Written by Hanna Hardt: There wasn’t one big, cinematic moment that defined my summer working at Holloman Air Force Base. No single breakthrough, no dramatic turning point. Instead, it was the accumulation of the little moments that made the experience feel meaningful—and made me undeniably grateful to be there.

Written by William Schultz: Spending a summer working hands-on with endangered species in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert is an experience I’ll never forget. I had the chance to use field techniques I had never even heard of before and to work closely with remarkable desert-adapted species, from the endemic White Sands Pupfish (Cyprinodon tularosa) to burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) and even the elusive American badger (Taxidea taxus). Every day offered something new, challenging, and rewarding.

For many Texans, the New World Screwworm feels like a problem of the past. It was eradicated from the United States in the 1960s and is rarely discussed outside of history or veterinary textbooks. In Episode 12 of The Land Steward Podcast, we take a closer look at why the screwworm is once again a concern for Texans. 

On a cool morning along the West Fork of the Trinity River, NRI researchers waded carefully through flowing water to check a series of mussel silos submerged along the riverbed. These silos, concrete domes with a central opening that houses juvenile mussels and allows water to flow through, are a part of a project examining how water quality influences mussel growth and survival. The field team is led by research associate Rachel Carpenter and supported by Dr. Charles Randklev, research scientist and head of NRI’s freshwater mussel program.

Directly from the field, the Fall 2025 edition of the NRI Sourcebook brings together a seasonal, digital collection of recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications, applied research reports, and science-based resources developed by Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute researchers and collaborators. Each volume reflects our commitment to advancing conservation, natural resource management, and private land stewardship through interdisciplinary, applied research.

On about 40 acres, with roughly 300 acres scheduled to follow, Fort Sill’s Natural Resources team is carrying out what foresters call timber stand improvement. In plain language, it means thinning the understory of older, overgrown forest to let light back in.

The South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative (SASMI) is a voluntary, non-regulatory partnership of individuals working together to protect and restore salt marshes across a four-state region from North Carolina to Florida. This regional initiative is coordinated by NRI’s Amanda Gobeli, who oversees federal, state, and local partner organizations and engagement for the implementation of their conservation plan. We recently sat down with Gobeli to discuss how her role within SASMI is shaping the defense against specific threats to our coastal salt marshes.

Today, organizations like the Texas Longleaf Team, led by Jenny Sanders, work to promote restorative land management practices to bring back this iconic species. Listen to Episode 11 of The Land Steward Podcast to learn more about their efforts.

Texas faces a threat that is adaptable, pervasive, and alarmingly expensive: the feral pig (Sus scrofa), known variously as wild hogs, wild boars, or razorbacks. This invasive exotic species has populations estimated in the millions, and the damage they inflict can be severe. A new publication, "Managing Feral Pigs on Small Acreage Properties and Metropolitan Areas," underscores the urgent necessity of modernized feral pig management strategies, especially as Texas rapidly urbanizes.

Thanks to grant funding from WSF, a binational team of researchers based at Texas A&M University and at Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, is providing groundbreaking technology and expertise to study Sierra El Álamo’s sheep in the wild.

The Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI) is proud to announce the launch of its new online Map Store, offering public access to a curated collection of award-winning maps that showcase the people, places, and natural resources that define Texas.

With funding from DOD's Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, NRI developed the new Texas Compatible Use Zones (TCUZ) Viewer (tcuz.nri.tamu.edu), the first centralized web tool to display military compatible use zones (using DOD AICUZ and ICUZ data) for active-duty installations across the state. The TCUZ Viewer helps anyone considering development near a military installation in Texas identify whether their location of interest may conflict with military operations in that area.

Veterans of 2016 Florida outbreak reflect on lessons learned, share insight to protect Texas livestock and wildlife

The Camp Bullis Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) is now accepting applications from voluntary landowners interested in permanently protecting their land and natural resources through conservation easements. These tailored easements support compatible land uses, such as agriculture, wildlife habitat, and open space, that also help safeguard the military mission and training capabilities of Joint Base San Antonio–Camp Bullis.

In the rolling Baraboo Hills of Wisconsin, just a quarter mile from Aldo Leopold’s Shack—where A Sand County Almanac took root—a diverse group of two dozen gathered for the Wild Goose Chase II meeting. Private landowners, conservationists, federal agency leaders, policy experts, and academics united with a shared goal: conserving species while keeping America’s working lands thriving.

Today, the DOD manages over 500 species listed as either threatened or endangered under the ESA and hundreds more “species-at-risk” that may warrant federal protection in the future. The DOD is committed to providing conditions compatible with conducting military training, testing, and operational missions while ensuring the conservation of ecosystems on which these species depend. However, in some circumstances, overlap between military mission activities and species habitats can result in area access and training constraints. Creatively managing the military mission and species conservation can reduce—or even eliminate—potential conflicts.

On a warm spring morning a few years ago, I ducked into a rock shelter on Austin’s Barton Creek Greenbelt while taking a walk. Sunlight cut through the live oaks and painted the walls of the limestone canyons. Only as I stood up to leave did I see it: a slender, serpentine lizard sitting on a ledge, its armored back banded in orange and white, its narrow face and glittering eyes set in an expression of faint distaste.

Over the last 25 years, we’ve documented how rapid population growth has changed Texas lands through fragmentation, development, and suburbanization. More and more people are moving to Texas every year, prompting decision-makers to seek additional natural resources and land to support them. In a state as vast as Texas, which boasts 142 million acres of private farms, ranches, and forests, our working lands are the beating heart of our state. Losing working lands impacts everything from wildlife habitat to rural economies to food and water security for major urban centers. Our changing landscape will impact all Texans, and a better understanding of the drivers of change will support the future conservation of working lands.

As spring blankets Texas in a wave of blooming wildflowers and budding trees, another seasonal sign is quietly creeping across roads and highways: turtles on the move. Oblivious to traffic and speed limits, these slow but determined travelers are part of a natural rhythm tied to the warmer months: a journey driven by the urge to mate and nest.

One of the world’s largest and most experienced providers of timberland investment services recently achieved a groundbreaking conservation milestone by successfully reintroducing the federally listed reticulated flatwood salamander (Ambystoma bishopi) in collaboration with multiple agencies and partners.

Faculty, staff, student research, contributions earn awards from Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society

NRI researchers are laying the foundation for the science-based management and conservation of javelinas, or collared peccary. Until recently, this native species seemed overshadowed by other Texas wildlife and plagued by misconceptions.

The Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute hosts The Land Steward Podcast each month with specialists in the field with diverse backgrounds to have relatable conversations about land and wildlife stewardship. In Episode 7, BW, our podcast host was able to bring the show on the road to her family’s ranch in the Hill Country to share candid interactions and discussions about managing deer populations as a family and how that experience has shifted the mindset on the ranch. 

Directly from the field, the Winter 2025 NRI Sourcebook is here. Each season, we publish a digital collection of recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications, research reports, and resources developed to support the improvement of conservation, natural resource management, and private land stewardship. This collection is for you, your partners and community to use and share where we can collaborate to create resiliency.

The new Texas Land Trends program report Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands 1997–2022 celebrates over two decades of applied research and extension outreach at the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI). Since its inception, the program is an important resource in understanding the complex landscapes of Texas’ working lands—farms, ranches, and forests increasingly threatened by rapid population growth.

NRI released a new Texas Landowner Survey (TLS) report, Updates and Trends in Landowners Demographics and their Relationship with Wildlife Management, with fresh insights on the Texas general population, land and wildlife stewardship and tax incentives. Most significantly, the report reveals that 49 percent of Texas operations are managed by just two landowners, which will be a critical consideration related to intergenerational land transfers, an aging landowner population and the potential for loss of land management knowledge and experience.

In response to the rapid urbanization surrounding Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, NRI is offering $1.9 million in funding through the USDA NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program. This funding is available to help private landowners within the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape area protect agricultural and open lands through conservation easements.

Directly from the field, the Fall 2024 NRI Sourcebook is here. Each year, we publish a digital collection of recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications, research reports, and resources developed to support the improvement of conservation, natural resource management, and private land stewardship. This collection is for you, your partners and community to use and share where we can collaborate to create resiliency.

Everything is indeed bigger in Texas, including its bat colonies. Texas has 33 species of bats, more than any other state, and is home to the largest bat colony in the world.

NRI released the 2024 evaluation report today for the Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program (TFRLCP) publishing key findings to support the program’s efforts to help safeguard the public benefits derived from working lands.

Because we are uniquely positioned to speak on land trend issues, we seek to share our expertise about critical natural resource issues with all Texans. Most recently, we had the chance to mentor some of our future leaders and on how they can work together to improve Texas lands from their own hometowns.

The NRI podcast crew recently had an opportunity to sit down with Chase Brooke, an AgriLife Extension Small Acreage and Wildlife Management Specialist, to shed some light on the little bit of grit and luck it takes to steward your small slice of Texas and the wildlife that thrive because of healthy working lands.

College Station, TX—Texan by Nature (TxN), in partnership with EOG Resources Inc. (EOG),  EcoMetrics, LLC, and Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI), released report “Valuing Native Vegetation Restoration on Oil & Gas Rights of Way,” which details the results of a new case study designed to quantify the environmental and economic return of native rangeland restoration in the Eagle Ford Shale play.

Managing species of all kinds from endangered to invasive, we were honored to have NRI’s Jay Long for Episode #5 of The Land Steward Podcast, “Life Skills and Wild Pig Management”. In true spirit, this episode is full of relatable challenges and prescriptive solutions that you can use today—what a great time to be a land steward.

Agriculture itself changes very little. However, as we learn more, along with tools and technology advancement, our approach to agriculture changes. The next generation will build upon the current generation as it has always been done since the beginning of time to advance these agricultural changes.

In the spirit of teaching and extending science, we were excited to kick off the new year with Episode #4 of The Land Steward Podcast, “Finding Natural Resource Professionals in Texas and Wildlife Tax Valuations”. This episode is chock full of personal and relatable experiences—what a great time to be a land steward.

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program is pleased to join the Council on Environmental Quality and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in announcing over $141 million in grants through the new America the Beautiful Challenge (ATBC). The 74 new grants will support projects that conserve, restore, and connect habitats for wildlife while improving community and installation resilience across 46 states and three U.S. territories.

To reflect on 50 years of the Endangered Species Act this fall is to acknowledge the nation’s wildlife and wild places in its simplest form. At the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, it's an opportunity to appreciate the research at the nexus of national security, conservation, and healthy working lands. Every day, we look to strengthen wildlife conservation and to keep working lands sustainable.

Directly from the field, the Summer 2023 NRI Sourcebook is here. Each season, we publish a digital collection of recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications, research reports, and resources developed to support the improvement of conservation, natural resource management, and private land stewardship. This collection is for you, your partners and community to use and share where we can collaborate to create resiliency.

Director of the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit and grants manager for NRI, Debbie Danford, was recognized as part of this year’s CESU Network National Awards for her outstanding leadership and individual contributions to the advancement of the Gulf Coast network.

What do natural resources professionals have in common with rocket scientists?  More than you might think. Spacecraft-based cameras that orbit the globe have been providing images that guide natural resource management for decades.

Researchers from the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI), in collaboration with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and agricultural and natural resource professionals distributed the survey to better understand rural landowners and their land management objectives, challenges, concerns, and preferences.

Conserving Texas: Quantifying Ecological Return on Investment was developed to better understand the current benefits and needs for financial investment in our state's natural resources to best support our growing state population, the stewards of the land, our thriving economy, and healthy landscapes. 

Announcing Rangeland Carbon Markets, a primer on the history, function and processes of carbon markets relevant to Texas rangelands.

This spring, Texas FFA students had the opportunity to prove their knowledge and skills at the Seven Lakes Career Development Event Invitational held at Long Acres Ranch.  

In its best form, education equips others to make the best and most informed decisions—it requires preparation and constant adaptation to the environment and levels of engagement, sometimes in the very moment.

Collaborative effort celebrates recent achievements and outlines future goals.

A keystone species found in the southeastern U.S., the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) was listed as threatened in the western part of its range in 1987 and warranted for listing as threatened in the eastern part of its range in 2011, primarily due to the destruction and fragmentation of its native habitat. These findings prompted action among conservation groups to begin captive breeding or relocation programs to bolster population numbers and ensure that existing populations have safe habitats.

Promoting the long-term sustainability and stewardship of natural resources begins with a basic understanding of ecosystem services and their public benefits. Ideally, the ability to assign monetary value can illustrate the importance of their fundamental contributions to society. An analysis like this can serve to support land conservation strategies and policies to promote the conservation of open spaces and natural resources.

Scientists employ various methods, models and data to track weather patterns, including drought – a condition closely monitored by Texans, especially those involved in agriculture and natural resources. 

Landowners in Hardeman, Wichita, Clay, Wilbarger, Milam, Williamson and Nueces counties interested in participating in a wild pig workshop and training can join us for free this fall to learn more about effective management practices and to become familiar with smart trapping techniques.

Clips of the American Bison, Black Bear, Texas Gulf Coast, and Guadalupe Bass are now available for educational use to connect students to Texas's unique environments, inspire awe in the natural beauty of our state, and lead to actions that support conservation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it is awarding $197 million for 41 locally-led conservation projects through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).

As open space land in Texas is constantly changing and repurposed to support our growing populations and urban areas, have you ever wondered what would happen if land wasn't so easily fragmented? What if the private land you own or have spent time on stayed as it is forever?

Lights, camera, action! We’re back with our latest episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 at the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve.  We spoke with Bamberger’s ranch manager, Steven Fulton, about erosion control methods and how you can implement these practices for the benefit of soil and wildlife on the land. We had a great time talking about this tool you can use to qualify for the wildlife tax valuation program here in Texas.

Texan by Nature (TxN) is proud to partner with 105+ conservation organizations working to positively benefit Texas’ natural resources and communities through innovative approaches. TxN accelerates conservation by bringing together organizations and businesses through programs that convene diverse stakeholders and catalyze science-based conservation efforts.

With the help of our partners in February, NRI released the 2022 Landowner Survey for landowners who own or operate private working lands in Texas. This voluntary questionnaire serves to gather information on the needs, preferences, concerns, and challenges regarding the everyday management of property that landowners face. The survey is set to close on May 13!

From the Texas Hill Country, we’re back with our latest episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 at the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve.  During this installment, we chatted with Bamberger’s biologist, Christina Farrell, about how you can harvest rainwater for your home and for the wildlife on your property. We had a great time talking about this simple tool you can use to qualify for the wildlife tax valuation program here in Texas.

Deep in the Heart is a visually stunning celebration of Texas’ diverse landscapes and remarkable wildlife found nowhere else. Narrated by Matthew McConaughey, the film aims to conserve our remaining wild places, to show the connectivity of water and wildlife, and to recognize Texas’ conservation importance on a continental scale.

The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB), Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts, NRI, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, and Texas Wildlife Association are joining organizations across the state in a campaign to highlight the importance of voluntary land stewardship in Texas. 

Texan by Nature (TxN) announced a new partnership with EOG Resources Inc. (EOG), Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI), and EcoMetrics, LLC (ECO) collaborating on a 2-year project to quantify the environmental and economic return of restoring rangeland in the Eagle Ford shale play with native vegetation. 

We’re back with our newest episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 from the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve.  We truly enjoyed getting to connect with you to talk about another wildlife management tool that you can add to your stewardship toolbox. In this episode we talked with the ranch’s resident zoologist, Jared Holmes, about native grasslands and how they can be used to benefit pollinator species on your property.

The Texas Water Survey was developed to determine daily use and management of water resources across Texas, in addition to challenges, concerns and water recreation experiences. 

One of the nation’s newest Sentinel Landscape recognitions has been awarded to the area surrounding Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis.

We’re back with our latest installment of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 at the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we greatly enjoyed connecting with you to talk about wildlife management techniques. In this episode we spoke with the Bamberger Ranch’s resident ornithologist, Christina Farrell, about cowbird trapping and how it can be used to benefit native bird species on your property. Under the wildlife tax valuation program in Texas, cowbird trapping is listed as a qualifying management practice in the predator control category. But why? First we need to dig a little bit into the natural history of this species.

NRI's Texas Land Trends program released the 2022 Landowner Survey for landowners who own or operate private working lands in Texas. This voluntary questionnaire serves to gather information on the needs, preferences, concerns, and challenges regarding the everyday management of property that landowners face.

ICYMI: Texan by Nature and North Texas Municipal Water District launched a free webinar series, “Conservation – The Texas Way.” This four-part series provides education and awareness of the best water conservation practices in the Lone Star State. The series shares new data, ideas, actionable next steps, and resources for both individuals and businesses.

When it comes to wildlife research, our foundational methods for capturing data and learning don’t change very often—the key is in how we study what we’ve learned and how we remain stewards of discovery together.

NRI’s latest web tool, the Texas Airspace Planning and Forecasting Tool, provides a comprehensive solution for planners. Employing easy-to-navigate functionality, the tool combines those military installation fence lines on the ground and airspace boundaries over head with forecasted land development data up to year 2050.

NRI developed several reports and web tools to assist installation personnel and community stakeholders in addressing various aspects of encroachment issues facing Texas installations from airspace, land and threatened and endangered species forecasting.

This past month we premiered our seventh episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 with our wonderful partners at the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we truly enjoyed connecting with you to talk about private land stewardship here in Texas. In this latest episode we spoke with Bamberger’s ranch manager, Steven Fulton, about herbicides and brush management and how this tool can help you manage wildlife habitat on your landscape.

The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) is working with the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Texas Wildlife Damage Management Association (TWDMA), Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI), and four local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) to help address the issues that feral swine pose to agriculture, ecosystems, and the health of humans and animals.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is a critical piece of legislation related to the conservation of threatened and endangered species and their ecosystems. This lesson provides historical context, a step-by-step look at the listing process, details on how this legislation impacts private landowners, and resources and opportunities for Texans.

A team of collaborators will study the viability of potential actions designed to reestablish a population of ocelots in South Texas to help increase their numbers in the U.S.

In this latest episode we chatted with our own Dr. Jim Cathey and Bamberger’s resident zoologist, Jared Holmes, about supplemental water for wildlife and how you can implement it as a practice to help benefit species on your property.

Creating your individualized, conservation-minded map of Texas just became the bee's knees.

Lights, camera, Leopold Live! Last month we premiered our fifth episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 with our incredible partners at Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we truly enjoyed sharing more about wildlife management practices through the series.

The fall issue of the Land Trust Alliance Saving Land magazine highlights recent grants to land trusts for remote monitoring projects, transformative partnerships between land trusts and Indigenous groups and NRI's work to define the economic value of protected lands.

Will continue in dual role as the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute director

Working lands, whether private or publicly owned, provide substantial economic, ecological, and recreational resources across the U.S. Here in Texas, we often boast of being a “private land state”, meaning the majority of the land (~95%) is held in private ownership. Many may wonder how this came to be and if other states fall under similar ownership patterns. For this new Featured Map, we briefly explore the history of land settlement across the nation and demonstrate the unique ownership landscape that exists today.

We're building a community of practice around land stewardship where you can click, open, explore, shuffle and share the content to save and use as you need it. We're excited to share the final of four collections with you—out now: Threatened and Endangered Species.

Lights, camera, Leopold Live! Last month we premiered the fourth episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 with our incredible partners at Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we truly enjoyed getting to share even more about wildlife management practices through this series. Our hosts, Dr. Roel Lopez and Dr. April Sansom, introduced this new chapter of Leopold Live! and explained how new episodes will be a little different from what we covered in Chapter 1.

Lights, camera, Leopold Live! Last month we premiered our third episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 with our incredible partners at Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we truly enjoyed getting to share more about wildlife management practices through the series. 

Did you know that freshwater mussels (Unionidae) use a variety of methods to attract fish? While some passively release glochidia in the water, others proactively lure fish to resemble minnows, insects and other prey. A little hard to imagine, right?

We're building a community of practice around land stewardship where you can click, open, explore, shuffle and share the content to save and use as you need it. We're excited to share the third of four collections with you—out now: Vegetation and Landscapes.

Lights, camera, Leopold Live! Last month we premiered our second episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 with our incredible partners at Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we truly enjoyed connecting with you again as we continue with the series. Our usual hosts, Dr. Roel Lopez (TAMU NRI) and April Sansom (Bamberger Ranch), opened the episode by introducing this new chapter of Leopold Live! and explaining how these upcoming episodes will be a little different from what we covered Chapter 1.

We're building a community of practice around land stewardship where you can click, open, explore, shuffle and share the content to save and use as you need it. We're excited to share the second of four collections with you—on deck: Wildlife Management.

Leopold Live is back! We have officially premiered our first episode of Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 with our incredible partners at Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and we truly enjoyed connecting with you again as we embarked on this next part of this series.

From the field to your desk, the Spring 2021 NRI Sourcebook is here — a digital collection complete with the recently accepted peer-reviewed scientific publications, research reports, and resources developed to support the improvement of conservation, natural resource management and private land stewardship.

Under the Texas Land Trends project, informative reports have been developed over the years to empower public and private decision-makers with the information needed to plan for the conservation of vital working lands. Public usability and access to this report data has been a cornerstone of this long-standing effort, promoting the creation of the Data Explorer tool, which was first launched in 2015.

We've officially kicked off filming for Leopold Live!: Chapter 2 and we're excited to give you a behind-the-scenes peek at what's coming up in the next few months from new stewardship practices to practical knowledge to keep in your back pocket. 

We're building a community of practice around land stewardship where you can click, open, explore, shuffle and share the content to save and use as you need it. We're excited to share four collections with you—first up: Natural Resource Management.

NRI has partnered with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Association of Texas Soil & Water Conservation Districts, Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas Wildlife Association, and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association to highlight Soil and Water Stewardship Week and the importance of voluntary land stewardship in Texas. The statewide campaign is April 25 through May 2, 2021, and the focus this year is “Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities.”

Stewardship, conservation, restoration—all words you'll read and hear at NRI. This week, we're joining communities around the globe in celebrating Earth Week—Restore our Earth, and we want you to come along. Read more to find out how you can jump in this week.

April showers bring May flowers, which may be the better part of spring for Texans—a charismatic display to distract us from the inevitable heat ahead. Alas, they are more than their displays.

Dr. Megan Clayton, Associate Professor and Extension Range Specialist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and one of NRI’s partners in support of RREA, is seeking to address the widespread lack of plant knowledge with a new program that puts the spotlight on Texas vegetation.

What some might see as an unlikely partnership at first, has blossomed into an action-oriented, trail-blazing group of partners working collaboratively towards a common goal: building coastal resilience in the Southeast region.

Just like old times, only different. Adjusting to social distancing measures allowed us to think creatively in how we approach our engagement and education work, and partnering with the Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve was a smart match for our team and like-minded missions—educating land stewards by demonstration and practice. 

A recent report by the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, Texas Water Resources Institute and Texas Land Trust Council shows state-funded conservation easements in Texas provide numerous financial and ecological benefits.

Explore the historic southeast range of Texas longleaf with us as we dive into their richly diverse conservation value. 

The goal of this report was to examine the conservation easements executed under the Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program, evaluating ecological and economic values secured through the protection of these properties as well as the fiscal efficiency of state funds to protect working lands with high agricultural value at a relatively low cost for state residents.

The Fall 2020 NRI Sourcebook (V1:I2) is here, a digital collection complete with the recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications, research reports, and resources developed to support the improvement of conservation, natural resource management and private land stewardship.

It’s been one year since TENT was launched and more than 450 30-minute sessions have been conducted by industry leaders, community stakeholders and military planners working collaboratively and proactively to avoid conflict.

If clinging to routines is what keeps us moving forward in these unusual times, consider this a hat tip to the creativity spurred on by our need to connect and teach in-person. Leopold Live! is here. 

In our latest featured map, we took satellite imagery collected throughout 2019 and stitched them together in an animation to illustrate the phenological changes of vegetation across Texas.

We're building a community of practice around land stewardship from the wings that fly above to the water trickling through the soil. Check out this peek into the 22 mini-decks you can dive into today.

We do know that thorough conservation is more than applied science and collaboration; it requires the stewardship of discovery and the constant observational loop, if you will, where we go back to the space of application and learn the sequence of science. So, instead of a Private Land Stewardship vignette or a publication to aid in your efforts today, we're learning from landowners in our continued series called "Landowner Loop", where we keep tools in the field and feedback loops open.

The Summer 2020 NRI Sourcebook (V1:I1) is here, a digital collection complete with the recently published peer-reviewed scientific publications, research reports, and resources developed to support the improvement of conservation, natural resource management and private land stewardship.

Finally, as the campaign came to a close in 2019, we took a real look at how a digital data campaign created face-to-face connections, putting the social back in social media and trees in the ground. 

We are proud to present the long-awaited Texas Land Trends: Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands 1997 - 2017  published in December 2019. Texas Land Trends reports have informed private and public landowners and decision-makers for over two decades. With this report, we are able to examine new patterns and identify trends following the release of the Census of Agriculture datasets by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS). These datasets provide key information for complex Texas natural resource challenges through the power of a “good map.”  The Texas Land Trends:  Status Update and Trends report is the fifth iteration and specifically describes the status and recent changes in land values, ownership size and land use of privately-owned Texas working lands.