[texbirds] Re: Fwd: Deer Park Prairie Update
- From: Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "mark.scheuerman@xxxxxxxxx" <mark.scheuerman@xxxxxxxxx>, TexBirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:49:51 -0400
Wow! Awesome! Let's hope they raise the rest of the money in time.
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi), TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Mark Scheuerman
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 4:36 PM
To: TexBirds
Cc: Susan Fortenberry
Subject: [texbirds] Fwd: Deer Park Prairie Update
Hi Texbirders,
Thanks to those who responded to my questions on the endangered Deer Park
Prairie Remnant last week. Apparently enough people love their native prairie
remnants to do something. Here's an update. Maybe I will still get to visit and
check for Henslow's this winter/spring.
Mark Scheuerman
Sugar Land, TX
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susan Fortenberry <texas410@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 3:06 PM
Subject: Deer Park Prairie Update
To: Mark Scheuerman <mark.scheuerman@xxxxxxxxx>
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*Overtime for Deer Park Prairie!*
*"Prairie-grass-roots" fundraising effort gets reprieve*
In the most ambitious conservation land fund drive of its kind ever launched
in Texas, $3.2 million dollars was raised from individuals to help save the
Deer Park Prairie - in less than one week!
Led by Bayou Land Conservancy, with its prairie partners, the Native Prairies
Association of Texas, Katy Prairie Conservancy and the Houston Chapter of the
Native Plant Society of Texas, the fundraising blitz of the past week has gone
into "overtime" for this special 53-acre piece of "platinum-quality" prairie.
Due to the record number of individual donors who came forward, the Deer Park
landowner has agreed to extend the deadline from August 20th to September 10th,
providing Bayou Land Conservancy with 3 more weeks to raise the remaining
$800,000 necessary for the $4 million purchase.
Jaime Gonzalez, Education Director for the Katy Prairie Conservancy, said "For
the landowner to provide this extra grace period, when so many people were just
hearing about this special prairie for the first time, is a true blessing."
"The turnout of individual donors in such a condensed time period has been
nothing less than phenomenal," said Jennifer Lorenz, Executive Director of
Bayou Land Conservancy. In her 20 years of land conservation fundraising
experience "there has been no comparison to the donors of this campaign who
expressed genuine shock that such an ancient prairie still existed, and that
conservation organizations were trying to compete with hot housing market
development pressure. Their enthusiasm was palpable."
Donors have provided generous personal gifts including: $2 million from Terry
Hershey, $100,000 donations, and hundreds of donors on fixed incomes providing
$25 and $50. The local Hamman Foundation provided $200,000, and another family
provided $250,000. Donors came from all over Houston and all parts of Texas
(Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts were also in the
mix!)
Should Bayou Land Conservancy be successful with the new extended timeline,
the land will be donated directly to the Native Prairies Association of Texas
who will manage the health of the prairie and provide guided tours. Bayou Land
Conservancy will place a conservation easement over the property to permanently
protect the land - which would disallow the 250 houses currently planned for
the acreage and any other future development.
The City of Deer Park has promised pedestrian access to the site for weekend
public enjoyment. Students in the adjacent subdivisions would have pedestrian
bridge access through the prairie for their attendance at nearby College Park
Elementary. Liz Tolleson with the Pasadena School District
said: "We are so excited about the opportunity to get our kids out on this land
to walk, skip, hike and move outside; get them off the couch and out of a chair
and learn biology - not from a book or an electronic device, but in the field!"
Gonzalez and other members of the prairie consortium hope to be able to use
the 300+ native plant species (found so far!) at this preserve as a seed bank
to populate prairies all across the Houston region including the "pocket
prairie" at the Medical Center, and the prairie restoration projects at the San
Jacinto Battlegrounds and Armand Bayou Nature Center.
Members of the San Jacinto Battleground Conservancy hope to use the grounds for
re-enactments for student field trips, to show how the topography of the tall
grasses of the prairie hid the "Texians" from the Mexicans who outnumbered them.
Assistance from other conservation organizations has also been provided
by: Houston Audubon, Houston Wilderness and the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.
Don Verser, local birder and naturalist volunteer who "found" the prairie said
he is pleased that his discovery and the landowner's subsequent patience has
gotten the groups this far. "We just need a few more generous folks to come
forward and we can save this truly special place."
*"...the joy of prairie lies in its subtlety. It is so easy-too easy-to be
swept away by mountain and ocean vistas. A prairie, on the other hand, requests
the favor of your closer attention. It does not divulge itself to mere
passersby."* - national prairie expert Suzanne Winckler
Donations can be made through the www.BayouLandConservancy.org website
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or 281-576-1634
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