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

Interviewee: Michelle Beale
Date: October 25, 2022
Site: Houston, Texas
Reels: 4547
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: Beale_Michelle_NCItem38_HoustonTX_20221025_Reel4547_Audio.mp3

Lee Smith [00:00:16] So, where did you grow up?

Michelle Beale [00:00:18] I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Sooner State.

Lee Smith [00:00:24] And did you go to high school there the whole time? You lived in Tulsa the whole time?

Michelle Beale [00:00:27] Yeah, I wasn’t born there, but I grew up in Tulsa. But I spent a lot of time in Texas. We came to Texas a lot.

Lee Smith [00:00:35] And then after high school, tell me your journey.

Michelle Beale [00:00:38] Oh, I have an interesting journey. So I went to the University of Tulsa. And I was very fortunate. I had a Fulbright Fellowship. And I went to Karachi, Pakistan. And I studied at the University of Karachi. That was an eye-opener. And I working on a master’s degree in international relations. And I’ve been able to sort of see the world along the way and had a lot of interesting experiences.

Michelle Beale [00:01:07] Then I came back to Tulsa. I had this view I was going to be sort of this, oh, I don’t know, maybe international reporter or something, travel around the world. But you know what happened? You come back home and you need a job.

Michelle Beale [00:01:23] So I went to work for Skelly Oil Company. But I stayed in Tulsa for a number of years before I moved to Houston.

Lee Smith [00:01:31] How’d you get to Houston?

Michelle Beale [00:01:33] Well, I worked for Skelly. And Skelly being an oil company, they transferred people around all the time. So I was transferred, working for a company named Getty Oil Company. Skelly was merged into Getty. And it was very exciting because I had spent a lot of time in Texas. I was really very happy to move to Houston, once I got used to the humidity.

Lee Smith [00:01:55] Now let’s roll back just a little bit. So you come out of, you have a master’s now, coming out of Karachi, a masters in…

Michelle Beale [00:02:03] International relations.

Lee Smith [00:02:05] And so how did you fit into Skelly in Tulsa?

Michelle Beale [00:02:11] Well, as I said, I needed a job. That was the first thing. And then I also decided that I wanted to go to law school. So I went to law school at night while I was working for Skelly. And kind of the legal part and the international relations part sort of gravitated toward government relations and public relations. And it kind of all fit together. And Skelly paid for my law degree. That was, that was a wonderful benefit of working for Skelly. So I have an undergraduate degree from University of Tulsa, a law degree from the University of Tulsa and a master’s degree from The University of Karachi.

Lee Smith [00:02:52] And so you got hired on at Skelly in what department?

Michelle Beale [00:02:55] in the public relations department.

Lee Smith [00:02:59] And then that transferred into Getty’s public relations.

Michelle Beale [00:03:02] Right. Skelly was merged into Getty after J. Paul Getty died. J. Paul Getty really owned Skelly Oil Company. He never merged it into Getty because he really had a lot of respect for the founder, a guy named W. G. Skelly. So once he died, everything merged together and I was transferred to Houston in charge of public relations, government relations, later royalty owner relations. So the portfolio kind of grew over time.

Lee Smith [00:03:34] Is that where you met Carol? When you were at Getty?

Michelle Beale [00:03:37] No, I met Carol, Carol Dinkins.

Lee Smith [00:03:42] Yes.

Michelle Beale [00:03:46] No, I met Carol through the Nature Conservancy.

Lee Smith [00:03:45] Okay, but then you went over to another large company that we know.

Michelle Beale [00:03:53] Right, I moved from barrels to ounces. So I again was going through another merger. I said when you work for oil companies, you seem to go to mergers all the time. So Getty was acquired by Texaco. And I had a call one day from a recruiter and said, you know, I know that you’re probably going to move over to Texaco, but there’s a really nice job at the Coca-Cola Company. And I interviewed for it. It was a wonderful opportunity.

Michelle Beale [00:04:21] I was Vice President of Public Relations and Government Affairs. And then I kind of moved up and became Vice President of Administration, ran a whole bunch of different functions – government relations, public relations, human resources, law department. Wherever somebody needed me to run, they gave it to me and I did it. But it was a lovely, wonderful company. I’m very fortunate to have been there.

Lee Smith [00:04:48] And that also allowed you to travel a lot, too, around the world.

Michelle Beale [00:04:51] Absolutely, because particularly in the human resources function, I had HR people who were working around the world. I never went back to Pakistan. That’s one place I never been. It’s changed a lot since then.

Lee Smith [00:05:08] Um, so I’m going to get back on script here. I kind of went off script. And I’ll do that every once in a while.

Lee Smith [00:05:20] So think back. Was there any aspect of your early life that sparked an interest in the outdoors for you at all?

Michelle Beale [00:05:27] Well, other than the fact that I spent most of the time outside. Growing up in Tulsa, we lived on two acres. Now, this is pretty interesting because my father was from New York City. Imagine a guy who grew up in New York City in East Hampton, suddenly living on two acres in Oklahoma, but he was a flexible guy and he’d fallen in love with my mother, so what else can I say?

Michelle Beale [00:05:53] So we lived in two acres. We always had a garden. I always had my little garden. We didn’t have air conditioning. We’re talking 1950s. So you know, you didn’t stay cooped up inside very often. And so I spent a lot of time outside. And my father loved to fish, so we were always going fishing somewhere or trying to fish somewhere.

Michelle Beale [00:06:17] And the other thing, when I think about growing up and what I loved to do. My father, as I said, was from New York and he had grown up in East Hampton, so he grew up on the beach in East Hampton. So I always wanted to go to the beach, but it was a long way to the beach from Oklahoma, so we would sometimes drive to New York, and then we started driving to Texas. Guess what? There’s a beach in Texas.

Michelle Beale [00:06:43] So, I don’t think that, you know, I had the concept of… conservation or environmental protection or anything like that when I was growing up, but I had a love of being outside.

Lee Smith [00:07:03] Which beach did you go to in Texas?

Michelle Beale [00:07:04] Well, we finally spent time coming to Galveston. My mother’s brother was transferred to Galviston, and so we discovered Galveston. And sometimes we’d drive to Corpus. My father liked to drive, so we drove all over the place.

Lee Smith [00:07:22] Did you ever make it down to Padre?

Michelle Beale [00:07:25] Ultimately many times. You know, it’s a very special place, Padre Island. And you could go all the way to Port Isabel and in a very short drive you could be in Matamoros and have a wonderful dinner and my father could get a drink. Texas being some place you could get drink, but not Oklahoma.

Lee Smith [00:07:54] So cast your mind back and was there a particular time or a particular experience you had as a kid when you were outdoors, a moonless night or a morning when the sun, was there any kind of image in your head or anything like that?

Michelle Beale [00:08:20] Sort of like, sort of like did the sky part?

Lee Smith [00:08:25] I mean, you know, some people, like, I was at a thing with Carter Smith, and he was talking about the time that a bobcat came out and sunned itself, and that was a moment.

Michelle Beale [00:08:39] I don’t think there was one moment. I can think of lots of experiences. Just in Oklahoma, you know, because we lived on two acres, so there was always things happening. There were always trees blooming. There was always jackrabbits. They probably weren’t jackrabbits, they were just ordinary rabbits that were not supposed to be in the garden that were there.

Michelle Beale [00:09:05] And we had acquired a little cabin on the Illinois River. The Illinois River is in northeastern Oklahoma. It’s not too far from Tahlequah. And we have a little cabin there. And so we would go after work on Fridays. My god, daddy would pile stuff in the car. He ultimately bought this old car, which he called the fishing car, so we would keep all the stuff in it. And then we would drive to the cabin. There were no interstates. It was a long drive. We’d spend the weekend. We’d come back Sunday night. And I don’t know if we ever caught any fish or not, but we always tried to.

Michelle Beale [00:09:41] So, I can remember that, I remember the river. It was a wild river. I haven’t been there in a long time, but I know there is a Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma, and I know they’ve done a lot of work on that river.

Michelle Beale [00:09:55] So, I had those kind of memories.

Michelle Beale [00:09:58] I have a lot involving Texas, too. I My grandfather lived in Texas. This was my mother’s father. He was a drilling superintendent. He worked for Gulf Oil. And he was always getting moved somewhere in Texas, and we would always drive to see him. And he was an outdoors kind of guy. He loved the outdoors. He was hunter and a fisher, and just loved to be outside. So I have a lot of memories around him.

Lee Smith [00:10:31] Would you say that he was a mentor in that regard, or was it your father?

Michelle Beale [00:10:35] No, no. I think my grandfather. You know, mentor… He was a casual mentor. I don’t think he was trying to do it. I don’t think he thought, “I’m mentoring my granddaughter.” He was just showing me things.

Michelle Beale [00:10:50] And one of the things he showed me was a lot of the Davis Mountains. Amazing, I know. He was stationed. He was the kind of guy that got moved around a lot. He worked for Gulf Oil. And they were always transferring him. He was always out sitting on some well in some remote place. And for a while, he lived in Marfa, and he lived at the Paisano Hotel, which is still there, if you can believe it. And he was drilling a well on some rancher’s land. There was this theory at the time that the trend that was in the Permian Basin, the oil trend, probably extended down toward Marfa and some of those areas. It didn’t. but there was a lot of hope on rancher’s parts that it would.

Michelle Beale [00:11:40] So he was drilling a well on this ranch out there, and we went out to visit him. And I can remember, he just loved that part of the country, and he would show me all kinds of things. You know, we’d go out, and there were grasslands, and he’d show me the quail on the grasslands. And we’d go up in the Davis Mountains. Park the car at night, look at the stars. So he showed me all of those things. He really loved it.

Michelle Beale [00:12:12] I don’t think he was consciously saying, “I’m teaching my granddaughter about conservation or about nature.” He was just sharing things with me. But that was really the first introduction I had to that part of the world. And I still remember that. And you know, when I go to Fort Davis now, I can’t help but remember him.

Lee Smith [00:12:35] Great connection.

Michelle Beale [00:12:37] It was a great connection.

Michelle Beale [00:12:38] And there I was a couple of weeks ago out looking for the Marfa lights, those lights that don’t really exist, but there are certain people who say they have seen them. And the first time I ever saw them was or tried to see them was sitting with my grandfather about 1954 in some old Chevrolet and him trying to tell me that they existed. And I kept saying, “Where, where, where?”

Lee Smith [00:13:07] Um… Was there anyone in your (these are David Todd’s questions), was there any one in your education, a teacher or a classmate that was kind of a partner or in conservation?

Michelle Beale [00:13:26] I don’t think so. You know, conservation was a word that I don’t remember using as a youngster. Frankly, I don’t even remember much about conservation when I was in high school or college. The concept of conservation kind of came late in my life. So yeah, I had friends that we would go out together. We would go fishing with us, but we didn’t talk about conservation. And it wasn’t just, it just wasn’t… We maybe participated in it, but we didn’t know it, and we didn’t talk about it. When I was in college, when everyone was my friends, we were all concerned about civil rights. Now, in college they talk about climate change. We probably did’ t know what climate change was. We were experiencing it, we just didn’t know it.

Lee Smith [00:14:18] Was there anything in popular culture, like a book or a magazine or a TV show or a movie that sparked an interest in the natural world for you?

Michelle Beale [00:14:33] Well, I remember when Rachel Carson’s book came out. You know, it was pretty revolutionary, the thought that springs would be silent. And I remember that book. And partially I remember because my introduction to a spring that I could recall was Balmorhea. And that again was a place my grandfather had taken me. So I was, I can remember being amazed even as a little girl. The size of that big pool was huge to me. It’s still huge, but it was pretty, it was huger when I was there as a girl.

Michelle Beale [00:15:16] So I made that connection that there could possibly be a time where you wouldn’t have a spring, you wouldn’t have a river, or maybe they would be so polluted that you couldn’t do anything with it. So I do remember that.

Michelle Beale [00:15:32] But I just think as a youth, the concept of conservation just wasn’t something that we spent a lot of time with.

Michelle Beale [00:15:39] We were engaged with the out-of-doors. I know my family, and I in particular, we would get very concerned when we saw trees cut down. There was a lot development taking place in Tulsa in the ’50s and ’60s. Of course, it’s still ongoing. and it would just really upset us. It even got, it continues to upset me today. If I see a tree cut down in the neighborhood, I have to go inside and shut the door. I can’t stand it. So the idea was there, but it wasn’t framed around the term “conservation”.

Lee Smith [00:16:18] So how did you become involved with the TNC?

Michelle Beale [00:16:25] Do we have several hours to do this interview? Well, it was through the Coca-Cola Company. So it was not me as an individual deciding that I’m going to pick a conservation group and get involved with it. It was through a project I was working on with a Coca-Cola Company. And if I can keep this as short as possible, that’s why I said do we have several hours.

Michelle Beale [00:16:49] Okay, the division of the company that I worked with was primarily the Minute Maid division. We were in the citrus business, citrus and other non-carbonated. And at that time, Minute Maide was a very vertically integrated company, meaning they grew its own oranges, it had processing plants, it squeezed them, it put the orange concentrate in packages and sent it off to consumers. So we were in a business of growing oranges.

Michelle Beale [00:17:18] And there was a strategic decision made. that we needed to develop a source of oranges that wasn’t as reliant on one place and that one place at the time was Florida. So I would say maybe in the ’70s or so, this is before I worked for the company. an orange citrus business developed in Brazil. So the business in Brazil had really expanded. But for U.S. companies, there was really two sources of orange supply, one in Florida and one in Brazil. If something happened in Florida, like a freeze or like a hurricane, which just happened, then you only had one source.

Michelle Beale [00:18:06] So the company made a decision strategically that it needed to start looking for another source of orange concentrate, another place to grow oranges. And lo and behold, there was a Coca-Cola bottler based in the country of Belize, which had been British Honduras, that owned a great deal of land, which his family had acquired. And we made the decision that we would acquire that land and start planting oranges on it.

Michelle Beale [00:18:36] So this decision happened before I joined the company, but it was about the time when the world was starting to be concerned about destruction of rainforests or just destruction of forest in general. And lo and behold, when the Coca-Cola company announced that they were going to plant probably 260,000 acres of oranges in what everyone perceived to be rainforest, there was a big outcry and there were a lot of boycotts around the country.

Michelle Beale [00:19:14] So considering the, I would say, negative public relations and probably also maybe a rethinking of whether the company really wanted to continue to be vertically integrated, they made the decision, “we’re not going to plant oranges”.

Michelle Beale [00:19:31] So what do we do with 260,000 acres of land in Belize? We start looking for ways to get out of the project, but get out the project in a way that is not detrimental to the country.

Michelle Beale [00:19:46] And that was one of my projects. I was in charge of public relations, and that was an area that I was focused on, was trying to manage that.

Michelle Beale [00:19:55] So I developed a relationship with a local conservation group called Program for Belize, and Program for Belize had a relationship with the Nature Conservancy. And this was probably the late 1980s, early 1990s, when that relationship was really starting to gel, and the Nature Conservancy had their Saving the Last Great Places campaign. It was their big, big strategy, we are saving the last great places.

Michelle Beale [00:20:32] So over time we made the determination that rather than trying to sell the land, to divide it up, to do something else with it, that we would donate that to the Program for Belize. And it ultimately became the Rio Bravo Conservation District and is now part of a bigger project that the Nature Conservancy has in Belize.

Michelle Beale [00:20:56] So my introduction to the Nature Conservancy was strictly through working for the Coca-Cola Company and trying to manage this project, which had really become a very bad public relations flaw as perceived by the general public. So we were able to do that. We were able really make a great transition. The government of Belize was very happy about it. The local conservationists were very happy about it, and I got to know the Nature Conservancy.

Michelle Beale [00:21:33] So that was a long story. I apologize.

Lee Smith [00:21:38] Um, and then what was, how did you…?

Michelle Beale [00:21:41] Okay, so what happens next? All right, so we’ve pretty well completed that. There’s been a lot of announcements. There was a lot of publicity about it. And I think a couple of guys in Houston who were involved with the Nature Conservancy locally said maybe we ought to invite that woman over to some of our meetings and she could kind of tell us what she did and maybe it’s somebody we need to get to know.

Michelle Beale [00:22:09] So, there was a man named Howard Horne, and Howard was a good friend of the Coca-Cola Company. He was in the real estate business, and he was involved with the Nature Conservancy locally. He used to come and see me in my office and call on me for various reasons. And one day he said, “There’s a Nature Conservancy meeting. and we’d love for you to come. We’re having this little cocktail party, and just meet some people. Maybe you could just tell us about what you did in Belize.” So I took Howard’s offer up, and before you know it, I’m a member of the Houston Advisory Committee, and then I become chair, and here I am today.

Lee Smith [00:22:55] My father was partners with him.

Michelle Beale [00:22:57] Well, you know Howard very well.

Lee Smith [00:23:01] And his son.

Michelle Beale [00:23:01] I have fishing stories with Howard. But Howard was the person who invited me.

Lee Smith [00:23:09] And then…

Michelle Beale [00:23:11] So then, you know, I started attending some of the local events and some of the advisory meetings. First as a guest, and you know I did a couple programs on what we had done in Belize, and, you know, the process that we went through. And I was invited to go down to Matagorda Island, my husband and I, to the lodge that the Nature Conservancy had. So I think just gradually, the Nature of Conservancy just kind of just reeled us in, you know, like if you had a fish on a line and slowly it’s getting closer and closer and we’re meeting people and I’m learning more about local activities.

Michelle Beale [00:24:03] And we had, we went down to the Matagorda Lodge and met several people. That’s where I met Irving Schweppe, first time I met Irving, who was, of course, chair, I think, at the time of the Advisory Group here, and of course was, you know, on the board, the state board as well. So I just kind of got hooked in, liked what they were doing, liked the people.

Michelle Beale [00:24:30] I think also it was a point in my life where now I was starting to understand what conservation was. It had taken a while to really learn. I said I always loved the outside and I loved doing things, but I didn’t really understand conservation. Now I was learning more about it because I had helped set up a very important conservation project.

Michelle Beale [00:24:54] So, that’s how I got involved with the Nature Conservancy.

Lee Smith [00:24:57] And then.

Michelle Beale [00:24:59] it stuck. So then I get invited to serve on the Advisory Board and then I became chair of the Advisory Board and then someone invited me to join the State Board and I served on committees and then, I remember distinctly, it was Irving Schweppe who asked me if I would be interested in being chair. And I said, Well I guess so. I’m pretty good at governance.” And then suddenly I’m chair. And then I serve on every committee known to man. And I’m still here.

Lee Smith [00:25:35] So what is the Nature Conservancy Legacy Club?

Michelle Beale [00:25:40] Ah, the Legacy Club. OK. The Legacy Club has been one of my prime activities for the past five or six years. The Legacy Club is a group of people who have told the Nature Conservancy that they have made some kind of a commitment when they as individuals pass that there will be a gift coming to the Nature Conservancy. So it’s called, it’s a plan-giving organization. So that gift could be a bequest in a will. It could be you’re gonna leave part of a life insurance policy, it could be a gift of land, it could a charitable remainder trust, it can be all kinds of things.

Michelle Beale [00:26:20] The Nature Conservancy has done an excellent job setting up this planned-giving function and it’s called the Legacy Club. Once you let the Nature Conservancy know that you’ve done something, that you made a commitment, then you become a member of the Legacy Club. And you have special updates, you can go on Legacy Club trips. But it is a very, very important source of funds for the Nature Conservancy.

Michelle Beale [00:26:52] And I am actually involved in some other planned-giving organizations, and I can tell you the Nature Conservancy is the top planned-giving group in the country. They know more about how to manage it. They have some of the largest participation. Right now, there’s, I think, over 30,000 members of TNC who are Legacy Club members, meaning they’ve told the Nature Conservancy that they’re going to do something. When they pass, something will be coming. And I think the annual income from Legacy gifts is probably close to $200 million a year.

Michelle Beale [00:27:36] I served as the Texas Legacy Club ambassador. So every chapter has a person that kind of represents that state as the ambassador for the Legacy Club, the person that promotes it, who meets with members, who tells the story. And I served as the Legacy Club ambassador for Texas for a number of years. and I also served on a global gift-planning campaign that the Nature Conservancy had. It was a five-year gift-planning campaign, and we raised—there were four of us on the joint committee, oversight committee, and then every state had a legacy ambassador.

Michelle Beale [00:28:21] We raised one billion dollars, if you can believe it, one billion dollars in commitment. It’s one of the largest campaigns, planned-giving campaigns in the country. It’s bigger than Columbia, Yale, Dartmouth, all those. But it’s a very important source of income. One billion dollars. It’s a lot of money.

Michelle Beale [00:28:45] I think here in Texas, I think we probably have over 1,000 members of the Legacy Club in Texas. And almost every year, not every year, but most every year, we have some kind of a bequest coming in. And it has made a tremendous difference in Texas. You know some of the projects wouldn’t have happened if somebody hadn’t cared to leave, it’s leaving a personal legacy. It’s, you know, that care about this. You want your involvement to continue in some way. So you leave a gift that even though you’re not around, it just, it’s working. It’s working to continue what you cared about.

Lee Smith [00:29:40] How does it work in terms of, I mean, do you let the Nature Conservancy know who your executor is, or do you inform them?

Michelle Beale [00:29:48] Yep. Well, you know, it can work a number of ways. Normally, to be a Legacy Club member, you have to let the Nature Conservancy know that you’ve done something. Now, you don’t have to be, sometimes people are real specific. Some people will say, “Gee, I have this ranch out near Marathon, and I’m going to die, and my kids don’t want that ranch, and so I’m going to give it to you.” Sometimes an individual will say, “I have left something in my will. and I just want you to know.” But they’re not specific about it.

Michelle Beale [00:30:22] Normally there’s a conversation with a person who either works for the Nature Conservancy, a planned-giving expert who may work with you because some of these deals can be pretty complicated. Or sometimes it’s just a conversation with somebody like me, a volunteer. So I’ve had a conversation with say other board members and they have said, “Okay, I… I think this is a great idea and I’m going to leave you 10% of my life insurance plan.” They’re not specific.

Michelle Beale [00:30:57] Now, the one thing that you have to remember is that commitment isn’t necessarily always something that takes place, because people can change their mind. And people do all the time, they rewrite their wills. So it’s real important that the Nature Conservancy continue to steward those people. So, they continue to say, “I know you’re a member of the Legacy Club. Let me tell you what we’re doing.” So you continue this relationship because if you just tell somebody you’re gonna leave something in the will and then you never hear from that organization again for 20 years, there’s a very good chance you’ve rewritten your will and there isn’t anything there.

Michelle Beale [00:31:43] So the Legacy Club is partly reaching out to people to tell them about the opportunities that there are becoming a Legacy Club member, But then it’s also partly continuing to keep them involved, giving them reports on what’s happening, showing them, taking them to preserves, making sure they get ongoing information.

Michelle Beale [00:32:10] I think right now, I was looking at some figures the other day, and I think right now about 20% of the income that the Nature Conservancy gets every year come from some kind of a bequest. So that’s why it’s really important. 20%. That’s a lot.

Lee Smith [00:32:30] What makes it attractive to the donors?

Michelle Beale [00:32:34] There’s a couple of things. I would say the most thing, the most important thing is that people really care about leaving a legacy. Most people want something to happen after they pass. They have been involved in an organization and they want that organization to continue. Sometimes, it’s a personal memory of, you know, something that they experienced as a child. Like I talked about my grandfather, you know, taking me to the Davis Mountains. So I may have that memory and I say, “Gee, the Davis Mountains are really important. I wouldn’t want them, I would not want to see that special place in my life destroyed. The Nature Conservancy is helping to protect it and gee, I can make a gift after I pass that will continue that.”.

Michelle Beale [00:33:37] So sometimes it’s a personal memory that there’s an area that you want to protect. Sometimes it could be a financial reason because there may be tax advantages. You know, you may, for example, you might want to set up a charitable remainder trust. You’ve got some stock, okay, you’ve got some Coca-Cola stock. So you take your Coca-Cola stock, you put it in a charitable reminder trust, you take a tax deduction now, and when you pass, the value of that charitable remainder trust goes to the Nature Conservancy.

Michelle Beale [00:34:08] So it could be dealing with an estate issue, but I find that most of the time that isn’t it. Most of the time, it’s people really saying, you know, I want to leave a legacy. I have this memory and I want it to continue. And it just resonates with them.

Lee Smith [00:34:29] Doesn’t sound like a tough sell.

Michelle Beale [00:34:31] Well, you can talk a lot.

Lee Smith [00:34:38] Um, so how do you promote it?

Michelle Beale [00:34:40] Well, we promote the Legacy Club a lot of ways. We have little ribbons when we go to meetings. We have our name tags. We have a ribbon that says we’re a member of the Legacy Club. We do ongoing presentations. At a board meeting, we’ll do a presentation about the Legacy Club. And, of course, the best presentation is when you’re doing a financial report, like at the Texas board meeting.

Michelle Beale [00:35:05] You’re doing a financial report and you’re able to say, “Guess what? Joe Smith unfortunately just passed away, but he’s left two million dollars to the Texas chapter and he said that he wants that two million dollars to benefit prairies and marshes. And we have an important project in Nash Prairie and let’s put that money there and lets bring his family out and share with them what that gift has done and thank them and make them part of the family.”

Michelle Beale [00:35:40] So those are some of the ways. Of course, there’s wonderful videos we’ve done, people telling their story, and ongoing public… You have to keep doing things. You have keep doing things to bring new members in, and you’ve got to keep doing things to keep the members in still.

Lee Smith [00:36:01] There’s a personal component.

Michelle Beale [00:36:03] Absolutely. It’s not a thing. You know, these days I get a lot of planned-giving brochures. I get them from my university. I get from a lot of organizations I’m involved with here in Houston and in Texas. And if you just get something in the mail, you read it and then you kind of say, “Okay”, and you just put it in the trash. The ones that are most successful are ones where there is a human being coming and talking to you and showing you things.

Lee Smith [00:36:36] Um… So what project on Matagorda Island? Oh, let’s back up. You’ve said it several times, but I just want to make it formal. Why is the Legacy Club important to TNC’s mission?

Michelle Beale [00:36:55] Well, to accomplish the mission, you have to set some goals, you’ve got to develop some plans, you’ve got to take some action, and you’ve go to measure what you’ve done. All of that requires people and dollars. So it just doesn’t happen on its own. The people, particularly the Legacy Club members, who frequently get very involved in a lot of the activities of the mission are also frequently the ones that are making, that are supplying the source of funds to make it happen.

Michelle Beale [00:37:46] So, you know, carrying out a mission, you can write a mission on a piece of paper and a lot companies and organizations do, but it requires action, and action requires funds and commitment. So that’s why it’s important.

Lee Smith [00:38:01] And people.

Michelle Beale [00:38:02] And people!

Lee Smith [00:38:04] I mean, yeah, we’re dealing with land, with conservation easements and everything, but there’s this strong personal connection and relationships.

Michelle Beale [00:38:12] You’re absolutely right, you know, and I think about, well, I think about some of the work that I’ve seen the Nature Conservancy do with, let’s say, a neighbor of a preserve. You know, you’ve got a ranch. I’ll use a ranch as an example. Well, the rancher may not know, “Why is that?” “What’s that preserve next to me? Why is it there? What does it mean? Are they locking it up? What’s its purpose, and how is it going to affect me?”.

Michelle Beale [00:38:41] And it requires a human connection with that rancher to say, “Here’s why we’re here. How can we partner? And maybe some of the things we’re learning, we can share with you. Because we’re all in this together. There isn’t just a fence that divides us and it’s your side and my side.”

Michelle Beale [00:39:01] I mean, you learn that from climate change now. We’re all in this together. So, so it takes a lot of human connection. I think the Nature Conservancy does a great job of connecting with people. They obviously connected with me and never let go. They keep coming back all the time and asking you, “I’ve got this new idea, you know, what do you think about this?”

Lee Smith [00:39:28] So what project on Matagorda Island were you involved with?

Michelle Beale [00:39:33] Project is probably not the right word, but I have a—I’ll tell you about an involvement we had with Matagorda Island. As I said, early in my relationship with TNC, my husband and I were invited out to Matagorda Island to stay at that lodge. You probably know the history, it was the Wynne Lodge. Just a remarkable place.

Michelle Beale [00:40:01] I can still picture it, you know. Just this great old lodge with wicker furniture and just planted right there next to the dunes. President Roosevelt had been there in the 1930s, so it’s really a fascinating place. All kinds of critters everywhere, deer everywhere, and birds, just fantastic birds.

Michelle Beale [00:40:31] I can remember there was this kind of duck pond thing not too far from the lodge the first time we went out there. And there was the biggest alligator I’ve ever seen in my life. His name was Jaws. So, Jaws like to hang around this duck pond, so everybody who was invited to the lodge, of course, would all trek out, you know, go to the duck pond to see Jaws. And when that place was being run as a ranch, the cowboys liked to shoot jackrabbits, and then they’d throw one over to Jaws. So over time, Jaws learned that when someone approached, that they were probably going to throw a jackrabbit to him. So consequently, even though there were no cowboys shooting jackrabbits anymore and nobody throwing rabbits, Jaws would always come running when he would see humans. So that was always a little fun thing. You’d go out there and then you’d go see Jaws and he’d come running to you.

Michelle Beale [00:41:32] So we’re out there, Matagorda Island, go fishing. I met Irving Schweppe and other people. But, you know, Matagorda island, it’s kind of like going to Juneau, Alaska. You only can get there two ways. You either fly or you go by boat. So we would get out there by boat, and over time, the boat that they had was just a wreck. We owned, my husband and I, owned this sort of small offshore boat, and my husband had decided we needed a bigger boat, “needed” a bigger boat. So we were at one of those Nature Conservancy cocktail party get-togethers where they kind of talk about things they need and we’d been out to Matagorda Island and we recognized that they needed a new boat. So, the old boat that we had went to the Nature Conservancy, which allowed my husband to get a new boat, and allowed people to continue to get out to the lodge. So our project was really enabling my husband’s new boat by giving our old one.

Michelle Beale [00:42:53] So we went a couple of times more to that lodge before it was transferred over to Fish and Wildlife. And that old boat of ours, my God, they had run that over every, you know, oyster reef in the world. We didn’t even recognize it, but it was still taking people out there.

Michelle Beale [00:43:11] So that’s my project, sort of a project, giving them transportation.

Michelle Beale [00:43:18] And that’s really— That was in the ’80s, I thought, and you know that’s a really good story about what the Nature Conservancy has done throughout Texas, because you know, we’ve got a state government, we got a federal government that acts very slowly. You know, they don’t have the funds, so they’ve got to get approved from various peoples. It’s very bureaucratic, both state and federal, you know, groups that want to do things, state parks, Fish and Wildlife, they want to do the right thing, but they can’t act quickly enough and they don’ have the money at hand. So many times the Nature Conservancy steps in because we can act quickly.

Michelle Beale [00:43:58] And if you don’t act quickly, you lose the opportunity. You know, it can just be gone, the land can be divided up. Some rich folk can, you know, decide they’re going to turn it into a high-rise apartment, whatever.

Michelle Beale [00:44:14] So the Nature Conservancy steps in. We can get approval. You know, we, again, we have people who sometimes will commit to help out early. And then the organization like Fish and Wildlife, ultimately, they go through their bureaucratic steps and they pay us back.

Michelle Beale [00:44:32] And I know that’s happened many times here in Texas. I don’t know all of them. But lots of times, pieces of Padre Island, I think, were acquired that way, state parks. Maybe Enchanted Rock, I don’t know. But there’s lots of examples of how the Nature Conservancy has stepped in. Well, Powderhorn Ranch is a good example right now, which is going to be just a wonderful, wonderful venue for the state of Texas.

Lee Smith [00:45:01] What about Shamrock Island? Tell me about Shamrock Island.

Michelle Beale [00:45:04] Well, I haven’t been directly involved in Shamrock Island, but I’ve been there several times. Shamrock, of course, was not an island. It was part of, it was a peninsula on Mustang Island, down on Corpus Christi Bay. And oil exploration activity, over time, I think they put a lot of waterways in. They dredged a lot, dumped stuff on top of that island, atop of the peninsula, but the waterways had kind of cut into it. And then a big hurricane took place, Cecilia, I think, and cut it off.

Michelle Beale [00:45:50] And suddenly it’s no longer a peninsula, it’s an island. And when it became a separate island, it evolved into just a fantastic bird rookery.

Michelle Beale [00:46:04] And I have been there several times. I’ve actually set foot on it, but only in the times when you are allowed to set foot on it because there are so many birds there that you can’t do it at certain times.

Michelle Beale [00:46:18] But I know it’s under a lot of threat now. There’s erosion everywhere, all around Corpus Christi Bay, is a huge problem. And if it gets eroded away then there will not be a bird rookery. It is fantastic when all the birds are there. I mean you just can’t imagine. It’s just covered with nests and birds and little eggs and everything.

Michelle Beale [00:46:41] So I haven’t been directly involved in it but I’ve been there.

Lee Smith [00:46:45] So have you become a birder?

Michelle Beale [00:46:47] Yeah, I’ve become more of a birder. Not a very knowledgeable one. It’s really helpful when you’ve got a guide with you. Actually, I started learning about birds when I was in Belize. Jabiru storks. I mean, just fantastic things down there. I’m not too knowledgeable a birder. I have to carry a book around. It’s nice when you go out on a preserve. and the preserve manager is there because they know them all.

[00:47:21] Now a great place to bird here is Mad Island, the Mad Island Preserve. It is fantastic in the fall. Probably need to go down there pretty soon. All those birds start coming in, the cranes.

Lee Smith [00:47:38] Well, there’s that huge bird count.

Michelle Beale [00:47:40] Oh, the huge bird count. That’s a fantastic place. That Mad Island Marsh Preserve is just another treasury that the Nature Conservancy has.

Lee Smith [00:47:56] Now, go back out west, you know, Davis Mountains, now, were you with the Nature Conservancy when Davis Mountains were being put together?

Michelle Beale [00:48:03] Well, no, no. I wasn’t on the board then. I kind of came on the board after that. I think there was a gang of guys, I think some of them were from Dallas. I think there was Steve Casey, probably Bob Thornton, maybe Rod Sanders. I got to think who else. There was a of guys that really loved that area. And they were very involved in it. As I recall, we started by buying a ranch. It was the McIvor Ranch, the U-Up, U-Down Ranch. You may have to check that accuracy of that, but that was one of the initial purchases to save that area. It’s a very special area.

Lee Smith [00:48:57] What’s so special?

Michelle Beale [00:48:58] It’s a sky island. I didn’t know that when I was little, when I was out there with my grandfather. But I knew, he knew, he would say, there’s different things up here. This is where you can see Ponderosa pine. And this is where you start to see mule deer and black bear. Of course, black bear, of course. Now what I understand is ecologically, it’s totally different. It’s sitting out there in the Chihuahuan desert. But here’s this mountain that has all kinds of unique things on it. That’s what makes it so special. It’s taken a lot of work to restore it. There’s been a lot, you know, things just don’t continue the same forever. You have to work to restore it and you’ve got to work to preserve it, but it’s totally unique.

Michelle Beale [00:49:51] And it’s surrounded in the areas by this unique grassland, the Marfa grasslands. People just kind of took it for granted. There’s this grass out here, out there. But here you are in the desert, and you got grasslands. You think about it. You’re in a desert. You got grassland. You got this wonderful spring. You got this sky island. It’s ecologically, it’s just totally unique.

Lee Smith [00:50:20] And how about that sky out there?

Michelle Beale [00:50:23] The stars are always bright deep in the heart of Texas. Well, it’s a lot of work keeping that sky like that, you know, the dark sky. Progress has been made. McDonald Observatory is right around the corner. What a fantastic place that is. But the dark skies are very special.

Michelle Beale [00:50:47] Of course, you know, there’s been a lot of drilling all around. And there’s a lot of concern about flames at night. It’s a very productive area, not in the Fort Davis area, but in the Permian Basin. Those flames you can see from a long distance, flaming gas. But, it’s, things are improving I believe.

Lee Smith [00:51:12] Um… So as the Nature Conservancy closes in on its millionth acre, what has its impact been in Texas? What is its impact on Texas?

Michelle Beale [00:51:28] Well, just look at the whole state. I mean, my heavens. Okay, we’ve talked about the Davis Mountains, you know. You’ve talked preserving a totally unique area. And you’ve talked, we talked about the grasslands. So, let’s look about, and I’m visualizing the state of Texas in my mind. The center, my heaven, all those prairies, all the rivers, Dolan Falls, the Devil’s River, all those places that were just very special in the hearts of Texans forever and they still exist. All the work that’s been done to conserve water and protect water, protect springs, protect the aquifer, preserving prairies.

Michelle Beale [00:52:20] I’m moving visually along in my mind. I’m going to the coast. I think about… You know, all the work along the coastline. Padre Island, the longest barrier island in the world. We protected that. Mad Island Marsh. All the things around Shamrock Island, Cohn Preserve, all up and down the coast, Powderhorn Ranch.

Michelle Beale [00:52:46] Then you go to East Texas and look at all the trees and the forest and the timber. You just, all I have to do is just visualize the state of Texas and say that’s what the Nature Conservancy has done. They’ve helped preserve and protect, but also educate people about the importance of this and what happens if you lose it, and if you don’t take action, you will lose it.

Michelle Beale [00:53:15] So the impact has just been great.

Lee Smith [00:53:21] What advice would you have for a young person that’s interested in the field of conservation?

Michelle Beale [00:53:32] Well, I think the first thing is to get out on some piece of land, ideally a Nature Conservancy preserve, and understand what conservation is all about. My personal view is that there has been a lot of emphasis on environmentalism with young people. And to me, environmentalism… sends me the signal of stopping things. Let’s stop this. Let’s not let this be developed. Let’s not let this pipeline be laid. Let’s not let well be drilled. Let’s, let’s stop things.

Michelle Beale [00:54:17] And I don’t think that’s productive long-term. I think it’s a short-term approach.

Michelle Beale [00:54:22] Conservation, to me, is let’s build. Let’s do. Let’s figure out how to change things. Let’s put people to work. Let’s get people committed.

Michelle Beale [00:54:33] So I would say to a young person is get out on the land, ideally with someone who knows something about it, and understand what they personally can do to make things better. It could be a very small thing.

Michelle Beale [00:54:47] To me, that’s the way to get into conservation. It’s not to say, “Okay, let’s not do this, let’s not do that.” Now you may end up, and conservation may end up stopping something that you don’t want to have happen. But you didn’t start out that way. You started out saying, “I’m going to build and I’m going to grow and I am going to educate.”

Lee Smith [00:55:11] Um, so are you, what is your outlook about the future of conservation?

Michelle Beale [00:55:20] Well, I’m very optimistic about the future of conservation, you know. I just see, at a local level, I just see what’s happening here in Houston. Now this is not a Nature Conservancy thing. But right here in Houston, a city that I don’t think cared much about conservation at all, suddenly we’re expanding parks. We’ve got people looking for places to go outside. So I think there’s becoming an awareness of the importance of conservation. And I think it’s spreading. So I’m very optimistic about it.

Michelle Beale [00:55:56] There are challenges because the population is growing, because it costs money, because people have commitments about other issues as well. I think it’s a challenge because we are living in a very politically divided time right now. We’re having difficulty reaching agreement on things, but at the same time, I’m very optimistic.

Michelle Beale [00:56:23] I think the world now understands the challenges much better than we did. I mean, we have to just look right now, and here it is right now. It’s October, 2022. We’ve just gone through a very, very tough year in the US with droughts, with hurricanes, with forest fires in California. So the word is out, you can’t miss it. You can’t fight it anymore and say, “No, there’s no problem.” Coasts are eroding. It’s hot, it’s hot in Alaska.

Lee Smith [00:57:01] The snow crab.

Michelle Beale [00:57:03] The snow crabs.

Lee Smith [00:57:05] A billion snow crabs

Michelle Beale [00:57:06] They’re missing, they’re missing an action. So the word is out that there is a problem and I think people will rally around it. So I’m optimistic. There’s a lot of work to be done.