Conservation History Association of Texas
Texas Legacy Project
Oral History Interview
Nature Conservancy in Texas

Interviewee: Bob Ayres
Date: August 19, 2022
Site: Austin, Texas
Reels: 4034-4035
Executive Producer: Lydia Saldana
Producer: Jeff Weigel
Field Producer / Chief Interviewer: Lee Smith
Videographer: Curtis Craven
Writer / Editor: Ron Kabele
Transcriber: David Todd / Trint
Item: Ayres_Bob_NCItem2_AustinTX_20220819_Reel4034-4035_Audio.mp3

[The bracketed numbers refer to the time code of the interview recording.]

Lee Smith [00:00:15] Where did you grow up?

Bob Ayres [00:00:16] I grew up in San Antonio.

Lee Smith [00:00:19] And like, where did you go to high school and college and just kind of give me a little.

Bob Ayres [00:00:28] I lived in San Antonio until I went off to college. I went to Texas Military Institute to high school, and then from San Antonio to the University of the South, Sewanee in Tennessee. I did my undergraduate degree and did graduate work in theology in Virginia and lived out of state for about ten years. Moved to Austin in 1985.

Lee Smith [00:00:54] Think back to your early life. Was there any experience that you had or that maybe sparked an interest in the natural world?

Bob Ayres [00:01:06] Well, I think the time that I spent on our family’s ranches as a child was really my deep introduction to the natural world. Later on, as I grew up, I was active in Boy Scouts and but on the ranches, hunting, fishing, riding horseback, exploring, star watching, stargazing and then then camping and hiking as a scout. Those were really the my formative experiences outdoors.

Lee Smith [00:01:44] Catch horned toads?

Bob Ayres [00:01:46] I did catch a few horned toads. Absolutely.

Lee Smith [00:01:50] When you were young, were there a lot of fireflies?

Bob Ayres [00:01:54] I do remember at the ranch. This ranch here in Austin are fireflies, you know, out in the yard at night.

Lee Smith [00:02:05] They’ve seemed to have taken a dip when I was a kid. There seem to be a ton of.

Bob Ayres [00:02:09] Yeah, Yeah, I’ve noticed. Not as many in recent years.

Lee Smith [00:02:20] So was there a family member or mentor or a teacher that had a special, you know, gift for or maybe spark something in you for the natural world?

Bob Ayres [00:02:31] I would say both my grandfather Shield and my mom really sparked a love and passion for the outdoors. And my granddad, again, hunting and fishing and just his comfort and familiarity with everything outdoors. He’d grown up on the land in McCullough County, near Brady. And so just and I just we lived close to one another. We were on the ranches together. I just spent a lot of time with him growing up and learning from him. And my mom was was passionate about the outdoors and really an avid conservationist just by inclination. I remember being on the ranch here. She would turn out the lights in the house and we would go out and look at the stars at night, and she would have books about that and trying to figure out the constellations. And also, she was an avid recycler long before anyone had the idea of curbside recycling. And we would carry stuff around town to be a recycle. She was deeply concerned about destruction of natural areas. As you know, the city of San Antonio was growing and in natural areas were being impacted by development. And and I could see her distress around that as we would drive around town and she would talk about what was happening. And so I think that she inherited a lot of her concern for the natural world from her mother, who I barely knew. She died when I was young. But that sensibility has been in the family for for those generations, at least.

Lee Smith [00:04:28] With your granddad, would you go out hunting in a blind with them or something, or ham and rattle? Or what would what experience did you have with him?

Bob Ayres [00:04:38] Well, on the ranch here, we would usually sit in the blind and for hunting deer or turkey. We have a ranch also in the Davis Mountains. And that was you know, we were not hunting in blinds. We were, you know, stalking deer in canyons and much more rugged terrain. He was an avid bird hunter. So I did a lot of dove and quail hunting in south Texas. He had a farm near Atascosa, which he where he loved to hunt birds with dogs. So I had all of that experience. And so a little bit of all of that.

Lee Smith [00:05:15] And then fishing? Would you go down to the coast?

Bob Ayres [00:05:21] Pond fishing on the ranches, but also fishing in Barton Creek, fishing on the coast, mostly for redfish out of Port Mansfield. He loved to do that. Not so much on deep sea fishing a little bit, but he took me to Wyoming, fly fishing and even to Alaska to fish one summer. So he he was passionate about fishing as well as hunting and and was excited as I got older to be able to take me, you know, on more adventurous fishing trips, but nothing really any better than the standing in a in a in a stock tank in south Texas, you know, trying to catch a big bass.

Lee Smith [00:06:06] Yeah. A lot of hunters become birders just because they get bored. You know what I mean? Sitting around waiting for deer. Did that ever happen to you?

Bob Ayres [00:06:18] Well, I think my hunting did lead to birding. When my granddad died, I just found that I wasn’t as interested in hunting, and. But I was still looking for a way to spend time outdoors. And it was actually a Nature Conservancy field trip that I attended. And I believe it was at the Gunsite Mountain Ranch down near Medina, and someone was talking, but about half the people were just staring up into the trees through the binoculars. And I was thinking, what are they looking at and what’s the deal with that? And so that kind of got me interested in paying attention to birds and then seeing if I could figure out, you know, what birds were singing when there was a chorus of birds going on. And so, yes, over time, I became an avid bird watcher.

Lee Smith [00:07:10] Would you say your would you describe yourself as a bird, a birder now, as opposed to a hunter or.

Bob Ayres [00:07:17] Yes, I am. Well, I’m. Only a birder. Now, when I was in New Zealand on a on a trip, I was introduced as a keen birder, which I liked because it denoted enthusiasm without necessarily indicating expertise. But I’ve been since the mid-nineties. I’ve been an avid bird watcher.

Lee Smith [00:07:42] I should write questions. I’ve lost myself. Where were we? Yeah. Popular culture. Was there anything in popular culture that piqued your interest? Or a book or a magazine or a movie or something that got you interested in nature? In addition to all these other things?

Bob Ayres [00:08:11] Well, it was a film that had made a really strong impression on me. My mother, I guess, you know, in the late ’60s I was probably 10 or 12 years old, took me to I think it was actually a UNICEF event, but they showed the film version of of Holling C. Holling’s children’s book “Paddle to the Sea”, which is the story of an Indian boy who carves a figurine of an Indian in a canoe and names the the Indian paddled to the sea and lets it loose in a stream. And it’s the this figure’s, carving’s adventures, you know, from the stream all the way to the ocean through pristine natural areas and engagements with wildlife and people. But then it ends very dramatically in the film floating, you know, through this bay in this utterly polluted urban landscape.

Bob Ayres [00:09:13] And it just made a really profound impression on me, which I then had my own experience of it. A few years later, my parents took us to Washington, D.C., and we were boarding a boat on the Potomac River to go visit Mount Vernon. And by then I was already, you know, loved to fish. And there were these dead fish floating in the river beside the boat, which I’d never seen anything like that before. And this was before the Clean Water Act. The Potomac River was, you know, highly polluted. And so I had my own sort of firsthand experience of going from, you know, fishing, catching and eating fish in Barton Creek on Shield Ranch and clean water to, you know, to scene fish in this, you know, completely other, you know, environment. And and so all of that made an impression to me on, you know, both the beauty and the natural world. And also, you know, what could go wrong. The fragility and the fragility of the natural world.

Lee Smith [00:10:17] And that’s. That’s stuck with you?

Bob Ayres [00:10:19] Yeah, I think it did. And in other similar experiences. But as I was, you know, thinking about it, that that stuck out as a memory of, of an early of something in the, in culture that made a strong impression on me.

Lee Smith [00:10:37] So what is the Shield Ranch in Travis County?

Bob Ayres [00:10:43] Well, the Shield Ranch is 6400 acres of protected wild land, including six and a half miles of Barton Creek, just under 20 miles southwest of downtown Austin.

Lee Smith [00:11:00] And. What’s the history of it with your family? Did you buy it yourself? Or where did it come from?

Bob Ayres [00:11:11] So my maternal grandparents, Fred and Vera Shield, bought the first portion of the ranch in 1938. They were living in San Antonio. My grandfather was an independent oilman and had begun to enjoy some success in the oil business at a time when land prices were depressed. He had grown up in the country and had an interest in agriculture and land and and so purchased the first 5400 acres of this ranch. Then and then his subsequent adjoining parcels became available. They purchased more of the land. And to bring it to to, you know, to the ranch as we know it today. My mom was an only child as an only child. And so today it’s my mother and my sister and myself who are the owners of the ranch.

Lee Smith [00:12:06] And back then, was it a working ranch?

Bob Ayres [00:12:11] It was when my grandparents bought the ranch. There were very few improvements on the ranch. It had been overgrazed and there was livestock on the ranch, but it was mostly regrowth as juniper. And so over the next 10 or 15 years, they invested a lot into the ranch in terms of improvements building barns, drilling wells, building fences, clearing the ash juniper, working with the Soil Conservation Service on erosion control in some of the fields on the ranch, working with what’s now the Parks and Wildlife Department on Wildlife and game management, primarily in those days for game species and taking advantage of of those agency resources to try to basically begin what’s been an 80 year land restoration project.

Lee Smith [00:13:07] So why did your family pursue a conservation easement for this ranch?

Bob Ayres [00:13:14] In the late ’80s, because of nascent plans for an outer loop around the city of Austin that in those days was slated to cross Barton Creek on Shield Ranch. You know, we realized that, you know, the future of the ranch was going to be very different in the past.

Bob Ayres [00:13:35] And I’d grown up in San Antonio and I’d seen the ranches of families that we knew become residential subdivisions and strip malls. And I knew personally that I didn’t really want that to be the future for our ranch, but that there were, you know, genuine threats and challenges to maintaining this kind of land in an urbanizing context. And so when I moved back to Texas after college and grad school and all, it was really with the intent to to find a conservation future for this ranch.

Bob Ayres [00:14:14] And we began, once the proposal for the Outer Loop surfaced, we began doing some master plan work for the future of the ranch, thinking about what we might want to to happen here and how to achieve those objectives. And a land planner that we were working with said, “Well, you might be interested in talking to the Nature Conservancy.”

Bob Ayres [00:14:35] And so I’d never heard of the Nature Conservancy. Picked up the phone and called the office in San Antonio. And not long after, jeff Weigel, still working with the Conservancy, appeared at the ranch with Helen Ballew, who was then doing the private land owner outreach. And we took a tour of the ranch and talked about what we were doing and what they were doing. And at the end of the time together, Jeff handed me a brochure that was recently minted about conservation easements as a as a tool, and those were recently been approved by the Texas legislature as, as a tool for landowners. And so that was how I first learned about conservation easements.

Bob Ayres [00:15:23] And then we took the next ten years or so to to really explore whether a conservation easement might be a good tool for our family to reach our, you know, long-term objectives for Shield Ranch.

Lee Smith [00:15:38] And your decision was?

Bob Ayres [00:15:41] And we decided it was. So, in 1998, we we were in a moment in our family’s history where we wanted to secure the long-term future of the ranch, but we also needed to realize part of its economic value within the family. And that coincided in a somewhat amazing way with the City of Austin’s determination that they wanted to protect their watersheds by acquiring both fee simple and conservation easements on land and the area around the ranch.

Bob Ayres [00:16:23] And so we were able, the Nature Conservancy was was working with us directly, but they were also acquiring land for the City of Austin. And so to collectively our family, the city and the Nature Conservancy were able to come up with a plan where we would donate a conservation easement on about two thirds of the ranch to the Nature Conservancy, sell a conservation easement to the City of Austin as part of a of a bond initiative that that the city passed to to fund their acquisition of land and conservation easement interests.

Bob Ayres [00:17:04] And then and in so doing, we put about 95% of the ranch under a conservation easement. We left out some portions that we felt like, you know, might be suitable for development at some time in the future.

[00:17:20] And so that, over a course of a year or two, we negotiated the terms of the easements and we did the easement with the Conservancy first, on December 30th of 1998, right in this room. We signed up the easements.

Bob Ayres [00:17:37] And at that same time, we signed up the agreements with the city and we closed on our easement with the city in August of 1999.

Lee Smith [00:17:47] So there were two.

Bob Ayres [00:17:48] Two conservation easements on the ranch, contiguous, sharing a common line that collectively put almost all the ranch under a conservation easement.

Lee Smith [00:18:03] So how is the Nature Conservancy as a partner in finding the solutions for what your family was looking for?

Bob Ayres [00:18:12] Well, the great thing about the great thing about a conservation easement is that it’s in perpetuity. But the reason it can be converted to perpetuity is that some other entity is holding it to enforce it. So in order for us to ensure that our intentions for the ranch would be, you know, going forward in time, irrespective of who owned the ranch, whether it be our heirs or anyone in the family, whatever, just sold it.

Bob Ayres [00:18:42] That’s that’s where the Nature Conservancy came in. They’re holding the easement. And and their commitment to enforcing the easement meant that, you know, we were assured that our intentions would be safeguarded over over time. There’s now a robust land trust community in Texas, which is a great thing.

Bob Ayres [00:19:03] But in those days, the Nature Conservancy was really the only land trust in the state that had the sophistication to do the kind of complex easement that we were interested in, given our proximity to an urban area. And and and some of the ways that, you know, we wanted to to make the ranch available for other nonprofit uses in the future.

Bob Ayres [00:19:26] And so we found the Nature Conservancy to be a very able partner in crafting an easement that met their objectives for protecting conservation values and our objectives as it related to our our vision for the ranch.

Lee Smith [00:19:41] So how flexible are conservation easements as a tool for landowners to use to further their vision?

Bob Ayres [00:19:51] One of the thing one of the reasons why in the end we were able to reach the decision to place conservation easements on the ranch is that we found that an easement is a flexible tool. And by the time we did the easements, we had already created a master plan for the ranch and we had certain long-term objectives.

Bob Ayres [00:20:13] While we wanted to continue agricultural production and recreational uses which are typically preserved under conservation easements. We also wanted to develop some unique kinds of programing nonprofit type programing, a summer camp, possibly even facilities for a retreat center. These were all things we were talking about back in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Bob Ayres [00:20:39] And we found that we were able to craft an easement that would allow for those types of future uses and still meet the Conservancy’s objectives for for protection because only such a small fraction of the ranch, would ever possibly be developed, particularly relative to the intense development that we could all see was going to come around us.

Bob Ayres [00:21:05] And in terms of protecting conservation values like water quality and wildlife habitat, there wasn’t any fundamental incompatibility between the small amount of development we wanted to pursue and the protection that the Conservancy and the city of Austin were after.

Lee Smith [00:21:26] Why is that? Those nonprofit activities. Why is that important?

Bob Ayres [00:21:32] Well, I think what we realized is I mean, the ranch is nearly ten square miles just on the edge of Austin. That’s a lot of land. And we just felt like that there were ways that that land could be really valuable to the larger community from the point of view of what’s now often called ecosystem services, just providing water quality, clean air, wildlife habitat, open space in an area that’s, you know, growing very rapidly, but also for people to be able to have different experiences on the land that otherwise they might not be able to have of, but also things like research and environmental education, all of those are things that because of our proximity to town, we felt it would be, you know, that we could offer uniquely to the larger community in a way that that, you know, a lot of times folks would have to travel a lot farther to to reach a destination like that.

Lee Smith [00:22:40] Well, you know, part of one of your easements had city money from it. So providing an avenue for education for citizens that may have had tax dollars coming to that. That’s kind of a symbiotic relationship in certain regards. I mean, I don’t know where I’m going with that because it’s it’s you know, it just makes good civic sense.

Bob Ayres [00:23:07] Right? I’ve one of a quote that I encountered many years ago, and I don’t consider myself steeped in philosophy, but Aristotle said once that the ownership of land should be mostly private, but the use of it mostly public. And that really stuck in my mind as a way to think about. You know, in Texas, there’s a lot of discussion of private property rights, maybe not as much discussion of private property responsibilities.

[00:23:38] And so to me, the Aristotle quote, kind of balanced the two and gave me a sort of a philosophical framework for thinking about how we might approach our decisions around the land. And I think you’re I think that your point is well taken that that where there is a public investment in private land, that then there is a, you know, public benefit as well, just makes a lot of sense.

Lee Smith [00:24:07] And you kind of covered the importance of the site. But I kind of when we get to that later about how does it relate to other partials that are kind of from here to Lady Bird Lake. So what is the connection. This is, we’re not an island. What is the the connection of this and other properties in Austin?

Bob Ayres [00:24:38] Right. I mean, if you look at a map now of this region, you see this sort of checkerboard of protected lands and of which the Shield Ranch is a critical component because of its size and its location in the in the center of the Barton Creek watershed. But those lands were protected for endangered species as part of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, the Nature Conservancy played a critical role in that effort, continues to, and but also the desire to protect water quality and quantity, but also the desire to protect recreational, you know, access for a growing city. And so there’s been, you know, funding available for land protection for all of those reasons.

Bob Ayres [00:25:41] And it’s when it all is put together, it’s it’s an impressive amount of conservation that has happened over the years. And the Nature Conservancy has, you know, really been involved all along, along the way since the late 1980s.

Lee Smith [00:25:59] Well, it’s a it’s a kind of a unique partnership between so many different. You’ve got the feds, you’ve got the city and state, you’ve got private landowners. I mean, it’s all this, you know, that maybe have different interests, specific interests. But overall, it covers all those bases you’re talking about.

Bob Ayres [00:26:20] Yeah. So there it is a an effort of many, many partners. There are many federal dollars that that flowed into the the acquisition of lands for the Balcones Refuge for endangered species because of the Endangered Species Act. Both the City of Austin and Travis County had had an interest in in that habitat conservation plan and contributed funds and lands to that.

Bob Ayres [00:26:50] And then you had private landowners who were willing to either donate or make below-market or even market, you know, rate transactions to to bring this about. And then just a multitude of public citizens who are strong advocates with their local representatives to for, you know, for for land and water quality protection.

Lee Smith [00:27:18] Well and the voters – when a lot of these things have come up for votes, both in San Antonio and Austin, the you know, the public have gotten behind.

Bob Ayres [00:27:28] This, the city of the city, the citizens of Austin’s approval for the bond initiative that allowed for the purchase of the conservation easement on the city’s portion of the Shield ranch to the portion of the ranch under the city’s easement. You know, that bond initiative was really critical to our family’s being able to to fulfill our vision for the ranch and meet our needs as a family at the same time.

Lee Smith [00:28:04] Y’all were fairly early in the process of of doing this. Have other private landowners contacted you or spoken to you about, you know, they may have been on the fence about some of these things. Has anybody spoken to you about that?

Bob Ayres [00:28:22] Really, almost since the time that we first did the easements, we’ve been talking with other landowners who were interested in easements. Some of that was word of mouth or maybe maybe they were families who we already knew or maybe families that knew about us through mutual friends or other ways. And we’ve always been happy to share our story. Everyone’s story and journey is different, and there’s no one right outcome.

Bob Ayres [00:28:48] But to the degree that our journey has been, you know, can be of use to anybody else as they think about their plans for the future of their land, we’re always happy to have that conversation. And and at least several times a year, we’re usually sitting down with another family and and talking about, you know, our experience and and what we’ve learned and and and always excited to be part of that larger work in Texas.

Lee Smith [00:29:22] How does that make you feel? Being I mean, you’ve done a lot just on your property, but how does it make you feel to help out these other folks and and kind of be the legacy of this kind of work?

Bob Ayres [00:29:38] Well, it’s it’s gratifying to be part of anyone’s, you know, journey in that process. I think of it as sort of being on sacred ground. And it’s complicated to figure out solutions for privately and within within a family. You know, families have unique and different interests and sometimes competing interests and and complicated family dynamics. And so, you know, it’s not an easy thing to do and it’s deeply fulfilling when it comes together.

Lee Smith [00:30:16] I’ve strayed again. We done the second easement. We’ve done how they fit in. We’ve done Barton Springs. So what, you mentioned research. What research goes on here?

Bob Ayres [00:30:33] Most of the research that happens on the ranch is done by other folks. You know, we’re in proximity to a number of local universities, so we’ve been happy to make the land available in ways that don’t conflict with our use for studies. Some of that’s been for wildlife, some of it’s been for plants, and some of it is more really academic focused, some of it is more applied.

Bob Ayres [00:31:05] We’ve cooperated with the City of Austin and with local groundwater districts on, you know, access for water quality testing over a long period of time. I mean, back since the early ’90s, the city of Austin has been testing water quality in Barton Creek. We, our wells are being used by the local groundwater districts to monitor groundwater impacts of of development.

Bob Ayres [00:31:33] So, you know, we have research relative to oak wilt, research relative to trying to contain invasive species like KR bluestem, research on golden-cheeked warblers and other migratory songbirds.

Bob Ayres [00:31:53] All kinds of different projects over the year.

Bob Ayres [00:31:55] There’s currently a study on macro invertebrate life cycles in intermittent stream areas like Barton Creek. That’s happening on the ranch currently. Stream morphology studies. So over the years, quite, quite a lot of research has happened on the ranch.

Lee Smith [00:32:14] Is there one is like UT or A&M or is there like one group that’s. Or does it just vary?

Bob Ayres [00:32:21] No, really, we’ve we’ve had a lot of different both agencies and universities with access to the Ranch Community University in San Antonio. University of Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor University and others have been out and the Texas Forest Service, a number of different groups.

Lee Smith [00:32:50] And so the educational programs that go on here, there’s the what is it, Casita?

Bob Ayres [00:32:58] El Ranchito.

Lee Smith [00:32:58] El Ranchito.

Bob Ayres [00:33:02] Well, when we did our initial visioning and master plan for the ranch back in 1987, one of the things we dreamed about was having a summer camp on the ranch. We had all enjoyed summer camps.

Bob Ayres [00:33:18] We also liked the idea of sharing some of the experiences that we’d had growing up on the ranch with kids who might not otherwise have the opportunity to have those experiences on a Texas ranch.

Bob Ayres [00:33:28] And in 2000, we hired Terry Siegenthaler, who had a background in nature education, and we suddenly had the capacity within our own staff to to develop a program like that.

Bob Ayres [00:33:43] So in partnership with West Cave Outdoor Learning Center, which is just down the road from Shield Ranch, and El Buen Samaritano is a social service agency and mission of the Episcopal Church in South Austin that served the demographic of folks in Austin we were hoping to reach, we collaboratively launched El Ranchito as a nature immersion summer camp in the summer of 2007. So we just completed our 16th year of operating this camp.

Bob Ayres [00:34:19] We began with younger kids and then as they aged out and wanted to continue, we expanded the program through high school.

Bob Ayres [00:34:27] We operate two camps. The the the camp for younger kids is a nature discovery camp. And the camp for the high schoolers is a Conservation Corps program where the kids are actually doing conservation projects on and off the ranch, and they’re paid a stipend for their work and gaining work experience and educational experience that will be useful to them as they move forward into their adult life.

Lee Smith [00:34:58] That’s very cool. How does that make you feel? I mean.

Bob Ayres [00:35:04] Well, the development of our El Ranchito has been one of the most satisfying projects of my life. To see kids who are, you know, first-generation immigrants to our country realize through the years that they return to El Ranchito, that college is an opportunity, to see some of those kids head off to college, to come back and to be counselors at El Ranchito, to make the magic of that summer camp experience possible for, you know, kids coming up behind them has been deeply grateful.

Bob Ayres [00:35:42] And the first year, after we did camp, we did interviews with the campers and their families, but also with our staff members and realized that we were having a profound impact on the staff who were with us each summer in terms of what their career direction might be and how they wanted to incorporate the natural world into their lives going forward.

Bob Ayres [00:36:03] So that wasn’t even an impact that we had anticipated when we launched the camp, we were thinking about the kids. But it’s just had and it’s connected us to such an amazingly diverse communities of partners of all sorts that has been part of the really the joy and pleasure of of doing the El Ranchito program.

Lee Smith [00:36:30] The gift of giving seems to have really blessed you.

Bob Ayres [00:36:34] Well, the gift of giving is something that I learned from my parents. Both my mom and my dad are really exemplars of generosity and stewardship. And my dad talked too often of the of the joy that comes from giving and not merely talking in terms of duty and responsibility, but just of the joy of giving and sharing. And so I found that to be true in my own experience.

Lee Smith [00:37:06] Yeah. To have your staff come back and you had to focus on the kids, but then the benefits to to the people that participated. Is yeah we weren’t expecting it and that’s that’s that the added benefit. You have to do So What threatened endangered species are here right now?

Bob Ayres [00:37:34] Well, the the endangered species, federally listed species on the ranch right now is the golden-cheeked warbler. And we occasionally have black-capped vireos nesting on the ranch. We have quite a lot of black-capped vireo habitat. So I’m curious to see whether over time we you know, we may eventually have a larger population of vireos. Vireos are no longer listed as an endangered species, but still a species of concern. And so those are the primary endangered species.

[00:38:10] And I think part of what’s unique about the ranch is just the diversity of of of both flora and fauna, and particularly given the proximity to, you know, to so much development. And there are there are, you know, plant species of interest here, too. But to me, it’s the the sort of mosaic of of diverse habitat types and the overall ecological diversity of the ranch that makes it unique and important in, you know, in a regional context.

Lee Smith [00:38:48] So what management practices have you engaged in to make all this happen?

Bob Ayres [00:38:54] Well, I like to say that that our that this is an 80-year experiment in land restoration and that our tools are fairly crude in a way. And and and but the primary tools that we’ve engaged in have been brush control, primarily of ash juniper, through sort of all means known but mechanical and hand and and prescribed burning.

Bob Ayres [00:39:27] The Nature Conservancy has has been really our partner in doing prescribed burns because we don’t have the staff or the sophistication to do those kinds of burns, you know, safely in the environment that we find ourselves here.

Bob Ayres [00:39:42] And then our rotational grazing for our cattle operation and and to sort of mimic the impacts that bison would have had on the landscape as much as we can.

[00:39:56] And then managing ungulate populations, primarily white-tailed deer, those, that combination of brush control, burning, the deer control through hunting, and the rotational grazing have really been the tools that we’ve used to to effect a really a radical transformation of the of the habitat, wildlife habitat on the ranch.

Lee Smith [00:40:29] So what cultural significance does this ranch have?

Bob Ayres [00:40:35] Well, the ranch has considerable cultural significance. And actually in our conservation easements, in addition to that, the values of the the natural values of the property, the conservation values, are also called out as one of the purposes for protecting the ranch. And there are a number of significant prehistoric sites as well as settlement area homestead sites. And then even the agricultural infrastructure that my grandparents built in the ’40s and ’50s is now of historical note, and particularly given how rapidly the agricultural landscape is being erased as the area develops.

Bob Ayres [00:41:25] So in 2021, I believe, we, 6400 acres of Shield Ranch under conservation easement is designated as a historic district under the National Park Service, a designation for a landscape for for the whole landscape scale, and of all those elements, the prehistoric, the settlement area and then the kind of more post-Depression modern agricultural era, the infrastructure.

Lee Smith [00:41:58] So the prehistoric you found, I guess, a lot of arrowheads and camp, a campsite or.

Bob Ayres [00:42:04] There are several campsites that are at the base of, you know, south-facing so protected from winter wind, south-facing areas along the creek, along Barton Creek. These are the two the two most important of those are are are state designated antiquities, state antiquities landmarks through the Historical Commission Texas.

Bob Ayres [00:42:39] And one was a field study site for a Ph.D. archeology student at the University of Texas, where they found evidence of pretty much continuous occupation of the or continuous occupation of the site back at least 4500 years.

Bob Ayres [00:43:02] But there are artifacts on the ranch that date back a eight, ten thousand years and are some of the oldest that have been found in the area.

Bob Ayres [00:43:10] So then in the historic realm, we’ve documented where some of these homesteads were. And one old log cabin that was still standing, barely, on the ranch we restored back in 1991. And so and there’s also a historic rock post office and store and store on the ranch.

Bob Ayres [00:43:35] And we’ve conducted oral histories and and some research into, you know, into some into that settlement area area history on the ranch.

Lee Smith [00:43:52] So how does that influence kind of your sense of a place for this?

Bob Ayres [00:44:00] My mom likes to say we weren’t the first people here. And so I think well, even in the so one one thing we haven’t talked about is that we’ve are building some new facilities for our summer camp program. We’re calling this the campsite at Shield Ranch. And and this will enable us to do educational programing year-round and expand our camp program.

Bob Ayres [00:44:28] And this is all within the conservation easement that the Nature Conservancy holds on the ranch. But when you’re there at that site, you’re in the vicinity of some of the oldest artifacts that have been found on the ranch by, you know, evidence of indigenous peoples’ presence on the land for a millennium.

Bob Ayres [00:44:50] There’s a settlement area, a stacked rock fence that surrounds an old field, cultivated field. And then there’s the ranching history and use of that area, plus the, you know, now 16 years of history of kids camping on the site.

Bob Ayres [00:45:10] So someone arriving on that site is arriving at a place with all of that history and and are joining, you know, that experience of that land in the in the present moment.

Lee Smith [00:45:25] Yeah so they’re learning and experiencing.

Bob Ayres [00:45:28] Right I think. Yes. And you know the science education that we do on the ranch through our El Ranchito in collaboration with other partners is really in the realm of informal science. That idea that science can be best learned through direct experience on the land. And and so it is it is learning in the context of the experience of the land, the weather, what you’re actually observing and touching and smelling and hearing. That’s the that’s the way we like to to do science at Shield Ranch.

Lee Smith [00:46:10] So what’s your favorite spot on the ranch? Is there a favorite spot or a favorite time?

Bob Ayres [00:46:16] Well, my favorite season of the year on Shield Ranch is in the late fall, late November or early December. Oftentimes, they’re just, you know, cool, clear days. The grasses are seeded out and the light in the late evening on the limestone bluffs or even on the house is just magical and mystical to me. Or the fog on on the creek early in the morning. So that’s my absolute favorite time of year. And even though it’s late, they’re often fall-blooming wildflowers and a profusion of butterflies and monarchs passing through at the end of their migration. And so that’s my happy time at Shield Ranch.

Bob Ayres [00:47:01] My favorite places on the ranch are the tributaries to Barton Creek. These, you know, seasonal streams that, you know, some parts of the year are entirely dry. But others, you know, this clear-flowing, you know, water over limestone, you know, crawdads and and fish and and wildlife and. And then once you’re down in these streams, you’re, you know, with the water and the topography, you really just are oblivious to the presence of a major metropolitan area close by. And those are my favorite places to spend time and explore at the ranch.

Lee Smith [00:47:41] Yeah, we hit a couple of those spots and we had the same experience not being able to see a, you know, a high line or a bank of apartments on a on a ridge.

Bob Ayres [00:47:53] Right.

Lee Smith [00:47:54] And just to hear the water. Yeah, that.

Lee Smith [00:48:06] Now there’s other Shield ranches or there’s there’s other spots that that you’ve embraced with the Nature Conservancy to protect or are using conservation easements. Tell me about some of those.

Bob Ayres [00:48:21] Well, my grandparents Shield who bought this ranch in the late ’30s, bought a second ranch in Real County. So more of the western edge of the Hill Country. In the Nueces, mostly the Nueces River watershed near the town of Camp Wood. And that was the mid ’40s.

Bob Ayres [00:48:41] And then in the early ’50s, they bought a ranch in the Davis Mountains of the Trans-Pecos of West Texas. And so we still own, as a family, those, all three of the ranches and are actively managing them for conservation values.

Bob Ayres [00:49:01] The ranch at Camp Wood in Real County, we have two conservation easements there as well with the Nature Conservancy, both in conjunction with mitigation work we’ve done for endangered species, both the black-capped vireo and the golden-cheeked warbler.

Bob Ayres [00:49:19] And then on the ranch in in West Texas, in the Davis Mountains, we’ve partnered with the Nature Conservancy on a lot of biological inventory work. There are some really unique plant and animal species on that ranch. And so the Conservancy’s been out doing surveys and and annual breeding bird surveys and, and and so forth.

Bob Ayres [00:49:45] So also the Nature Conservancy has been a great ally for us in terms of managing these ranches. They, you know, typically own a cornerstone preserve in the regions where they’re working in Texas. So they have actual land management experience that we’ve learned from. And they’ve also assisted us with prescribed burns and and other management activities through the years.

Lee Smith [00:50:12] And that all happened after this first one here, Travis County, Right.

Bob Ayres [00:50:18] Our introduction to the Nature Conservancy was at this ranch in Travis County. And then, as you know, the relationship deepened. And and it happens that both of the other ranches are significant, ecologically significant. And so we were happy to to, you know, to really the Nature Conservancy has taught us a lot of what we know about our ranches and many other partners, too. But that’s been another benefit of that relationship, is just learning what’s there that we might not have seen or understood that was there or that we, or not, maybe we knew it was there, but we didn’t appreciate the uniqueness or or the value of it before.

Lee Smith [00:51:02] So what is your vision for the future of the Shield Ranch properties?

Bob Ayres [00:51:09] My vision for the future of the Shield Ranch properties is that our family will continue to own and enjoy that land as as long as they want to. And that that we have provided the resources for the family to be able to do that. They’re through the easements, the knowledge that whoever owns the land in the future, certain, you know, protections will be in place to make sure that the most important features of those lands are protected for future generations.

Bob Ayres [00:51:46] So I think particularly with the ranch here at Austin, to find more in new ways to share that resource with the larger community. My mother in 2019 donated 131 acres out of her ownership into the Shield Ranch Foundation, which is a nonprofit that we’ve created to operate our El Ranchito program, but ultimately to own a significant part of the ranch as well. So that’s a part of the future that we’re moving toward.

Bob Ayres [00:52:23] There are other kinds of programs that would be compatible with the conservation easements that we envision on the ranch, including an area where there would be a sort of a system of of trails that people could enjoy, potentially a retreat center down the road.

Bob Ayres [00:52:44] So we have other other projects that we want to pursue that are consistent with with our long-range planning.

Bob Ayres [00:52:54] And I mentioned the the the master plan that we did in the 1980s, but we came back together as a family in 2016. So 30 years later, when my sister and I, our kids, our six kids, were about the age that we were when we did the original plan and really looked at what the next 30 years might look like. And created a 2030 Shield ranch vision, which included some of these elements I’ve just been describing. And it’s a blueprint to kind of lead us into the future beyond what we’ve done so far.

Lee Smith [00:53:33] What’s on the table over here. There’s a model over there..

Bob Ayres [00:53:37] So the model on the table is for the campsite facility that we I mentioned we built for our El Ranchito program, and that facility is now substantially complete. We will hold the grand opening on September 24th, 2022, this year, and then begin year-round programing out of that facility beginning beginning this year.

[00:54:03] The facility is entirely off-grid. It’s all solar, all rainwater. The first public water system approved by the state of Texas for only rain water that’s not a water bottling company. And also the first-ever permitted use in the state in Travis County for a new generation of evaporative waterless toilets that we’re using for our cabins at the campsite.

[00:54:35] So some firsts that we’re proud of. I think we’ve wanted to see that development as something that would point the way toward more sustainable development, you know, in an area that’s becoming hotter and drier, and and as more folks are moving onto land with limited resources.

Lee Smith [00:54:55] Well, now we just got some rain yesterday. Got a little bit this morning, but we haven’t had rain in a long time. So how is that system working your your rainwater system?

Bob Ayres [00:55:08] Well, we were grateful for recent rains because we had our the tanks, the water storage tanks, for the facility or have been largely empty since they were installed. And we’ve done calculations which make us think we can operate off rainwater through dry periods. We’ll just calibrate our use and the numbers of showers and the lengths of showers and whether or not there’s showers based on water availability and and available sunlight. But we’re going to … It’s an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.

Lee Smith [00:55:46] Well, if you just completed it, you haven’t had a full year of rainfall or, you know, to really.

Bob Ayres [00:55:56] That’s right.

Lee Smith [00:55:56] Experience how that system, because that’s a long-term system. It’s not, you know, so it’s it’s fairly early days.

Bob Ayres [00:56:04] Correct. Yeah. We’re just getting started.

Lee Smith [00:56:10] So do you have any advice for other families that may be in a similar position as yours was back in the 90s?

Bob Ayres [00:56:19] Well, my advice for families who are thinking about land conservation may be considering conservation easements. If that turns out to be, you know, an appropriate tool, first of all, communication and and staying in touch. We found it really useful to work with outside facilitators and experts to to do our our planning work together. Highly recommend that approach and just patience. It takes time to listen carefully, both to the land and to one another and and to be creative, I guess, about what solutions can meet everyone’s needs and desires, you know, for a piece of property.

Lee Smith [00:57:16] What about young people? What advice do you have for young people that may be thinking of entering a field of conservation?

Bob Ayres [00:57:25] Well for young people thinking about a career or engagement in conservation, I think, you know, just spending as much time outside in a wide array of of ecosystems and habitats is is really important. And I think reading widely and then just engaging the land as holistically as possible, whether it’s, you know, science, ecology, literature, art. And just having all of that, you know, come come together. But the, you know, just getting back outside and in and in the field and and staying close to to what’s happening. And that’s going to be my my strongest advice.

Lee Smith [00:58:21] So what is your outlook for the future and what it may hold for conservation?

Bob Ayres [00:58:27] Well, I think the challenges are immense. I am, by nature, a hopeful person. I feel like the climate crisis is also an opportunity because I think increasingly, you know, everyone can see the consequences of the choices we make and the need to protect natural areas for their value in addressing climate change issues.

Bob Ayres [00:58:58] But I also think the recent pandemic has reminded a lot of people, you know, how, what a solace nature can be. Surely it has been for me in my life. And the importance of access to the outdoors, you know, for everyone in our community. And I think, you know, a greater appreciation for equitable access and for communities that, you know, typically have not had it.

Bob Ayres [00:59:24] And those aren’t only urban communities. A lot of rural communities, the folks living in those towns have very little access to the wide open spaces all around them. So I think increasingly too, the conservation community needs to be cognizant of its role in meeting, you know, those really important needs of the human, human and human community and of our neighbors.

Lee Smith [00:59:54] I read the other day that QAnon says that the drought is a hoax. That it’s being used to manipulate food supply. That the government is going to use it to manipulate food supply. How critical do you think it is for people to wade through all this stuff that’s coming at you? You know, you’re. And, you know, it kind of gets to what you’re saying, “Go outside.” I can go outside and see that it’s not a conspiracy. It’s dry. You know, I mean, but there’s all this disinformation out there about so many things. How how does a young person wade through all that?

Bob Ayres [01:01:01] Well, I’m not a young person anymore, so I’m not sure the answer to the question of how best to navigate, you know, the disinformation that’s so, so prevalent in social media, and that, unfortunately, you know, touches on environmental issues as well as many others.

Bob Ayres [01:01:21] But I do think, you know, the connection to the outside and the direct experiences is key. And I think, you know, when the kids get to El Ranchito in the summer, they’re there are disengaged from their phones for a period of time and realize that they can actually survive and thrive without that technology close at hand. Not that there is a place for technology and experience in the outdoors and doing conservation work.

Bob Ayres [01:01:51] But also I do think that the greater awareness about the importance of sustainable agriculture and local food is another way that a new generation is connecting to land and the importance of land and the importance of protected land in proximity to urban areas, because otherwise you don’t have local food. And that’s why, as part of our vision for Shield Ranch, you know, we want to see regenerative expressions of agriculture as an ongoing part of of what happens at Shield Ranch.

Lee Smith [01:02:28] Really, you’re going to have a little, little mini farm or something?

Bob Ayres [01:02:32] We, that that’s part of the plan. We’ve done some of that in collaboration with other producers. We currently have been resting the ranch, but we anticipate, you know, bringing cattle back to the ranch, but really with a focus on, you know, locally grown and marketed beef. And we feel like it’s another way to for the community to understand and appreciate what’s happening at Shield Ranch, to experience that directly, but also to, you know, to be providing, you know, benefit and value to the community in terms of just meeting those very fundamental basic needs of of nutritious food.

Bob Ayres [01:03:14] Well, I think it’s really important for a conservationist in Texas to look beyond our borders, including international borders, because for one thing, the ecosystems are connected. The Chihuahuan desert is in Texas and in Mexico.

Bob Ayres [01:03:36] But there are also species that are migrating, you know, across those borders and into very different ecosystems. So the golden-cheeked warbler that nests here on the ranch and many of the neotropical migrants nesting on Shield Ranch, or migrating through the ranch, are spending time, parts of the year, in the tropics in Mexico, Central America, even South America, or are coming to spend the winters here from Canada or the Great Plains. Wintering sparrow species especially.

Bob Ayres [01:04:10] And but even internationally, you know, I think one of the things that the Nature Conservancy has taught me is how, you know, a grassland ecosystem like the Edwards Plateau is very closely related to grassland ecosystems in Mongolia and the ways that we can learn, you know, from conservationists and ag practitioners and scientists in other parts of the world that inform our management and where our management practices might inform their management practices and, you know, you know, in a world that’s, you know, shrinking, those that interconnectedness is, you know, more and more important.

Bob Ayres [01:04:48] And I think among conservation groups, not exclusively, but uniquely, the Nature Conservancy, because it is working globally, you know, can lead in those areas. And as, you know, as a conservationist and landowner, it’s been a real privilege to meet ranchers in Mexico through the Nature Conservancy and and to see what they’re doing and to share those experiences and to collaborate on a larger project and for the larger good.

Lee Smith [01:05:19] Well, you know, cooperation through conservation can also lead to other social and political implications.

Bob Ayres [01:05:32] Well, the social and political aspects of that kind of an international perspective are profound. It’s really interesting. If you, I mentioned that the monarch butterfly migrates through Shield Ranch. If you look at a map of monarch migration and you look at a map of annual migrant farm worker migrations to the United States, they are remarkably similar. And you just see the connections between natural and human systems that, you know, transcend international international borders.