HILL COUNTRY RANCHERS TAKE VOLUNTARY STEPS TO PROTECT RARE BIRDS

CONTACT: Melinda Taylor (512) 478-5161

(AUSTIN — March 28,) Environmental Defense and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today honored two families from the Texas Hill Country who have agreed to manage their ranches for the benefit of the endangered black-capped vireo and golden-cheeked warbler.

The vireo and the warbler are small, colorful song birds that nest in Central Texas in the Spring and early Summer and spend the rest of the year in Mexico and Central America. The ceremony celebrated the first two landowners to enroll in Environmental Defense’s Safe Harbor Program, which provides incentives for private landowners who try to make their property hospitable to endangered species.

“For too long in Texas the philosophy about endangered species on private lands has been ‘Shoot, shovel and shut-up,’ ” said Melinda Taylor, senior attorney for Environmental Defense. “The Safe Harbor program has created a new philosophy, and these two families have made a commitment to conservation that should be a model for landowners across the state.”

The two landowners being honored at the event — Cal and Hobby Porcher from Somervell County and the Russell Family from Williamson County — have agreed to remove excess brush, exclude cattle from the bird’s nesting areas, and plant oak trees, shrubs and other plants used by the birds for nesting and as food sources. In return for their commitment, they will be covered by Environmental Defense’s Safe Harbor permit. Issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the permit gives participating landowners the flexibility to manage their lands for endangered species for a set period of time, and then undo the habitat improvements in the future without incurring legal liability.

“The flexibility of this program made this a much easier decision,” said Kerry Russell, one of the owners of the Russell Family Trust property in Williamson County. “We hope that by participating in the Safe Harbor Program we can demonstrate to other landowners that endangered species management can be compatible with good ranch management.”

Representatives from Environmental Defense and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service look forward to future permits for private land owners. “Our goal for these birds is to bring them back from the brink of extinction, so that they can be removed from the endangered species list,” said David Frederick, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ecological Services office in Austin. “We are convinced that Safe Harbor is an important tool that conservation groups and private landowners can use to advance that goal.

“Texas has an amazing amount of biodiversity, with more than 7,000 documented plant and vertebrate animal species” said David Wolfe, senior scientist for Environmental Defense. “Virtually all of that biodiversity occurs on private lands. This program illustrates that land acquisition is not our only option for conservation, and that private land owners, given an incentive, want to help preserve our environment.”