The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), in partnership with the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), has secured a conservation easement on the O’Connor Ranch in Goliad County. This move protects about 6,410 acres of coastal prairie, one of the largest remaining habitats of its kind in Texas.
Steven Schar, Deputy Executive Director with TCEQ and Governor Greg Abbott’s designee to the RESTORE Council, commented, “This is a huge milestone, not only for Texas, but the entire Gulf Coast. This is the largest conservation easement acquired to-date by the RESTORE Council and ensures critical coastal habitat will remain intact for future generations.”
The purchase of the easement totaled $8.863 million. Of this, $7.6 million came from a grant administered by TCEQ as Texas’ representative to the RESTORE Council, with TNC providing the remaining funds.
Mary Walker, Executive Director of the RESTORE Council, said, “The RESTORE Council is very pleased to support the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality’s and The Nature Conservancy’s efforts to protect critical coastal prairie habitat on Texas family ranchlands. Conservation of such valuable natural habitat is a key strategy to support ecosystem health, and effective partnerships such as this one are essential to Gulf restoration success. We commend TCEQ and TNC for this meaningful effort to advance Gulf Coast restoration and maintain the productivity of these important agricultural lands.”
The RESTORE Council includes governors from all five Gulf states and leaders from six federal agencies. This easement is both the first approved by the RESTORE Council and the largest land protection project funded under the RESTORE Act in the Gulf region. O’Connor Ranch will continue to operate as a private cattle ranch, while the easement prevents development and habitat fragmentation. The protected grassland offers benefits such as flood and hurricane buffering, air and water purification, and carbon storage.
Jeff Francell, associate director of land protection for TNC in Texas, stated, “The O’Connor Ranch marks conservation milestones from one of the first major permanent protections in Texas’ largest intact coastal prairie to the first conservation easement purchased with RESTORE funding. The Nature Conservancy is grateful for this collaborative effort that helped make securing a family legacy in a key conservation area possible.”
RESTORE program funds in Texas are derived from civil penalties associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as mandated by the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE ACT). These funds are used to support restoration, economic development, coastal protection, and resilience projects along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Nature Conservancy is a global organization focused on conserving land and water resources through science-based solutions and collaboration.
