By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
Six ranches and a cooperative are being recognized by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) for their excellence in natural resource management and stewardship.
San Pedro Ranch, near Carrizo Springs, was awarded the Texas Leopold Conservation Award—the highest honor for land conservation.
The ranch’s owners, Joseph Fitzsimons and Pamela Fitzsimons Howard and their families, were honored with the award at TPWD’s Lone Star Land Steward Virtual Award Banquet May 27.
According to TPWD, the family’s conservation efforts began with the Fitzsimons’ father, Hugh Fitzsimons Jr., who embraced a holistic approach at the ranch back in the 1970s.
The family uses regenerative grazing practices, prescribed burns and brush management to increase native plant diversity, water infiltration and enhance herbaceous cover.
They raise Beefmaster cattle because they’re heat, drought and insect resistant.
They have structures on the ranch that trap sediment, build soil and establish vegetation as part of a riparian restoration project.
Those are some of the reasons the ranch was granted the Texas Leopold Conservation Award, named for the renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold.
The award is presented annually by the Sand County Foundation, American Farmland Trust and the Lone Star Land Steward Awards program.
“Recipients of this award are real life examples of conservation-minded agriculture,” said Kevin McAleese, Sand County Foundation president and chief executive officer. “These hard-working families are essential to our environment, food system and rural economy.”
This year’s Lone Star Land Steward Ecoregion Award winners are: Dunn O’Connor River Ranch in Goliad County, 7 Oaks Ranch in Crockett and Val Verde counties, Shady W Ranch in Brazos County, Chimney Creek Ranch in Shackelford County, Moore Ranch in Jeff Davis County, and Brushy Creek Co-op in Anderson County.
“The Lone Star Land Steward Awards is a landowner recognition program that we’ve had here at Parks and Wildlife since 1996,” Justin Dreibelbis, TPWD Private Lands and Public Hunting Program director, said. “It’s an effort for us to pat landowners on the back for exemplary private land stewardship.”
The ecoregion award winners were recognized during a virtual banquet on May 27, celebrating their achievements and the 25th anniversary of the program.
“It captures those inspirational ranching heritage and land stewardship stories to share with other landowners in hopes they develop the same type of land ethic and institute some of the same management practices on their property,” Dreibelbis told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network.
Recognizing landowners for their resource stewardship is important, Dreibelbis said, because the majority of the state is privately-owned.
“Any meaningful natural resource conservation activity is going to have to take place on private land, and there’s nobody who cares more about our natural resources than private landowners around our state,” Dreibelbis said. “The blood, sweat and tears they’re putting into their properties is positively benefitting you, me, and all other Texans through the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat.”
This year’s ecoregion award winners were named last year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the banquet was cancelled.
“That was a tough call, but it was the right thing to do to keep people safe,” Dreibelbis said.
Details on the 2020-2021 ecoregion award winners are available at http://bit.ly/LoneStarLandStewards21.
Video from the virtual event honoring the winners is available on the TPWD YouTube channel.