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

Interviewee: Jeff Francell
Date: May 9, 2022
Site: Austin, Texas
Reels: 3431-3434
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: Francell_Jeff_NCItem9_AustinTX_20220509_Reel3431-3434_Audio.mp3

[Numbers refer to the interview recording’s time code.]

Jeff Francell [00:00:15] I grew up in Wichita Falls and in Dallas, Texas. But my my mother’s family’s all from far west Texas, and my parents grew up in Midland, Odessa. So we spent a lot of time in West Texas. My mother’s family has a ranch near Valentine. So I spent my summers in in in Fort Davis and going to Prude Ranch and playing with my cousins out there.

Lee Smith [00:00:44] Was there any aspect or experience in your early life that you remember that sparked an interest in conservation or the outdoors in general?

Jeff Francell [00:00:56] Well, this might be a little controversial, but my, my my great grandmother, we called her Daughter. Her name is Lucy Miller. And she drove me between her house, which is now my parents’ house in Fort Davis, and boys’ camp meeting in August.

Jeff Francell [00:01:15] And I remember driving by the Davis Mountains Resort, which is a pretty large subdivision out in the Davis Mountains of now it’s second homes and people that lived there permanently. And I remember my great grandmother saying as we passed the billboards of of “Own your own mountain”. And she said, “That’s not a good thing.”

Jeff Francell [00:01:38] And it sort of stuck with me. I can still remember it. She had a little Opel and it was very loud. And I remember her not happy that that one of those big ranches in the Davis Mountains was going to get turned into a subdivision.

Lee Smith [00:01:55] About how old were you?

Jeff Francell [00:01:57] Probably 8 or 9. Yeah. So I do remember that.

Lee Smith [00:02:04] Next question. Was there a family member or a mentor that you had at that time, in your early years?

Jeff Francell [00:02:10] Well, both of my parents are involved in in public service. My dad has worked with museums for his career. My my mother has been a landscape architect and worked in, she helped develop the Farrell-Wilson Farmstead, which is a living history museum in Plano, of all places.

Jeff Francell [00:02:33] But I think in terms of my appreciation for the natural world, my great uncle, Clay Miller, who managed the ranch, he passed away a few years ago. But Clay was a trained, University of Texas trained, zoologist who kind of had a different perspective than most West Texas ranchers.

Jeff Francell [00:02:55] So the family won the Lone Star Land Steward Award back in about, I guess it’s probably been 20 years ago. But Clay Miller was very open to letting scientific research happen, biological research happen, on the ranch and was very curious about the landscape around him and and always celebrated conservation victories when they occurred.

Lee Smith [00:03:24] Did you troop around with them or did you spend time?

Jeff Francell [00:03:28] Spent time with him. Yes. In his later years, he would get me to sit with him and tell him stories about places in Texas where I was working about protecting land. He was just super fascinated by it. He talked very slowly, but if you took the time to listen, he always had something interesting to say.

Lee Smith [00:03:50] What about any elements in popular culture, television, books, poetry? Was there any?

Jeff Francell [00:03:56] Edward Abbey. “Monkey Wrench Gang”, “Desert Solitaire”. Those ideas about wilderness, about the environment, about keeping things as as wild and natural as possible. When when I was exposed to them in my early 20s, they were seminal.

Lee Smith [00:04:19] So how did you get your first break in conservation, your first one that propelled you on this career?

Jeff Francell [00:04:27] Well, that’s an interesting question. So I graduated from the University of Texas in the early 1990s with a degree in government.

Jeff Francell [00:04:39] And if if I wanted to get a job at that point in time in Texas, it would probably have been at Dairy Queen. The economy was terrible, so I left and pursued a a, if you can call it a career, as, as a river guide. And then I worked in ski areas in the winter and met met my now wife and realized that I was a shoulder or a knee away from food stamps. And so I needed to think about some sort of professional career.

Jeff Francell [00:05:11] And so I applied to the LBJ School of Public Affairs and and got in and the the LBJ School at the university allows you to study public policy in in any aspect that most interests you. I was interested in the environment and environmental policy. And I was particularly interested in what I was seeing with my family in far west Texas, a private property rights movement that was sort of similar to what was going on in the West, but it had a different flavor to it.

Jeff Francell [00:05:51] In the West, the private property rights movement really centered around public land and what happened on public land. And in Texas, it was all private land. And one of the actions that that stirred up the West Texas land-owning community was the acquisition of Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Jeff Francell [00:06:12] And Andy Sansom was responsible for that acquisition. That’s at least what I read.

Jeff Francell [00:06:17] So I started to look into conservation issues in the mid-1990s and that that led me to the Nature Conservancy and to Texas Parks and Wildlife and things like the Endangered Species Act and acquisition of public land.

Jeff Francell [00:06:36] And so I, I ended up doing my master’s thesis on the creation of Big Bend Ranch State Park. And one of my conclusions was that conservation easements could be a … conservation easements could be a tool that sort of bridge the gap between the environmental movement and private property rights ownership.

Jeff Francell [00:07:01] And it took a number of decades before that idea kind of became more and more accepted in the land-owning community.

Jeff Francell [00:07:11] But that process introduced me to the Nature Conservancy, and and I got my first job after working for Parks and Wildlife as an intern with the Nature Conservancy in 1998.

Lee Smith [00:07:30] Conservation easements were kind of new, though.

Jeff Francell [00:07:35] Yeah. My first job, as I said, as an intern with Texas Parks and Wildlife, was to write a handbook describing what a conservation easement was and how they were used in Texas. And so the first few months, I used every resource that I could get to find landowners who had done conservation easements.

Jeff Francell [00:07:55] And I maybe found a couple of dozen. This was in the mid ’90s. And I went and interviewed ten of them and and profiled them in, in this handbook that Parks and Wildlife produced.

Jeff Francell [00:08:09] And today I’m I’m I’m, I’m proud to to say that there are hundreds, literally hundreds, of conservation easements protecting literally hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Texas.

Lee Smith [00:08:21] So what is a conservation easement?

Jeff Francell [00:08:25] A conservation easement is a legal agreement that’s tied to the land, where the landowner, who places the conservation easement on their property, agrees to certain restrictions about not developing their property, keeping it in a natural state to protect water quality, wildlife habitat, cultural resources, open space.

Jeff Francell [00:08:47] And and that conservation easement is held by a land trust, an organization like the Nature Conservancy that ensures over the years that those, that that agreement is abided with, primarily because a landowner would would want to place a conservation easement on their property because they are interested in protecting the land into future generations.

Jeff Francell [00:09:12] It’s the ultimate, it’s the ultimate expression of property rights. The landowner decides that they do not want to see that property, that’s been in their family for a long time or maybe even a short time, they they would rather see that property remain undeveloped and pass it down to future generations or sell it to someone who would take care of it as they have.

Lee Smith [00:09:35] So if they sold it, sold it to someone, is the conservation easement applicable?

Jeff Francell [00:09:40] Yes. The conservation easement is is associated with the land forever. It it is attached to the land. And if you buy that property, you know that the agreement that was made in previous generations to protect the property from development is still in place.

Lee Smith [00:09:59] The original agreement, though, are landowners were required in any way to enter into these agreements?

Jeff Francell [00:10:06] No, the the the placing of a conservation easement on a on a piece of property is a landowner’s choice. It’s completely voluntary. They they do not have to do that unless it’s it’s it’s something that they’re interested in doing.

Lee Smith [00:10:24] And we already got you into the Nature Conservancy. So I don’t think we need that question.

Lee Smith [00:10:30] So let’s talk about your involvement with Honey Creek. What was, what is your involvement with Honey Creek?

Jeff Francell [00:10:41] Well, so I’m a little bit of a bit of a historian of the conservation movement, which in Texas, which has not really been around for all that long, 3 or 4 decades. Jeff Weigel has been there for most of it.

Jeff Francell [00:11:00] So I did know that the acquisition of Honey Creek in the mid-1980s was one of the most significant actions in the Nature Conservancy in Texas’ development. It was a very expensive piece of property at the time, several million dollars. And the Conservancy was was interested in in, in protecting that property because it obviously has rare natural resources. It’s a pristine creek in a cypress gallery forest and perennial water, very, very pure, lots of endemic fish and wildlife and plants. So very special natural area.

Jeff Francell [00:11:51] And the Conservancy worked throughout the 1980s to acquire the property and then transfer it to Texas Parks and Wildlife, where now it’s known as the Honey Creek State Natural Area.

Jeff Francell [00:12:04] Well, the Honey Creek system doesn’t live in a vacuum. It’s it’s within a watershed. It’s within a spring system that is very vulnerable.

Jeff Francell [00:12:18] And for decades, the things went along swimmingly until the last few years when development pressure became very intense in the area. And that pristine canyon and pristine water was very threatened by development. That was more like what you would see in Boerne or Round Rock rather than next to Guadalupe River State Park in the Honey Creek State Natural area.

Jeff Francell [00:12:50] And the pristine waters and wildlife could not survive that kind of development.

Jeff Francell [00:12:58] So for a number of years, the Conservancy had had worked with a landowner who who is an employee of Texas Parks and Wildlife, Joyce Moore, who’s, Joyce and her sister owned a ranch that possessed the source of the water to Honey Creek, the Honey Creek Spring Ranch.

Jeff Francell [00:13:28] And the the Joyce and her sister knew that they had a special piece of property. Joyce and her sister also appreciated the fact that their family had managed, owned and managed this land since the 1870s. So we’re talking about 150 years. That’s quite a legacy.

Jeff Francell [00:13:50] And within the last few years, they decided that they would agree to protect their property with a conservation easement if they could be paid some of the economic value of that conservation easement.

Jeff Francell [00:14:04] And we worked with Joyce and her sister, as well as Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, which is part of the Department of Agriculture, to fund the purchase of a conservation easement on Joyce and her sister’s property. That transaction closed in January of 2022.

Jeff Francell [00:14:28] And and we’re happy to say that that the the cave and the spring that are on Joyce and her sister’s property are perpetually conserved and will will have a significant impact on the future viability of Honey Creek State Natural Area.

Jeff Francell [00:14:49] This isn’t to say that the story is complete. There’s still quite a bit of development threat in the in the vicinity of of the Honey Creek State Natural Area. And we are working with landowners to protect more property and and try to maintain as much natural area and buffer around the Honey Creek Spring and the Honey Creek State Natural Area as possible.

Jeff Francell [00:15:19] It’s a long answer.

Lee Smith [00:15:20] No, that’s good.

Lee Smith [00:15:22] How how big an area are you trying to work with to protect that, to create a buffer?

Jeff Francell [00:15:29] Yeah, I think estimates are the Honey Creek watershed is about 8000 acres. And with with agreements with the protection of the Honey Creek State Natural Area and agreements we have with private landowners, more than half of that will be permanently conserved this year. And and it’s important that that the the land that’s protected will be the land that’s closest to the creek and closest to the spring, providing a buffer.

Jeff Francell [00:16:03] But that doesn’t mean that that we can rest. I think the more land we can protect in the Honey Creek watershed, the better.

Jeff Francell [00:16:12] The the issue in the Hill Vountry with development is that our riparian systems are extremely vulnerable to degradation. Too much development, too close to the waterway, leads to erosion and leads to degradation in water quality and quantity.

Jeff Francell [00:16:36] We’ve all seen it if we grew up here that a creek or a spring that we knew about or loved, it’s not there anymore once once the area around that creek and spring get developed.

Jeff Francell [00:16:49] And so what’s what’s really wonderful about Honey Creek is that we have the opportunity because of the size of the watershed and how much land is protected to preserve it for future generations to enjoy.

Jeff Francell [00:17:03] Another long answer.

Lee Smith [00:17:06] So we’ve got the key players in that part. The Moore sisters.

Lee Smith [00:17:13] How, just how, how long did. Are these protracted? I guess it depends on the players, you know? I mean, it it could happen quickly. It could take a while.

Jeff Francell [00:17:24] Well, many conservation easements are donated and a donated conservation easement can happen pretty quickly. You would, you might wonder, well, why would a landowner donate a conservation easement when some of the times they can get paid for the same same thing.

Jeff Francell [00:17:50] Funds aren’t available across the entire entirety of Texas for purchasing conservation easements. The funds are really actually very limited.

Jeff Francell [00:17:59] But some landowners are committed to seeing their property protected as they pass it down to future generations, and that’s mainly why they would donate.

Jeff Francell [00:18:10] There also benefits from an estate planning standpoint to putting a conservation easement on a property. It reduces the land’s value and therefore it can reduce the amount owed when you pass property down to the next generation.

Jeff Francell [00:18:28] If you’re talking about purchasing a conservation easement, using public funding, which is the main source of funding for for conservation easement purchases, that can take some time because you’re working with government agencies that have their own requirements, their own due diligence. And and it can take a year or more to complete one of these transactions.

Suzanne Scott [00:18:56] Do we want to go into detail about the Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program, or ACEP, Jeff?

Jeff Francell [00:19:05] I can talk a little. I can talk a little bit about it.

Jeff Weigel [00:19:13] Public dollars for conservation.

Suzanne Scott [00:19:14] Just kind of explain what it is. Sorry.

Jeff Francell [00:19:16] Yeah. So in Texas, for a number of years, there, there was very limited funding for purchase, purchasing conservation easements.

Jeff Francell [00:19:29] I think one of the one of the aspects of of my involvement in conservation in Texas that I’m most proud of is in in the late 1990s the Nature Conservancy and the City of Austin worked together to purchase conservation easements in the Barton Springs watershed. And that was really the first systematic use of conservation easements in Texas to protect a particular landscape.

Jeff Francell [00:19:56] Over the years, the the the federal government, through the Natural Resource Conservation Service, has provided more funds to private landowners and land trusts to put conservation easements on their property.

Jeff Francell [00:20:10] The problem was, is that these funds from the NRCS required matching dollars, and Texas did not have any matching dollars. Within the last ten years, the legislature has has granted through their appropriations a couple of million dollars every legislative session for the purchase of conservation easements that can be used to match the NRCS money that’s available.

Jeff Francell [00:20:41] And it’s really been a game changer. It’s the state has been able to leverage those dollars many, many fold, protect multiple properties that otherwise would not have been protected and really stretch the conservation dollar about as far as it can go.

Lee Smith [00:21:00] Well, and as time has gone by, it seems like more people are embracing this concept of conservation easements.

Jeff Francell [00:21:08] Yes.

Lee Smith [00:21:09] Facilitating their their application. Would you say that’s a trend you think?

Jeff Francell [00:21:15] Yes. I think that the interest in the interest with with landowners in Texas doing conservation easements is only going to grow. I think still most landowners don’t know the term, don’t don’t understand what it is.

Jeff Francell [00:21:31] And that doesn’t mean that that everybody who learns about it is immediately going to sign up. But there are, there are enough landowners who who this appeals to that I think that that this will only grow in the future.

Jeff Francell [00:21:45] And at the same time, we’re experiencing an unprecedented wave of development in Texas, making it more and more obvious that that if we don’t, if landowners don’t act in a state like Texas that’s 97% private property, that all of those things, the open space, the wildlife, the water quality that brought people here in the first place could be lost.

Lydia Saldana [00:22:12] One more thought here. Are there funds raised by TNC, private funds, to help these easements?

Jeff Francell [00:22:19] Usually not.

Lydia Saldana [00:22:20] Not.

Lydia Saldana [00:22:21] Yeah. Because I know TALT does some of that. Parks and Wildlife Foundation does some of that. But y’all don’t?

Jeff Francell [00:22:25] Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it’s still it’s pretty minimal. Public funding is 95% of it. Yeah.

Lee Smith [00:22:35] So I’ve asked that already. Yeah. So what about Honey Creek’s location? A lot of people don’t know what the Edwards Plateau is. Or so. What is what is it about that this particular place that makes it special?

Jeff Francell [00:22:56] Well there are pristine streams throughout the Hill Country. There’re unique creeks and and rivers, segments, that stretch all the way from Uvalde to Lampasas and all the way out west to San Angelo.

[00:23:24] So, so the the number of beautiful places in the Hill Country is is hard to put a number on. But Honey Creek, because it’s it’s really located as close to San Antonio, New Braunfels and Boerne as it is, it’s it’s accessible. It is available to kids who go to school in San Antonio to come learn about water quality and rare wildlife.

Jeff Francell [00:24:00] If you if you draw a circle on Honey Creek State Natural Area and a straight line to the intersection of 281 and Highway 46, it’s about 15 miles. And that could possibly be the epicenter for development in Hill Country – 46 and 281. And it’s just radiating out from there.

Jeff Francell [00:24:22] So the amount of, the amount of development pressure that the Honey Creek Spring and creek are under is is expanding.

Jeff Francell [00:24:35] But yet, as I mentioned before, enough of it’s been protected that the possibility to to to maintain its viability into the future still exists.

Jeff Francell [00:24:45] So it’s it’s really it’s really the the location relative to the growth that’s occurring in the Hill Country right now that makes that place so special, in my opinion.

Lee Smith [00:24:58] And as you’re talking about it, it’s so close to these places where there are a lot of people, that when people visit it, it’s an opportunity for them to to get it.

Jeff Francell [00:25:11] Right. The the idea or the the fact that people can go to that park and step back in time and see what the Hill Country looked like before there were strip centers and gas stations and highways and interchanges all over the place, it’s it’s it’s really important. And it lets people understand that it really is still important to protect our our natural resources, even in areas that are close to quick, fast-developing areas.

Lee Smith [00:25:52] So we’ve talked about this future project that’s going on going on right now. And you said, the story you told us, is that can you look out even farther than that? Do you think there’s an opportunity to protect a different part of the watershed?

Jeff Francell [00:26:12] Well, we’re we’re currently working with a private landowner to to to buy about 600 acres of of property that is very close to Honey Creek, that would be in addition to the state park and available to the public. It’s too early to tell if we’ll be successful in that effort, but we’re working very hard on it.

Jeff Francell [00:26:34] We’ve raised some private dollars with, along with Parks and Wildlife and the Parks and Wildlife Foundation to acquire that property and add it to the state park. But it’s not done yet, and we still have some significant hurdles to get through.

Lee Smith [00:26:50] Is this a piece that you kind of approached them first?

Jeff Francell [00:26:56] This was a property that had planned and a landowner that had planned to have a very dense development on about 5 or 600 acres. We’re talking 2000 homes at one point on 5 or 600 acres. So like the kind of development that you would see in Round Rock or Boerne or some other or Austin or San Antonio right at the headwaters of of Honey Creek. And we, the Nature Conservancy and Texas Parks and Wildlife, approached the landowner about what if there was another way? What if we could buy this property?

Jeff Francell [00:27:34] And because of a a an act that was passed by by the United States Congress in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act, it allowed for funding, much increased funding, for parkland in Texas, and the funding is available to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Jeff Francell [00:27:57] It has one significant catch. It’s got to be matched dollar for dollar by state dollars or private dollars. So the Nature Conservancy and Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation have been in the process of raising private dollars to match those public dollars and acquire that property. And we’re we’re getting close.

Lee Smith [00:28:22] Okay, so now let’s shift to the Shield Ranch. So what is important about this property?

Jeff Francell [00:28:31] Well, it’s the largest single property in the Barton Creek watershed. The Shield Ranch is owned by a San Antonio family that moved to Austin and are extremely conservation-minded people. Bob Ayres and his sister Vera Bowen, and their mother and father, Fred and Patricia Ayres, they they inherited this large property, more than 7000 acres with seven miles of Barton Creek that run right through the middle of it, and understood that that property was extremely significant to the future of Barton Creek and Barton Springs, and had been a special place for their family to gather for for a number of years.

Jeff Francell [00:29:32] I was actually hired in the late 1990s by the Nature Conservancy to work with private landowners in the Barton Creek watershed to protect as much property as as we that we could.

Jeff Francell [00:29:48] The the Conservancy owns a 4000-acre property on Barton Creek, a little closer into town. And we were really worried about the development that was, the Conservancy, was worried about the development that was occurring upstream.

Jeff Francell [00:30:02] So obviously the Shield Ranch was a critical target for for conservation and a a goal to to of mine to protect over my time with the Conservancy.

Jeff Francell [00:30:22] And about the same time, the City of Austin passed a bond election to protect land in the Barton Springs watershed, using conservation easements or purchasing property outright.

Jeff Francell [00:30:39] The development of of land west of Austin was speeding up and and development was really front of mind for for people in Austin at that time. It it’s it’s hard to believe, but when you back in the late 1990s almost every single city council member was elected under an environmental platform and the environment was the number one issue of the day.

Jeff Francell [00:31:07] And the funding that the city and its voters made available was utilized by the Nature Conservancy and the city to go out and meet with landowners who were either selling their property outright or were interested in in conservation easements, basically continuing to own the land, but selling the development rights.

Jeff Francell [00:31:31] And we started talking to the Ayres family in, around 1998, 1999.

Jeff Francell [00:31:40] And the family was interested in the idea of doing a very charitable transaction where they took a significantly lower amount of funding for the purchase of a conservation easement on part of the property and donated a conservation easement to the Nature Conservancy on a much larger part of the property.

Jeff Francell [00:32:04] And we were able to complete that that transaction. And now 95% of the Shield Ranch there between Hamilton’s Pool Road and Fitzhugh Road and and and 290 on Barton Creek is permanently protected.

Lee Smith [00:32:20] And how many acres is in that?

Jeff Francell [00:32:23] About 7000 acres in the conservation easement. Yeah. And Barton Creek, as I mentioned, runs straight through the middle of it for about seven miles.

Lee Smith [00:32:34] And we’ve talked about who the key players in that. So it was mainly the family. Was there anybody else outside the family?

Jeff Francell [00:32:42] No. The the family was unified in this in the concept in the transaction that we that we organized and the City of Austin provided the funding that was necessary to purchase the conservation easement on part of the property. At the time, Kirk Watson was mayor. And it was the largest conservation transaction that we were able to do with that $65 million that the voters approved in 1998.

Lee Smith [00:33:17] So and how long ago did this happen?

Jeff Francell [00:33:21] In the late 1990s.

Lee Smith [00:33:23] And so since then, what educational and scientific opportunities has this property afforded folks?

Jeff Francell [00:33:33] Well, I would say that the the most, in my opinion, the most important element of of of that transaction, of the the Shield Ranch placing a conservation easement on the property, was the influence that it had on other landowners. That transaction was actually mentioned in Governor Bush’s task force on conservation that that came out in the in the early or late 1990s as a as an example of how private landowners could work with the government to protect natural resources. And I think it had a significant impact on the idea of conservation easements becoming more accepted throughout Texas.

Jeff Francell [00:34:28] But but since that time, the family has been working towards goals that they had, that are allowed under the conservation easement, to place various programmatic aspects across the property. This still will mean that that the vast majority of the land remains in its natural state. But 7000 acres is a is a big piece of property. So a very small portion of the property will be available for, or is available and has been made available to kids, especially kids who wouldn’t economically have a chance to go to camp otherwise, to have a summer camp.

Jeff Francell [00:35:10] And they’re working on things like organic farming, public trails and other aspects of the property that really lend themselves to community benefits down the road.

Lee Smith [00:35:25] And why is that important? Why is access to places like this important?

Jeff Francell [00:35:33] Well, that’s a very good question. In my opinion, public access to to land is is critically important so that people can learn about and appreciate the outdoors. Without without access, without being able to touch it, feel it, walk through it, smell it, the public in Texas would not be able to appreciate the the outdoors and everything Texas has to offer.

Jeff Francell [00:36:06] And the fact that we are in a private lands state, those opportunities are limited and the population has grown substantially over the last, well, forever. And the amount of public land available for conservation has not kept up.

Jeff Francell [00:36:26] And so all those state parks and local parks are filled up. And and I do think that it’s it’s going to be important in this generation that more land be acquired, more more access be given, so that the public can appreciate the outdoors.

Jeff Francell [00:36:48] If they don’t, they they they won’t vote to protect it.

Jeff Francell [00:36:51] If the Shield Ranch had been in in the ownership of a different type of family, Austin would look different. West of Bee Cave, there would be several more Bee Caves. You know, 7000 acres would allow for an incredible amount of development.

Jeff Francell [00:37:12] And and if you see what’s happening between Austin and Dripping Springs right now, you can only imagine how much worse the traffic would be, how much, how much less livable that part of the world would be if you had 7000 more acres of houses, shopping centers, office buildings, and all those and all those aspects.

Jeff Francell [00:37:36] So when when I started to work for the Nature Conservancy at our Barton Creek Preserve back in the late 1990s, that property was kind of in the middle of nowhere. But that didn’t last long.

Jeff Francell [00:37:52] So now today, on every corner of the Preserve, is development. And that’s happened to the Shield Ranch over the last 20 years as well. So if if that family hadn’t chosen a different path, Barton Creek would look different. Not better. And the communities between Austin and and Dripping Springs and the people that live there would be dealing with a heck of a lot more development pressure.

Jeff Francell [00:38:23] Well, I think I mentioned before that the the fact that the Shield Ranch put a conservation easement on such a visible and valuable piece of property caused some landowners across the state who who had significant family properties to take notice – that there was another another way, another path forward. And and I think that their action, the Ayres family’s action there, influenced other landowners to learn about the tool. And over time, I think more and more landowners have have taken advantage of the tool to to meet their needs of protecting their property, passing it down to future generations so that their kids, grandchildren, great grandkids, great, great grandkids can enjoy them.

Lee Smith [00:39:18] And what about the Ayres family themselves? How did this experience with this transaction lead to other things with other parcels that they have?

Jeff Francell [00:39:29] Well, the the the the Ayres family also has a property near Camp Wood in Real County. And it’s it’s not quite as big as the Barton Creek Preserve, nor quite as valuable, frankly. But it is unique and has natural resources that are worth protecting. And the Conservancy and the family have have also placed conservation easements on that property to protect endangered species habitat.

Lee Smith [00:39:57] I can’t believe I’m asking this. What is unique about Bracken Cave?

Jeff Francell [00:40:01] Well, it’s the largest single mammalian concentration on earth, I’ve been told.

Lee Smith [00:40:09] Will you give us the name of that, not yet, for Bracken?

Jeff Francell [00:40:12] Bracken Cave, from what I’ve been told, is the largest single concentration of mammals on earth, especially after the the the mother bats give birth to their babies and the population of the cave doubles. So that’s that’s significant. That’s interesting and unique.

Jeff Francell [00:40:34] And so, yeah, there’s your there’s your answer.

Lee Smith [00:40:42] And what about Cibolo Bluffs? How does that tie with Bracken?

Jeff Francell [00:40:48] Well, so the story of the Bracken Cave and the protection of Bracken Cave really started in the in the 1980s. And Bat Conservation International, through tireless efforts of volunteers, some of which you’ll probably hear about in this in this project, Bat Conservation International was able to get, to acquire the cave and build a preserve around it that totaled about 700 acres.

Jeff Francell [00:41:22] But in the early 2000s, a very large property that surrounded the the the property, Bracken, I mean, that BCI, Bat Conservation International, owned, was purchased by a large development company. And that company planned to put thousands of houses on about 2500 acres that that surrounded the cave.

Jeff Francell [00:41:53] And it was anticipated that that development would have a very negative impact on the long-term viability of the cave. The the the the bats, most of the time when they left the cave would fly right over all those rooftops. And there there could be issues with bats falling into people’s backyards and and and rabies and many many different issues – basically human / wildlife conflict.

Jeff Francell [00:42:27] The the Bat Conservation International and the Nature Conservancy recognized that this was really an existential threat to the long-term viability of Bracken Cave, this development.

Jeff Francell [00:42:39] And we started to work work with the developer and and his consultants on trying to figure out a way to acquire the property. And I literally worked on on this transaction for ten years through a number of different iterations, through an economic downturn, through different leadership in different organizations.

Jeff Francell [00:43:02] And finally, through the confluence of of some events was able to get traction with the landowner, with the City of San Antonio, who provided some funding for the transaction and and a partnership with Bat Conservation International to raise private dollars to help acquire what we call the Galo property, which is now divided between Bat Conservation International and the Nature Conservancy as the Cibolo Bluffs Preserve.

Jeff Francell [00:43:36] We we were actually able to acquire this development in two different parts. And we were aided substantially, as sometimes we are, by a turn by by a downturn in the in the economy.

Jeff Francell [00:43:49] So in the 2008 recession, the developer needed to sell some property. And so we were able to work with the US Army and Bexar County to to acquire about 1200 acres of the of the property that that was owned by Brad Galo at the time.

Jeff Francell [00:44:15] You might ask yourself, what what did the US Army have to do with this? Well, the Army was expanding their mission at a large property, a large military base, on the north side of San Antonio, known as Camp Bullis.

Jeff Francell [00:44:29] They were increasing their efforts to train medical personnel throughout all the armed services on the base. And they were, and they needed, the Army needed to expand the development footprint on the base, which would impact endangered species habitat there.

Jeff Francell [00:44:48] So we were able to actually go acquire this property on Cibolo Creek from Brad Galo to to create mitigation for the Army at Camp Bullis. So it was a win/win. The Army got the the ability to do more training at Camp Bullis, and we were able to protect a critically important piece of property next to Bracken Cave.

Lee Smith [00:45:17] What’s it like being at Bracken Cave when those bats come out, like on a full moon?

Jeff Francell [00:45:24] Well, it’s it’s very impressive. There’s there’s no way you really get a full appreciation unless you unless you can be there for hours and hours and hours because that’s how long it takes that many bats to come out of a cave.

Jeff Francell [00:45:38] But when they first start to come out and and you see that tornado of bats leaving the cave in the twilight, it’s got to be a top wildlife experience in Texas. And it and obviously has has that pull because every single National Geographic, BBC, Animal Planet they’ve all come out to film it and and continue to do so just because of the unique nature of that experience.

Lee Smith [00:46:18] Well, when they come out, they always go in one direction.

Jeff Francell [00:46:21] Right. Right. That’s why I mentioned the tornado part.

Lee Smith [00:46:24] Which way do they go and why?

Jeff Francell [00:46:26] Well, they they the bats, they they leave out out of the cave most of the time, depending on the what the weather’s doing, and they go across what’s now the symbol of Cibolo Bluffs Preserve, but would have been this development on their way to the agricultural fields that are generally south and east of San Antonio, where they feast on a on a moth that is actually harmful to agricultural crops in that area.

Jeff Weigel [00:46:55] Right.

Jeff Francell [00:46:56] This the 2000 acres that makes up the Cibolo Bluffs Preserve that was threatened by this pretty, pretty massive development is east of Bracken Cave. And as the bats leave the cave, they fly low for for quite a while. And so having it be a natural landscape is, is is much better for the long-term viability of the cave than having it be rooftops.

Jeff Francell [00:47:26] And I think I would say this, throughout this interview, I have been involved in a number of transactions in the Hill Country involving development. And I will say that we all need someplace to live. You know, all development, development is necessary. Development is is important.

Jeff Francell [00:47:55] But at the same time, preserving something is also important. Preserving some of the natural landscape is important so that kids have places to play, so that creeks can stay clean. So there really does need to be a balance.

Jeff Francell [00:48:10] And in our communities in Austin and San Antonio, San Marcos, Hays County, these communities have done a great job of of providing funding for the conservation of of land that’s that’s important to the long-term viability of the natural landscape.

Lee Smith [00:48:32] So what advice do you have for somebody that was kind of fired up like you were and wants to pursue a career in in conservation?

Jeff Francell [00:48:47] Well, I think that that we’re entering an era where we need, there needs to be more people involved at the government level. So I would suggest to a to somebody who’s interested in conservation, who wants to have an impact, that that they go find a job at the legislature or at the city council in their community and advocate for more funding, because that’s really the limiting factor, is is funding.

Jeff Francell [00:49:25] The Nature Conservancy is approaching its its millionth acre of of protected land since the first acre it acquired in the mid to late 1960s – Ezell’s Cave near San Marcos.

Jeff Francell [00:49:39] So that’s more than 50 years ago. Took a million acres. A million acres is significant. But there are 176 million acres in Texas. And so it’s a very, very small percentage. I would say the endgame needs to be, we need to protect another million acres and it doesn’t need to take 50 years. We should we should speed up our efforts and progress.

Jeff Francell [00:50:01] I think that the fact that I’ve been able to work on land conservation projects across Texas, both with the Nature Conservancy and Texas Parks and Wildlife, as well as the National Audubon Society, it it’s really rewarding to be able to go to places like Sabal Palm Forest in the Valley or South Padre Island or Yoakum Dunes, west of Lubbock, places that I’ve I’ve helped protect in my career.

Jeff Francell [00:50:35] I, I know that that that no one will remember that in multiple generations. But there, there is a lot of personal satisfaction in being able to say that I was involved in the protection of a piece of property or a place that other people can can appreciate and enjoy through future generations.

Jeff Francell [00:51:00] One one one significant part of my career overlapped with a horrible tragedy that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico – the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Jeff Francell [00:51:14] The Deepwater Horizon oil spill did not have much of a negative impact on the Texas coast, thankfully. The the the other Gulf states took took it a lot harder than we did.

Jeff Francell [00:51:27] But because the Gulf is a system, the funding was available to conservation projects across the Gulf. Texas was able to was able to access some funding.

Jeff Francell [00:51:42] And I have been involved in nearly a dozen projects involving funding from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along the Texas coast that protected thousands of acres of land – places like South Padre, Powderhorn Ranch, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. We’ve, the Nature Conservancy, has had a significant impact on preserving what’s left of the of the Texas coast in an undeveloped state because of that funding made available through the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.