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

Interviewee: George Cofer
Date: May 10, 2022
Site: Austin, Texas
Reels: 3460-3461
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: Cofer_George_NCItem5_AustinTX_20220510_Reel3460-3461_Audio.mp3

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

George Cofer [00:00:15] I grew up in Austin. Born and raised.

Lee Smith [00:00:20] And, like, where did you go to high school?

George Cofer [00:00:23] Austin High, of course.

Lee Smith [00:00:27] At its present location. Or the previous?

George Cofer [00:00:29] The previous location. Yeah.

Lee Smith [00:00:32] And I was … Think back and was there like a mentor or a family member that kind of was your, that got you into concert with the idea of conservation.

George Cofer [00:00:52] Thinking about who my mentor was that got me on the path of first environmental activism and then conservation is an easy one – Shudde Bryson Fath. And so I had gone, I thought I’d go to graduate school, be an architect, and got bored with that pretty quickly. And asked Shudde, I’m not exaggerating, I’m not embarrassed by it, but I just didn’t realize what was going on. And I said, “Shudde, I’ve heard you’re involved in a lot of things in the community. What do you do?”

[00:01:27] And she gave me this oh poor boy looked and said, “Come with me. We’re going to a meeting.” And she took me to a Save Barton Creek Association meeting in 1989. And I never looked back. I just jumped right in.

Lee Smith [00:01:43] I live next door to her, for a while.

George Cofer [00:01:46] Wow, I did not know that. Okay. Well, you know Shudde Fath pretty well.

Lee Smith [00:01:53] So, how did the Boy Scouts influence you?

George Cofer [00:01:58] Boy Scouts had a big influence on my life, and I stayed in scouting until high school, which I suppose was a little unusual, Explorer Scouts, mainly, so that we could get canoes. And H-E-B gave us a great deal on food and and we ran most of the rivers, and all the rivers in the Hill Country and a lot of the rivers in Texas. But just being outdoors and sleeping under the stars – that’s such a wonderful experience.

Lee Smith [00:02:29] So what was your first involvement? Well, you might have just told me, with Shudde.

George Cofer [00:02:36] I got involved in 1918. I’ll do it right now. Let me start over.

George Cofer [00:02:41] So, yes, I got involved in the environmental movement or conservation in 1989 with Save Barton Creek Association with Shudde Fath and Mary Arnold and Jack and Jackie Goodman, Bert Cromack, a lot of great people. And they’ve been doing it for ten years. I just didn’t know.

George Cofer [00:03:01] So I went to work as a consultant because I got really lucky and raised a little money for them and I felt I knew what I was doing. I spent ten years as an environmental activist at Save Barton Creek Association.

Lee Smith [00:03:18] And so how did the Hill Country Conservancy come about?

George Cofer [00:03:25] Well, I blame that on the Nature Conservancy of Texas.

George Cofer [00:03:28] So the Nature Conservancy of Texas helped the Hill Country Conservancy get started. My memory is that it was part of the Conservancy’s business plan. The Nature Conservancy realized that with the great work they were doing on the Gulf Coast and the Davis Mountains, even though it was the early days of those programs, they needed a local nonprofit land trust to do the work in the close-in Hill Country just west of Austin. And they helped us get started. And it was it was a great time. I had good mentors – bunch of scalawags – Jeff Francell, Jeff Weigel, they really taught me the ropes.

Lee Smith [00:04:09] So they’re I mean, from the outside looking in, we have had the Nature Conservancy, Hill Country Conservancy. It all, again, from the outside, you think of these these guys are competitors. They’re, they’re, they’re fighting for the same pie, but they’re fighting for the same pie. I guess this is more of it. So are you are you in competition with them?

George Cofer [00:04:33] We get that question a lot about land trusts. Are we competitive or collaborative? And we’re actually absolutely collaborative. All land trusts are. There are more than 30 land trust in Texas now. The Nature Conservancy helped several of them get going, and we can tell when a landowner calls if they’re shopping around and I’ll just say, “Ma’am or sir, my job is to connect you with the best land trust, the right partners.” So we’re very collaborative.

Lee Smith [00:05:03] That’s pretty cool. Yeah.

Lee Smith [00:05:06] And this almost is a stupid question for anyone who’s been here for even five years. What are the issues that are facing the Hill Country in terms of the the the challenges of of conservation?

George Cofer [00:05:23] Water, water, water, water. It’s interesting, and and it concerns me that people who come here do not realize how scarce and precious water is.

George Cofer [00:05:42] So I grew up in the drought of the ’50s. That’s impact on my life. So you’ll hear me talk a lot about the importance of doing better to conserve water, to be smarter about our water management. I’m not a scientist, but we think, well, we’ll learn more about the impacts of climate change. All the science says we’re going to have a much drier climate.

George Cofer [00:06:09] So one interesting thing is to figure out how landowners are going to remain economically viable in this new climate. Less water. Hotter temperatures. And so land trusts work hard to figure out how do we help our partners stay on the land and continue to be able to be in ranching or farming or nature tourism.

George Cofer [00:06:37] The other big issue for me is dark skies, water, climate change, dark skies. The Nature Conservancy has recently, and I’m probably not going to say it correctly, but I was very happy to read recently the Nature Conservancy has conserved even more land around MacDonnell Observatory to help ensure that there will be dark skies there. That’s a big, big deal. That’s one of the observatories on this planet where there are still dark skies.

Lee Smith [00:07:13] And that’s, you know, important for the scientists in the observatory, bending over their viewfinder or looking into their computer. But why is that important to a person who walks out in that area and looks up?

George Cofer [00:07:33] That’s a good question and I think that’s especially a good question about what’s the importance of the work the Nature Conservancy and other land trusts do to people who live in the city and may not have the opportunity to experience dark skies?

George Cofer [00:07:48] I know you know this, but people turn on the tap, they don’t have any idea where that comes from. They go to the grocery store, you know, and get their food. No clue.

George Cofer [00:07:58] So the connection, connecting people to land, connecting, helping people understand the benefits that Mother Nature provides, helping people understand why the wonders of dark skies are not a given. You know, that’s something we’ve got to work for or we’re just not going to have it.

Lee Smith [00:08:16] Well, and most people have never experienced the stars, the heavens. If you grew up in Houston where there’s, where you just you don’t even you might see the North Star or something or Venus in the morning. But you you don’t see the heavens. You don’t see heaven. And so how is that? You know, how why is that an experience important as a human being?

George Cofer [00:08:50] To me, it’s it’s helps keep me sane, just speaking personally. It is certainly where I get rejuvenated, even though I’m still working full-time in the land trust world. I get to the Hill Country, try and get there every other weekend. And the first thing I do is just go outside and lie down and look up at the stars and listen to the quiet. And I’ve learned that it’s possible to listen to the quiet. If you hear absolutely nothing, that’s a really beautiful experience. Again, not many people get to share that.

George Cofer [00:09:25] But I know the Nature Conservancy does a lot of tours out on the land. They do the dark sky tours, and I’ve seen people for the first time see the Milky Way, and they’re a little bit taken aback. They’re like, “What’s that?” So it’s it’s it’s fun to see people experience that. And once they experience that, they’re hooked. They keep coming back.

George Cofer [00:09:49] And then they support the work we do also. They get that connection.

Lee Smith [00:09:56] I kind of jumped into that because I think, as you you mentioned the sky and I and I have I’ve asked I’ve talked to people about that all the time.

[00:10:05] What is Earth Share Texas?

George Cofer [00:10:09] Earth Share of Texas. Excuse me. Earth Share of Texas is a coalition of Texas nonprofits, environmental nonprofits that work on a wide range of issues. So land trusts, energy, water, birds. 40 groups. So it’s a broad coalition.

George Cofer [00:10:30] And Earth Share of Texas raises money for these groups. So, for example, H-E-B’s got a great program. For the entire month of April, you’re checking out at H-E-B. It’s called the tear-off coupon for the Earth, for Mother Earth. And you reach up and grab a $5 coupon, you put it with your groceries. That money from H-E-B and other companies – Reliant Energy, a lot of companies participate and employees can donate directly to payroll giving.

George Cofer [00:11:02] All of that is divided equally among the member groups of Earth Share of Texas. So Earth Share of Texas is basically the fundraising arm of the environment and the conservation groups.

Lee Smith [00:11:16] What is the Beverly S. Sheffield Environmental Education Center? That’s a mouthful.

George Cofer [00:11:23] I encourage everyone to go see the Beverly S. Sheffield Environmental Education Center. I have not said that in a while. Beverly was parks director for many, many years. Like for two decades, I think.

Lee Smith [00:11:38] Where?

George Cofer [00:11:39] ’60s in Austin, Texas. Beverly Sheffield was the Parks Department director in Austin, Texas – ’60s, ’70s, maybe into the ’80s. And just a great guy. He helped bring about so many parks in Austin.

George Cofer [00:11:56] And so we got together in the 1990s, created the Beverly S. Sheffield Environmental Education Center to honor Beverly’s work lifetime of work in parks.

George Cofer [00:12:08] And it’s an experience. It’s where young people can go. And when I say young people, like busloads of Austin Independent School District kids, other young people, go and learn about the Barton Springs Aquifer and that connection of water … it all comes back to the water on the land goes into the aquifer. And so if clean water goes in, then we have nice clean water in the aquifer to drink and for our ag and for recreation.

Lee Smith [00:12:40] And, you know, we’re lucky in Austin to have that spring, you know, almost in downtown. And there are some springs on the downtown side. But getting urban kids in there and making that connection, how important is that not just in Austin but elsewhere, and how does conservation groups accomplish that?

George Cofer [00:13:06] Well, that’s a big question of that connection between land and water and how to convey that to people, because it it seems intuitive to me that if we conserve the land. Which the Nature Conservancy has done a great deal of work in focusing land conservation along the rivers. And that’s so important because we have to have that clean water running off those clean pastures into our rivers and streams down underground into the aquifer.

George Cofer [00:13:38] And then we can go to Barton Springs and swim in that nice, beautiful, clean pool, and other springs, of course, Comal Springs and the Springs in San Antonio.

George Cofer [00:13:50] I think what’s challenging is to get people to understand that the water that comes off the land and goes into the aquifer, it’s all the same water. So whether the water’s in Barton Creek or whether the water is underneath Barton Creek, so to speak, in the Edwards Aquifer, it’s the same water.

George Cofer [00:14:16] Although I’m not going to get into the laws of the great state of Texas, but, you know, we treat surface water and groundwater separately. Be that as it may, it’s the same water.

George Cofer [00:14:27] And so what’s important is to get people to understand, for example, not to use chemical fertilizers on their yards. That stuff all winds up in the waters. To be more mindful about not letting trash get down into the rivers and streams.

George Cofer [00:14:47] And so it’s I think one thing we can do is start with those things that are easy for people to understand and and not necessarily jump into the science of it all. But if people go to the Beverley Sheffield Center or other environmental education centers, they can actually see a real life model of the rain coming down on the land. It goes into the creeks and then goes down in the aquifer. They’ve got some beautiful videos there of people down swimming underground in the aquifer – scuba divers studying all the critters that live down there in the dark.

Lee Smith [00:15:30] And so what is the Barton Creek Wilderness Park?

George Cofer [00:15:35] The Barton Creek Wilderness Park is a thousand-acre park, a preserve, that was created when the voters approved some funding. I happen to know the date. It’s a very important date – August 8th, 1992 – the voters of Austin approved some funding for to purchase the Barton Creek Wilderness Park.

George Cofer [00:15:56] And so the Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land, the City of Austin Real Estate Office, all work together to go out and get that land. And it is preserved forever – a thousand contiguous acres.

George Cofer [00:16:12] The voters approved $20 million to buy that land. Today, tracts of that land, no joke, are selling for $20 million. Just parcels, if you could buy them. They’re not for sale. But surrounding land is just … the prices. It would be an untouchable today.

George Cofer [00:16:32] I give then-Councilmember Beverly Griffith a lot of credit for seeing that vision. She got the National Park Service involved. We did some old-fashioned mapping of all the data – the water, the birds, the habitat. And when I say old-fashioned, this was before computers. We didn’t have GIS datasets. And so we created the various, the information, about the importance of that thousand acres. And today, thousands of people, thousands, every day, enjoy that.

Lee Smith [00:17:11] And why is that important that people have access, that you didn’t just barbed-wire surround it, that people have access to it. Why is that important?

George Cofer [00:17:21] Let me ask you something before I answer that. Is it okay to talk about the pandemic or does that date this?

Lee Smith [00:17:28] Sure.

George Cofer [00:17:28] Okay. So one reason we know that the Barton Creek Wilderness Park Preserve and other outdoor opportunities for people are so important is during the pandemic, the use of our parks and trails, and no surprise, but I never would have known how much the the use of those lands, those trails would increase.

George Cofer [00:17:56] And when I say, “increase”, I mean like 100-fold. And we actually have counters that show that it would go from a few hundred people a day to thousands of people a day during the week – families, people who are working at home, people who are working remote.

George Cofer [00:18:14] We couldn’t go indoors together. So we got outside in the parks and in the nature preserves. Extraordinarily important.

George Cofer [00:18:22] I heard one lady say she was out there one day and we were talking about what is the importance of all this to people? Why do people gravitate toward the the parks and Mother Nature and getting outdoors? And she said, “It’s our safety haven.”

George Cofer [00:18:38] And that really resonated with me. That’s where people went to feel like they were okay.

Lee Smith [00:18:47] So what is the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program?

George Cofer [00:18:54] My understanding of the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program. And I hesitated there because we’re going back into the early 1990s there. But my understanding is that it is funding approved by the voters of San Antonio, specifically sales tax, to go out and conserve land along the rivers in Hill Country and streams to protect the springs and most importantly, to protect the drinking water supply of San Antonio.

George Cofer [00:19:24] And the voters in San Antonio got that, right away.

George Cofer [00:19:27] I remember the first time they voted on it, I think it was called Prop 1. And it was a big deal. It was new. Austin had done a similar bond campaign, City of San Antonio, those two cities really led the way in going to the voters and saying, “Will you tax yourselves to protect the land, the water, the habitat, the Hill Country, all the things we love about the Hill Country?”

George Cofer [00:19:52] And the voters said, “Heck, yes.” Time and time again.

George Cofer [00:19:55] So the Nature Conservancy working very closely with the City Council in San Antonio, the San Antonio Water System, created that Edwards Aquifer Protection program. And now it’s one of the premier programs in the country. It’s a model program for how the citizens can work with the Nature Conservancy and government and other groups to go out and do that incredibly important protection of the Hill Country.

Lee Smith [00:20:25] Was the Hill Country Conservancy involved?

George Cofer [00:20:27] We did not get started until 1999. So we jumped in and helped, and helped more in Austin, working with the City of Austin, with the Nature Conservancy. The Hill Country Conservancy was a key partner in that.

Lee Smith [00:20:47] So tell me about the Annandale Ranch and your family’s, because it’s, that involved, that’s not just you, that’s your your whole family. How did your involvement with the Nature Conservancy and your family’s involvement there? What was that all about?

George Cofer [00:21:11] So I love to talk about our family place, the Annandale Ranch and how the Nature Conservancy has helped us.

George Cofer [00:21:18] And and I’ll start by saying I chose my great great grandparents very carefully. And so my great great grandparents came out into Uvalde County, came from San Antonio to Uvalde County, in 1889 and started a cattle company on the Frio River, Annandale Land and Cattle Company, and have been there since that time.

George Cofer [00:21:43] And so now my brother, who’s the real rancher in the family, runs that ranch and it’s our family place. And in, I’m going to say 1990, about, the Nature Conservancy approached us and asked if we’d like to participate in the conservation program. And we said, “Well, sure, let let’s think about that.”

George Cofer [00:22:08] Our family proceeded to think about that for nine years. So it was a bit of a slow conversation. I give the Nature Conservancy a lot of credit for being patient.

George Cofer [00:22:17] I think we were one of the first projects, if not the first project, of that Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.

George Cofer [00:22:25] So working with the Nature Conservancy, we did a conservation agreement in 1999 on part of the place there. Did a second agreement called a conservation easement, did a second conservation easement in 2000, 2001, and then the third and final, to get the entire ranch under conservation, I remember the date, July 20th, 2007.

George Cofer [00:22:52] It was a wonderful celebration for our family, and the Nature Conservancy stuck with us the whole way through that.

George Cofer [00:23:00] And now they come out and talk with my brother and employees of the Nature Conservancy, who are the stewards, the land stewards, come out, talk with my brother Bill about the different range management practices. We do different programs there, like brush clearing, wildlife habitat restoration. So it’s a great program.

Lee Smith [00:23:23] Is it still a working ranch?

George Cofer [00:23:24] It absolutely is a working ranch. And that’s one of the things that I’ve learned in the land trust business, is that in my mind, I think our primary obligation is to make sure that land owners can continue to do what they’re doing. When they put their property voluntarily into a conservation easement, they have more resources to do that.

George Cofer [00:23:51] They have the scientific expertise of the Nature Conservancy to do that. And sometimes financial help to do some programs that I might not otherwise be able to do. Go out and clear pastures. Put up new fencing. Do the riparian restoration. “Riparian” is too big a word. I can barely say the word. If if a rancher wants to go in and have better land management along a creek or around a spring, the Nature Conservancy can help with that.

Lee Smith [00:24:23] And so it’s been a while. How has it worked out?

George Cofer [00:24:28] It’s working great. And we started with the family honestly being somewhat skeptical. We had 11 family members. And when I called after talking for nine years, when I called my dear friends of the Nature Conservancy to say, “Okay, we’re ready,” they didn’t believe me. They knew some of the family had been very they were not supportive at first.

George Cofer [00:24:53] But now the entire family is so glad we did that. It’s really caused the family, for one thing, we came together. I mean, some of the cousins, I didn’t get to see them that much. And now the family works together. We’re very proud of the place. We love to have people out there every weekend. There’s always a big group coming out to see the bat cave, see the Frio, learn about that connection again between land and water.

Lee Smith [00:25:24] And when youu, and you kind of… What’s the personal importance and meaning for all of that to come together, for you?

George Cofer [00:25:38] Well, the importance to me of having put the Annandale Ranch in that conservation agreement with the Nature Conservancy is that our hope, our vision, is that it will be like that forever. I know “forever” and “in perpetuity”, those are those are fascinating concepts. But the goal of the conservation agreement is that whether we own the property or not, it’s always going to be like that for people to enjoy, for those clean rivers and streams.

George Cofer [00:26:14] The Frio River is one of the last few clear, clean rivers in Texas. That’s the good news. I wish there were more clear, clean rivers like the Devils River, where the Nature Conservancy has worked so hard and done such good work.

George Cofer [00:26:30] So it’s really important to me that I continue to be able to kayak down the Frio River and enjoy that. And I just, all the whole family loves taking people out there and they just fall all over the place. And when we see how much people appreciate it, that that confirms that we did the right thing.

Lee Smith [00:26:52] But wait … Uvalde County. That’s a long way from San Antonio. How does that fit into the Edwards Aquifer protection program?

George Cofer [00:27:01] It’s ten quick days when the water’s underground and the water’s flowing. It is 90 miles due west of San Antonio. And yet the rain that falls on the land and goes down into the Edwards Aquifer can come out at the springs in San Antonio in ten days or less during the wet season.

George Cofer [00:27:22] By the way, 2007 was, I call it the 100-year spring. We had some great kayaking in the spring of 2007, and that was the year we finished the conservation for the whole ranch. So that water flow then, from the Frio River, down underground into the Edwards Aquifer, down to San Antonio for their drinking water supply – 2 or 3 days. 90 miles. Just a lot of water pumping into San Antonio.

Lee Smith [00:27:52] Bang.

Curtis Craven [00:27:59] Got to turn the page.

Lee Smith [00:27:59] We’re getting close. What other projects have you been involved in that have supported the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program?

George Cofer [00:28:13] One of the things that I think does support the Edwards Aquifer Program is partnering with the federal government, the US Department of Ag.

George Cofer [00:28:25] So the citizens of San Antonio, the citizens of Austin had voted “yes” to tax themselves. They realized how important it is to go out and preserve the land and water, wildlife habitat, preserves where people can go out and enjoy nature.

George Cofer [00:28:43] But it’s expensive work that the Nature Conservancy and other land trusts do. So we have a good partnership with the US Department of Ag, good partnerships with US Fish and Wildlife, and they provide significant funding to Texas to do land and water conservation. So that’s been great.

George Cofer [00:29:02] There’s a brand new project. It’s one of the few in America. It’s a Sentinel Landscape designation that the Nature Conservancy and other groups work very hard to give. Sentinel Landscape designation around Camp Bullis and it is a big, big deal. I cannot described to you well enough how important that will be to the land, to the aquifer and to the people of central Texas. It’s one of the few such designations in America. And so it’s going to incentivize other funding to come in for the Nature Conservancy to do their work.

George Cofer [00:29:51] Dr. Weigel? Is the Sentinel Landscape around Camp Bullis?

Jeff Weigel [00:29:58] Yeah, it’s, I think they’ve declared a zone around Camp Bullis all the way over to the east, toward Bracken Cave.

George Cofer [00:30:07] When they got that designation. You go to the front line for federal funding. Army Corps, Fish, US Department of Ag. So if a land trust applies for US Department of Ag funding for a conservation easement, you go to the front of the line.

Lee Smith [00:30:23] Why do you surf in hurricanes?

Lee Smith [00:30:27] I was afraid you might ask me that. You know, it’s surfing a hurricane surge. I’m first and foremost mindful and respectful of of it’s, hurricanes are not a good thing for everyone. And so I always feel a bit odd when I’m out there.

George Cofer [00:30:48] But I am, not to sound too flippant about it, but it’s cheap thrills when you’re out there in the storm surf, it’s pretty much just you and the ocean. And to feel the power of the Gulf of Mexico, that that gets me energized.

Lee Smith [00:31:08] Well, and when you’re out in a dark sky or you’re touching nature, it may be billions of miles and light years, but you’re touching nature. And when you’re on a surfboard in a hurricane, what are you doing?

George Cofer [00:31:27] I’d say nature’s touching you there. You know, you just hang on. I mean, when you’re out there on those waves and I know some people might not believe it, but yes, on the Gulf Coast, in Texas, during storms, we do get 15, 20-foot waves. That’s pretty extraordinary.

George Cofer [00:31:47] I mean, for example, Port Aransas, they’ll come in over the pier. They’ll come in over the jetties. You don’t park on the beach. You walk from town. The water’s coming up into town. Again that that has some tragic circumstances for people. But to go out there and experience that, there’s just nothing like it.

Lee Smith [00:32:08] Well, also, you know, most times you go to the coast and the waves come in and you just kind of hop up and go through them.

George Cofer [00:32:15] Yeah.

Lee Smith [00:32:16] And so this is an opportunity that you’re taking. And now this is a stretch. This is a real stretch. But a conservation easement is an opportunity and certain timings of properties coming available, you’re taking advantage of opportunities. And is that too much of a stretch? That you’re taking advantage of a chance to make the best of it? And and they don’t come along and there’s a risk involved, there’s risk involved in entering in these things. There’s the unknown. And maybe I am making too much, trying to stretch this too much.

George Cofer [00:33:02] I never have thought too much about connecting, being out there in the big surf with the land conservation work that I do, my life career, something I’m passionate about.

George Cofer [00:33:13] But I think there’s definitely a connection. Being able to whether it’s being out there in the storm surf or being under dark skies and seeing the wonders of the heavens, it gives me energy to keep working and doing the work that I do.

George Cofer [00:33:31] I, I don’t think about much, honestly, when I’m out there in the storm surf except wanting to get home that night. I’m just real focused on having fun and surviving.

George Cofer [00:33:46] Having said that, the work we do as land trusts, whether it’s the Nature Conservancy or other Land trust, there is some risk in it and it’s a lot of hard work. And sometimes we’ll talk with families for 5 or 6 years and they’ll decide it’s just not the program for them. And that’s okay. We’ve gotten to know somebody. We might have a new good stewardship partner in some way or another.

George Cofer [00:34:13] And so let me give some more thought to that connection between the risk of what we do for fun in nature and the work that we do.

Lee Smith [00:34:25] Have you gotten a new car?

George Cofer [00:34:28] No. Why? Why would I do that?

Lee Smith [00:34:32] The next, you know, the same thing you’re driving when you first closed that deal.

George Cofer [00:34:36] So sadly, the 1972 Volvo is no longer with us. Somebody smacked me pretty hard. It’s gone.

George Cofer [00:34:44] But no, I don’t. I’m trying to think. Yes. I did own a new truck. I bought a new truck when I got out of high school in 1969 and drove that for 25 years. Ah, unless a truck can run for 25 years, I’m just not interested.

George Cofer [00:35:01] So we’ve talked about how much the family participated in having, with the Nature Conservancy. The family was very involved in every conversation with the Nature Conservancy.

George Cofer [00:35:13] And I remember one meeting in particular. It might have been the first meeting. And we were in Mom’s living room here in Austin, Texas. And I don’t know, our whole family showed up and some of the Nature Conservancy people, maybe that was a little unusual. Maybe that was a first for the., whether or not they owned any of the ranch or not, every family member had an opinion about this decision we were going to make. So it was a great meeting and went on for hours and hours and hours.

George Cofer [00:35:46] And that’s when we decided, after many years of talking internally among ourselves to go forward.

George Cofer [00:35:53] I think had it not been for mom and her sister, we might not have done this. They said, “This is what we’re going to do.” Mom is still alive and well. She will be 99 in June, so we’re planning her 99 bottles of beer on the barn wall at the ranch this June. And any time I go see Mom (she’s got an apartment here in town), now, any time I go see Mom, “When are we going to the ranch? When are we going to the ranch?”

George Cofer [00:36:26] She was probably the proudest person in the room when we did this conservation agreement. She was adamant that it happen.

George Cofer [00:36:35] And so I’m just blessed to have good, good parents, grandparents, great grandparents and all down the line.

George Cofer [00:36:44] And mom still gets in the truck with Bill. I call it a truck. Let’s be real clear about this. This is a Jeep that does not go out on the highway. It’s a pretty rough vehicle. And it runs in the ranch for the last 30 years. And Mom will get in that jeep with my brother and they’ll go out and check waters and feed the cattle. And we’re feeding a lot right now because it hadn’t rained. And that’s that’s her life. She loves it.

George Cofer [00:37:14] She grew up on the ranch. And my sister grew up there. I’m sorry. Her sister, my aunt, grew up at the ranch. So it was real important to them that we’d created this this legacy.

Lee Smith [00:37:28] So what advice would you have for a young person who’s considering a career in conservation work?

George Cofer [00:37:37] Get ready to be dedicated. It takes a lot of… To have a career in conservation takes a lot of dedication. One really has to be devoted to the work. It is certainly, I don’t mean to sound trite, but nobody is going to make a lot of money doing conservation work.

George Cofer [00:37:58] Nevertheless, we do it. We love it, and there’s just no better work, in my opinion.

George Cofer [00:38:05] I think what is important is for young people to get the skill set that they will need. Science is so important now in the work the Nature Conservancy does. Science drives the work that the Nature Conservancy does. So it’s important for wildlife biologists, for geoscientists, for climate scientists, whatever that field may be – engineers, water engineers, hydrogeologist – whatever is a young person’s passion. If they want to work in conservation, it is a good career path, but it takes some dedication.

George Cofer [00:38:43] I think when I talk with young people, and I will always except a “Dear Mr. Cofer, I’d like to have a cup of coffee.” I’ll always accept that meeting because they want to talk about a career path in conservation. And what I say time and time again is you’ve got to get used to the fact that this is not fast work. Well, we’ve worked on projects for ten years. You know, you just keep doing it and doing it and doing it and till finally you get it done.

Lee Smith [00:39:17] What’s the future? What do you think about the future? What does it hold for conservation?

George Cofer [00:39:24] I think it’ll be more and more important. And and by that I mean that as our, if the population scientists are correct, those who project that the population in Texas will double over the next 20, 30 years. If that’s true, I have no reason to believe it’s not true, there’s just not going to be enough great outdoor space for people unless we work hard now to create those those places – and I mean, private lands, public lands, trails, any access to nature is going to be more and more important.