The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in conjunction with the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has purchased a conservation easement on O’Connor Ranch in Goliad County. This conservation easement covers 6,410 acres of the largest remaining coastal prairie habitat in Texas.
The purchase of the conservation easement, costing $8.863 million, was helped in part by a $7.6 million grant administered by TCEQ as the State of Texas’ representative to the RESTORE Council, with the remaining funds provided by TNC.
The RESTORE program in Texas administers funds from the federal Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE ACT). These funds come from civil penalties related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and are used to support ecological restoration, economic development, coastal protection, and community resilience projects along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The RESTORE Council membership consists of the governors from all five gulf states and executive leadership of six federal agencies. This is the first conservation easement approved by the RESTORE Council and the largest land protection deal in the Gulf that the RESTORE act has funded. The O’Connor Ranch will remain a private working cattle ranch while the conservation easement provides protection to coastal prairie habitat from development and habitat fragmentation. The intact grassland will continue to deliver essential benefits such as buffering from floods and hurricanes, cleaning air and water, and storing carbon.
The full press release can be found here.
