The 78.1-acre Big Tree Ranch has just become part of Goose Island State Park in Rockport, TX in a special deal. The ranch wraps around the six-acre piece of property on which Lamar’s famous Big Tree has lived for more than 1,000 years and is the largest live oak in the state. The purchase, which involved a close working relationship between the private and government sector closed May 30.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has been working on this transaction for quite some time. Representatives from the Texas Nature Conservancy (TNC), as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, TPWD and others were part of the discussion. “They all said something needs to be done with the Big Tree Ranch,” said C.G. Overturf with Texas Parks and Wildlife. “It is an area where the endangered Whooping Crane spends the winter months.”
The money for the purchase came from a special fund set aside after the 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. An Associated Press (AP) report noted Texas is the first state to confirm a deal to spend settlement money from the oil spill for long-term coastal conservation, working with a private nonprofit (TNC) to cut through the red tape. The property will be turned over to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to be incorporated into Goose Island State Park. This is the first project to be announced since the settlement was reached in February.
Initial planning for a grand opening celebration has begun. The time and date for the big event will be announced in the near future.
Rockport Pilot May 2, 2012 http://www.rockportpilot.com/articles/2012/05/13/news/doc4fa024bb9021e562691925.txt
Holiday Beach Property Acquired for Whooping Crane Habitat
More than 170 acres of undeveloped whooping crane habitat is now under conservation protection in Lamar Peninsula, in a property purchase coordinated by the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP), the Whooping Crane Conservation Association, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).
The groups partnered to purchase the privately owned 178 acres in the Holiday Beach area. Sale of the property closed last week at a cost of $180,000. The parcel of land is under management of the CBBEP.
Rockport Pilot June 6, 2012
http://www.rockportpilot.com/articles/2012/06/06/news/doc4fce6f4a95f49224312306.txt
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