreation and more are significant and will be celebrated throughout February’s Black History Month programs from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Park rangers from all over Texas, including the Buffalo Soldier Heritage Outreach Program and the Texas Outdoor Family staff, will debut a new series of 15 virtual programs to spotlight historical figures, and we'll introduce a few of our Black colleagues across the agency and…

Read More
What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester Can Teach Us About Widening Freeways: Don’t!

What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t!

Once upon a time, Portland held itself out as a national example of how to build cities that didn’t revolve (so much) around the private automobile. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it recognized that building more freeways just generated more traffic, and it tore out one downtown freeway, and cancelled another, and instead took the bold step of investing in transit and encouraging greater urban density. But now the region is confronted with proposals to spend upwards of a…

Read More
This Land Is Our Land

This land is our land

Gabe Vasquez first visited New Mexico when he was 8 years old, during a fishing trip to the Rio Grande with his father and older brother. They traveled from their home just south of the border in Ciudad Juárez and planned to camp in state parks along the river. Even now, Vasquez recalls the air of excitement in the car as he and his brother fought over who would get the Superman fishing rod and who would get Spiderman, both purchased…

Read More
2020 Successes In The Hill Country

2020 successes in the Hill Country

There is nothing more exciting than wrapping up a great conservation project, and Texas Land Conservancy finalized three of them in the Hill Country during 2020. Silencio, Danner, and Baradhi ranches make up 1,743 acres of beautiful and diverse habitats. Each one plays an important role in protecting water quality and quantity, plants and animals who call it home, and scenic open space for the benefit of all Texans.   I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Donating a conservation easement is one of the greatest contributions to land preservation that…

Read More
US Agency Cancels Trump Policy On Conservation Purchases

US agency cancels Trump policy on conservation purchases

U.S. Interior Department officials on Thursday canceled a Trump administration directive that gave local and state officials power to block purchases of land and water for conservation. Acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega rescinded a November order from former Secretary David Bernhardt that had been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats, who said the Trump administration ignored their wishes when it changed a program that’s paid for billions of dollars in conservation work over more than five decades. Read…

Read More
Birds At Home: Watch Them Come And Go

Birds at home: Watch them come and go

Are you ready for the return of some precedented events in our lives? We have endured so much uncertainty over the last year, but fortunately (and with weather aside), nature and wildlife remain a reliable source of predictability.  The lives of birds cycle through breeding and non-breeding seasons, and for many, a significant migration period between them. In Texas we have migratory birds that breed here in the summer, others that just pass through while traveling through the Central Flyway, and many that come down to over-winter with our mild temperatures.   Read more from Stephen Ramirez with Texas Land Conservancy here. 

Read More
AACOG-led Consortium Seeks Sentinel Landscape Status For JBSA-Camp Bullis

AACOG-led consortium seeks Sentinel Landscape status for JBSA-Camp Bullis

Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis sits astride the Southern Edwards Plateau on the Northwest edge of San Antonio. This gem of JBSA is vital to military training and readiness as it provides a rugged tactical training area in this Texas Hill Country landscape essential to the training of all military services’ combat medics and Air Force security forces. In an effort to protect and sustain JBSA-Camp Bullis’ mission, the Alamo Area Council of Governments, or AACOG, is leading a consortium of 16…

Read More