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

Interviewee: Bonnie Conner
Date: June 7, 2022
Site: San Antonio, Texas
Reels: 3710-3712
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: Conner_Bonnie_NCItem6_SanAntonioTX_20220607_Reel3710-3712_Audio.mp3

[Numbers refer to the interview time code.]

Bonnie Conner [00:00:15] I am a resident of San Antonio, Texas. I was not born here but I call it my home. I don’t tell everyone that this is not where I was from. So when people ask where I’m from, I say, “San Antonio, Texas.”

Lee Smith [00:00:32] Well, where did you grow up?

Bonnie Conner [00:00:34] I grew up in southern California.

Lee Smith [00:00:37] Whereabouts in southern California?

Bonnie Conner [00:00:38] I lived in an area near Long Beach, California. It was a wonderful, wonderful place to be. I called it the Golden Years, which tells you something about my age. But, it truly was a golden time to be out there.

Bonnie Conner [00:00:56] And we were able to do so many different things that I enjoyed. I always loved the outof-doors. So, you know, we could go to the beach and go to the mountains and go skiing, go to the foothills and roam around, which is all now completely developed. So it was a great spot to be in.

Lee Smith [00:01:19] What do you think your earliest remembrance of being in nature and being happy in nature?

Bonnie Conner [00:01:29] You know, that’s an easy question. I have family that have a farm in southern Missouri, and it’s now a heritage farm. So it’s been in the family for years and years. It’s called Spring Creek Farm. Of course, then it had no name when I used to go there. My uncle lived there.

Bonnie Conner [00:01:52] And it did have beautiful, beautiful cold springs. They had a spring house where they kept the milk. They had a cattle barn or not a cattle barn, but a cow barn that my uncle had built from the ground up. He was quite a hunter.

Bonnie Conner [00:02:13] So I spent a lot of time there. As a child, we would go back there every summer. And then one year I lived there in that area to go to school. I think I was in third grade.

Bonnie Conner [00:02:26] So that was just, I was never happier than when when I was out there, you know, playing in the creek and catching little minnows and just and just observing more than anything. I was always an observer of nature. I think I still am. And so that was that was a wonderful experience for me.

Lee Smith [00:02:50] Did you have a family member or a mentor that inspired you?

Bonnie Conner [00:02:55] Oh, I did. I did. That was my dad. My dad was born in Missouri, grew up just loving the wild there and did a lot of hunting as a young man or as a young boy, I think.

Bonnie Conner [00:03:14] And so when we were in California, he moved to California, of course, and that’s where I was from – California. And he had a boat. So we would go out in the boat. We would go out in the ocean and fish between Catalina and Long Beach. He would go up into the Sierras and go fishing. Now, I didn’t do that with him, although I did do some trout fishing there in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Bonnie Conner [00:03:43] And he was just a rugged outdoor kind of guy and always took me along with him. And even if we weren’t doing anything unique, I loved tagging along, just being with him.

Bonnie Conner [00:03:58] And it was always something to do with the out-of-doors, whether it was fishing or camping. We would go up to several lakes that are there in the Los Angeles. Well, I say Los Angeles area, up in the mountains there, and camp out.

Bonnie Conner [00:04:13] So my mother was never a camper. She was never an outdoor person. So it would have to be my dad.

Lee Smith [00:04:21] Was there anything in popular culture, any book or film or anything like that?

Bonnie Conner [00:04:28] You know, I didn’t need popular culture. I had it all. All the things I wanted to do there, even when my friends and I would go out and do something out of doors, we would go down to the piers and go fishing. We would go out along the coastline where there were rocks and stones that went out into the water and had these fabulous little pools when the tide went out and all these little critters in there that were just, just so unique to look at.

Bonnie Conner [00:05:04] So, you know, we were spending our time doing that. It was just a great place to be.

Bonnie Conner [00:05:11] I guess one thing that’s maybe kind of amusing. We used to ride horses along the Los Angeles River. Well, you know what? Maybe you know what’s there. It’s all concrete now.

Bonnie Conner [00:05:26] And now they are removing the concrete so it can be returned to its natural state, as it was when I used to ride horses. So maybe people are getting smarter about those things. I hope so.

Lee Smith [00:05:41] They used to film a lot of car chases.

Bonnie Conner [00:05:43] Yes. And I recognize that.

Lee Smith [00:05:48] That’s great. It’s coming, coming full circle.

Bonnie Conner [00:05:50] It is, truly.

Lee Smith [00:05:53] So what was your first involvement in any kind of conservation work? Oh, how did you get over here in Texas?

Bonnie Conner [00:06:02] Well, I found a cowboy. I was, I was working out in California, and this fellow came along that was working in the same company I was with. And he would come along and kind of look, he was he was quiet. And one day he came up and introduced himself and he had the softest, just wonderful way of speaking. So I was very attracted to that.

Bonnie Conner [00:06:34] So anyway, we ended up getting married and. He had an opportunity to come back. He was from San Antonio. So he had an opportunity to come back to San Antonio. So that’s that’s how I got back here. So it was great. Good experience.

Lee Smith [00:06:54] So what was your first involvement in conservation work?

Bonnie Conner [00:06:59] When I was in high school, Los Angeles area was already looking at the problem of water. And I didn’t realize then that Los Angeles had an aquifer. In fact, they had they have several aquifers. And there were companies and entities that were pumping water from those aquifers and which was not a very efficient way of of using water.

Bonnie Conner [00:07:32] So there was a rather large company that that wanted to consolidate the use and monitor somehow the way those the water was used.

Bonnie Conner [00:07:44] So they asked if I would be part of a public relations campaign. So I did that and I learned a lot about aquifers at that point. So that was that was my first introduction.

Bonnie Conner [00:07:59] And it was very interesting to me. It was just something I had never even thought about where that water comes from. And of course, by now I’m very, very aware of it. So I suppose that was my first introduction.

Lee Smith [00:08:15] Seems to have served you well.

Bonnie Conner [00:08:16] I think so.

Lee Smith [00:08:21] So the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program. What is that?

Bonnie Conner [00:08:27] Well, that is the best program that San Antonio has ever had. Maybe I’m a little prejudiced about that.

Bonnie Conner [00:08:34] It’s a fabulous program that was developed to protect the Edwards Aquifer, which is where San Antonio, Bexar County and surrounding areas obtain their water and its sole source aquifer. We were getting 90% of our water until just a few years ago from the Edwards. Now, maybe it’s a little bit less, but it’s still a very, very high percentage.

Bonnie Conner [00:09:07] You don’t have to treat it, although I think they put something in it to keep it clean. But it’s it’s just a pure source of drinking water and has been for forever, oh, forever and ever. It was a source of water for the indigenous people who were here.

Bonnie Conner [00:09:26] It, water just draws people. You have to have water to survive as a, as a person, as a city. It’s just an absolute necessity of life.

Bonnie Conner [00:09:38] So anyway, that is kind of the beginning of the program. We were seeing how important water was.

Bonnie Conner [00:09:51] But there was a lot of work before the program started. I don’t know if you do want me to talk about that or.

Lee Smith [00:09:59] Sure.

Bonnie Conner [00:10:00] Okay. Okay.

Bonnie Conner [00:10:02] Well. There were groups of people that were very, very aware of the importance of the Edwards and we would meet and talk about it. And I found that the government, local government, wasn’t really going to do anything in relation to it.

Bonnie Conner [00:10:24] So a great thing happened. We had someone elected who absolutely understood the importance of the Edwards Aquifer. And that was Howard Peak. His vision was to have a greenway that circled the whole city. It’s, and it does now. It’s called the Howard Peak Greenway. It’s a beautiful, beautiful amenity to our city.

Bonnie Conner [00:10:54] So while that was being planned, those of us that were interested in the aquifers got together with Howard and said, “We really need to do something to protect the aquifer also, besides this greenway.” And because in developing the greenway of course you’re protecting some of the lands around it.

Bonnie Conner [00:11:18] But anyway, we we convinced Howard that this was a thing to do, to develop some kind of a plan. So that was how we got started on the Edward Aquifer. But this was a this was a just a very, very diverse group of people that were interested in it.

Bonnie Conner [00:11:44] And did you have a question?

Lee Smith [00:11:45] Yeah.

Bonnie Conner [00:11:46] I see your mouth moving.

Lee Smith [00:11:49] Mr. Peak?

Bonnie Conner [00:11:50] Howard Peak.

Lee Smith [00:11:52] What was, you say, he was elected. What? What was he elected as?

Bonnie Conner [00:11:56] I’m sorry, Howard Peak was elected mayor in 1999, I believe, or just prior to that. It was a very contentious election because San Antonio for I think forever, had always had the business community leading in the mayor’s office. So, the business of business at the city was always directed towards the development community or a starting up of more business. There were little attention paid to the natural environment.

Bonnie Conner [00:12:44] So this ragtag group of people that I was joining with and trying to promote the Edwards as a as a good project, this was something that he was willing to do if we could get something on the ballot in 2000. That was what we had hoped for. So we would get something for the Greenways, plus aquifer protection.

Bonnie Conner [00:13:15] We didn’t know what the public would think.

Bonnie Conner [00:13:19] And TNC was a wonderful adviser at that point. They came in and gave us some tips on, you know, how to how to address the public and how to how I hate to say, sell it, but essentially that’s what it was. How do we go out and convince the public that this is something they should vote for?

Bonnie Conner [00:13:44] Well, we found the public was totally accepting of it. The public got it, totally understood the need for water, totally understood the protection of the aquifer.

Bonnie Conner [00:13:55] The business community did not. They were not supportive.

Bonnie Conner [00:14:00] Nevertheless, we went on and got it on the ballot because we did some polling and this was really by the seat of our pants. I mean, we didn’t have any money. We, it was a very informal poll, but it was a positive poll.

Bonnie Conner [00:14:18] So we thought, “Well, okay, we’re going to go for it.” And Howard, who was mayor then, was willing to do that. So we just kind of held our breath and got it on the ballot.

Bonnie Conner [00:14:30] And indeed, it passed. It was a very popular vote. So that that was really the first bond issue that we had.

Lee Smith [00:14:41] But he wasn’t the mayor through the entire process or I should say the because it goes in like these five years.

Bonnie Conner [00:14:48] It does.

Lee Smith [00:14:50] And. But what was started, the subsequent mayors didn’t mess with, I mean. Is that a fair assumption or what were the challenges in getting it to replicate there?

Bonnie Conner [00:15:08] There, with Howard, it was it was just wonderful because the public was ready to support it. And something has changed where we are at this point in time. It’s very it was very different than it was amazing that the public understood the aquifer. Just the average guy on the street if you talked to him.

Bonnie Conner [00:15:38] But let me go back to the question you asked.

Bonnie Conner [00:15:43] Yes, we did have a bond issue. That was for five years. It was very, very successful. So that was in 2000. So the next bond issue that came around was 2005. And because it had passed with such a high number of voters, it passed again.

Bonnie Conner [00:16:08] So, you know, we had this wonderful arrangement that had been developed with the input of a lot of people about how how to actually obtain the land, how to monitor the land, and how to do the conservation easements or the purchase of property, either one.

[00:16:30] So then we had another bond issue come around. And it was still a very popular thing. So in 2015. Do I have that right? Let’s say 2005 and then … No. Yes, ten, 2010, we had the next, we had the next bond issue and that passed with a high number of votes.

Bonnie Conner [00:16:57] So, in that time we acquired, I say we, collectively, it wasn’t me. It was all these other wonderful people that were doing the work. So we did acquire a great number of properties.

Bonnie Conner [00:17:13] So then in 2015, oh boy, another opportunity. So indeed we got it back on the ballot and there was more business support then. I think they began to see that this was a a very important thing to the businesses. And the population had begun to grow quite rapidly at that point. And, so then we continued on.

Bonnie Conner [00:17:42] Now in 2020, things changed. We had a, of course, we had a different mayor. The mayor decided, along with the council, that they want to do something different. So there was an agreement worked out. That was in 2020. And we now have an agreement with SAWS who is going to put forth funding for the next round of acquisitions, when the funding for the last runs out, which would be in 2023.

Lee Smith [00:18:24] So who were some of the key players in all of this? I mean, you mentioned Mr. Peak.

Bonnie Conner [00:18:31] Okay. I would say Howard Peak, Susan Hughes, myself, Annalisa Peace. I’d have to give that some thought about the other individuals. It was just a lot of, just a lot of guy-on-the-street people we would get together. And, when we wanted to promote the bond issue, and we never had a lot of money, but we would go to the different parades and we would have signage, we would have mailers, and we would have like, we got enough money together to have some mailers.

Bonnie Conner [00:19:19] But then it was just the public got it. It was just, that was just the amazing thing. They understood it. So, you know, I can’t tell you any specific people that were involved. Of course, the Nature Conservancy. No, Trust for Public Land wasn’t in there.

Lee Smith [00:19:40] What did the Nature Conservancy do?

Bonnie Conner [00:19:42] The Nature Conservancy was fabulous. They were wonderful advisors. Kind of told us what we were trying to do. We knew what we were trying to do. We just didn’t know how to do it. So they were great advisors. And that was Carter Smith, who was there at that time.

Lee Smith [00:20:07] So when were you on the city council during all this?

Bonnie Conner [00:20:10] I was on council in 2009, 2009.

Lee Smith [00:20:16] So there’s already been, what two referendums?

Bonnie Conner [00:20:19] No, no, that was the. Is that right? Two?

Lee Smith [00:20:27] First one was two.

Bonnie Conner [00:20:29] 1999 to 2003, I was on council. So that was the first. I have to stop and think. Yes.

Lee Smith [00:20:40] So but what about the other people on the city council? Did you have people and you’re the cheerleader for that program?

Bonnie Conner [00:20:53] Well, you know what? They knew, they they knew very, very little about the aquifer. I guess one of the interesting things was, at one time they said, “Well, we don’t even know what you’re talking about.” The aquifer?

Bonnie Conner [00:21:12] So it was arranged for someone to take us all out and fly over the aquifer. Now, that was that was a very revealing thing to most of these council members. So they were in a helicopter. Not all of us together, you know. But they were able to take a helicopter ride out over the aquifer.

Bonnie Conner [00:21:40] And some of them said, “Oh, my gosh, it’s so green out here.” Well, they had been pretty much city guys. These were all men that I was on council with. So that that was a very convincing thing.

Bonnie Conner [00:21:56] So that was that that first bond issue that we did that. We really had to display to them, you know, exactly what the aquifer was, what it actually looked like. And I was just surprised that they had never, some of them, hadn’t ventured out beyond probably Bexar county.

Bonnie Conner [00:22:22] That’s not a criticism. It’s just the fact that that was the way it was.

Bonnie Conner [00:22:27] So so that was that council was, took some convincing, but it worked out. And then after that, you know, things just sailed along because the ballots passed with such an overwhelming support.

Lee Smith [00:22:47] So as a politician, you’re not going to mess with that. You know what I mean?

Bonnie Conner [00:22:51] Absolutely. I know what you mean. You know, it was successful. So when you have a success and it’s a good thing. It’s good public policy. It’s good for the city. It’s good for the public. It was good for everything. There was nothing in there that was not beneficial to the community.

Bonnie Conner [00:23:16] And I think that’s always been my goal on any anything I’ve worked on publicly. If it’s good for for everyone, then, you know, we should be doing it. And that was certainly one of the things with the Edward Aquifer program.

Lee Smith [00:23:35] I think it’s interesting you mentioned this helicopter ride, and that’s physically changing your perspective from ground level to.

Bonnie Conner [00:23:46] Yes.

Lee Smith [00:23:47] Aerial.

Bonnie Conner [00:23:48] Yes.

Lee Smith [00:23:48] Physically changing your perspective. But it changed a mental perspective, it sounds like, in these.

Bonnie Conner [00:23:55] It did. It did. That was just a serendipitous occasion where someone said, “Well, you know, we can take you up in a helicopter.” It wasn’t something prearranged particularly, but it did it did change their mind. It did allow them to see exactly where it was physically.

Bonnie Conner [00:24:21] Because how do you explain an aquifer to someone who has no concept of it, when it’s underground? You know, that’s. But you could actually see the creek ways. We went over the Valdivia Farms, I believe, Seco, Seco Creek, which is a spectacular thing to see. So that was that was just an eye-opener to them.

Lee Smith [00:24:54] So what was the process of getting it on the ballot?

Bonnie Conner [00:25:00] The legal process?

Lee Smith [00:25:02] Did you have to, you had to vote on it at the council level? Was that it or.

Bonnie Conner [00:25:08] Yes. To get it on the ballot. It had to be voted on. The first one, I’ll just explain. We were able to put it on the ballot by state law. You know, it was just a venue that we could use a sales tax. So that’s how it was constructed. An eighth of a cent sales tax.

Bonnie Conner [00:25:32] And that was proposed by the mayor and the city manager and so on and so forth, other departments, and ran through exactly what it would mean. And so that was how it was put on the ballot.

Lee Smith [00:25:49] Did the helicopter ride precede the vote?

Bonnie Conner [00:25:53] Of course. Of course it did. You had to convince them.

Lee Smith [00:26:01] So once once the mechanics were set up, then the dominos fell out.

Bonnie Conner [00:26:06] With that first council, yes, very much so.

Lee Smith [00:26:13] So did you, what properties have been protected? Do you.

Bonnie Conner [00:26:21] 172,000 acres. Is that what you…

Lee Smith [00:26:29] It was kind of a mosaic?

Bonnie Conner [00:26:30] It is. There are fee simple properties. There are conservation easement properties. There are both. So it is as you say, it’s a mosaic, a mixture of types of properties. And it was always wonderful to go out and and see what was being preserved.

Jeff Weigel [00:27:02] You might want to talk a little bit about the science that guides all the where to acquire…

Bonnie Conner [00:27:08] Okay.

Jeff Weigel [00:27:10] There’s a whole group that does that.

Bonnie Conner [00:27:12] All right. Let me just add that once once the ballot was passed, some way, something had to be set up on how to do this. There had to be a system planned for it.

Bonnie Conner [00:27:28] So with the help of a great number of really very, very committed people, a conservation board. It was determined there would be a conservation board. That board was made up of different interests like SAWS, like Parks and Wildlife, Nature Conservancy and several other entities. And I believe the mayor was on that board also. But that was only the beginning. So in addition to the board, you had to have a system set up.

Lee Smith [00:28:11] Well, first, since it’s on the top of your head, so how much property, or how many properties have been protected?

Bonnie Conner [00:28:17] 131 properties have been protected, which we’re very, very pleased about.

Bonnie Conner [00:28:25] But I have to say that the Nature Conservancy has really played such a huge role in helping us to make this happen. It’s just they’ve been wonderful partners because they’ve provided assistance in acquiring the land. And that’s been since, I guess, 2000, working with us.

Bonnie Conner [00:28:51] So it’s through a professional service agreement that they work with us. And I keep using the term, “us”, because I like to still be included.

Bonnie Conner [00:29:07] So they coordinate the hiring of contractors for due diligence in terms of appraisals and environmental reports and all the scientific end of it like that.

Bonnie Conner [00:29:24] So it’s a very, very clean process. I almost hate to say it’s never been questioned, but it has not been questioned. The process anyone can look at it and say that you have this board that’s totally representative.

Bonnie Conner [00:29:43] Then you have the scientific evaluation team under it, which is totally science-based. And as I say, there’s never been a question about how this has been done, which I think is very unusual for any kind of a government, I’ll call it a governmental kind of project. So very proud of that.

Bonnie Conner [00:30:07] It’s going to continue with the additional funding through SAWS and an agreement that has been made before the the last 2020 election. This this was worked out with the city manager and the mayor and SAWS and those interested parties.

Bonnie Conner [00:30:30] I really foresee that it may continue after that.

Bonnie Conner [00:30:35] I think the public is, once again, after Covid, I think Covid really made a big, big difference in how our city functioned, how the whole world functioned, let alone our city.

Bonnie Conner [00:30:54] But I’m beginning to see that things are coming back in terms of the interest in conservation. We have a huge interest now in air quality and use of our electric grid in terms of gasses emitted, in terms of our power plants and I’m talking about locally. Of course, this is I think it’s worldwide too, but I’m speaking locally right now.

Bonnie Conner [00:31:25] So I really believe that we’re going to continue on with aquifer protection. And I think it will be expanded. That’s my goal.

Lee Smith [00:31:44] Turn the page. I think we’re. Yeah.

Lee Smith [00:31:46] So what advice would you have for someone interested in going into conservation work? A young person.

Bonnie Conner [00:31:58] I would say volunteer work is probably a very, very good place to start. And then if you’re really, really serious about it, there are a number of courses you can take if you choose to go to college.

Bonnie Conner [00:32:14] Even if you don’t go to college, you can get involved. And that’s by getting into organizations that are supporting conservation, whatever kind you’re interested in, whether it’s community gardens or aquifer protection, clean water. There’s numerous organizations.

Bonnie Conner [00:32:34] So in retrospect, to your question, I think I would say volunteer work is probably the most important.

Lee Smith [00:32:43] And what about the future of just conservation work?

Bonnie Conner [00:32:51] Here locally or…?

Lee Smith [00:32:53] Well and beyond. And, you know, because everything is connected, you know, the Edward Aquifer goes all the way out to almost Del Rio and and you know, everything is connected and conservation work is.

Bonnie Conner [00:33:11] Absolutely well I don’t think I am unique, but I watch every bit of information that I can find or read, and it certainly isn’t in a newspaper. But by going online and being connected with other organizations, I see a lot of conservation work occurring.

Bonnie Conner [00:33:33] And you mentioned Del Rio. That’s an area where they are working on conservation, the Devils River area over there, the Big Bend area, all the way down.

Bonnie Conner [00:33:46] You know, if we look north, south, east and west, all the way down the coast, down in Corpus Christi, I know that they have a big conservation effort. They’re concerned about the channel being dug down there and, you know, the damage that that potentially can do.

Bonnie Conner [00:34:08] If we go to the east of our city, you see the same thing occurring. All kinds of of work in conservation.

Bonnie Conner [00:34:17] So I you know, I just see it continuing on. I think it’s a bit fragmented, but I see it coming together, particularly in terms of air quality, because that’s something that’s been of great concern around the world. So we read more about that. We see more about it on the news.

[00:34:41] But I think underneath that, there’s still all these other kinds of programs going on and interest going on for conservation.

Bonnie Conner [00:34:53] So conservation didn’t completely go underground with Covid. It just changed up a bit. And but I think it will continue on. I think it has to if we’re going to live on our little planet.

Bonnie Conner [00:35:09] I think the Nature Conservancy’s contributions have been many. I think because I worked with so many people, not so many people, but the people with the Nature Conservancy, it was their dedication and their interest. They were totally focused on the projects. Totally engaged in, in helping us, as I say, community members or as committee members or as a council member, understanding the best way to pursue some of these things that we wanted to accomplish.

[00:35:53] So it was your advice that was of such great benefit. I don’t think we could have accomplished this without the Nature Conservancy.