By Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News

The Cibilo Conservancy, established in an effort to protect and preserve properties of its landowners, is 20 years old. After starting as a small land trust, it has protected 12,961 acres of Texas Hill Country land.

Boerne resident Brent Evans was involved in starting the Cibilo Nature Center a decade earlier, and now directs the Conservancy.

“There was no land trust in the area, so we started the new nonprofit,” he said. “You need the land trust to monitor the property each year to make sure the easement is being followed.”

Local residents and ranchers saw what was coming — fragmented ranches and development — and wanted to preserve their hunting, ranching and the watershed, and encourage their neighbors to do the same.

Many acres of property protected

Landowners have preserved more than 20 square miles of habitat since the establishment of the Cibilo Conservancy. Photo by Dave Richards

Conservation easements were used to set the guidelines for what could and could not be done on the property, no matter if it passed to the next generation or sold.

The conservation easement, a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limits uses of the land in the future to protect its conservation values, keeps the right to own and use the land, sell it and pass it on to their heirs with the landowner. But, it also enables the landowner to protect the land from being subdivided, overly developed, or destroyed by future owners.

“You can paint the picture of what you want in the future,” Evans said. “Almost all that have set up conservation easements want to preserve the hunting out here. The deer tend to grow in numbers and browse everything within sight.”

Evans said new people are looking to add their properties all the time, but noted the conservation easement is not for everyone.

“It’s a significant expense to set it up,” he said. “However there are significant tax breaks as well.”

Conservancy board member Ken Nickel said his ranch was originally homesteaded by his grandfather in 1870.

“The following generations sacrificed to keep it together all these years,” he said. “Plus, we’re running out of green space, water and the country way of life.”

After 20 years, Evans hopes more landowners will do like Nickel and seek to preserve the future use of their land.

“Our little land trust has come a long way in the last 20 years,” he said. “We hope to continue to do the work of enabling landowners to do their private conservation projects, so that future generations can inherit what we have cared for.

“We are a group of landowners interested in preserving our own legacies, and helping our neighbors with theirs.”