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expireTexas News Bulletin, Winter 2002

Bauerle Ranch Photo by: Lisa Kaselek

Austin Gains Parkland Along Walnut and Slaughter Creeks

The Trust for Public Land's strength as a land conservation organization lies in its ability to forge partnerships to achieve our land-for-people mission. Since 1993 TPL has led a planning and education effort in Austin to build support for adding 44 miles of greenways and trails along the city's major creeks. TPL's goal is to generate and use public funds to create the greenway system, which will provide opportunities for recreation and alternative transportation such as bicycling, hiking, and nature-watching, and will also control flooding and erosion and protect water quality. In 1998, Austin voters approved a $40 million bond initiative to finance the purchase of open space for parks and greenways. TPL worked in partnership with the city and citizens groups to organize this successful financing campaign.

As a result of this initiative, TPL has helped the city of Austin acquire several properties for its parks and greenways program. The most recent TPL-facilitated addition to the greenway system--198 acres transferred to the parks department in September 2002--will serve residents of east-central Austin. Walnut Creek meanders through the 198-acre parcel that contains cedars, stands of live and post oak trees, native grasses, and abundant spring and summer wildflowers. Its rolling hills and large meadow areas will offer visitors numerous recreational opportunities.

Last December, residents of south-central Austin gained 304 acres for their use when TPL transferred a portion of the Bauerle Ranch to the city. Located within the Slaughter Creek watershed, the land includes stock ponds and important natural resources including mature stands of live oak and post oak and limited quantities of mature cedar.

The future parkland is part of 524 acres that will be developed for medium- to high-end housing by Continental Homes of Texas. TPL worked with developer Terry Mitchell to include parkland for the housing development project. Through this collaborative partnership, the city obtained new property for park use and the developer was able to incorporate open space into the subdivision to benefit adjacent neighborhoods. According to Jesus Olivares, park director for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, "Bauerle Ranch is a unique approach to acquiring parkland by combining the efforts of a public agency, a nonprofit organization, and a developer. The people of south Austin will now have a wealth of parkland close to their doorsteps."

From the Director
by Valarie Bristol, Director, Texas State Office

Texas is an urban state. Once a place of wide open spaces, cowboys, and tall tales, Texas is today the land of freeways, crowded subdivisions, and tall buildings. The land, which once so defined us as Texans, is being covered with malls, car dealerships, and fast food restaurants. The population explosion shows no sign of abatement, as the bulldozer replaces the farm tractor within days.

New urban centers have grown so fast that the places for people to go play, relax, or reflect are disappearing, and Texas faces a serious shortage of urban parks, trails, and natural space. The Trust for Public Land has taken on a mission to help cities, counties, and the state find ways to set aside more parkland for the future. It is so important that we raise future generations of Texans who respect their native land, the critters who live on it, and the people who settled it.

TPL's Texas State Office has recently opened two new offices in urban areas. The Houston/Galveston Office is led by Linda Shead. Currently, Linda is focusing on the Galveston Bay Land Conservation Initiative to secure land to increase public access, reduce flooding, and improve water quality in Galveston Bay and the streams that flow into it. To help communities in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area plan and implement open space protection goals, TPL's North Texas Office, led by Mario Flores, opened this summer. Mario has begun building partnerships with local government officials, park directors, and interested citizens.

The Trust for Public Land has been acquiring parkland in the Austin and San Antonio areas since the early 1990s. We will continue to serve these two areas as we expand our activities into other urban centers and work to increase funding for additional state parks near urban areas. We also will seek creative ways to employ partnerships to connect properties across jurisdictional boundaries and to use multiple local and state funding sources to purchase parkland. Texans are up to this challenge, and the Trust for Public Land will work tirelessly to help turn vision into reality. We hope you will join us on this journey to the future of our great land.

Project Updates

A black-necked stilt searches for for food in the muddy wetlands Photo by: Bob Honig

El Paso Protects the Doniphan Wetlands

Through the hard work and cooperation of the Trust for Public Land, the city of El Paso, and numerous community members, the unique resources of the Doniphan wetlands area and the Keystone archeological site in El Paso have now been permanently protected.

Located in a rapidly developing industrialized area, this 18-acre property will provide for a beautiful park setting and interpretive area that will allow for study of one of the oldest and largest village sites from the Archaic Period of archeological history. TPL purchased the property in 2000 and transferred it to the city's parks department in March 2002. Funding came from a Federal Highway Administration grant through Texas Department of Transportation and from Keystone Heritage, Inc., a local community group.

Kallison Ranch Photo by: Jason Corzine

The Trust for Public Land Acquires More Land for Government Canyon State Natural Area

A few miles north of San Antonio, the 1,160-acre Kallison Ranch lies between Government Canyon State Natural Area (GCSNA) and Windgate Ranch--a 1,023-acre property TPL acquired last year for the City of San Antonio's watershed protection program. Using funds from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the city of San Antonio's May 2000 Proposition 3 sales tax initiative, TPL purchased Kallison Ranch this summer and transferred it to the state for inclusion in GCSNA. The city provided half the funds and holds a conservation easement, which will allow for water quality monitoring.

Upland sandpiper on Katy Pairie Photo by: Bon Honig

A Day on the Land--Nelson Farms Preserve on the Katy Prairie
By Bob Honig

Can you hear it?

The sounds of summer surround our group on the 554-acre Nelson Farms Preserve. I am leading a field trip to introduce a small group of budding naturalists to the Katy Prairie Conservancy (KPC) and this protected land just west of Houston. Fields and ponds that provided winter roots for thousands of geese and ducks, and spring stopovers for flocks of shorebirds and other migrant fowl are now filled with voices of nesting dickcissels and painted buntings; abuzz with the wing-whirring of dragonflies and bees; alive with the colors of wildflowers and butterflies. A yellow-bellied water snake rustles the grass ever so slightly before silently disappearing into Cypress Creek, the aquatic lifeline around which KPC's conservation efforts are centered. A turtle--a red-eared slider--plops into the water, further indicating this stream's importance to the Katy Prairie ecosystem.

We move along the creek. For a moment the birds are silent.

Can you hear it now?

Hoof beats alert us to cows just around the bend. Yes, Nelson Farms is a working farm, an amalgam of several land uses--wildlife habitat, agriculture, hunting--compatible with KPC's open space preservation mission. Thus, on some days, the sounds of tractors, combines, or rice dryers mingle with the sounds of nature. And we see the occasional vehicle on adjacent Sharp Road. We hear the occasional plane overhead. But on most days, Nelson Farms is a quiet place. Although it is nestled in the wedge formed by Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 290--the two major arteries along which Houston's expansion chases the setting sun--good fortune has placed the land sufficiently far from each, and from other main roads, that traffic noise is almost nonexistent.

The setting sun is disappearing over the western horizon. Great horned and barred owls call, greeting the dusk as flocks of herons, egrets, and ibis fly to roost. Choruses of green treefrogs and leopard frogs join in. A bronzed frog plunks, banjo-like; a bullfrog bellows; a gray treefrog trills.

The chorus briefly pauses. The air is still.

Now can you hear it? The din of traffic? The rumble of civilization?

No, you can't!

This is one of the most special attributes of this suburban preserve: a quiet absent even from many sanctuaries much further from major population centers. Increasingly, in the United States it is rare to escape the continual roar of 18-wheelers, SUVs, and cars, of lawnmowers and construction equipment. Those constant noises create a tension of which most of us are unaware--a tension that can completely melt away in the quiet of this Katy Prairie refuge. It is a quiet that many city dwellers never experience, yet it is within easy reach. Here one can find a soundscape free of man-made noise.

Our field trip is over. We return to our homes with replenished bodies, minds, and souls, eagerly anticipating the quiet of our next visit.

Bob Honig is an avid naturalist and member of the Katy Prairie Conservancy's board of directors. He and his wife, Maggie, regularly lead field trips and present lectures for KPC and other conservation organizations. Bob works for ENTRIX, Inc., an environmental consulting company.

Tim Hixon

Tim Hixon's Enduring Support Gives Texans New State Natural Area

Tim Hixon is a successful but unpretentious businessman with a passion for wildlife and the outdoors. Among his many noteworthy legacies, one of the most significant is Government Canyon State Natural Area (GCSNA) near San Antonio.

TPL has worked for nearly a decade to assemble the 8,204-acre GCSNA through five separate transactions that have required many funding partners. In the early 1990s, when TPL began organizing numerous civic groups to buy the first 4,700-acre parcel from the Resolution Trust Corporation, Tim was serving as a Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioner. As he toured the property, Tim immediately envisioned how this beautiful, historic land overlying the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone could offer San Antonio residents both protection of their drinking water and outstanding outdoor recreational opportunities. He convinced the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to join the protection effort as a funding partner and as owner and manager of the land. Government Canyon State Natural Area was born.

Throughout the subsequent transactions, Tim has provided leadership, contributions, and ideas. As chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, he currently spearheads a campaign to fund a visitors center at the entrance to GCSNA.

Tim's wife, Karen Hixon, shares Tim's love for the outdoors. Together they fish, hunt, ride horses, explore the natural world, and oversee ranches in Texas and Idaho. Their energy and generous contributions have supported numerous organizations including the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Boone and Crockett Club.

Next year, when GCSNA opens to the public, thousands of Texans will be able to explore and enjoy a great outdoor experience on 8,204 acres of beautiful hill country located within sight of downtown San Antonio. We invite all who enter the canyon to join TPL in whispering, "Thank you," to the quiet conservationist whose unwavering spirit has inspired so many.

Posted 12/23/02