This is exciting: an enormous ranch that includes much of the Guadalupe Delta is going under conservation, to be a state park at some point. It's 17,000 acres, which is over 26 square miles. It includes the old site of Indianola, the 19th century settlement that was wiped off the face of the earth by two catastrophic hurricanes. Indianola was just north of what is now Port O'Connor.
For context, the red dot in the map below is us, and the dark green shows existing wildlife conservation areas, including the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (whooping crane refuge) and parkland along the barrier islands.
This is the way I like to see it done. The family that owned the huge Powderhorn Ranch voluntarily sold it at a below-market price to a consortium of donors. Lots of the money did come from the BP oilspill guilt money. The spill frankly didn't hurt us down here, but the settlement has been very, very good to our part of the coast.
Anyway, this didn't get done because a lot of people got used to the Powderhorn Ranch being wild and started imagining that they had the right to force the owners to leave it undeveloped. It got done because the owners made a gift of their own bounty, because they preferred to see it wild than to make a fortune developing it. Not that much of it was what you would call prime development land, but the inland part, near State Highway 35, might have been someday.
Here is what the beautiful swamp looks like, in a still from this good short
video:
That looks great.
ReplyDeleteI does look great. It's worth celebrating private support of public works.
ReplyDeleteConservatives (conservationists) and Progressives (Environmentalists) might, if wise, find common ground, so to speak, in creating incentives to discourage "development" and "infrastructure" in coastal areas. Keep wilderness wild, and/or keep sea level rise from destroying communities.
"As the easement-holder, the Conservancy will play a key role in restoring areas that have been overgrazed or over-run with invasive species. The Conservancy turned full ownership of Powderhorn over to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation in 2016."
ReplyDeleteSo the Conservancy has had it for a while, then. I wonder what an 'easement-holder' does.
I've worked a few ranches along the coastline (well sites) and I can tell you, they're rough in the summer time, between the insects, the heat and the humidity. I'm glad to see Gulf Coastal areas being reverted into natural settings though. I think this is a much better suited alternative in hurricance-prone areas than putting in ridiculously poorly-designed communities. The Sanctuary at Costa Grande, near Powderhorn's southern boundary is a good example of what Developers can do to spoil the landscape in the most unfortunate way.
Conservatives (conservationists) and Progressives (Environmentalists) might, if wise, find common ground, so to speak....
ReplyDeleteThere's also a serious and irreconcilable bone of contention between the two: Conservatives want to let economics function--let insurance rates float with the level of risk, which will impact development and infrastructure--and further to let nature take its own course. Progressives want to control insurance companies and the rates charged, for the good of those of us too stupid to make our own decisions, and further to control nature's behavior with barriers, drains, and whatever else to prevent flooding and especially to control the ecology.
Eric Hines
I wasn't aware of the Sanctuary at Costa Grande, so I just pulled it up on Google Maps. Disneyland on the Intercoastal!
ReplyDeleteI know, right?? And where do they get these development names, who dreams these things up? The Ranches at Highmeadow Canyon.....Lake"
ReplyDeleteIt must be the latent class anxiety in me that causes a shiver of revulsion over having a name like that in my address where people can see it. I don't exactly take tea with the Astors or come from royalty, but that doesn't mean I aspire to be a raging arriviste.
ReplyDeleteI read once long ago about a dispute in one community over renaming "Pinchgut Holler" as some absurd piece of tacky real estate nonsense. It's the pits! (bump, bump) the double knits! It's the powder blue polyester leisure suit of landed-baron fantasies.