(Note from RG: Biggest land grab in Texas: Nature Conservancy to buy 87, 760 acres.)

July 11, 2003

By Kevin Carmody

American-Statesman Staff

kcarmody@statesman.com  or 512-912-2569

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Austin, Texas 78767

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In West Texas, where the Devils River surges to life from a spring on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, ranchers have protected the state's cleanest river for generations.

But near the Devils River's fragile headwaters, eight of those pioneer ranching families have sold their spreads in the past five years. Thirty miles south, former ranchland is already a subdivision with homes crowded along the river banks. A once-common minnow that lives only in the river's still-clear waters is now rarely seen.

Responding to those ominous signals, the Nature Conservancy of Texas has signed a contract to purchase 87,760 acres near the river's headwaters. State and Conservancy officials say it appears to be the largest single private land purchase ever for a conservation project in Texas.

"Financially, this is a huge risk for the Conservancy," said James King, the organization's West Texas program manager. "It speaks to the importance of this river and the ecologically diverse lands surrounding it."

By comparison, the Conservancy's largest previous single purchase in Texas was 32,000 acres near the Davis Mountains in 1997.

The Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, a patchwork of private and government conservation purchases in western Travis County, is slated to total 30,428 acres when complete.

The success of the Devils River purchase will hinge on the Conservancy's ability to resell all but a fraction of the property to one or more conservation-minded buyers willing to accept easements restricting future subdivision and development. The details of such conservation easements can vary by property but generally would allow sustainable ranching, construction of a home on nonsensitive lands and other activities such as managed hunting and fishing.

Conservancy representatives declined to disclose the purchase price but said the organization's national board authorized a $23 million loan as part of the project. Spokeswoman Niki McDaniel said that if all the land sells quickly, the organization would need to recoup $25 million to cover its expenses and future costs of overseeing the easements. Delays in the resale would boost the Conservancy's interest costs and, thus, the asking price.

"Ideally we'd like to find one buyer, but another option would be to resell as three or four properties," McDaniel said.

The purchase will protect eight miles of river frontage, and at least 100 acres along the river will be retained by the Conservancy as a preserve. Counting previous Devils River conservation projects by the Conservancy, including a role in managing the 19,850-acre Devils River State Natural Area, about 25 of the river's 60 miles will now be protected. The river ends its southward flow at the Amistad Reservoir near Del Rio.

The land is being purchased from Harold Nix of Daingerfield, one of five lawyers who shared $3.3 billion in fees for representing the state in negotiating a $17.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998. Nix could not be reached Thursday.

In recent years, Nix has purchased eight ranches that form an irregularly shaped doughnut around the headwaters of the Devils River, though not the ranchland containing the spring that gives birth to the river. As a solid block, not counting the doughnut hole, the Nix land would cover an area 10 miles wide and nearly 14 miles long.

After making significant improvements, including about 20 miles of roads and a paved landing strip, Nix decided to sell the land and approached the Conservancy, said Don Bosse, an Austin land planner who served as a consultant to the Conservancy.

"The fear was that so much work had already been done that anyone purchasing the land would be teed up to start subdividing the land," Bosse said. "Farther to the west, there is a development of 100-acre ranchettes, and that would not be good along this river."

The project should reduce the potential for overpumping of the aquifer near the river's headwater springs. Overpumping near the spring, possible if the Nix property would have been heavily subdivided, could cut the spring flow that sustains the river.

The headwaters spring is on the Hudspeth River Ranch operated by Claudia Abbey Ball, granddaughter of the late Claude Hudspeth, the famous "Cowboy Congressman" who represented much of West Texas in Congress from 1919 to 1931. Conservancy officials said the careful land stewardship practiced by Ball and some of her neighbors, including Mary Baker Hughey, have contributed to the excellent condition of the upper reaches of the river.

Ranchers and local officials say they share the Conservancy's concerns about what the sale and subdivision of ranchland would mean to the river and their way of life.

Ball said she's not convinced conservation easements are the best or only solution but will keep an open mind.

"If they can keep it from being sold to developers, that will be great service to the river and the protection of wildlife habitat," she said.

The fact that the land will stay on the tax rolls is also important, said Rogelio Musquiz, a Val Verde County commissioner whose precinct includes other Devils River lands preserved by the Conservancy.

The Nix property is important beyond its influence on the river, state and Conservancy officials said. The area is the crossroads of three distinct ecosystems -- the Chihuahuan Desert, the Hill Country and the South Texas brushlands -- and provides a biologically diverse haven to several endangered plants and animals including the black-capped vireo. Fern Cave, a 100-foot deep sinkhole, is a breeding cave for more than 1 million Mexican freetail bats.

The Conservancy's continued efforts to protect the Devils River area complement the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's goals, said Carolyn Vogel, who coordinates the state agency's work with 39 similar land trust organizations.

"Parks and Wildlife alone can't accomplish all of this," she said. "Projects such as this are great."

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