Nature Conservancy buys big chunk of Davis Mountains

[DaveSZ]

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/news_04ce1f4d9415b0340030.html


Nature Conservancy buys big chunk of Davis Mountains
Group seeks to protect the Texas Alps from subdivisions


By Jeremy Schwartz

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, July 8, 2004

The Nature Conservancy announced Wednesday that it has bought 10,000 acres in the Davis Mountains, unifying a swath of land meant to protect a unique slice of Texas' ecosystem from the subdivisions creeping up the West Texas slopes.

The land purchase connects the group's 18,000-acre Davis Mountains Preserve -- home to Texas' fifth highest peak -- and the 4,000-acre Madera Canyon Preserve and adjoins 70,000 acres of land with conservation easements, which keep the land in private hands but forbid development.

James King, the conservancy's West Texas program manager, said the purchase gives permanent protection to much of the Davis Mountains' higher elevations, which he called a "sky island," filled with plants and wildlife found nowhere else in Texas or the world.

"It's extremely remote and . . . phenomenally beautiful," King said. "The Davis Mountains are like the Hill Country 50 years ago. We were able to jump ahead of the development movement sweeping east to west in Texas."

-more

[DaveSZ]

1. Here it is:

Help pay for this great conservation effort by sparing a few bucks for the Nature Conservancy!


http://nature.org/joinanddonate/donate/


I gave, and if you've ever been to the Davis Mountains like I have, you should too!

:)

You can give specifically to their Texas effort.

[Maestro]

2. Wonderful!

Now let's work on the Big Bend area, then the Hill Country, Texas rivers, etc...I could go on, but Texas is really becoming one heavily polluted state thanks to ineffectual environmental rules.

[DaveSZ]

3. Yep

It started going downhill when BUsh was elected, and now he gave permits to drill on Padre National Seashore...

Fuck him.

I hate the bastard.

[DaveSZ]

5. The Contrasts of Padre Island

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/opinion/07MON3.html

The Contrasts of Padre Island

Published: June 7, 2004



So far it's been a good season for Kemp's ridley sea turtles at Padre Island National Seashore, off the gulf coast of Texas. This time of year, the females of this endangered species come ashore to lay eggs, under the watchful eyes of the staff from the National Park Service's Sea Turtle Science and Recovery lab. There's a good chance they'll find even more nests this year than the old record of 38 in 2002, though that is still a far cry from the tens of thousands of turtles that used to nest on the gulf beaches farther south.

Padre Island is the largest undeveloped barrier island in America, and, like all barrier islands, it is a fragile place, subject to the incremental forces of wind and water as well as the blunt trauma of occasional hurricanes. The thin strip of land between the gulf and the lagoon on the mainland side is a sea of grasses and wetlands, a critical oasis for resident and migratory birds. But like most national parks, Padre Island is caught between conservation and recreation. Far worse, it is also threatened by unsightly, unnecessary and potentially damaging industrial development.

In this delicate world, it is disturbing to see the line of vehicles filled with tourists driving along the sand on busy weekends. But that pales beside the weekday traffic — a convoy of huge tractor-trailers, most of them carrying well-drilling rigging. The convoy drives into the park and down the beach, preceded and followed by scouts on four-wheelers, to the far side of the island and a drilling pad the size of a suburban house lot. There, a crew is erecting a gas well, the second of 18 possible wells being developed by BNP Petroleum, a Corpus Christi company, in a project whose majority investors are Australian and Japanese.

When Congress created Padre Island in 1962, private owners were allowed to retain the mineral rights, as well as access to any land and water necessary to extract them. The National Park Service, which administers Padre Island, has been forced to live with this absurd arrangement and to do its best to help mitigate the inherent damage of so much heavy traffic across such a fragile ecosystem.

-more

[efhmc]

4. This is wonderful! Farmers and ranchers (real ones) are hard pressed

and when your land is worth so much more than you could make in your lifetime, then sometimes selling out seems like a good thing. Here the land will go to conserve an area for us all. This is a great thing.

[DaveSZ]

6. Sign Padre Petition:

http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/padre.asp


This is why Kerry must win.

He's got the best environmental record in the Senate, and maybe he will listen to us here in Texas who are trying to save what we have left.

[efhmc]

7. It's done. Thanks for your "heads-up".

[sonias]

8. Done

Thanks Dave

[Maestro]

9. Done and done! -nt

[TEXASYANKEE]

10. Great news!

Fort Davis is one of my favorite areas in Texas, and the Davis Mountains area is one of the best birding areas -- not only in the state but in the entire country. This news makes me a very proud member of the Nature Conservancy of Texas.

[crispini]

11. Wow, that's so cool! (nm)

[newyawker99]

12. Hi crispini!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[TexasSissy]

13. Cool. One less Wal Mart to deal with.