AR-News: (US TX) Managing wildlife workshop informs land's urban owners

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By SHANNON TOMBy SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle 
Urban Texans own a lot of rural Texas. And they are buying more. 
When a piece of rural land is sold in Texas these days, the buyer is almost a 
cinch to be an urban or suburban resident purchasing the tract for what can 
be generalized as "recreational" purposes. 
The buyer doesn't plan to put the land into agriculture or livestock 
production, as it probably previously had been used. Instead, the land will be used as 
a retreat, a place to hunt or fish or a "country place" to which the owner 
can temporarily escape or move to at retirement. 
This new group of rural landowners often has little or no experience with 
managing land and lacks the knowledge necessary to make the property as 
productive for wild things as they almost all want them to be. 
Many, if not most, of these landowners would jump at the chance to learn how 
to best handle their land and take full advantage of opportunities to improve 
them. 
This change in rural land ownership has not escaped state and federal natural 
resource agencies or private conservation organizations. They know the future 
of wildlife and healthy natural landscapes depend on these new owners of 
rural land being given the tools to best care for their new responsibility. 
"Giving people the information they need -- the basics of how to manage their 
land for wildlife -- is something we realize there's a big need for," said 
Diana Foss, a Houston-based urban wildlife biologist for the Texas Parks and 
Wildlife Department. "That's what the workshops are about." 
On March 6, TPWD, along with the Native Plant Society of Texas and the Texas 
Cooperative Extension Service, will hold a third annual Managing Your Land For 
Wildlife workshop in Houston. 
The daylong workshop at the Tracy Gee Community Center, 3599 Westcenter, is 
designed to give owners of rural land a basic education in how to be good 
stewards of their property. 
State and federal natural resource agency staff will present seminars on 
managing land for wildlife diversity, pond construction and management for 
wildlife benefit, prescribed burning to improve wildlife habitat and fire ant 
management. 
But participants also will have the opportunity to learn how to take 
advantage of tax breaks offered to landowners who manage their land for wildlife, or 
how to plug into federal and state programs that assist landowners, often 
sharing or covering costs, in wildlife habitat projects. 
"There are a lot of programs, like the federal Farm Bill and the Fish and 
Wildlife Service's Partners for Wildlife, that have incentives for landowners 
managing their land for wildlife," Foss said. 
PKINS
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle 
Urban Texans own a lot of rural Texas. And they are buying more. 
When a piece of rural land is sold in Texas these days, the buyer is almost a 
cinch to be an urban or suburban resident purchasing the tract for what can 
be generalized as "recreational" purposes. 
The buyer doesn't plan to put the land into agriculture or livestock 
production, as it probably previously had been used. Instead, the land will be used as 
a retreat, a place to hunt or fish or a "country place" to which the owner 
can temporarily escape or move to at retirement. 
This new group of rural landowners often has little or no experience with 
managing land and lacks the knowledge necessary to make the property as 
productive for wild things as they almost all want them to be. 
Many, if not most, of these landowners would jump at the chance to learn how 
to best handle their land and take full advantage of opportunities to improve 
them. 
This change in rural land ownership has not escaped state and federal natural 
resource agencies or private conservation organizations. They know the future 
of wildlife and healthy natural landscapes depend on these new owners of 
rural land being given the tools to best care for their new responsibility. 
"Giving people the information they need -- the basics of how to manage their 
land for wildlife -- is something we realize there's a big need for," said 
Diana Foss, a Houston-based urban wildlife biologist for the Texas Parks and 
Wildlife Department. "That's what the workshops are about." 
On March 6, TPWD, along with the Native Plant Society of Texas and the Texas 
Cooperative Extension Service, will hold a third annual Managing Your Land For 
Wildlife workshop in Houston. 
The daylong workshop at the Tracy Gee Community Center, 3599 Westcenter, is 
designed to give owners of rural land a basic education in how to be good 
stewards of their property. 
State and federal natural resource agency staff will present seminars on 
managing land for wildlife diversity, pond construction and management for 
wildlife benefit, prescribed burning to improve wildlife habitat and fire ant 
management. 
But participants also will have the opportunity to learn how to take 
advantage of tax breaks offered to landowners who manage their land for wildlife, or 
how to plug into federal and state programs that assist landowners, often 
sharing or covering costs, in wildlife habitat projects. 
"There are a lot of programs, like the federal Farm Bill and the Fish and 
Wildlife Service's Partners for Wildlife, that have incentives for landowners 
managing their land for wildlife," Foss said. 







full story:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/outdoors/2422651 








"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing."
Albert Einstein    

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