Conservation History Association of Texas
Texas Legacy Project
Oral History Interview
Nature Conservancy in Texas
Interviewee: Suzanne Scott
Date: June 7, 2022
Site: San Antonio, Texas
Reels: 3704-3713
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: Scott_Suzanne_NCItem26_SanAntonioTX_20220607_Reel3704-3713_Audio.mp3
[Bracketed numbers refer to the interview recording’s time code.]
Lee Smith [00:00:16] So where did you grow up?
Suzanne Scott [00:00:18] I grew up here in San Antonio, on the south side of San Antonio. Not very far from the San Antonio River. And I really enjoyed living on the south side.
Lee Smith [00:00:29] And where did you go, where’d you go to college?
Suzanne Scott [00:00:34] I, of course, I grew up here in San Antonio and went to high school here and then wanted to go as far away from San Antonio as I could go without having to pay out-of-state tuition. So that took me to Texas Tech in Lubbock, and I went to school there, got my degree in advertising / public relations.
Suzanne Scott [00:00:54] And then I came back to San Antonio and started a career, started working. And then I went back and got my Master’s after a few years at Trinity here in San Antonio, in public administration.
Lee Smith [00:01:08] Cool.
Lee Smith [00:01:10] Was there any aspect of your early childhood or, like, just go back and is there a time that you remember as a kid that that nature kind of tapped you?
Suzanne Scott [00:01:26] Yeah, there’s a couple of memories that really kind of resonate with me when I think about when I was younger and how I connected to nature.
Suzanne Scott [00:01:35] One of them that comes back that was obviously very important in my life was we would go to Camp Capers, which is a camp run by the Episcopal Diocese, and it is on the Guadalupe River near Waring. And I went to that camp when I was younger and had a great time. I mean, it was just a wonderful experience.
Suzanne Scott [00:01:56] But being outdoors and being on the river was a great memory of mine, not only because I loved being outdoors, but just the spiritual connection about being there and being with nature does have a place in my memory, and I fondly remember that time of my life.
[00:02:13] And then another experience that I would have with my cousins. My cousins were very outdoors folks. They lived in Rose City, outside of Beaumont in East Texas. And they had a big ranch there and raised cattle and they had a wonderful outdoors opportunity there.
[00:02:34] And my mom would take us there, my brothers and I, she would take us there to just have fun with my cousins. And it was because my mom was a single mom. She didn’t have a whole lot of money and a lot of discretionary income to take us on really expensive vacations. So we had to go with family.
Suzanne Scott [00:02:51] So we would go to my cousin’s house there in Rose City and I would play outdoors on their ranch. We would go fishing and they had a stock pond. And, you know, just being outdoors was really fun and enjoyable because I remembered being able to just be free, you know, just be free out there and run around.
Suzanne Scott [00:03:14] And then after that, they bought a ranch in Utopia. My cousins bought a ranch in Utopia, which is course there in beautiful Hill Country area, not very far from Vanderpool, and they owned part of a hill. I wanted to call it a mountain when I was a kid, but today it’s a hill. And so that was really wonderful being able to be out and see all of that because it was rugged terrain, but very Texas. So I enjoyed that very much.
Suzanne Scott [00:03:43] And other experiences that we had with my cousins when I was younger, as we would go to Garner State Park and go on the Frio River. And I really enjoyed that. Those times, not only being with family and just the camaraderie of being with them, but also just being in that river in the cold water. I can feel it now just thinking about it. It was just a really lovely time of my childhood. I really enjoyed it.
Lee Smith [00:04:10] Were there a lot of fireflies back then?
Suzanne Scott [00:04:12] There were actually, both at my cousin’s, my cousin’s house in Rose City, we would see them, but then also we would see them when we were on the river. And it was it was fun. I mean, those were days of, you know, catching the fireflies and looking at them. We would, they would congregate in particular areas and we would all run and kind of disperse them. It was pretty fun.
Lee Smith [00:04:36] So was there a family member or a mentor in your early life that kind of introduced you to nature or to an aspect of the outdoors?
Suzanne Scott [00:04:51] Well, as I was preparing for this, I thought about that. And I guess I just keep coming back to my my cousins. I had an uncle who was the dad of all the boys, you know, that we would run around with.
Suzanne Scott [00:05:02] And although he probably wouldn’t have considered himself a conservationist just because he was more about running the cattle and, you know, doing, making money off of that. They also used to have sand pits so they would, you know, dig sand off of their properties, probably, which was not very good from a conservation perspective.
[00:05:23] But, you know, as I think about him now, and looking back on him, I do think that he really did impact me from the perspective of loving the land. And I do think that he did love the land and knew how important it was to treat the land with respect, because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have the production that he needed for his for his cattle and for his family. So I think that that memory was very important to me to understand how important the land was.
Lee Smith [00:05:56] And what about during your education? Was there a teacher or anybody that inspired you?
Suzanne Scott [00:06:06] Well, you know, interestingly, I did not really study the environment or conservation when I was in school because I really went more the advertising / public relations and then ultimately public administration. So I didn’t really have a particular professor that, you know, where nature was part of my education.
Suzanne Scott [00:06:27] But I think as I started in my career, it just coincidentally that a lot of my jobs ended up being on the river, on the San Antonio River.
Suzanne Scott [00:06:39] My first job was at what was called then the Southwest Craft Center, now the Southwest School of Art, which is on the San Antonio River at the old Ursuline Academy. And so I would walk out there during breaks from work or and go enjoy that. And so there were people around that campus that just knew about the river and would talk to me there about the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:07:06] And then I, of course, moved over to a job downtown. I was with VIA Metropolitan Transit, but my job was with the Tri-Party project, which was a project downtown San Antonio that really redid the transportation network downtown and tried to do some aesthetic improvements to downtown San Antonio.
Suzanne Scott [00:07:31] And of course, being downtown, the river was there and, you know, I would always be along the river. And in the mornings, I would walk the river when it was so quiet, you know, no one was on the river. And I would walk that downtown loop that mainly has, you know, thousands of visitors on it on the weekends. I would be there by myself walking the river very quietly.
Suzanne Scott [00:07:54] And then, you know, fast forward, I got a job at Bexar County, started working on actual projects to deal with the San Antonio River, and then, of course, moved to the San Antonio River Authority, which was on the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:08:07] So throughout this, there was always people who, because we were so close to such a natural resource that everybody would give me some part of wisdom, either when I got to the River Authority, a lot of scientists would educate me about the importance of the river and the science of the river and the importance of the habitat, and not only the aquatic, but the riparian habitat.
Suzanne Scott [00:08:28] So I sort of got my education through my just learning through on-the-job-training, so to speak, versus through my education.
Lee Smith [00:08:37] Well, a multifaceted…
Suzanne Scott [00:08:39] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:08:40] Perspective. You had the art perspective to begin with.
Suzanne Scott [00:08:41] Yes. A.
Lee Smith [00:08:45] Nd then so, you know, it seems like you.
Suzanne Scott [00:08:50] Went from art to science. Yes, I did. Exactly.
Lee Smith [00:08:54] And how did that help you with your public relations [this thing clicks] with your public relations training? How did that enable you through your kind of stepping stones to these various spots?
Suzanne Scott [00:09:12] Well, you know what I ended up doing, of course, I started in the nonprofit sector with my first job at the Southwest School of Art. And my job there was to promote people coming down to the campus to enjoy the classes because we would advertise art classes for people to come and take. And that’s how the school made their money, is people would come to these art classes. And then there was also a café, there was a gallery there.
Suzanne Scott [00:09:40] So we would really just encourage people. So obviously I would use the location, that it’s a beautiful campus on the banks of the San Antonio River with lovely trees, old, I mean, it’s just a very beautiful campus.
Suzanne Scott [00:09:52] So I would always try to connect the place to what people would learn and why that would be part of the experience of being there – not only learning art, but enjoying this, this the beautiful scenery of the place. So I think that it did connect to the messages that I had there.
Suzanne Scott [00:10:11] And then as we fast forwarded to, as my career developed, I really started to understand the importance of the San Antonio River, not only from an economic perspective, but also how important it was for the public safety, you know, to make sure that the river had the appropriate protections that were necessary to prevent it from causing flooding to houses or threats to life and property.
Suzanne Scott [00:10:40] So I sort of learned the good, you know, the river as it relates to its very important role in nature, but also how the surrounding development is, you know, threatens the San Antonio River, not only from the perspective of increased impervious cover and flooding, but also then the water quality that is impacted by, you know, runoff and pollution and all those other things.
Lee Smith [00:11:05] So you’re saying as you moved into the private sector…
Suzanne Scott [00:11:08] Well, actually, as I moved into the public sector, you know, because, you know, my job at the county and then ultimately at the River Authority was really just trying to connect people to, you know, why the river was important.
Suzanne Scott [00:11:23] I mean, I did several things. One is we, I did a big flood project to try to get people to understand why investments on the San Antonio River and its tributaries were necessary for flood protection.
Suzanne Scott [00:11:37] And then we were also doing the big San Antonio River Improvements Project, which of course, was not only a flood control project, but an ecosystem restoration project, a opportunity to expand the economic benefits of the river as well.
Suzanne Scott [00:11:50] So I connected a lot of those dots for the public to understand and appreciate the value of the river.
Lee Smith [00:11:58] So was there anything in popular culture, was there a book or anything or a TV show or a movie? And you don’t have to …
Suzanne Scott [00:12:09] Well, I mean, the one that came to mind, of course, you’re going to see a theme in everything I talk about is rivers. But that that Brad Pitt movie, “The River Runs Through It”? I loved that movie, and all the symbolism of the connection of the river, not only they and their fishing and the connection to the river, but how the river connected them as a family. I thought that one was, I loved that movie.
Suzanne Scott [00:12:33] And then I always I also liked “Dances with Wolves”, the movie with Kevin Costner. I just loved that movie.
Suzanne Scott [00:12:41] And then later, when I had my daughter, of course, we would always watch “Spirit”. She loved that. I don’t know if you remember. That was the Disney movie on the horse. There’s a horse that was sort of from a Native American tribe. And then the horse grows up and it’s a story of the connection between a person and a horse.
Suzanne Scott [00:13:06] But again, that kind of running free, the idea of being out in nature, I mean, those movies kind of stuck with me a lot. The freedom and the wide open spaces and sort of the peace that people get when they’re in nature. Those are the things that really resonate with me when I think about movies and nature.
Suzanne Scott [00:13:26] I also, I know I’m sure other people mentioned this to you, but we would always watch when I was a kid, this just came to my mind – is that “Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom”. Have other people mention that?
Lee Smith [00:13:39] No.
Suzanne Scott [00:13:41] We were religious about watching that. I think it came on maybe Sunday, Saturdays or Sundays. I can’t remember. But that guy, I don’t even remember the man’s name, who was the narrator, but he would, you know, take you to these places. And it was more about the, you know, the animals. But it was kind of the precursor to the Jack Hanna that you see today or that, you know, those kinds of stories. But I used to love that “Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom” show.
Lee Smith [00:14:08] Marlin Perkins.
Suzanne Scott [00:14:09] And that’s it. That’s it. That was a good one.
Suzanne Scott [00:14:12] And then fast forward to today. We’re big “CBS Morning News” fans. So always at the end, they always have something with nature throughout the thing. But then at the end, that nature minute that they have, they focus on someplace where it’s a mountain or, you know, a duck. This last week it was the loons. I think it’s the migratory time for the loons. So I don’t know, all that stuff just really connects with me.
Suzanne Scott [00:14:42] What I love about those is it’s just images and nat sound.
Suzanne Scott [00:14:46] Yes. Yes, It’s beautiful. I know. That’s it exactly.
Suzanne Scott [00:14:50] And it just takes you, to take a minute at the end of that program just to say, “Here’s your moment with nature.” And it’s nice. I think it’s good. It makes people really appreciate how important nature is to our lives.
Lee Smith [00:15:04] And do you remember, Jim, who was like, you know, Marlin would sit in the truck.
Suzanne Scott [00:15:08] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:15:09] And Jim would go and mess with the animal.
Suzanne Scott [00:15:11] Yes. Yes, he would do the hard work. Yes. No, that was a great show. Great show.
Lee Smith [00:15:18] And we kind of hit a few of these already, which is the way this is structured.
Suzanne Scott [00:15:24] Sure. Of course.
Lee Smith [00:15:24] If you don’t hit something, it comes up again. But, so what would you say was your first job with a conservation focus?
Suzanne Scott [00:15:41] I would think as it being a primary focus was when I came to the San Antonio River Authority. So I started at the River Authority as the Community Relations Intergovernmental Relations Coordinator. So my job at that time was really to try to, they hadn’t ever hired anybody before to do intergovernmental relations or community relations for the for the River Authority. I was the first person they hired in that role.
Suzanne Scott [00:16:09] And really my job was just to try to raise awareness of the importance of the river, not just from the perspective of the River Walk that everyone knew about, but the river was beyond that. I mean, there’s 200 miles of river that most people didn’t know about other than that couple of miles downtown. So my job was really just to raise awareness and affinity and love of the resource.
Suzanne Scott [00:16:30] So I did a lot of that and tried to get the public to understand why it was important beyond just the River Walk and why protection of it was important and and educate people about the habitat and what fish actually live in the river and why the habitat is important to restore and to protect.
Lee Smith [00:16:51] Well and kind of what you’re talking about with “A River Runs Through It”.
Suzanne Scott [00:16:54] Yes. Exactly.
Lee Smith [00:16:56] The connectivity of the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:16:57] But it’s everybody’s river. And that’s what really we tried to convey to people, because most people in San Antonio really connected with the river through going down and taking their family or that are visiting from out of town to go to the River Walk or to take a boat ride or, you know, to to experience the River Walk either during a parade or a Spurs parade or a Christmas parade, All that was kind of like how most people connected to the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:17:24] And there had been some fits and starts with various like trails that were added to the river to try to increase access to the river south of town, but not really to the extent that there was a broad connection for the public to the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:17:40] So we really tried to do that. And and I, through my work, I really tried to get the River Authority to have more of a leadership role in the future of the river. And trying to change that.
Suzanne Scott [00:17:51] The San Antonio River Authority had really been more of a organization that just worked for other governments rather than having its own mission about what it was trying to accomplish.
Suzanne Scott [00:18:03] So we really, through my work, I tried to change that. And not only in San Antonio and in Bexar County, but in Wilson, Karnes and Goliad counties that are the rest of the basin, so that we connected the entire basin for what we did upstream, impacted downstream, all the way to the coast, to make sure that people could resonate with the idea of a watershed and why that was important.
Lee Smith [00:18:25] And you know, the River Walk is, that’s where the San Antonio River is urban.
Suzanne Scott [00:18:32] That’s right.
[00:18:32] Completely, you know. It’s cement and bricks and, you know, all the way down. But that’s a fraction.
Suzanne Scott [00:18:42] That’s right.
Lee Smith [00:18:43] So the real challenge was to get an awareness of the totality of the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:18:48] Exactly. Right. Really making sure that people understood that the river was 200 miles and it was connected through urban and rural communities and it went all the way down to the coast.
Suzanne Scott [00:19:02] I mean, it had a confluence with the Guadalupe River and ultimately went into the coast and why that freshwater was important to the health of the bay system, and so that people would understand that what we do here in San Antonio and in the urban center has impacts downstream.
Suzanne Scott [00:19:18] And that connectivity, the idea of people knowing that they’re part of something bigger than just what they see when they go downtown to have Mexican food on the river. I mean, it’s part of something that’s larger than just that.
Lee Smith [00:19:31] Was there a time when the light bulb went “bing”? Because you were kind of on the ground level.
[00:19:39] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:19:39] Of getting that connectivity concept. Was it a gradual thing? Or was there something that…
Suzanne Scott [00:19:46] Well, a couple of things I think that people started to resonate with.
Suzanne Scott [00:19:51] One is the River Authority needed some funding. They had a tax, but they couldn’t, they weren’t collecting the tax for a very long time. They were relying mainly on money from Bexar County.
Suzanne Scott [00:20:05] So I tried to raise awareness of, again, the value of the river and why it was important for all of us to work together and was able to successfully get that tax put back in.
Suzanne Scott [00:20:15] It didn’t require a vote of the people. It just, we just wanted to make sure that there was no opposition, there was not going to be a huge pressure on the board to not get the revenue. Because any time that you’re going to increase a tax, it always comes with a lot of resistance because people don’t like to pay taxes.
Suzanne Scott [00:20:36] So I really tried to build that awareness and not only the recreational benefits, the ecological benefits, but also the public safety benefits.
Suzanne Scott [00:20:45] You know, again, if we were doing things and we were allowed, we were able to study the river from a flood control perspective where investments needed to be made to make it safer. So we went on both the angles of public safety, but also environmental protection. And it worked.
Suzanne Scott [00:21:01] I don’t know if, are you from San Antonio?
Lee Smith [00:21:04] No. Okay. From Houston and Austin.
Speaker 2 [00:21:07] Well, there was a reporter. The light bulb went off when I thought we were really resonating. There was a reporter in, actually a columnist, in San Antonio. His name was Roddy Stinson, and his name is Roddy Stinson. He was a, he was a curmudgeon. I mean, he just always … He did not like government. He was always critical of whatever government was doing.
Suzanne Scott [00:21:33] And he had an article in the paper that everybody read, when people used to read the newspaper, his article was read. And even though a lot of people knew he was a curmudgeon, he had a lot of influence.
Suzanne Scott [00:21:44] And I said to the board at the time, if we could get Roddy Stinson to understand why this tax is important, then we’ve got it won. And so we met with him. We explained why having some money that would be dedicated to the river and not shared amongst other priorities. You know, the county has multiple things they’re spending their money on. The city does, too. But something that was totally focused on public safety and enjoyment and improvements to the river, this funding would would have some benefit.
Suzanne Scott [00:22:15] And he came out and supported it and said that this was a good thing and that we had done our homework and that we were moving forward in a very methodical and well thought-out, due diligence was done before we put it in.
Suzanne Scott [00:22:30] So I felt like, “Okay, check, you know, we’ve got that sort of endorsement.” And because of that, because he was set, he was okay with it, he didn’t, he never came out and supported it. He just didn’t, he didn’t oppose it, which was a win as far as I was concerned.
Suzanne Scott [00:22:47] So that was kind of a good kind of an opportunity for me to say, “All right, this message is going to resonate.” And then it gave us opportunity then to move in to bigger and bolder initiatives on the river.
Lee Smith [00:23:07] So next question. Tell us about your time at the SARA.
Suzanne Scott [00:23:11] Well, I’ve told you a lot already, but I think I’ll focus on sort of as I moved into the general manager role. You know, as I mentioned, I started as the kind of coordinator of government relations and community relations.
Suzanne Scott [00:23:28] And interestingly, besides just trying to raise the profile of the river, my other job was the River Authority thought they were going to be involved in a water supply project with SAWS, the San Antonio Water System, and the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority.
Suzanne Scott [00:23:46] And the idea behind the project was it was going to be a surface water project for San Antonio, that they would take the river, the river water at the end of the basin, and they would capture it, clean it, and then pump it back up to San Antonio for drinking water purposes.
Suzanne Scott [00:24:03] So one of the jobs I had was to try to convince people that that was a good idea, and also that it would be augmented with groundwater. And so we would, this project was going to pump groundwater out of the Gulf Coast aquifer, kind of in southern, south of the basin.
Suzanne Scott [00:24:25] Well, obviously, that’s hugely controversial. I mean, those communities down there were just up in arms because they didn’t want to use their groundwater to support San Antonio.
Suzanne Scott [00:24:35] Things haven’t changed. Same thing is happening now, but a different place.
Suzanne Scott [00:24:41] So, as we went through this process of trying to convince people that this water project was going to be good for everybody, you know, I increasingly started realizing this is not a good role for the River Authority.
Suzanne Scott [00:24:52] You know, you’re basically taking this resource and you’re jeopardizing its sustainability by, you know, taking the water, sucking it off and bringing it in for drinking water purposes.
Suzanne Scott [00:25:07] What was going to happen to the bays? What was, you know, I mean, there’s just so many things that I just felt like, is this really a role for us?
Suzanne Scott [00:25:13] And I think we all came to the conclusion, not just because of me, but I think because of the public input and the response, the board ultimately came to the conclusion, as did SAWS and GBRA, that this was not going to be a viable option to really develop.
Suzanne Scott [00:25:29] It wasn’t going to be a sustainable water source because, again, it was not really drought-proof. You were going to be taking groundwater from communities down south that were not happy about that. And you could potentially impact the health of the bays.
Suzanne Scott [00:25:43] So ultimately, everyone just sort of moved away from that project.
Suzanne Scott [00:25:47] But by doing that, it really allowed us to kind of focus in. What are we really about?
Suzanne Scott [00:25:52] And that really came around to protecting this resource, the San Antonio River, and what role it played in, you know, the environmental health, the flood control, the public safety, the enjoyment, recreational enjoyment, and connection, you know, people connecting.
Suzanne Scott [00:26:11] The more that people, I mean, I would always say the more that people could get to the river and enjoy it, the more they’re going to want to protect it.
Suzanne Scott [00:26:17] If the river is something that’s, you know, something that you’re never going to be connected with, then you’re not really going to want to protect it from its water quality or flood control or the habitat.
Suzanne Scott [00:26:28] So we really started shifting to what can we do to get more people to the river. So then ultimately they’ll have a stewardship for it.
Suzanne Scott [00:26:38] So that’s when we sort of moved into the San Antonio River Improvements Project. I mean, a lot of that had already been thought about and started the work on, but the real work began in earnest when we started developing kind of the extension of the River Walk north to the Pearl and then the ecosystem restoration project of the river to the south.
Suzanne Scott [00:26:58] And those projects, really, I got very, very involved in those projects just because I was building public support for them, but also trying to get them implemented because I felt very connected to getting people to the river. They’ll want to appreciate it and want to protect it.
Suzanne Scott [00:27:18] So on the on the Museum Reach Project, which is the more more River Walk-like project that extends up to the Pearl, it was more of the traditional project. I mean, you know, it was more concrete. There was nature, of course. We put native vegetation in and tried to make sure that the river wasn’t just a concrete, concreted bottom, and we made it so that the fish could survive and there was much more protection for the habitat.
Suzanne Scott [00:27:44] We learned a lot over time. So I think that that project people really started getting involved in because it was more like what they had been used to. Just a little bit upgraded and more modern than the River Walk as it related to environmental protections.
Suzanne Scott [00:28:05] But the city was having financial issues at the time. We were going through a recession. This was in the 2006, 2007, 2008 time frame, and all these projects were becoming more expensive. They didn’t really want to move forward with it.
Suzanne Scott [00:28:19] So I made the decision. I went to my boss and I said, “What about we use that tax that I told you about earlier? And we do the maintenance, we do the operations and maintenance. And if we can convince the city, that we’ll take over the operations and maintenance of the project, then that will allow them to put more money into the debt to do the capital projects, without having the operations and maintenance responsibility in perpetuity.”
Suzanne Scott [00:28:43] That gave them more of a short-term, “Okay, I can do the debt. I don’t have to worry about that”, because they were concerned they were going to have to do the long-term debt and then take over operations and maintenance in perpetuity, which was a lot.
Suzanne Scott [00:28:56] So once once we, they agreed, “Yeah, take that over, we don’t need to add that to our cost as well.” Then we were able to get that project done.
Suzanne Scott [00:29:05] And then it solidified a role for the River Authority – that we had more of a seat at the table. We weren’t just doing the project or advising on the project or project managing. We were actually a financial stakeholder because ultimately we were going to have to operate and maintain this project. So we wanted to make sure that what was built could be sustainable and well-maintained. So that shifted our role.
Suzanne Scott [00:29:30] So then we just kept that when we went to the Mission Reach Project, which is the ecosystem restoration project of the previously channelized part of the river south of downtown.
Suzanne Scott [00:29:40] That’s essentially a nine-mile stretch. We had one small section that was near Eagleland or Blue Star, and then the eight-mile section that went all the way down to the end of, basically the end of Bexar County.
Suzanne Scott [00:29:53] So that project was a little bigger in the fact that it also had the federal, the Corps of Engineers, was involved in that project because they were involved in the original channelization for flood control purposes.
Suzanne Scott [00:30:04] And now we were coming back in, adding ecosystem restoration and recreation to the project and allowing for that to move forward. And it was very, it was difficult to say the least, but the public was really excited about it because.
Lee Smith [00:30:22] Uh-oh.
Lee Smith [00:30:22] Mic cable.
Lee Smith [00:30:25] We have this Army Corps of Engineers culvert.
Suzanne Scott [00:30:31] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:30:34] Basically. So what did the, what’s the title of it? The San Antonio Mission Reach?
Suzanne Scott [00:30:39] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:30:39] Project. How did that get the river back to… What was behind that and how did it get back to a more natural state?
Suzanne Scott [00:30:48] Well, the idea behind the project was truly an ecosystem, highly-engineered ecosystem restoration project, because the project had to balance the desire to restore the environment while also still providing flood protection.
Suzanne Scott [00:31:04] So the engineering at the time that became the sort of guiding principle is this technique called fluvial geomorphology. And it is a highly-engineered channel that puts the meanders back, takes some of the slope out of the river, slows it down, allows for it to have more of a natural flow so that it could have the meanders back in, the actual sediment deposits.
Lee Smith [00:31:32] Rivers have to, rivers flow so that they can take sediment off of one side and deposit it in another, so that you have this balance. And the river is more in balance.
Suzanne Scott [00:31:45] So the idea was to provide that balance back to the river through adding the meanders back, slowing it down, spreading it out, putting more natural vegetation back into the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:31:59] So taking out the mowed banks that you had with a typical trapezoidal channel, putting back in a series of plants that had good, hearty root systems that could hold the dirt in, that could provide the stability to the banks, using riffle structures in the river to also provide habitat for all the benthics and all of the other organisms that are necessary then to produce that sort of trophic level, that if you have the benthics and the bugs, then of course the birds and the other habitat will come back.
Suzanne Scott [00:32:38] So it was really to create that structure, that habitat structure from the bottom up, from the river, the aquatic life all the way into the riparian, and have this all function in a way that still provided the protection to the adjacent properties from flooding.
Suzanne Scott [00:32:56] So it was it was very highly engineered. The placement of trees and woody vegetation had to be done in such a way that it didn’t take conveyance.
Lee Smith [00:33:07] We’ve created this this food chain, basically. Yes. And so what is it like now?
Suzanne Scott [00:33:16] Well, it’s incredible. The project is beautiful. And it was literally, if we build it, they will come. And the birds have come back. Just incredible numbers. The migratory birds have come back and they we have done, the River Authority has done, several counts on what avian species have come back. And the last count that I knew of when I left there was over 200 species of birds and probably thousands of individuals, birds that have come back to the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:33:52] And that just shows how the health of the river is so much better because the birds aren’t going to come if they don’t have all of the necessary, either structure in the vegetation to protect them, or the benthics to give them food or the, you know, the water, the good quality water that they would need. So it’s just been hugely successful.
Suzanne Scott [00:34:17] And the interesting thing about it, and exactly how I started all this, is the people are coming back too. And they see that they are enjoying the river. They’re not only enjoying it for their own personal health and peace, but they’re also enjoying seeing this natural habitat coming back and enjoying this river.
Suzanne Scott [00:34:40] And they are now becoming more observant and they’re watching, there are more birdwatchers. And we’ve had more iNaturalist sightings, you know, on that app that you can go on, iNaturalist, and people are more and more putting in things that they’re seeing, whether it’s new plants that they didn’t know about or birds that they’ve never seen, or inquiring about, you know, what kind of tree that is.
Suzanne Scott [00:35:04] I mean, everybody is just more inquisitive about their nature, their natural environment, because they’ve seen things that they’ve never seen before. Or even some of the old timers are coming back and saying, “Oh, I remember. I remember seeing those fish or I remember those birds”, but they hadn’t been there in such a long time because the habitat wasn’t there to support them.
Suzanne Scott [00:35:24] So it’s really this sort of full circle, of being able to now have a real natural river in a in a thriving, growing part of town.
Suzanne Scott [00:35:35] And the river itself, and the restoration of the river was a key component in the establishment of the World Heritage designation for the San Antonio missions. And when they did the designation, or when they came down to look at whether or not they were going to put forward the missions, the San Antonio missions, as a World Heritage site, they saw that the river connection was now much more understandable.
Suzanne Scott [00:36:05] When it was just a channelized ditch, you really didn’t understand why did these missions locate along a river when it’s a channelized ditch? I mean, what was that?
Suzanne Scott [00:36:14] You couldn’t understand how the habitat was part of the reason why the missions were established. They not only had water that they could you know, they put through the acequias and harnessed it for the purposes of the missions. But they also had the plants and the fish and all of the other wildlife that were drawn to this natural river.
Suzanne Scott [00:36:36] So that connection, that natural connection to our history became much more evident once we did the restoration of the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:36:44] So it really helped in so many ways to retell the story of why the missions were established, you know, why settlements have been along the river for over 12,000 years.
Suzanne Scott [00:36:55] So it was, it’s a great story.
Lee Smith [00:36:58] And it’s not a connection. It’s a reconnection.
Suzanne Scott [00:37:00] It’s a reconnection. That’s right. And it is definitely. People are reconnected to the river. History is reconnected to the river. We also even reconnected the river to itself because we had cut off, the Corps of Engineers, cut off several oxbows when they straightened the river. So we restored a few, a couple of those, again to provide the wetlands and the habitat that was there, but also reconnected the the river to the missions that had also been cut off because they were on some of those oxbows.
Suzanne Scott [00:37:31] So it’s really, it is a wonderful reconnection to the river that people are enjoying and the wildlife is also returning.
Suzanne Scott [00:37:39] So it’s a great story. And I think it just shows how people can be reborn in their appreciation for nature when it’s provided to them and they have access to it.
Suzanne Scott [00:37:50] Because remember, a lot of these neighborhoods, they don’t, I mean, many of the people in San Antonio for a long, long time. It was interesting.
Suzanne Scott [00:37:56] There was a fact a few years ago that they did a they did a survey of residents of San Antonio, particularly in the southern sector of San Antonio, and asked if they’d ever been anywhere else.
[00:38:10] “Have you ever flown anywhere else or gone anywhere else?”
[00:38:12] And there was a high percentage of people that had never been anywhere else other than here. So they didn’t have anything to really compare it to.
Suzanne Scott [00:38:20] I mean, that’s changed over the time when now transportation and flying and all is more affordable for people. But back along, you know, a few decades ago, they didn’t go anywhere because they couldn’t, and they they just kept family close.
Suzanne Scott [00:38:34] And so they didn’t really understand what they didn’t have. And now they’re realizing that they’re fortunate to have this wonderful river and this beautiful location here in San Antonio that they can enjoy and don’t have to go anywhere else to to experience that kind of connection to nature.
Lee Smith [00:38:54] How do you think it’s made them better citizens?
Suzanne Scott [00:39:00] Well, I think there’s several things.
Suzanne Scott [00:39:02] In my mind, again, the whole theory of getting people back to the river and once they, once they can get to the river, they’ll understand and appreciate its value. I think it’s made them better citizens because they understand now the impacts of flooding on this ecosystem that they love so much, because every time it rains, every time it rains, there is tons of trash that come to the river.
Suzanne Scott [00:39:30] There are there’s potentially erosive forces that happen because the impervious cover upstream is making the water come to the river much faster than it did before, which, of course, causes damage sometimes to this natural environment. And I think they’re understanding the dynamics of how a river works.
Suzanne Scott [00:39:48] And they also understand how their own individual behavior, i.e., litter and trash, how that impacts the river and what they need to do to be better stewards.
Suzanne Scott [00:39:59] And so I think that they’ve really gained that that affinity for the river and that role as a steward by what they do in their own yards and how they take care of their trash.
Suzanne Scott [00:40:12] And that was the whole idea, is what kind of behavioral changes can we, can this project evoke by having people understand their connection to the river.
Lee Smith [00:40:23] Why were you interested in going to the Nature Conservancy?
Suzanne Scott [00:40:27] After all that?
Lee Smith [00:40:28] After all of that.
Suzanne Scott [00:40:29] Yes. Well, you know, it was interesting. I was at a time in my career at the River Authority that I, I felt like I had something to offer beyond just the San Antonio River Basin. You know, can I take what I’ve learned?
Suzanne Scott [00:40:45] Because, again, we talked a lot about the river, but I was also involved in several statewide committees that looked at the protection of the river. I was on the Bay and Basin Area Stakeholder Committee for our San Antonio Guadalupe Basin.
Suzanne Scott [00:41:02] I was on the, I chaired the Region L Flood, I mean, excuse me, Region L Water Planning Group, for our region. And I was also going to, I was just appointed to the, right before I left, to the Regional Flood Planning Group.
Suzanne Scott [00:41:19] So I was involved in a lot of these statewide organizations. I mean, they’re regional, but they funnel up to a statewide process.
Suzanne Scott [00:41:27] So I started thinking about whether or not I could offer some experience to an organization that was really looking at conservation on a statewide basis.
Suzanne Scott [00:41:43] So that’s really, I wasn’t really interested in leaving the River Authority at all until someone, I got a text one day and someone said, “Hey, you know, the Nature Conservancy is looking for a new state director.”.
Suzanne Scott [00:41:54] And I just really kind of blew it off. I thought, “That’s great. I’ll see if I think of someone.” And then someone, again, I got another text from someone else. “Hey, Suzanne, you may want to think about this job.”
Suzanne Scott [00:42:08] So I looked into it. I called a girl, a woman, that I know – Marise McDermott at the Witte. I don’t know if you know her, but I called her. She’s a good friend of mine. She runs the Witte.
Suzanne Scott [00:42:19] And I asked her, “Hey, what do you think? Should I go to the nonprofit world from government to nonprofit? You know, I’m I’m not a young buck. I don’t have a long time left in my career. But should I make the move?”
Suzanne Scott [00:42:32] And she said, you know, Suzanne, I just got a call from a recruiter about this job. Somebody from the Nature Conservancy had called her, trying to see if she was interested in the job, which, of course, she wasn’t interested in leading.
[00:42:42] But she said, “I would have never given your name because I never thought you’d want to leave the River Authority because you were so connected to the River Authority. And that’s like part of your identity, practically.”
Suzanne Scott [00:42:52] So long and short, the recruiter from the Nature Conservancy called and really started talking to me about the job, and that’s when I started connecting the dots.
Suzanne Scott [00:43:02] “Do you think maybe I would be able to, with my experience, be able to translate from what I knew here, and then, of course, these statewide connections to a bigger conservation mission?”
Suzanne Scott [00:43:14] So I decided I guess it would. So I went through that process and decided to go ahead and really shift in this part of my career from government to nonprofit, sort of started in the nonprofit world, in my first job. And now at the end of, probably at the end of my career, this will be the nonprofit world.
Lee Smith [00:43:36] Nice bookends.
Suzanne Scott [00:43:36] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:43:40] So what is the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program?
Suzanne Scott [00:43:44] The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program has been a really, I think, a well, let me just how do I want, what word would I want to use? I had a word in my head. Just a minute.
Suzanne Scott [00:43:59] Okay. The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program is really a model for how you can protect a very important natural resource next to an urban environment.
Suzanne Scott [00:44:13] The concept behind it, I thought, was ingenious.
Suzanne Scott [00:44:17] They, the City of San Antonio and many partners, including the Nature Conservancy, went to the voters with the idea of taking sales tax and and allocating it toward protection of land over the Edwards Aquifer so that ultimately you’d be protecting the quality of the drinking water source, the primary drinking water source for San Antonio.
Suzanne Scott [00:44:47] And you would protect it from being developed because, again, anything you’re going to be developing on top of that recharge zone on the Edwards Aquifer is ultimately going to, could, pollute and threaten this very important natural resource, the Edwards Aquifer.
Suzanne Scott [00:45:03] So the community, understanding the importance of water and importance of the fact that this was their primary drinking water source and the city was growing, they overwhelmingly supported the the set-aside of a portion of sales tax to go towards, initially actually, fee acquisitions of property over the Edwards aquifer.
Suzanne Scott [00:45:27] And then, over the years, that moved from fee, acquiring the property in fee, to doing conservation easements because they knew that the the money could go further if they were able to do conservation easements.
Suzanne Scott [00:45:42] So this program is over 20 years old. I don’t know when, because I guess it’s still over 20. Right? It’s over 20 years old and has had an incredible impact on protecting the Edwards Aquifer, this primary drinking water source for San Antonio.
Suzanne Scott [00:45:59] And many other cities have now looked at this model that has been done in San Antonio to see if they could do something similar to protect either water or land resources in these other areas.
Suzanne Scott [00:46:13] And the property, the project itself, the Nature Conservancy is one of the the… What do they call themselves? Land agents.
Suzanne Scott [00:46:25] The Nature Conservancy is one of the land agents that helps the city acquire these properties, either in fee initially or by conservation easement. So our staff goes out and negotiates these transactions with these landowners and to determine, one, do they want to be in the program? But two, do they want to put a conservation easement on their property and protect it in perpetuity from development?
Suzanne Scott [00:46:55] And the beauty of this is that all of it’s based on science. There’s the city established a scientific advisory committee, and that scientific advisory committee can know exactly what properties are the most valuable from the protection of the aquifer, whether they have karst features on them or whether they have specific recharge features.
Suzanne Scott [00:47:20] And when the projects initially started, those were the primary properties that the Nature Conservancy and, at the time, Green Spaces Alliance would go out and try to start talking to people about would they be interested in being in this program.
Suzanne Scott [00:47:35] And I always admire those people that went first because, you know, it’s always the pioneers that, you know, you never know for certain if this thing is going to take off. But ultimately it did.
Suzanne Scott [00:47:46] And since its inception, over 171,000 acres have been protected. There’s been 131 transactions. And of that, the Nature Conservancy has done half of those.
Suzanne Scott [00:48:03] So we are, the Nature Conservancy, has been an incredibly valuable partner in getting this project done and getting these lands protected over this very, very sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.
Suzanne Scott [00:48:18] And now the project is going to be moving into other areas. We started originally in Bexar County and they moved then west into other counties, Medina County and Uvalde County, and did some protections out there.
Suzanne Scott [00:48:34] And now the project is looking at going into the contributing zone and moving out a little bit further, again, giving more protections to the Edwards Aquifer Authority, I mean, to the Edwards Aquifer.
Lee Smith [00:48:47] Now, is the revenue stream like constant? I mean, the voters approved it, but what is the mechanism and this really isn’t a question. It’s something I’ve thought about myself.
Suzanne Scott [00:48:59] Yeah.
Suzanne Scott [00:49:01] So, it was a proposition. They had to take it, when they went initially for the sales tax referendum 20 years ago. It set it on this five-year cycle that it had to be re-upped each five-year cycle.
Suzanne Scott [00:49:14] So the idea was in the first five years they would get a certain amount of money and they would put that money out into these acquisitions. And obviously for it to get re-upped, you had to make sure that you could show that you had made success.
Suzanne Scott [00:49:32] You know, you had either people at the time, again, it was more purchase than it was conservation easements, but there was such an overwhelming demand and through the scientific process they could come back for the next five-year cycle, they were able to say, “Look, we’ve identified all these other properties. We already have people that are wanting to participate. We created this market, if you will, of landowners who are interested in participating.”
Suzanne Scott [00:50:00] So ultimately, I think that success bred success and people really wanted to participate and they realized how important the protection of the Edwards Aquifer was because it was the primary drinking water source, and still is, for San Antonio.
Lee Smith [00:50:17] And I kept seeing these dates on that.
Suzanne Scott [00:50:18] Yes.
Lee Smith [00:50:19] I was wondering, God, did they have to go to the voters each five years?
Suzanne Scott [00:50:21] Yeah, they did. They did. And you know, they’ve, we have spent on that. I think it’s, let me just look at my notes. Let me just double check. I think it’s 156 million so far, so, so far on the 131 transactions that I mentioned, that it was over 172,000 acres. We’ve spent $156 million on all the acquisitions that have occurred since the beginning of the project.
Lee Smith [00:50:53] So how much money has been generated and how’s it been used?
Suzanne Scott [00:50:58] The city’s collected over $315 million towards this effort over this 20-year period. And the Nature Conservancy, in our transactions that we’ve done, we’ve spent over $156 million towards these acquisitions. So essentially, our role, of the 131 transactions that have occurred over this time period, we’ve done half of those.
Suzanne Scott [00:51:26] What does it look like moving forward?
Suzanne Scott [00:51:29] Going forward? The funding source has changed. As I mentioned, it was a sales tax initiative that would go to the voters on this five-year periodic basis.
Suzanne Scott [00:51:39] This last time the city made the decision to shift that sales tax to another priority. They first are putting it towards workforce development because of, again, kind of coming out of Covid, they wanted to make sure that they would have opportunities for workforce development.
Suzanne Scott [00:52:00] So for the first few years, it’s going to go to workforce and then it’s going to go to VIA Metropolitan Transit after that in perpetuity. So it’ll it’ll support transit long-term.
Suzanne Scott [00:52:11] So the way that this project is now being funded, because obviously the community still wanted this acquisition to move forward because again, we still hadn’t finished all the protection of the Edwards Aquifer.
Suzanne Scott [00:52:24] So now the city is issuing debt for the acquisition of these conservation easements, and they’re backing that up by receiving $10 million a year from San Antonio Water System. So the San Antonio Water System provides funding to the City of San Antonio anyway on an annual basis. And a portion of that is going to go towards continuing to support this program.
Lee Smith [00:52:50] And what about the Nature Conservancy?
Suzanne Scott [00:52:52] We just re-upped our contract, so we will continue to be a land agent on the Edwards Aquifer program. It’s a very important program for us, and it has really provided, you know, our expertise in land acquisition and our ability to work so closely with land owners and our just general reputation of being able to do these kinds of land transactions in a very professional way has really garnered a lot of support out in the community for us to continue to do this.
Suzanne Scott [00:53:23] And it also places us with our partners [excuse me], it has also placed us with our other partners within TNC in the larger organization. We are often called upon to talk about the successes that we’ve had here on this acquisition program, because it’s really, as I said, a model for how you can really have a market-driven way of working with landowners to protect a very important natural resource.
Suzanne Scott [00:53:54] And other people are looking to see if they can do something similar. There’s a program that, I don’t know, did the Austin program predate the San Antonio program or did it happen about the same time?
Jeff Weigel [00:54:06] A couple different sources used over time.
Suzanne Scott [00:54:10] In Austin?
Jeff Weigel [00:54:11] Something that people paid through their water bill.
Jeff Weigel [00:54:14] Bonds and stuff. So nothing was consistent. Yeah, it was a little bit of this source and then, you know.
Suzanne Scott [00:54:20] Yeah, it’s not as consistent.
Jeff Weigel [00:54:22] Some of it might have been a little older, but nothing as consistent and large as this.
Suzanne Scott [00:54:26] Yeah that’s that’s because in Austin there’s a similar type initiative to try to get public funds in order to acquire conservation easements and other protections over the over the aquifer there as well.
Suzanne Scott [00:54:43] Now there are, because of the growth that’s happening in the Hill Country right now and just the incredible encroachment that’s happening in the Pedernales watershed and in Kendall County and Comal County and all these others, they are really looking, trying to see what they can do to come up with something that’s sort of modeled after the Edwards Aquifer protection program to protect their resources because they have these beautiful rivers that are spring-fed rivers that are now being threatened because of development and all their open space is being, you know, now fragmented from development.
Suzanne Scott [00:55:22] So they’re trying to figure out if they can take these types of referendums to their voters, which would be wonderful, because again, as we’re growing as a state, the value of open space is going to be so important not only just for biodiversity purposes, but also for water protection.
Lee Smith [00:55:40] Well. And also kind of what I was trying to get to about this, how they become better citizens. You can’t do these things if your voting base doesn’t appreciate and understand it.
Suzanne Scott [00:55:53] That’s exactly right. I mean, as people grow in their understanding of how nature supports their life, their quality of life, their drinking water, their clean air, their heat, their flooding, I mean, all of … Nature plays such an incredible role, not to mention public health that we’ve all learned about, of course, with Covid.
Suzanne Scott [00:56:16] But I think that the the constituents of these communities are understanding that they need to put their investments there. They need to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to protecting nature.
Suzanne Scott [00:56:27] And we’ve seen that with the Edwards Aquifer program. People constantly went over those five-year cycles over the last 20 years have approved over and over and over again the dedication of this sales tax. It was overwhelmingly approved by the voters in very high percentages.
Suzanne Scott [00:56:47] So I think that people understand the value of that. Similarly, you know, every time you put a parks initiative on the ballot, it passes with high numbers.
Suzanne Scott [00:56:55] So people just understand that they need nature and they need to make sure that they are protecting it, but also investing in it.
Lee Smith [00:57:05] Tell me about the Honey Creek Ranch conservation easement. What does it protect and how does it protect?
Suzanne Scott [00:57:13] Well, as you know, the Nature Conservancy was involved in the establishment of the Honey Creek Natural Area back in 1981. They acquired the original acreage that came up, that created the Honey Creek Natural Area that was originally then was transferred to the Texas Parks and Wildlife in 1985. And this has been all part of the larger acreage that’s protected with the Guadalupe State Park.
Suzanne Scott [00:57:45] So now we have been really watching the development and the growth that’s been happening around this area. I mean, this Bulverde area has grown fast. It’s probably one of the fastest growing areas of the state.
Suzanne Scott [00:58:00] And there was a property owner that was going to put about 1600 homes on a little over 500 acres. And by putting those homes on this property that was right at the headwaters of Honey Creek, the concern was that that was going to threaten this beautiful, protected, pristine stream of Honey Creek and the ecosystem surrounding that.
Suzanne Scott [00:58:30] And the the public was very, very concerned about this and started really talking about this and expressing concerns about what’s this going to mean to this beautiful place that we’ve protected, and what do we need to do to ensure that that long-term, this Honey Creek Natural Area could continue to be protected?
Suzanne Scott [00:58:53] So the Nature Conservancy was watching all of this. And obviously, this is kind of what we do. We look at, we understand these threats. But obviously we weren’t going to be able to be successful until there was a groundswell of people that were very concerned about what was happening there.
Suzanne Scott [00:59:11] The owner of the property started getting some pressure, public pressure, about was he going to continue to go forward with this. He was also getting pressure from the the city of Bulverde as to how he was going to develop this, how this was going to happen.
Suzanne Scott [00:59:29] It just, he was starting to realize, maybe I need to start thinking about another way to protect this land, and what, you know, what options were there for him.
Suzanne Scott [00:59:41] So because, again, the Nature Conservancy has such a great reputation on our land transactions and has such a great partnership with Texas Parks and Wildlife, all over the state, but particularly here at the Honey Creek Natural Area, we got together and started talking with the owner of the property, and trying to suggest to that owner that maybe there’s a better way and if we could give him a good price for the property, something that he would negotiate with us, could we buy the property from him and then ultimately conserve it and give it back to the Texas Parks and Wildlife as an extension or an expansion of the Honey Creek Natural Area to protect the areas that had already been protected.
Suzanne Scott [01:00:29] So we started this negotiation. So this was a very complex negotiation. And ultimately the owner decided that, yes, he would move into this idea of protection, allow us to acquire the property from him at a bargain sale.
Suzanne Scott [01:00:46] And we started then raising the funding for it. Texas Parks and Wildlife said they would put up a certain amount of money, and if we could raise a match from, through philanthropy, not only through us, but also with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, put those resources together, then we could acquire the property and ultimately it would be protected.
Suzanne Scott [01:01:09] It is a wonderful opportunity and it’s exactly the kind of thing that you need to do in a very fast-growing area, is you see these these jewels of protection that are necessary. And we went in and are doing that and securing that. And ultimately, it will protect this very sensitive habitat at Honey Creek Natural Area.
Lee Smith [01:01:31] Now, prior to that, there was the Honey Creek Springs Ranch.
Suzanne Scott [01:01:36] Well. When we’re looking at Honey Creek, we obviously had the one development that was going, that was threatened by the 1600 homes.
Suzanne Scott [01:01:46] There’s also a very important over 600-acre, 620-acre property that is adjacent to this area. It has the largest cave system in Texas, has the spring for Honey Creek on that property.
Suzanne Scott [01:02:08] So we wanted that to be protected, too, because, again, if you’re looking at a watershed, you know, you sort of step back and you look at the watershed. You want to make sure that you’re protecting the entire watershed because you could alleviate one threat and then potentially have another threat.
Suzanne Scott [01:02:21] So the owner of the Honey Creek Springs Ranch was a former employee of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. So, of course, very conservation-minded, and was interested in protecting the property. So we, again, the Nature Conservancy, came in and talked with the owner to figure out if they would be interested in putting a conservation easement.
Suzanne Scott [01:02:45] This is not an acquisition like the other. This is a conservation easement that would allow for us to protect the acreage, give some some compensation to the owner, because the reason that you’re giving the compensation to the owner in this case is they are losing the ability to develop this property long-term.
Suzanne Scott [01:03:07] So they agreed. They would want to do the conservation easement if we could secure the funding.
[01:03:13] So in this case, we went through a federal and a state grant program to bring funding to the table for this conservation easement. We used an NRCS program. And then we also used a Texas Parks and Wildlife program.
Suzanne Scott [01:03:29] And this project, because of its sensitivity in this watershed, was ranked number one on the, you know, the evaluations that are done by the NRCS and Texas Parks and Wildlife – that this was a critical protection that was necessary.
Suzanne Scott [01:03:45] So we’ve secured that conservation easement. That very important property is now protected in perpetuity and the spring and the cave system are protected.
Suzanne Scott [01:03:56] And the owner is very, very happy with the transaction because, again, the owner was such a conservation-minded person and felt like this was a way that they could give back to the community in perpetuity, knowing that their property would be protected.
Lee Smith [01:04:12] So it’s just finding the pieces of the puzzle…
Suzanne Scott [01:04:15] That’s right.
Lee Smith [01:04:16] In terms of the vehicle to get these projects done.
Suzanne Scott [01:04:18] That’s right. That’s right.
Lee Smith [01:04:19] That’s what the Nature Conservancy does.
Suzanne Scott [01:04:21] Absolutely. The Nature Conservancy is masterful at working directly with landowners and making sure that they understand how their conservation-minded protection, stewardship that they’ve been doing on their land, can be something for future generations. And through conservation easements, that’s the way to do that.
[01:04:45] You have landowners that are on the land today that they don’t know for certain what’s going to happen in the future. And we’re seeing how Texas is changing so much with all the development and the encroachment that’s happening.
Suzanne Scott [01:04:55] And these landowners are trying to figure out and weighing this, “Okay, well, I can get much more money if I develop my property, but yet I have this heart of conservation and I want to make sure I can do that.” So the Nature Conservancy could come in and try to give them some value, but also playing to the fact that they want to really protect their property long-term.
Lee Smith [01:05:25] And let’s just define this a little bit for people that aren’t in the know, but, so what is a purchased conservation easement?
Suzanne Scott [01:05:34] So when someone decides that they want to do a conservation easement, they can either donate the conservation easement. In other words, they’re just saying, “I’m donating the value of the fact that I’m giving up my right to develop this property”, and they can take a tax credit for that, for the fact that they are giving up some value for their property and they can still have a conservation easement. They have to have some management agreement on the property to make sure that they’re going to continue to steward it for the conservation reason why the conservation easement was there.
Suzanne Scott [01:06:08] You can also do this through a purchase of the conservation easement. And this is where the the owner of the property gets compensated in some way for the value that they are removing, or the reduction in value. They get paid for the reduction of value that’s ultimately going to occur on that property because again, that property cannot be sold and developed anymore.
Suzanne Scott [01:06:37] And there are programs that support these kinds of purchased conservation easements, because oftentimes landowners, again, the land is their wealth. And if they give up this this value, then they’re potentially taking out of their retirement and other reasons why they had the land to begin with. So we’re trying to encourage them financially, incentivize them, to have protection.
Suzanne Scott [01:07:00] So the federal government has programs – the NRCS. Texas Parks and Wildlife also has a program that encourages and provides funding to help for these conservation easements. Many, there are other foundations, philanthropic foundations, that put funding in play to acquire these conservation easements.
Suzanne Scott [01:07:24] And so we are, again, the Nature Conservancy, has connections with a lot of these, not only the federal and state programs, but of course, also the philanthropic programs that come in. And then we bring that money to the table.
Suzanne Scott [01:07:37] And oftentimes what happens is the landowner will … you’ll do an appraisal to determine what the value of the conservation easement is. And oftentimes they won’t necessarily ask for the full value of that conservation easement. They will take a reduced or bargain sale. They’ll take less than what it was worth as a donation. And that also helps, I think, in their tax, the the reports that they have the do to the IRS when they do some part of that as a donation.
Suzanne Scott [01:08:09] So between their their conservation mind and their heart to try to put some of it in donation and then funding that we can bring to the table through these various funding sources – state, federal, philanthropy – we’re able to acquire these conservation easements and make sure that those lands are protected.
Suzanne Scott [01:08:28] The Bracken Cave and the Cibolo Bluffs project area – if you look at a map, you’re going to see development encroaching on this very important place. I mean, this Bracken Bat Cave is a wonder of the world. It should be one of the seven wonders of the world, I think. It’s just incredible what’s happening at this place and these, you know, millions of bats that are there, that come and have been there forever. And this natural phenomena that happen season after season after season and how important they are to the whole biodiversity of this area.
Suzanne Scott [01:09:13] And then you look at the developing landscape and you can see that this important habitat for these bats could be threatened, and they could go away and then we wouldn’t have them there anymore. And that would be devastating for a lot of reasons.
Suzanne Scott [01:09:35] So what we’re trying to do, and have been for many, many years, is really trying to protect as much as possible that Bracken Bat Cave through having a buffer of conserved land around it so that the the this natural phenomena can be protected and can can continue to thrive. So what we’re trying to do is acquire pieces of property, where we can, around that bat cave so that we can have more and more of a buffer zone.
Suzanne Scott [01:10:07] Not only do we have the bats, of course, but we have the golden-cheeked warbler, which is also a very important bird species that we’ve done lots of conservation to protect in Texas, but they also migrate to this particular area. And that is another reason why that’s extremely important.
Suzanne Scott [01:10:24] And then the third part of that trifecta is the water – very important. It’s a recharge area. It also is along the Cibolo Creek, which is also, of course, recharges as well.
Suzanne Scott [01:10:37] So there’s many, many reasons why we want to protect this area. And with this encroaching development that’s occurring, it makes this even more urgent to protect this area.
Suzanne Scott [01:10:48] And if anyone’s been to Natural Bridge Caverns, which is very, very close to this area, that whole feature, that that beautiful underground cave feature. If it’s, if we’re not careful with what we’re doing, that could also be threatened and people have enjoyed that for for generations. People have gone there. I went there as a child and really enjoyed that.
Suzanne Scott [01:11:10] So, I mean, just we’re trying to balance the protection of all these important natural resources around this area with this fast-growing development that’s happening and that you can see that’s going, that’s right on the borders of this very important natural habitat.
Lee Smith [01:11:26] And that can be expanded to what the Nature Conservancy does in the Hill Country.
Suzanne Scott [01:11:31] Everywhere.
Lee Smith [01:11:32] Or, yeah, everywhere.
Suzanne Scott [01:11:34] I mean, this is the biggest threat that we’re seeing in Texas is this fast growth that we’re having. It’s it’s great for jobs and it’s great for the economy, which of course, the Nature Conservancy is all about having a very strong state.
Suzanne Scott [01:11:48] But we have to balance that with conservation. And as we’re growing as a state, the fragmentation of our land that’s happening, the threats to biodiversity, couple that with climate change and the impacts that climate change are going to bring to our weather patterns in our increased heat, more frequent droughts, more severe floods. Development in combination with with climate change is a big threat to our state and to our future resiliency as a state, our sustainability. It’s ultimately going to impact our economic strength.
Suzanne Scott [01:12:27] So nature is extremely important in this story. And I think what we’re trying to shout from the rooftops is nature is not a “nice to have”, it is a “need to have”. And we need to make sure that as we’re growing as a state, that we constantly think about the role that nature plays in making sure that the state’s going to have the future that we all would love.
Lee Smith [01:12:49] What role do you envision the Nature Conservancy working with the ag sector in Texas?
Suzanne Scott [01:12:57] This is a growing area for the Nature Conservancy to really work here in Texas. The Nature Conservancy, the larger Nature Conservancy, has really had a developing sustainable agriculture program for some time.
Suzanne Scott [01:13:14] And we have been, here in Texas, we’ve been sort of learning from what they’ve been doing at the larger TNC level and trying to figure out what practices and what can we do here in Texas that can bring value to the protection of our agricultural industry.
Suzanne Scott [01:13:31] We believe very strongly that to have a very strong agricultural industry means that land, that working lands, continue to be working lands and and will not be further fragmented or further developed. Because if you don’t have the wide open spaces, then you can’t have the biodiversity and the and the carbon sequestration and all that the land can do.
Suzanne Scott [01:13:55] So we want to make sure that we can keep working lands working and that ag producers can actually continue to make an economic living off of the land.
Suzanne Scott [01:14:05] So we’re really just trying to explore what we can do. We’re trying to not only figure out if there are conservation practices that we can work with landowners to see if they can maybe have cover crops or look at rotation, regenerative ag practices that have rotating of their cattle or rotating of their crops.
Suzanne Scott [01:14:29] Looking at their water use and figuring out if there’s ways that they can reduce their water use. So then again, they save money, but also that that water can then be if there’s transactions that we can do, if they have a water right on the river or a creek, for example, and we can and we can show them how they could use less water and then we can acquire that water right, and leave it in the in the stream, leave it in the creek or the river, then that has other environmental benefits.
Suzanne Scott [01:14:57] So we’re working on a lot of different fronts to kind of figure out exactly where we can have the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to working in the agricultural industry.
Suzanne Scott [01:15:07] But I think ultimately what we want to do is make sure that we can keep as many working lands working, that we can keep the land as together as possible, reduce fragmentation, also improve the watershed health and try to figure out then with all of that, can we improve the ability for the land to sequester carbon, to make sure that if you’re not tilling up the land of the carbon that’s already stored there, trying to keep that from happening.
Suzanne Scott [01:15:38] So there’s a combination of things that we’re looking at right now, but ultimately I think it’s really just to try to work with those landowners and figure out how we can, together, value these quote, “ecosystem services”, that this land can provide.
Suzanne Scott [01:15:54] It can provide water benefits, it can provide carbon benefits, it can provide grassland benefits and land restoration benefits. And then, of course, it could also provide economic benefits.
Suzanne Scott [01:16:03] So we’re just trying to figure out what we can do there in a way that’s going to be sustainable, but also something that’s going to have ultimately long-term benefits to the state.
Lee Smith [01:16:13] So what advice would you have for a young person going into conservation?
Suzanne Scott [01:16:22] I thought about this question earlier.
Suzanne Scott [01:16:26] I think that someone that is going into conservation right now in Texas, anyone that’s going into conservation right now in Texas, needs to understand that conservation has to be part of an economic solution in Texas. That’s the only way, because conservation right now is often seen as, “Oh, those are those green people over there. We don’t really want to deal with them.” It’s you know, it’s it’s always seen as a either / or. You’re either conserving or you’re advancing some type of economic practice.
Suzanne Scott [01:17:05] And our challenge right now is to bring those two things together, is to try to work with industry, work with whether that’s the oil and gas industry, whether that is the ag industry, whether that is, you know, the development community. How can we bring together the importance of nature as we grow?
Suzanne Scott [01:17:27] And I think any conservationist that’s coming in today really needs to think about that from a bigger picture. Because if you’re only thinking about what can I do to protect biodiversity and you’re not thinking about that, of how can I protect biodiversity and make sure that we have a strong economy, that we can continue to create jobs, that we can do all the things that are so much a part of the heritage of Texas. That’s I think the sweet spot is we’ve got to figure out how both of those things can come together so that we can all win.
Suzanne Scott [01:18:02] And I think that there’s many people – the more and more I learn in this job at the Nature Conservancy, the more that I’m learning, that industry is getting that message. They are starting to come around. They are understanding that they are not, they can’t fight the protection of the environment. They can’t fight the fact that climate change is happening. They can’t ignore it anymore. They want to be part of the solution.
Suzanne Scott [01:18:28] Now we just got to figure out how to make sure what they’re doing is right and how what they’re doing is going to have the greatest benefit for the protection of the state’s natural resources, as well as making sure that they can continue to provide the economic stability for the state.
Lee Smith [01:18:45] So what does the future hold for conservation, do you think? You think it’s going to work?
Suzanne Scott [01:18:51] Absolutely. Absolutely.
Suzanne Scott [01:18:53] I think that I’m more excited every day that I hear about what’s going on. I mean, I see, when you’re starting to see the finance that the, what do you call them, when you start to see those companies that actually provide the financial backing of business and they’re saying, “We want you to be more clear in how you are managing your emissions reductions. We want you to be held accountable.”.
Suzanne Scott [01:19:29] If you make a goal: “I’m going to be carbon-free by 2050”. That used to just be said. It was like a PR statement. “I’m going to do this by 2050.” Now, the SEC and other partners are saying, “Prove it. Show it to me.” You have to quantify and be accountable.
Suzanne Scott [01:19:48] And I think when you start to see now that the market is holding people accountable for protecting the environment, that’s half the battle right there. So I’m excited about the future. I think that people are starting to see that protecting nature and conservation is part of our success and part of the sustainability that we need. And that to me is exciting.