April 22, 2023 • 39 mins
Wesley Newman is the Coastal Prairie Conservancy’s Conservation Director. He is responsible for management and operations of protected lands including overseeing wildlife management and agricultural activities on Coastal Prairie Conservancy holdings, coordinating wetlands mitigation projects, and preparing biological assessments on prospective properties.
Mr. Newman received a Master of Science in Rangeland Ecology and Management (1998) and a Bachelor of Science in Range Science (1990), both from Texas A&M University. He is a member of the Society of Range Management and Society of Wetland Scientists. His areas of focus include prairie and wetland ecology, hunting and its relationship to stewardship, range management, wetlands creation and management, conservation strategies.
Mr. Newman received a Master of Science in Rangeland Ecology and Management (1998) and a Bachelor of Science in Range Science (1990), both from Texas A&M University. He is a member of the Society of Range Management and Society of Wetland Scientists. His areas of focus include prairie and wetland ecology, hunting and its relationship to stewardship, range management, wetlands creation and management, conservation strategies.
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(00:02):
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Betar. You give mea hard time. I am, I
can't help it. Does it soundokay? Now? Yeah? I can
(00:24):
here. Before the show, youwanted them potted down, Now you want
them pot it up. We're justlike a child, can you like adjust
it? One sixteenth of an inch? Sit still? July, we're moving
around. Welcome to Hunting Matters onKPRC nine fifty. This is your host,
Joe Betar. I am Ramone,Robliss oh Man. Stuff to come
back to work. This week.I was out in the wilderness in West
Texas. Sounded fantastic, went outto the Monarch Ranch to a little fishing,
(00:47):
to a little hunting, floated downthe Devil's River, and I wouldn't
have come back. Watched watched thetwelve million bats come out of a hole
in the ground. Probably literally closeto a million, right, I mean,
I don't know what a million wouldlook like. They just kept coming
out, yeah, and drove.So they're estimating twelve million, literally twelve
million in that cave. Yeah,it's the second largest bat calling in the
US. I think they said crazy, it's pretty crazy, pretty crazy?
(01:11):
Would you do this week? Didyou think about reaching up and trying to
just grab one with your hand?No, because literally you could if you
didn't sit still, they would literallylike skim your head. That's how close
we were to them. Everything onmy end is fine, everything's great.
My kids are wrapping up school.Then they you know, last month here
coming up. That's crazy. It'salready here. So I gotta start thinking
of summer travels. I thought aboutgoing to Alaska, but you disinvited me,
(01:33):
So yeah, I'm not trying todo that. Well, I told
you, I gave the opportunity andyou you were driving your feet. You
know what, that's not Baker infront of our guests. You're you're the
one who brought it up. Youknow what. Maybe I'm just emotional.
We all hurt about it. Maybeit's still hurts being betrayed by a friend.
You never know, maybe somebody willdrop out. Hey, you're the
(01:53):
one who had to go buy propertyand get a pair of and get a
europe You know, it's tough beingme, It is tough being you.
It's tough. It's hard out therefor a pimp. So, uh so
you're gonna send your children away forthe summer. I'm thinking about it.
Yeah, I'm trying to see howthat works out, because past summers we've
just kept him in daycare. Yeah, and I'm thinking this year, you
(02:15):
know, let's let's see what wecan do. Maybe how old are they
now, seven and five? What'ssomething to put out on the street.
That's what I thought. Yeah,yeah, give him to give him a
plastic bucket and a change cup.I though about doing a Craigslist thing.
You know, you need you needa worker, small hands. You can
get into slow and yards at thatage. No, no, no,
it's time to just kids go toquarter. Good. All right, I'll
(02:35):
set up some some afternoon jobs forhim, and uh you provide the water
and the snacks and I've got someI've got some yards that need to be
mowed. Okay, I hope yourwife's not listening. She'll automatically dislike me.
The Houston spar Club Foundation folks UMa presenter of Hunting matters Um.
There's a lot of stuff going on. We just finished up our quil shooting
(02:57):
crawfish bowl last week. That wasphenomenal. We had about one hundred and
twenty five people out for that verycool. Weather was perfect, and the
hits keep coming. And May we'vegot Christanto Piranto, who is one of
the heroes of the twenty and twelveBengazi attack. It's coming to speak to
our group May fourth at the HoustonRacket Club. We'll also be conducting our
annual Hunting and Photo Awards that event. I talked to Chris this morning.
Super nice guy. Looking forward tomeeting him, and I met him years
(03:20):
and years ago, but I'm lookingforward to seeing him again. In June
eighth, we're gonna learn about howto hunt in Uganda from Tim Harold with
Worldwide Trophy of Adventures. June thefifteenth and sixteenth is our first annual saltwater
fishing tournament in San Ley On,Texas. And then there's stuff going on
every month except for the month ofJuly. We take a break because everybody's
on vacation and putting their kids towork in their summer jobs. But anyway,
(03:43):
go to we Hunt we give dotorg. Click on the membership dropped
down a click under monthly events.You don't have to be a member to
attend. We'd love for you tocome out and join us for one of
our events, learn about what we'redoing to promote the future of hunting in
conservation, and hopefully you will signup to become a member. And did
we tell talk about convention last podcast? I don't think so, it's been
on it. Breaking news. Ourconvention is moving back to the Woodland's Waterway
(04:06):
Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in twentytwenty four January nineteenth to the twenty first.
There's gonna be some more information comingon that. We've already lined up
our entertainment. Um, let's see, Saturday night will be will Lady Gaga,
Yeah, Lady Gaga, and thenwe've got Janet Jackson, perfect for
our crowd. Now, Friday nightwe're bringing in the gout on if you
know him, Sundance head of course. Yeah, he was a semifinalist on
(04:30):
American Idol and won The Voice OneThe Voice. Yeah, so he's going
to be coming in Friday night.And then Saturday night we've got William Lee
Martin who's a stand up Texas basedstand up comedian who plays the opery and
MGM all the time, so goodcomedian. Yeah, I mean, I
know I'm staying the obvious. Justa good time. Yeah, it'll be
fun, man, it'll be socan I come? Oh yeah absolutely,
you can even sit at my table. Wow, up straight. So go
(04:53):
to we week gift dot org andcheck in from time to time. When
the convention dropped down, there's gonnabe a lot of news information about all
the cool stuff that's coming to there. And I'm excited we're gonna have a
fun time again next year. Ourfavorite hotel is the Marriott up there the
way the water, right there bythe wood. That's why we walk.
We can stay there after a concertor you walk over there and they serve
hot pizzas after everything. Yes,I didn't know that after the Rod Stewart
(05:14):
show that there were these big boxesof the concert you wet Rod Stewart,
No, yeah, we were,that's rights right. Hook Upon didn't answer,
and then I've asked you if you'regoing to break up with me?
Um, But yeah, that's thecool thing about it. You walk over
there and get a pizza after theshow, wait for your uber or whatever.
Yeah, would you have the datesalready for that? For the convention
nineteenth through the twenty first of January. I'm gonna see who's playing, you
(05:38):
know, like, maybe I'll stayon the eighteenth and the twenty second and
just make it a long weekend.That'd be cool. Yeah, that'd be
cool. Sorry to interrupt, noworries. Um, okay, let's get
to our guest. Um. Ourguest today is Wesley Newman. Westley is
the concert Conservation director for the CoastalPrairie Conservancy, and we're gonna learn about
what he does for living and whatthe Coastal Prairie Conservancy is. So Westley,
thanks so much for our joining us. My pleasure. Do you like
(06:01):
do you go by Wesley or westwhatever you call me. I'm not that
picky Westleys Fine, perfect, perfect, Well, thanks so much for joining
us on Honeymatus. Westley, tellus a little bit about Um. You
know, we liked a lot ofour guests that are involved in the outdoors.
Tell us a little bit about yourjourney to where you are today and
how you got involved in the outdoors. Uh. Well, I grew up
(06:21):
in the outdoors. I mean Igrew up in Austin in the sixties and
the seventies when it was not thatpart of the outdoors, and I spent.
I remember going dove hunting with myfather, walking out to a farmhouse
with a case of beer and pullingout the shotguns and going out back and
sitting in the ponds shooting the verginsex fleue by. So that was that
(06:44):
was how that was my first doveLEAs was a case of beer out of
my father's trunk. So good time, Yes, sir, it's been a
while, um, but I've alwaysbeen involved in the outdoors. It's always
been something my family U has been. I have always been hunters, and
(07:04):
so it just kind of came naturalto me. But you know, as
we all know, life throws curveballsand gets in the way, so it
comes and goes. It's something thatI'm doing and I've always enjoyed doing and
when I've had the opportunity, I'vespent a lot of time deer hunting in
the hill country for a time whenI had opportunities out there, and then
(07:25):
as I got gotten farther into life, things kind of gotten the way and
it fell off the radar for awhile. But then I got to after
graduating with a master's degree from TexasA and M I ended up working with
the then Katie Prairie Conservancy. Lastyear we changed our name to the Coastal
Prairie Conservancy. So if I ifI stumbled between Katie and Coastal, it's
(07:46):
because I've been saying Katie Prairie fortwenty years. So totally that's totally understandable.
Hold that thought. We're going tocontinue our conversation on the other side,
Honey Matters, KPRC nine fifty.Wellcome back to Honey Matters on KPRC
(08:35):
nine fifty. This is Joe Bitar. I'm Ramone Robliss, and uh yeah,
I'm confused to perturb by that musicselection, you know. I mean,
what's weird is you kept looking atme in the eye. Wow that
song was playing. That was weird. Oh man. Honey Matters our KPRC
nine fifty R guests as Wesley Newman, the conservation director of the Coastal Prairie
(08:56):
Conservancy. And I say that ina manner because we were talking before we
went into the break with Westleys.They just changed their name not too long
ago, and I'm still used tothe old name of the old name that's
been around forever. So Wesley,thanks once again for joining us. You
bet so you're telling us a littlebit about your background, and you received
a Master of Science and arrange economyecology management, and a Bachelor of Science
(09:18):
and rad science as well from Aand M Texas A and M University.
He's a program with Houston Spark Clubworks with pretty closely, so kind of
pick up there where were left off. Yeah, Well, like I was
saying, I finished my master's degreeand was looking for something to do,
and I was contacted by Mary N. Piacentini, who was then executive director
(09:41):
now president and chief executive officer orsomething like that. We've gotten fancy with
names over the years as well.Yeah, and they were looking for someone
who knew about outdoor resource management tohelp them grow this very small organization called
the Katie Perry Conservancy. And itwas just I was fortunate to be in
(10:03):
the right place, at the righttime, the right background, and I
was fortunate enough to be picked upby the Conservancy. And that was in
nineteen ninety nine and I've been hereever since, through all the growth pains
and trials and tribulations that we allhave in our jobs and our employers and
growth. And because we when Istarted, the Conservancy owned and managed about
(10:31):
seventeen to eighteen hundred acres of land, and in the last twenty years we
have expanded that ownership to nearly eighteenthousand acres here on the Kadu Prairie,
and then we've got about another can'tI just looked the numbers up and I
can't remember them having about another fifteenthousand acres of properties protected through conservation ease
(10:54):
at about five or six thousand acreson the prairie here west of Houston.
And then we've started picking up conservationeasements farther in a nine county region farther
down the coast Matta, Gordon,Jackson, Fort Ben Brazoria, etc.
Etc. And so that's kind ofpart of what led us to change our
(11:18):
name from the Katy Prairie Conservancy tothe Coastal Prairie Conservancy, because as we're
finding opportunities farther afield, we feltthat our name should better reflect what we
were trying to do, which originallywas to protect Katy Prairie, which we've
done a reasonably good job of.We would be happy to protect more,
obviously, but as we're looking atproperties working with landowners farther afield, the
(11:43):
name change reflects that. So forpeople who are listening to the program and
don't don't really know they've heard thename, they're familiar with the name,
but kind of give us in anutshell, what is the Coastal Prairie Conservancy,
What's what's the main role in function. We are a five O one
C three nonprofit land trust and weare protecting land for the benefit of wildlife
(12:07):
and people. We're protecting the conservationvalues of these resources, which includes farming,
ranching, wildlife habitat, and hopefullywe're trying to expand outreach and education
programming and provide more access on theproperties that we own. So we're here
(12:28):
trying to ensure that a sustainable portionof the prairie is protected in perpetuity.
And we have always been from thebeginning, not just about protecting careers,
if you will. We are protecttrying to protect a working landscape, which
includes agriculture, which includes hunting,which includes the wildlife, which includes all
(12:52):
the things that have made these coastalprairies known for what they're known for,
which is in a lot of casesof waterfowl. And you know, for
years do senting was the big thingin this part of the world. Unfortunately,
a lot of the the geese havegone away due to habitat changes and
other things, but we want todo it. We've started because we wanted
(13:13):
to ensure that there was at,we had a sustainable resource here on the
west side of Houston that would continueto support a viable widlife populations. And
I mean, you know, Iknow you put that into some some nice
clean sentences that sort of thing.But the amount of work and the impact
that you guys have through your workwith the Katie Prayers, So there I
(13:35):
go again. The Coastal Prairie Conservancyis pretty amazing and it's a shame that
more people don't know about it.So I'm glad you're on the show so
we can help spread the word aboutit. Even people who lived in text
all our life have no clue,um, what your organization does and how
how it impacts um, you know, our our our wilife and habitat.
And you had mentioned earlier that youguys have gone from seventeen hundred acres to
over eighteen thousand plus acres. Howdid you how did you grow? Is
(13:58):
that is that donation by landowners?Is that in you know, like you
said, conservation? Even Eastman,how how has the Coastal Prairie Conservacy grown
over the past twenty years by withthat land mass, the land that we
acquired, that we current that weown has been probably our largest single funder
has been the North American Waterfowl ConservationAct. They have a standard grant program
(14:24):
that we apply for every year orso, sometimes twice a year, depending
on what we have in the pipeline. Um. The vast majority of our
properties have been funded or part atleast partially funded with Knocker grant moneys um.
There's the same program that Ducks Unlimiteduses for a lot of their prairie
wetlands projects. And uh that that'sthe other comparable one that comes to mind
(14:50):
at the moment. But we've hadsome local supporters. Houston Endowment has been
a big supporter over the years,the Brown Foundation, Hershey, uh,
several others that I can't bring tomind, because fortunately I don't feel as
ideal as well as possible the financialside of things. I try to take
care of the property as best Ican and try to work with you know,
(15:13):
as we write the grants. Obviouslyto get asked for funding, I'm
you know, obviously involved in tryingto make sure that we're have all the
biological side of things spelled out correctly, so that everything that we are saying
that we're doing where you actually canaccomplish, right, right? How many?
How many employees are? How manypeople in the field that are working
(15:35):
with you guys? Oh, that'sa moving target. Up until about four
or five years ago, it wasjust me out here. We had several
staff in Houston. Obviously are Marianne, who's the big boss, if you
will, below the board, wehad a couple of support staff in the
(15:58):
Houston office, and then for aup until about five years ago, I
was the person trying to do everythingout here. We have since gotten money
and have started hiring people. Anumber of years ago we had a hired
a ranch manager for the one ranchwhich were co owners on, which is
(16:21):
the largest remaining cattle ranch in HarrisCounty. We have the last remaining I'm
sorry I'm getting tangential on you here, but as stuff pops into my head,
I'm trying to spout out the stuffthat I think is important and cool.
We also have the last active ricefarm in Harris County. But back
to how many people. In thelast two years, we've picked up a
(16:44):
couple of staff members out here thatare helping need to try to take care
of properties and take over some ofthe management activities that I've been trying to
do for so long. Let meget more back into the conservation side of
things as far rather than the dataday operations. So let's see right now,
we have one, two three ofus out here full time. We
(17:08):
have a really nice volunteer group thatworks out here where my office is what
we call our field office preserve wherewe've done a fifty acre prairie wetland restoration
and we have a little nursery outback and they grow native plans to supplement
our prairie restoration. And I'm notsure how many people, honestly, we
(17:29):
have in the Houston office one twothree four full time, and then I
think there's a couple of part timeperipheral you know, support staff kind of
people. Good deal, good deal. Well, listen, we're going to
take a quick break here on Honeymotters. Folks, if you're just joining us,
we are. We're knee deep inthe prairie with our guests. Wesley
Newman, the conservation director from theCoastal Prairie Conservancy, Join us. In
(17:53):
another side after this quick break Honeymatterson KPRC nine fifty. I can see
(18:22):
why you think you belong. Inever tried to make you think and let
you see one. You know youmade an amateur mistake there when you rattled
the tambourine. I know you didthe rattle. I know it's well.
Actually, the real percussionists such asmyself, you know that if you get
your thumb just a little bit moist, okay, you can rub it around
(18:51):
the tambourine. Welcome back to Honeymadowsone fifty. Guess is Wesley Newman?
You're not ready for the conservation directorof the Coastal Prairie. Could servicing Wesley
on On behalf of my co hosthere Ramon, I apologize for how he
started that segment. Do you wantto be a better tamburinist or not?
(19:11):
I like I'm more of a cowbellguy. All right, there's no technique
for that. Oh man, Wesley, you see what I have to put
up with every week. I guessbetter you than me, right, yeah,
exactly. There's a reason why youstay out in the field. I
do my best. Listen, uh, this this area the coastal prairie conservacy
(19:33):
and on the landmasks and all thelands you guys managed. How fragile is
that entire ecosystem? And why isit important? Why should the people of
Texas and the whole world be beconcerned about it? That's a that's a
really complex question. Um. Prairiesystems in the world and generally are probably
(19:53):
under the greatest threat of any systemof all, and coastal prairies are no
exception. I think the standard numberthat we all use all the time is
that there's probably around one percent ofcoastal prairie left that's truly real coastal prairie.
(20:14):
Everything else has been altered and modifiedto some degree. There's you know,
gradations from pure improved pasture and farmcroftland farmland down from those that extreme
all the way to a mission mashof natives mixed in with improved pasture plant
or I hate to use the termimproved, let me rephrase that introduced pasture
plants and all the way to truecoastal prairie. And when you find remnants,
(20:41):
it's really exciting. The problem withprairies is in general coastal prairies as
well, is that they're extremely subtlelandscapes. They're not dramatic, they're not
you know, huge mountains that youcan see are huge deep forests with large,
extremely large trees. And to understandthe prairie system, you really have
to dive into it and pay attentionto it as it changes through the year.
(21:06):
And as you watch it change,you begin to appreciate the complexity and
diversity of what's going on out here. And mixed in we obviously mixed in
with these coastal prairies. We havethe coastal prairie wetlands that I have been,
you know, supporting phenomenal numbers ofwaterfowl over the years and continue to
do so. Even you know,rice farming has helped. You know,
(21:26):
the advantage of rice farming over otherkinds of farming is that it does provide
habitat for waterfowl, waiting birds,shore birds and things that would utilize the
natural native wetlands. And so it'skind of an altered wetlands system, but
it has helped to keep a lotof our waterfowl habitat are viable in this
(21:49):
part of the world. But aswe all know, farming in this part
of the world, particularly rice farmingis on the decline for a number of
reasons, and so to protect thatwe feel. I feel that it's very
extremely important to protect these resources becauseit's something that we all appreciate when we
(22:12):
get out and look at it.But it's hard to understand the prairie unless
you really involve yourself with it.And that's what I try to encourage people
to do. Learn about the prairie, learn about the plants that grow out
here when they grow. Everyone youknow is all excited about wildflowers in springtime.
Well, if you have a reallyhealthy prairie system, the wildflowers that
(22:33):
we think about, the blue bonnetsand the paint brushes and those things that
we all go to the Health countryto see are typically disturbing species. And
they're more prevalent where they're shorter grassesbecause they don't grow very big and they
don't have to compete. If youhave a healthy prairie system, you get
the major bloom of flowers, orthe perennial wildflowers which do their thing in
(22:56):
the in the late summer and intothe fall, and they're much taller and
rods, the swamp sunflowers, theMaximilian sunflowers, things like that, and
so it's, like I said,it's a subtle landscape, but if you
watch it and you pay attention toit, you are willing to immerse yourself
into it. It's a truly rewardingexperience. Yeah, you know, it's
(23:17):
funny you drop out some of thoseareas and you don't really take notice,
and especially if you're trying to getdown the highway and that sort of thing.
But it's it's it's really it's it'sreally a beautiful ecosystem. It's it's
very diverse. And I'm going toask you a totally uninformed question. So
you talked about all the rice farmersand the things that have gone away over
those past years, and that combinedwith the shifting flyways and the fact that
we don't see all the ducks andgeese that we used to see. Do
(23:38):
you guys or other people, um, do you guys ever consider planning,
you know, supplemental rice, Andof course you can't do it on the
grand scale that farmers do it thatliving and breathe it. But do you
guys plant any supplemental you know,feeding areas in the Coastal Prairie Conservacy we
do not. We try. Wehave we have a rice farmer that we
(23:59):
support to degree that we can tryto keep him farming rice for as long
as possible. Like everything else,it's all about money. You know.
Owning land is expensive because you haveto take care of it. And this
landscape is constantly trying to change intosomething completely different than what we know it
as and what we've known it ashistorically, and to keep up with that
(24:23):
it takes a lot of money.We have discussed potentially down the road somewhere
possibly doing something like you suggests.But one of the big issues with rice
farming, particularly on the Katy Prairie, but becoming more so even farther down
the coast, is water availability theKaty Prairie. All the rice that was
(24:47):
historically farmed farmed on the Katy Prairie, with a couple of very small exceptions,
was almost exclusively groundwater. And thereason the rice farming went away is
because most though the irrigation wells thatproduce the rice on the Katy Prairie.
The last round of irrigation wells weredrilled probably in the late sixties into the
mid seventies, and the last expectancyof an irrigation well is about forty to
(25:11):
sixty years and when you're a sixtyto seventy year old rice farmer and your
irrigation well dies because it's you know, it's too old. It won't produce
what you need to grow rice anymore. And you go to the banker to
say it's going to cost me halfa million dollars drilling new irrigation well.
(25:32):
He's going to say, well,how long are you gonna be out there
farming it to pay it back.Well, you know, you look at
the banker and say, well,my kids don't want to farm rice anymore,
and I may have five or tenyears left in me. Well,
you know you're not going to beable to make the return on replacing that
irrigation well. And so you dropa submersible pump down that well to put
some water out in the pastures andstart growing cows instead of rice. And
(25:55):
so that's pretty much what's happened tothe Katy Prairie is you know, as
the rice wells died. Uh,you know, the farmers converted to pasture
and maybe some dry land crops.But then you know the city of Houston
comes knocking and says here here,I am. I'm going to pay you
by the square foot for your land. So what are you going to do?
(26:17):
You're going to take the retirement planthat you have in place, and
like we talked about at the beginning, and take a bunch of money and
go buy something someplace else. Soyou know, and so it's kind of
a long landage way of saying thatthings have changed to at least rice production
(26:37):
on the Kaby Prairie because of theirrigation well standpoint. But we're also seeing
it farther down the coast because Iheard not too long ago that LCR is
not gonna be letting the rice farmershave water this year, and so there's
going to be there's gonna be awhole bunch of right that people were planning
to plant that it's not going toget planted because there's no water to grow
it. And the other thing thatdoes is, you know, all right,
(27:00):
we want to you know, youhave going back to Ducks Unlimited with
their praie wetlands projects. People haveprairie wetlands projects they built for waterfowl habitat
a lot of those guys agree topump water to the habitat well, if
you don't have the water, youcan't pump it, and so, you
know, just we're getting whittled awayby external factors that are beyond our control.
That's slowly taking away the resources thatwe've had for so long to manage
(27:23):
our manage our lands for the benefitof waterfowl, shore birds and other wildlife.
And so what we try to whatwe kind of have to do is
try to think strategically and where wecan restore our habitat and take advantage of
natural conditions. Like we have acouple of wetland property projects on our properties
(27:45):
that catch rainfall run off from theroad ditch almost exclusively, and those projects
are phenomenally successful when we get rainedbecause you pretty much all you have to
do is go out and spit onthe highway and then all of a sudden
you've got water in your wetland project. But if you don't have the ability
to get water, and you know, you can't do that everywhere. So
(28:06):
some of it's about strategic planning andtrying to make the best utilization of the
resources you have, but part ofit is, you know, where it's
not feasible to do the wetlands anymore. Or do the rice for me anymore.
Look at you know, we're lookingat converting and restoring prairie where possible,
and we work with a number ofpeople, some successfully, some not
so successfully. But you know thatit's a it's a growing concern and a
(28:30):
growing industry to try to restore prairiebecause it's going to provide other types of
habitat for other things that are indecline, not only the prairie, you
know, because the prairie's declining,source of species that are dependent on it,
grassland birds are declining. So youknow, we're kind of it's hard
to do, but we're kind oftrying to be all things to all people.
And in some ways we're successful andin some ways we're not. I
(28:52):
got it, I got it.Gonna take a quick break for our last
segment here on Hunting Matters KPRC ninefifty. Then she leaves to me,
(29:22):
says this to me, who littleMotC comes from, out, goes out
and I'll make you smilectings out foryou, whoever, what you want to
do? Coming up with you?What we go through the rhythm and find
you. Welcome back to Honeymatters onKPRC nine fifty. This is Joe B.
T all right, I'm ramone robustand joining us. Today's our guest
Wesley Newman, the conservation director ofthe Coastal Prairie Conservancy. Folks check out
(29:45):
their website at Coastal Prairie Conservancy dotorg. Um. They've a lot,
got a lot of great information onthere, and of course all their social
media channels as well, Facebook,um, YouTube, Twitter, everything out
there. Westley, thanks once againfor joining us today. You bet um.
This is kind of conservation one ohone. But there's I have had
(30:06):
several questions about this actually come tome in the past couple weeks. I
figure I've got a guy on thephone and knows how to help me answer
these questions. People ask me allthe time, specifically, what is a
conservation easement and how does a propertybecome one? Can you kind of run
us through the simple the simple wordingaround that. Yeah, the easiest way
to describe that is a conservation easementremoves a certain set of rights from the
(30:33):
property. And in the simplest terms, it's I mean, what we look
at most frequently to remove are thedevelopment rights so that the property cannot be
divided and can't be turned into somethingother than what it is currently. And
there are as many different ways todo a conservation easement as there are people
(30:55):
doing them. Some conservation easements protectagricultural production, and some conservation easements protect
bottomland hardwood forests. Some conservation easemusprotect coastal prairie and or wetlands, and
so depending on what the purpose ofyour easement are, that defines the conservation
values that you're trying to protect withthe easement. But the big kick hit
(31:15):
item is that once you sign onand agree to all of what everyone is
happy with, that this easement isgoing to protect that it it has to
stay in that form forever. Itcan be sold, It can be left
to your kids, it can bein some cases it may be able to
be subdivided. If you know youhave two kids and you have a thousand
(31:37):
acres, and when you die,you watch your kids each have five hundred
acres, that can be all structuredup front, but once the documents set
in place, it has to bemaintained in the form that as it was
written. And so if you're protectingfarmland, you can go out there and
you know farm you can do this, that and the other within. You
know, with certain restrictions, youknow you're not going to pollute, you're
(31:59):
not and do this, that andthe other, but you can farm it.
But to say you're protecting bottom landhardwoods, well, obviously we're not
going to let a farmer go inthere and bulldoze all the trees out and
turn it into a rice field,even though we like rice, because that's
not what we're trying to protect onthat easement. So every easement is different.
It's like any other land fial thatyou do. It's very specific to
the conservation organization that will be holdingthe easement as well as to the landowner
(32:23):
that will be inheriting the easement thatthey've signed on. And the common thread
in a conservation easement is you havetwo entities, the conservation easement holder,
the land trust and the landowner whoagree that there are certain values of this
property that need to be protected forever. And you work down that work down
(32:45):
a checklist of things that you workthrough to identify what those values are,
and when you come to an agreement, say okay, we all agree on
this, this is how it's goingto be, and every one signs on
the dotted line and that's the wayit is from now on. And that's
what a lot of people have ahard time with because it is forever.
It's not a well I'll do thisfor a few years and then see how
(33:07):
it works and change my mind.I don't, you know, they want
to do something different one though.So it's a process, and you know,
both all parties involved have to beinvested in the process to make sure
that you get to the end resultthat you want. But there I believe
they're very beneficial because you know,they don't make land anymore. We've all
(33:28):
heard that comment. And as thingsare going away, things are getting developed
and paved over, you know,wind farm solar farms, all of these
things are competing with the natural resourcesthat we all know and love as hunters
and outdoors people. And if youcan say I have a property that I
(33:49):
have spent a lot of my lifeon and it is extremely valuable to me
for reasons A, B and C. Is there a conservation organization out there
that is willing to help me techthis and keep it this way in perpetuity,
And that's basically what conservation thesements areall about. Okay, okay,
well, I appreciate you explaining thatbecause there's there's a lot of there's often
a lot of confusion. Should haveasked me, I know, we do
(34:13):
have a guess. I know,you know, but um, we'd be
here forever getting your explosions, soI would have gotten a little more into
detail. But that's right. Theycan be as detailed as you want to.
Yeah, exactly, I'm sure that'sjust as you're just scratching the surface
on that one. Um, Wesley, Um, what is the latest research
(34:34):
project or project that you guys areworking with with the Coastal Prairie Conservancy that
you're the most you're most excited about. That's a good question. Actually,
what I'm most excited about is alittle endangered plant called the Texas Prairie down
Himnoxis, Texana. We have someunique soils because we're adjacent to and some
of our properties are on top ofthe Hockley Salt Dome, and there's high
(34:57):
salinity spoils out here where you canfind some plant communities that would be more
much more typical of coastal marsh ratherthan inland prairie because of the salinity of
the soils, and on these siteswe have a little plant like I said
called Texas Prairie DN. It wasoriginally called Texas bitterweed, and it became
listed as an endangered species. Someonedecided that that wasn't a very good name
(35:22):
for an endangered species, and sothey had a public schools contest to rename
this plant from something other than Texasbitterweed, and the name that stuck was
Texas Prairie DN. And we monitorit with Fishing Walife Service annually, and
we were working Fishing Walife Services hasgotten some researchers out of Illinois that are
(35:43):
looking at trying to identify all thevarious and the sundry pollinators other things going
on with this plant because it untilwe found it on our property, the
only other known population was an addicsreservoir, and our population expanded that more
than tenfold what we have on ourworn ranch and our neighboring Jack Road South
(36:08):
property. And since then, aspeople started looking for it, it started
popping up in other places around thestate. But it's one of those things.
It's an extremely unique habitat because ofthese saline barants, which have all
sorts of endemic plants other than theprairie tom that are found most often on
these types of sites, and sofrom a botanist standpoint, which is kind
(36:30):
of my other interest. Kind ofif I've gone a different direction from kind
of being the general estive, probablywould have gone to be a botanist because
I like plants, and so it'sjust kind of a cool thing that we
we're keeping track of and now thatwe fictional Widlife Service has funding for some
research into the ecology of the plantand the pollinators and the other things going
(36:52):
on with it, that's just somethingI'm really excited about. And as you
know, it's it's unique. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool though,
that you that you guys have identifiedthat and it started to proliferate and that
you're finding it popping up in otherother areas. That's they kind of got
a um, you know, focuson it as well. So before we
wrap up for the day, howcan people get involved with the Coastal Prairie
(37:14):
Conservancy and how can they plan avisit to come come see you guys.
Um thesiest ways you've mentioned, Ithink at least twice, is to go
to our website www. Dot CoastalPrairie Conservancy dot org um and we have
several things on there. You knowhow to visit, how to support us,
(37:35):
this, that and the other hereat my uh my office between Brookshire
and Water and west east central WaterCounty. Got I'm getting directionally challenged.
Uh. We're open on Tuesdays,Fridays and Saturdays from about nine to one
or two o'clock in the afternoon.We have a periodic workday events that are
(38:00):
scheduled on our website, but thosethree days on this property, you can
come out here and we typically havevolunteers out here on those days, but
it's there. It's open to thepublic. So we have a mile and
a half trail within and around ourrestored prairie wetlands fifty five acres that we've
done here, and you can walkthe trails and visit with some of the
(38:22):
volunteers. Just hang out, takeyour time and do nothing, whatever you'd
like to do. But we havea seven day a week daylight to dark
viewing platform at Warren Lake on WarnRanch Road, which is on the Warren
Ranch, and that is an opportunityto get out and just do your own
(38:43):
thing at your own pace, atyour own schedule. See will to be
seen out there. I'm gonna haveto catch you off there. Unfortunately,
West that we are out of time, Ramones give me the wrap up signal,
but thanks so much for joining us, folks. We'll see you next
week. Honey Matters on KPRC ninefifty
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Betar. You give mea hard time. I am, I
can't help it. Does it soundokay? Now? Yeah? I can
(00:24):
here. Before the show, youwanted them potted down, Now you want
them pot it up. We're justlike a child, can you like adjust
it? One sixteenth of an inch? Sit still? July, we're moving
around. Welcome to Hunting Matters onKPRC nine fifty. This is your host,
Joe Betar. I am Ramone,Robliss oh Man. Stuff to come
back to work. This week.I was out in the wilderness in West
Texas. Sounded fantastic, went outto the Monarch Ranch to a little fishing,
(00:47):
to a little hunting, floated downthe Devil's River, and I wouldn't
have come back. Watched watched thetwelve million bats come out of a hole
in the ground. Probably literally closeto a million, right, I mean,
I don't know what a million wouldlook like. They just kept coming
out, yeah, and drove.So they're estimating twelve million, literally twelve
million in that cave. Yeah,it's the second largest bat calling in the
US. I think they said crazy, it's pretty crazy, pretty crazy?
(01:11):
Would you do this week? Didyou think about reaching up and trying to
just grab one with your hand?No, because literally you could if you
didn't sit still, they would literallylike skim your head. That's how close
we were to them. Everything onmy end is fine, everything's great.
My kids are wrapping up school.Then they you know, last month here
coming up. That's crazy. It'salready here. So I gotta start thinking
of summer travels. I thought aboutgoing to Alaska, but you disinvited me,
(01:33):
So yeah, I'm not trying todo that. Well, I told
you, I gave the opportunity andyou you were driving your feet. You
know what, that's not Baker infront of our guests. You're you're the
one who brought it up. Youknow what. Maybe I'm just emotional.
We all hurt about it. Maybeit's still hurts being betrayed by a friend.
You never know, maybe somebody willdrop out. Hey, you're the
(01:53):
one who had to go buy propertyand get a pair of and get a
europe You know, it's tough beingme, It is tough being you.
It's tough. It's hard out therefor a pimp. So, uh so
you're gonna send your children away forthe summer. I'm thinking about it.
Yeah, I'm trying to see howthat works out, because past summers we've
just kept him in daycare. Yeah, and I'm thinking this year, you
(02:15):
know, let's let's see what wecan do. Maybe how old are they
now, seven and five? What'ssomething to put out on the street.
That's what I thought. Yeah,yeah, give him to give him a
plastic bucket and a change cup.I though about doing a Craigslist thing.
You know, you need you needa worker, small hands. You can
get into slow and yards at thatage. No, no, no,
it's time to just kids go toquarter. Good. All right, I'll
(02:35):
set up some some afternoon jobs forhim, and uh you provide the water
and the snacks and I've got someI've got some yards that need to be
mowed. Okay, I hope yourwife's not listening. She'll automatically dislike me.
The Houston spar Club Foundation folks UMa presenter of Hunting matters Um.
There's a lot of stuff going on. We just finished up our quil shooting
(02:57):
crawfish bowl last week. That wasphenomenal. We had about one hundred and
twenty five people out for that verycool. Weather was perfect, and the
hits keep coming. And May we'vegot Christanto Piranto, who is one of
the heroes of the twenty and twelveBengazi attack. It's coming to speak to
our group May fourth at the HoustonRacket Club. We'll also be conducting our
annual Hunting and Photo Awards that event. I talked to Chris this morning.
Super nice guy. Looking forward tomeeting him, and I met him years
(03:20):
and years ago, but I'm lookingforward to seeing him again. In June
eighth, we're gonna learn about howto hunt in Uganda from Tim Harold with
Worldwide Trophy of Adventures. June thefifteenth and sixteenth is our first annual saltwater
fishing tournament in San Ley On,Texas. And then there's stuff going on
every month except for the month ofJuly. We take a break because everybody's
on vacation and putting their kids towork in their summer jobs. But anyway,
(03:43):
go to we Hunt we give dotorg. Click on the membership dropped
down a click under monthly events.You don't have to be a member to
attend. We'd love for you tocome out and join us for one of
our events, learn about what we'redoing to promote the future of hunting in
conservation, and hopefully you will signup to become a member. And did
we tell talk about convention last podcast? I don't think so, it's been
on it. Breaking news. Ourconvention is moving back to the Woodland's Waterway
(04:06):
Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in twentytwenty four January nineteenth to the twenty first.
There's gonna be some more information comingon that. We've already lined up
our entertainment. Um, let's see, Saturday night will be will Lady Gaga,
Yeah, Lady Gaga, and thenwe've got Janet Jackson, perfect for
our crowd. Now, Friday nightwe're bringing in the gout on if you
know him, Sundance head of course. Yeah, he was a semifinalist on
(04:30):
American Idol and won The Voice OneThe Voice. Yeah, so he's going
to be coming in Friday night.And then Saturday night we've got William Lee
Martin who's a stand up Texas basedstand up comedian who plays the opery and
MGM all the time, so goodcomedian. Yeah, I mean, I
know I'm staying the obvious. Justa good time. Yeah, it'll be
fun, man, it'll be socan I come? Oh yeah absolutely,
you can even sit at my table. Wow, up straight. So go
(04:53):
to we week gift dot org andcheck in from time to time. When
the convention dropped down, there's gonnabe a lot of news information about all
the cool stuff that's coming to there. And I'm excited we're gonna have a
fun time again next year. Ourfavorite hotel is the Marriott up there the
way the water, right there bythe wood. That's why we walk.
We can stay there after a concertor you walk over there and they serve
hot pizzas after everything. Yes,I didn't know that after the Rod Stewart
(05:14):
show that there were these big boxesof the concert you wet Rod Stewart,
No, yeah, we were,that's rights right. Hook Upon didn't answer,
and then I've asked you if you'regoing to break up with me?
Um, But yeah, that's thecool thing about it. You walk over
there and get a pizza after theshow, wait for your uber or whatever.
Yeah, would you have the datesalready for that? For the convention
nineteenth through the twenty first of January. I'm gonna see who's playing, you
(05:38):
know, like, maybe I'll stayon the eighteenth and the twenty second and
just make it a long weekend.That'd be cool. Yeah, that'd be
cool. Sorry to interrupt, noworries. Um, okay, let's get
to our guest. Um. Ourguest today is Wesley Newman. Westley is
the concert Conservation director for the CoastalPrairie Conservancy, and we're gonna learn about
what he does for living and whatthe Coastal Prairie Conservancy is. So Westley,
thanks so much for our joining us. My pleasure. Do you like
(06:01):
do you go by Wesley or westwhatever you call me. I'm not that
picky Westleys Fine, perfect, perfect, Well, thanks so much for joining
us on Honeymatus. Westley, tellus a little bit about Um. You
know, we liked a lot ofour guests that are involved in the outdoors.
Tell us a little bit about yourjourney to where you are today and
how you got involved in the outdoors. Uh. Well, I grew up
(06:21):
in the outdoors. I mean Igrew up in Austin in the sixties and
the seventies when it was not thatpart of the outdoors, and I spent.
I remember going dove hunting with myfather, walking out to a farmhouse
with a case of beer and pullingout the shotguns and going out back and
sitting in the ponds shooting the verginsex fleue by. So that was that
(06:44):
was how that was my first doveLEAs was a case of beer out of
my father's trunk. So good time, Yes, sir, it's been a
while, um, but I've alwaysbeen involved in the outdoors. It's always
been something my family U has been. I have always been hunters, and
(07:04):
so it just kind of came naturalto me. But you know, as
we all know, life throws curveballsand gets in the way, so it
comes and goes. It's something thatI'm doing and I've always enjoyed doing and
when I've had the opportunity, I'vespent a lot of time deer hunting in
the hill country for a time whenI had opportunities out there, and then
(07:25):
as I got gotten farther into life, things kind of gotten the way and
it fell off the radar for awhile. But then I got to after
graduating with a master's degree from TexasA and M I ended up working with
the then Katie Prairie Conservancy. Lastyear we changed our name to the Coastal
Prairie Conservancy. So if I ifI stumbled between Katie and Coastal, it's
(07:46):
because I've been saying Katie Prairie fortwenty years. So totally that's totally understandable.
Hold that thought. We're going tocontinue our conversation on the other side,
Honey Matters, KPRC nine fifty.Wellcome back to Honey Matters on KPRC
(08:35):
nine fifty. This is Joe Bitar. I'm Ramone Robliss, and uh yeah,
I'm confused to perturb by that musicselection, you know. I mean,
what's weird is you kept looking atme in the eye. Wow that
song was playing. That was weird. Oh man. Honey Matters our KPRC
nine fifty R guests as Wesley Newman, the conservation director of the Coastal Prairie
(08:56):
Conservancy. And I say that ina manner because we were talking before we
went into the break with Westleys.They just changed their name not too long
ago, and I'm still used tothe old name of the old name that's
been around forever. So Wesley,thanks once again for joining us. You
bet so you're telling us a littlebit about your background, and you received
a Master of Science and arrange economyecology management, and a Bachelor of Science
(09:18):
and rad science as well from Aand M Texas A and M University.
He's a program with Houston Spark Clubworks with pretty closely, so kind of
pick up there where were left off. Yeah, Well, like I was
saying, I finished my master's degreeand was looking for something to do,
and I was contacted by Mary N. Piacentini, who was then executive director
(09:41):
now president and chief executive officer orsomething like that. We've gotten fancy with
names over the years as well.Yeah, and they were looking for someone
who knew about outdoor resource management tohelp them grow this very small organization called
the Katie Perry Conservancy. And itwas just I was fortunate to be in
(10:03):
the right place, at the righttime, the right background, and I
was fortunate enough to be picked upby the Conservancy. And that was in
nineteen ninety nine and I've been hereever since, through all the growth pains
and trials and tribulations that we allhave in our jobs and our employers and
growth. And because we when Istarted, the Conservancy owned and managed about
(10:31):
seventeen to eighteen hundred acres of land, and in the last twenty years we
have expanded that ownership to nearly eighteenthousand acres here on the Kadu Prairie,
and then we've got about another can'tI just looked the numbers up and I
can't remember them having about another fifteenthousand acres of properties protected through conservation ease
(10:54):
at about five or six thousand acreson the prairie here west of Houston.
And then we've started picking up conservationeasements farther in a nine county region farther
down the coast Matta, Gordon,Jackson, Fort Ben Brazoria, etc.
Etc. And so that's kind ofpart of what led us to change our
(11:18):
name from the Katy Prairie Conservancy tothe Coastal Prairie Conservancy, because as we're
finding opportunities farther afield, we feltthat our name should better reflect what we
were trying to do, which originallywas to protect Katy Prairie, which we've
done a reasonably good job of.We would be happy to protect more,
obviously, but as we're looking atproperties working with landowners farther afield, the
(11:43):
name change reflects that. So forpeople who are listening to the program and
don't don't really know they've heard thename, they're familiar with the name,
but kind of give us in anutshell, what is the Coastal Prairie Conservancy,
What's what's the main role in function. We are a five O one
C three nonprofit land trust and weare protecting land for the benefit of wildlife
(12:07):
and people. We're protecting the conservationvalues of these resources, which includes farming,
ranching, wildlife habitat, and hopefullywe're trying to expand outreach and education
programming and provide more access on theproperties that we own. So we're here
(12:28):
trying to ensure that a sustainable portionof the prairie is protected in perpetuity.
And we have always been from thebeginning, not just about protecting careers,
if you will. We are protecttrying to protect a working landscape, which
includes agriculture, which includes hunting,which includes the wildlife, which includes all
(12:52):
the things that have made these coastalprairies known for what they're known for,
which is in a lot of casesof waterfowl. And you know, for
years do senting was the big thingin this part of the world. Unfortunately,
a lot of the the geese havegone away due to habitat changes and
other things, but we want todo it. We've started because we wanted
(13:13):
to ensure that there was at,we had a sustainable resource here on the
west side of Houston that would continueto support a viable widlife populations. And
I mean, you know, Iknow you put that into some some nice
clean sentences that sort of thing.But the amount of work and the impact
that you guys have through your workwith the Katie Prayers, So there I
(13:35):
go again. The Coastal Prairie Conservancyis pretty amazing and it's a shame that
more people don't know about it.So I'm glad you're on the show so
we can help spread the word aboutit. Even people who lived in text
all our life have no clue,um, what your organization does and how
how it impacts um, you know, our our our wilife and habitat.
And you had mentioned earlier that youguys have gone from seventeen hundred acres to
over eighteen thousand plus acres. Howdid you how did you grow? Is
(13:58):
that is that donation by landowners?Is that in you know, like you
said, conservation? Even Eastman,how how has the Coastal Prairie Conservacy grown
over the past twenty years by withthat land mass, the land that we
acquired, that we current that weown has been probably our largest single funder
has been the North American Waterfowl ConservationAct. They have a standard grant program
(14:24):
that we apply for every year orso, sometimes twice a year, depending
on what we have in the pipeline. Um. The vast majority of our
properties have been funded or part atleast partially funded with Knocker grant moneys um.
There's the same program that Ducks Unlimiteduses for a lot of their prairie
wetlands projects. And uh that that'sthe other comparable one that comes to mind
(14:50):
at the moment. But we've hadsome local supporters. Houston Endowment has been
a big supporter over the years,the Brown Foundation, Hershey, uh,
several others that I can't bring tomind, because fortunately I don't feel as
ideal as well as possible the financialside of things. I try to take
care of the property as best Ican and try to work with you know,
(15:13):
as we write the grants. Obviouslyto get asked for funding, I'm
you know, obviously involved in tryingto make sure that we're have all the
biological side of things spelled out correctly, so that everything that we are saying
that we're doing where you actually canaccomplish, right, right? How many?
How many employees are? How manypeople in the field that are working
(15:35):
with you guys? Oh, that'sa moving target. Up until about four
or five years ago, it wasjust me out here. We had several
staff in Houston. Obviously are Marianne, who's the big boss, if you
will, below the board, wehad a couple of support staff in the
(15:58):
Houston office, and then for aup until about five years ago, I
was the person trying to do everythingout here. We have since gotten money
and have started hiring people. Anumber of years ago we had a hired
a ranch manager for the one ranchwhich were co owners on, which is
(16:21):
the largest remaining cattle ranch in HarrisCounty. We have the last remaining I'm
sorry I'm getting tangential on you here, but as stuff pops into my head,
I'm trying to spout out the stuffthat I think is important and cool.
We also have the last active ricefarm in Harris County. But back
to how many people. In thelast two years, we've picked up a
(16:44):
couple of staff members out here thatare helping need to try to take care
of properties and take over some ofthe management activities that I've been trying to
do for so long. Let meget more back into the conservation side of
things as far rather than the dataday operations. So let's see right now,
we have one, two three ofus out here full time. We
(17:08):
have a really nice volunteer group thatworks out here where my office is what
we call our field office preserve wherewe've done a fifty acre prairie wetland restoration
and we have a little nursery outback and they grow native plans to supplement
our prairie restoration. And I'm notsure how many people, honestly, we
(17:29):
have in the Houston office one twothree four full time, and then I
think there's a couple of part timeperipheral you know, support staff kind of
people. Good deal, good deal. Well, listen, we're going to
take a quick break here on Honeymotters. Folks, if you're just joining us,
we are. We're knee deep inthe prairie with our guests. Wesley
Newman, the conservation director from theCoastal Prairie Conservancy, Join us. In
(17:53):
another side after this quick break Honeymatterson KPRC nine fifty. I can see
(18:22):
why you think you belong. Inever tried to make you think and let
you see one. You know youmade an amateur mistake there when you rattled
the tambourine. I know you didthe rattle. I know it's well.
Actually, the real percussionists such asmyself, you know that if you get
your thumb just a little bit moist, okay, you can rub it around
(18:51):
the tambourine. Welcome back to Honeymadowsone fifty. Guess is Wesley Newman?
You're not ready for the conservation directorof the Coastal Prairie. Could servicing Wesley
on On behalf of my co hosthere Ramon, I apologize for how he
started that segment. Do you wantto be a better tamburinist or not?
(19:11):
I like I'm more of a cowbellguy. All right, there's no technique
for that. Oh man, Wesley, you see what I have to put
up with every week. I guessbetter you than me, right, yeah,
exactly. There's a reason why youstay out in the field. I
do my best. Listen, uh, this this area the coastal prairie conservacy
(19:33):
and on the landmasks and all thelands you guys managed. How fragile is
that entire ecosystem? And why isit important? Why should the people of
Texas and the whole world be beconcerned about it? That's a that's a
really complex question. Um. Prairiesystems in the world and generally are probably
(19:53):
under the greatest threat of any systemof all, and coastal prairies are no
exception. I think the standard numberthat we all use all the time is
that there's probably around one percent ofcoastal prairie left that's truly real coastal prairie.
(20:14):
Everything else has been altered and modifiedto some degree. There's you know,
gradations from pure improved pasture and farmcroftland farmland down from those that extreme
all the way to a mission mashof natives mixed in with improved pasture plant
or I hate to use the termimproved, let me rephrase that introduced pasture
plants and all the way to truecoastal prairie. And when you find remnants,
(20:41):
it's really exciting. The problem withprairies is in general coastal prairies as
well, is that they're extremely subtlelandscapes. They're not dramatic, they're not
you know, huge mountains that youcan see are huge deep forests with large,
extremely large trees. And to understandthe prairie system, you really have
to dive into it and pay attentionto it as it changes through the year.
(21:06):
And as you watch it change,you begin to appreciate the complexity and
diversity of what's going on out here. And mixed in we obviously mixed in
with these coastal prairies. We havethe coastal prairie wetlands that I have been,
you know, supporting phenomenal numbers ofwaterfowl over the years and continue to
do so. Even you know,rice farming has helped. You know,
(21:26):
the advantage of rice farming over otherkinds of farming is that it does provide
habitat for waterfowl, waiting birds,shore birds and things that would utilize the
natural native wetlands. And so it'skind of an altered wetlands system, but
it has helped to keep a lotof our waterfowl habitat are viable in this
(21:49):
part of the world. But aswe all know, farming in this part
of the world, particularly rice farmingis on the decline for a number of
reasons, and so to protect thatwe feel. I feel that it's very
extremely important to protect these resources becauseit's something that we all appreciate when we
(22:12):
get out and look at it.But it's hard to understand the prairie unless
you really involve yourself with it.And that's what I try to encourage people
to do. Learn about the prairie, learn about the plants that grow out
here when they grow. Everyone youknow is all excited about wildflowers in springtime.
Well, if you have a reallyhealthy prairie system, the wildflowers that
(22:33):
we think about, the blue bonnetsand the paint brushes and those things that
we all go to the Health countryto see are typically disturbing species. And
they're more prevalent where they're shorter grassesbecause they don't grow very big and they
don't have to compete. If youhave a healthy prairie system, you get
the major bloom of flowers, orthe perennial wildflowers which do their thing in
(22:56):
the in the late summer and intothe fall, and they're much taller and
rods, the swamp sunflowers, theMaximilian sunflowers, things like that, and
so it's, like I said,it's a subtle landscape, but if you
watch it and you pay attention toit, you are willing to immerse yourself
into it. It's a truly rewardingexperience. Yeah, you know, it's
(23:17):
funny you drop out some of thoseareas and you don't really take notice,
and especially if you're trying to getdown the highway and that sort of thing.
But it's it's it's really it's it'sreally a beautiful ecosystem. It's it's
very diverse. And I'm going toask you a totally uninformed question. So
you talked about all the rice farmersand the things that have gone away over
those past years, and that combinedwith the shifting flyways and the fact that
we don't see all the ducks andgeese that we used to see. Do
(23:38):
you guys or other people, um, do you guys ever consider planning,
you know, supplemental rice, Andof course you can't do it on the
grand scale that farmers do it thatliving and breathe it. But do you
guys plant any supplemental you know,feeding areas in the Coastal Prairie Conservacy we
do not. We try. Wehave we have a rice farmer that we
(23:59):
support to degree that we can tryto keep him farming rice for as long
as possible. Like everything else,it's all about money. You know.
Owning land is expensive because you haveto take care of it. And this
landscape is constantly trying to change intosomething completely different than what we know it
as and what we've known it ashistorically, and to keep up with that
(24:23):
it takes a lot of money.We have discussed potentially down the road somewhere
possibly doing something like you suggests.But one of the big issues with rice
farming, particularly on the Katy Prairie, but becoming more so even farther down
the coast, is water availability theKaty Prairie. All the rice that was
(24:47):
historically farmed farmed on the Katy Prairie, with a couple of very small exceptions,
was almost exclusively groundwater. And thereason the rice farming went away is
because most though the irrigation wells thatproduce the rice on the Katy Prairie.
The last round of irrigation wells weredrilled probably in the late sixties into the
mid seventies, and the last expectancyof an irrigation well is about forty to
(25:11):
sixty years and when you're a sixtyto seventy year old rice farmer and your
irrigation well dies because it's you know, it's too old. It won't produce
what you need to grow rice anymore. And you go to the banker to
say it's going to cost me halfa million dollars drilling new irrigation well.
(25:32):
He's going to say, well,how long are you gonna be out there
farming it to pay it back.Well, you know, you look at
the banker and say, well,my kids don't want to farm rice anymore,
and I may have five or tenyears left in me. Well,
you know you're not going to beable to make the return on replacing that
irrigation well. And so you dropa submersible pump down that well to put
some water out in the pastures andstart growing cows instead of rice. And
(25:55):
so that's pretty much what's happened tothe Katy Prairie is you know, as
the rice wells died. Uh,you know, the farmers converted to pasture
and maybe some dry land crops.But then you know the city of Houston
comes knocking and says here here,I am. I'm going to pay you
by the square foot for your land. So what are you going to do?
(26:17):
You're going to take the retirement planthat you have in place, and
like we talked about at the beginning, and take a bunch of money and
go buy something someplace else. Soyou know, and so it's kind of
a long landage way of saying thatthings have changed to at least rice production
(26:37):
on the Kaby Prairie because of theirrigation well standpoint. But we're also seeing
it farther down the coast because Iheard not too long ago that LCR is
not gonna be letting the rice farmershave water this year, and so there's
going to be there's gonna be awhole bunch of right that people were planning
to plant that it's not going toget planted because there's no water to grow
it. And the other thing thatdoes is, you know, all right,
(27:00):
we want to you know, youhave going back to Ducks Unlimited with
their praie wetlands projects. People haveprairie wetlands projects they built for waterfowl habitat
a lot of those guys agree topump water to the habitat well, if
you don't have the water, youcan't pump it, and so, you
know, just we're getting whittled awayby external factors that are beyond our control.
That's slowly taking away the resources thatwe've had for so long to manage
(27:23):
our manage our lands for the benefitof waterfowl, shore birds and other wildlife.
And so what we try to whatwe kind of have to do is
try to think strategically and where wecan restore our habitat and take advantage of
natural conditions. Like we have acouple of wetland property projects on our properties
(27:45):
that catch rainfall run off from theroad ditch almost exclusively, and those projects
are phenomenally successful when we get rainedbecause you pretty much all you have to
do is go out and spit onthe highway and then all of a sudden
you've got water in your wetland project. But if you don't have the ability
to get water, and you know, you can't do that everywhere. So
(28:06):
some of it's about strategic planning andtrying to make the best utilization of the
resources you have, but part ofit is, you know, where it's
not feasible to do the wetlands anymore. Or do the rice for me anymore.
Look at you know, we're lookingat converting and restoring prairie where possible,
and we work with a number ofpeople, some successfully, some not
so successfully. But you know thatit's a it's a growing concern and a
(28:30):
growing industry to try to restore prairiebecause it's going to provide other types of
habitat for other things that are indecline, not only the prairie, you
know, because the prairie's declining,source of species that are dependent on it,
grassland birds are declining. So youknow, we're kind of it's hard
to do, but we're kind oftrying to be all things to all people.
And in some ways we're successful andin some ways we're not. I
(28:52):
got it, I got it.Gonna take a quick break for our last
segment here on Hunting Matters KPRC ninefifty. Then she leaves to me,
(29:22):
says this to me, who littleMotC comes from, out, goes out
and I'll make you smilectings out foryou, whoever, what you want to
do? Coming up with you?What we go through the rhythm and find
you. Welcome back to Honeymatters onKPRC nine fifty. This is Joe B.
T all right, I'm ramone robustand joining us. Today's our guest
Wesley Newman, the conservation director ofthe Coastal Prairie Conservancy. Folks check out
(29:45):
their website at Coastal Prairie Conservancy dotorg. Um. They've a lot,
got a lot of great information onthere, and of course all their social
media channels as well, Facebook,um, YouTube, Twitter, everything out
there. Westley, thanks once againfor joining us today. You bet um.
This is kind of conservation one ohone. But there's I have had
(30:06):
several questions about this actually come tome in the past couple weeks. I
figure I've got a guy on thephone and knows how to help me answer
these questions. People ask me allthe time, specifically, what is a
conservation easement and how does a propertybecome one? Can you kind of run
us through the simple the simple wordingaround that. Yeah, the easiest way
to describe that is a conservation easementremoves a certain set of rights from the
(30:33):
property. And in the simplest terms, it's I mean, what we look
at most frequently to remove are thedevelopment rights so that the property cannot be
divided and can't be turned into somethingother than what it is currently. And
there are as many different ways todo a conservation easement as there are people
(30:55):
doing them. Some conservation easements protectagricultural production, and some conservation easements protect
bottomland hardwood forests. Some conservation easemusprotect coastal prairie and or wetlands, and
so depending on what the purpose ofyour easement are, that defines the conservation
values that you're trying to protect withthe easement. But the big kick hit
(31:15):
item is that once you sign onand agree to all of what everyone is
happy with, that this easement isgoing to protect that it it has to
stay in that form forever. Itcan be sold, It can be left
to your kids, it can bein some cases it may be able to
be subdivided. If you know youhave two kids and you have a thousand
(31:37):
acres, and when you die,you watch your kids each have five hundred
acres, that can be all structuredup front, but once the documents set
in place, it has to bemaintained in the form that as it was
written. And so if you're protectingfarmland, you can go out there and
you know farm you can do this, that and the other within. You
know, with certain restrictions, youknow you're not going to pollute, you're
(31:59):
not and do this, that andthe other, but you can farm it.
But to say you're protecting bottom landhardwoods, well, obviously we're not
going to let a farmer go inthere and bulldoze all the trees out and
turn it into a rice field,even though we like rice, because that's
not what we're trying to protect onthat easement. So every easement is different.
It's like any other land fial thatyou do. It's very specific to
the conservation organization that will be holdingthe easement as well as to the landowner
(32:23):
that will be inheriting the easement thatthey've signed on. And the common thread
in a conservation easement is you havetwo entities, the conservation easement holder,
the land trust and the landowner whoagree that there are certain values of this
property that need to be protected forever. And you work down that work down
(32:45):
a checklist of things that you workthrough to identify what those values are,
and when you come to an agreement, say okay, we all agree on
this, this is how it's goingto be, and every one signs on
the dotted line and that's the wayit is from now on. And that's
what a lot of people have ahard time with because it is forever.
It's not a well I'll do thisfor a few years and then see how
(33:07):
it works and change my mind.I don't, you know, they want
to do something different one though.So it's a process, and you know,
both all parties involved have to beinvested in the process to make sure
that you get to the end resultthat you want. But there I believe
they're very beneficial because you know,they don't make land anymore. We've all
(33:28):
heard that comment. And as thingsare going away, things are getting developed
and paved over, you know,wind farm solar farms, all of these
things are competing with the natural resourcesthat we all know and love as hunters
and outdoors people. And if youcan say I have a property that I
(33:49):
have spent a lot of my lifeon and it is extremely valuable to me
for reasons A, B and C. Is there a conservation organization out there
that is willing to help me techthis and keep it this way in perpetuity,
And that's basically what conservation thesements areall about. Okay, okay,
well, I appreciate you explaining thatbecause there's there's a lot of there's often
a lot of confusion. Should haveasked me, I know, we do
(34:13):
have a guess. I know,you know, but um, we'd be
here forever getting your explosions, soI would have gotten a little more into
detail. But that's right. Theycan be as detailed as you want to.
Yeah, exactly, I'm sure that'sjust as you're just scratching the surface
on that one. Um, Wesley, Um, what is the latest research
(34:34):
project or project that you guys areworking with with the Coastal Prairie Conservancy that
you're the most you're most excited about. That's a good question. Actually,
what I'm most excited about is alittle endangered plant called the Texas Prairie down
Himnoxis, Texana. We have someunique soils because we're adjacent to and some
of our properties are on top ofthe Hockley Salt Dome, and there's high
(34:57):
salinity spoils out here where you canfind some plant communities that would be more
much more typical of coastal marsh ratherthan inland prairie because of the salinity of
the soils, and on these siteswe have a little plant like I said
called Texas Prairie DN. It wasoriginally called Texas bitterweed, and it became
listed as an endangered species. Someonedecided that that wasn't a very good name
(35:22):
for an endangered species, and sothey had a public schools contest to rename
this plant from something other than Texasbitterweed, and the name that stuck was
Texas Prairie DN. And we monitorit with Fishing Walife Service annually, and
we were working Fishing Walife Services hasgotten some researchers out of Illinois that are
(35:43):
looking at trying to identify all thevarious and the sundry pollinators other things going
on with this plant because it untilwe found it on our property, the
only other known population was an addicsreservoir, and our population expanded that more
than tenfold what we have on ourworn ranch and our neighboring Jack Road South
(36:08):
property. And since then, aspeople started looking for it, it started
popping up in other places around thestate. But it's one of those things.
It's an extremely unique habitat because ofthese saline barants, which have all
sorts of endemic plants other than theprairie tom that are found most often on
these types of sites, and sofrom a botanist standpoint, which is kind
(36:30):
of my other interest. Kind ofif I've gone a different direction from kind
of being the general estive, probablywould have gone to be a botanist because
I like plants, and so it'sjust kind of a cool thing that we
we're keeping track of and now thatwe fictional Widlife Service has funding for some
research into the ecology of the plantand the pollinators and the other things going
(36:52):
on with it, that's just somethingI'm really excited about. And as you
know, it's it's unique. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool though,
that you that you guys have identifiedthat and it started to proliferate and that
you're finding it popping up in otherother areas. That's they kind of got
a um, you know, focuson it as well. So before we
wrap up for the day, howcan people get involved with the Coastal Prairie
(37:14):
Conservancy and how can they plan avisit to come come see you guys.
Um thesiest ways you've mentioned, Ithink at least twice, is to go
to our website www. Dot CoastalPrairie Conservancy dot org um and we have
several things on there. You knowhow to visit, how to support us,
(37:35):
this, that and the other hereat my uh my office between Brookshire
and Water and west east central WaterCounty. Got I'm getting directionally challenged.
Uh. We're open on Tuesdays,Fridays and Saturdays from about nine to one
or two o'clock in the afternoon.We have a periodic workday events that are
(38:00):
scheduled on our website, but thosethree days on this property, you can
come out here and we typically havevolunteers out here on those days, but
it's there. It's open to thepublic. So we have a mile and
a half trail within and around ourrestored prairie wetlands fifty five acres that we've
done here, and you can walkthe trails and visit with some of the
(38:22):
volunteers. Just hang out, takeyour time and do nothing, whatever you'd
like to do. But we havea seven day a week daylight to dark
viewing platform at Warren Lake on WarnRanch Road, which is on the Warren
Ranch, and that is an opportunityto get out and just do your own
(38:43):
thing at your own pace, atyour own schedule. See will to be
seen out there. I'm gonna haveto catch you off there. Unfortunately,
West that we are out of time, Ramones give me the wrap up signal,
but thanks so much for joining us, folks. We'll see you next
week. Honey Matters on KPRC ninefifty
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