Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Conservation Committee
Jan. 19, 2000
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
6
7 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the 19th
8 day of January 2000, there came on to be heard
9 matters under the regulatory authority of the
10 Parks and Wildlife Commission of Texas, in the
11 commission hearing room of the Texas Parks and
12 Wildlife Headquarters complex, Austin, Travis
13 County, Texas, beginning at 9:30 a.m., to wit:
14
15
APPEARANCES:
16 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION:
CONSERVATION COMMITTEE:
17 Chair: Carol E. Dinkins
Lee M. Bass
18 Dick W. Heath (absent)
Nolan Ryan
19 Ernest Angelo, Jr.
John Avila, Jr.
20 Alvin L. Henry
Katharine Armstrong Idsal
21 Mark E. Watson, Jr.
22 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
Andrew H. Sansom, Executive Director, and other
23 personnel of the Parks and Wildlife Department.
24
25
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1 JANUARY 19, 2000
2 *-*-*-*-*
3 CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING
4 *-*-*-*-*
5 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: The meeting
6 is called to order. Before proceeding with any
7 of the business, Mr. Sansom has a statement to
8 make.
9 MR. SANSOM: Madam chairman, a
10 public notice to this meeting containing all
11 items on the proposed agenda has been filed in
12 the office of the Secretary of State as required
13 by Chapter 551 of the government code. This is
14 referred to as the Open Meetings Law, and I would
15 like for the action to be noted in the official
16 record of the meeting.
17 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Thank you.
18 Our first order of business is to approve the
19 committee minutes from the previous meeting. The
20 chair would entertain a motion for approval.
21 COMMISSIONER WATSON: I so move.
22 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Second.
23 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Thank you.
24 Is there any discussion, additions, corrections?
25 Hearing none then, all in favor say
.0003
1 aye.
2 (Members say aye.)
3 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Those
4 opposed? Thank you. Motion carries.
5 AGENDA ITEM NO. 1: BRIEFING - CHAIRMAN'S
6 CHARGES.
7 (Motion passed unanimously.)
8 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Our next item
9 is the chairman's charges, and this is an oral
10 report from Mr. Sansom.
11 MR. SANSOM: Ms. Chairman, I would
12 just like to note that you will be receiving a
13 briefing from State Parks Director Dabney on
14 House Bill 2108 which has to do with the possible
15 transfer of State parks to other political
16 subdivisions of the State, which is a direct
17 component of the chairman's charges. And we have
18 begun discussions with Texas Tech University
19 about continuing a series of studies related to
20 the needs in the 21st Century for parks,
21 recreation, fish and wildlife resources in Texas.
22 And that study is being discussed with Texas
23 Tech at this time.
24 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Thank you.
25 Any questions or comments?
.0004
1 Our next order of business is a
2 briefing on the State park transfer, an update.
3 Walt Dabney.
4 AGENDA ITEM NO. 2: BRIEFING - STATE PARK
5 TRANSFER UPDATE.
6 MR. DABNEY: Good morning. As you
7 know, House Bill 2108 provides a two-year window
8 for us to -- and $2 million a year for us to
9 consider in discussions with local entities, the
10 possible transfer of sites out of the State park
11 system to a subdivision of the State. The
12 actions, to date: We sent out the letters to our
13 employees, to local government officials, and to
14 the members of the legislature, informing them of
15 what our plan was.
16 The criteria that we are considering
17 in any one of these transfers are listed above.
18 The local expertise and ability to protect and
19 manage a site; the financial investment and
20 implications long-term for both Texas Parks &
21 Wildlife and the local entity; the local entity's
22 ability to financially operate and maintain the
23 site. What we sure don't want to do is transfer
24 some place and have it not taken care of and then
25 us get it back.
.0005
1 Level of significance -- is it of
2 local interest or is it truly a statewide
3 interest site? It needs to be mutually
4 agreeable. It also needs to have local support
5 for any such transfer. It needs to continue to
6 be used for park purposes, in other words,
7 basically the same as it's being used right now.
8 They need to have the resource management
9 capability to manage specific issues, whether
10 those be cultural or natural resource management
11 issues. They need to have a staffing level that
12 at least equals the current level to be able to
13 continue it, and be able to manage the
14 facilities, some of which are historic in nature.
15 Well, we're -- Anthony, can you get
16 that for me?
17 The process that we're undertaking
18 is, again, initial contact, and those have come
19 mainly from the local entities. We've sat down
20 and met with several different local entities and
21 we have some more that I'll tell you about in
22 just a minute. An information exchange period,
23 financial information and that sort of thing, and
24 right on down this list.
25 The areas that we are currently
.0006
1 involved in discussing include Casa Navarro in
2 San Antonio, and Commissioner Watson has been
3 involved in working with us on both Casa Navarro
4 and Mission San Jose. Mission San Jose, were
5 that to transfer, is not truly a House Bill 2108
6 issue, in that this would be the National Park
7 service receiving this and there would not be a
8 transfer of funds associated with this. They're
9 managing the site already, and this would be
10 simply a transfer of responsibility.
11 Old Fort Parker; the Salt Palace is
12 not one that we actually own, but we have a
13 long-term agreement in place where we contribute
14 operating monies to that entity, and we're
15 looking at moving out of that obligation and
16 using some of the transfer money to get us out of
17 that annual obligation and turn that over
18 entirely to the City of Grand Saline.
19 Lockhart is still ongoing, as far as
20 discussion. Lubbock Lake Landmark with Texas
21 Tech University is still ongoing. Regional
22 Director Ardoin and I are going to be meeting
23 with the mayors of Galveston and Jamaica Beach
24 related to Galveston Island. Rusk, Jim Hogg, the
25 City of Rusk is being -- we're having a
.0007
1 discussion with Jim Hogg, and also recently we,
2 as of -- since this was put together, we're going
3 to be looking at Rita Blanca up in the top of the
4 Texas Panhandle and talking -- doing an
5 initiation there and Big Spring State Park with
6 the local government.
7 Once, if any of these move through
8 the entire process to the point that a county
9 council, county judge, county commission, or city
10 council passes a resolution and says, we want to
11 proceed on this and we've negotiated an agreement
12 that we think is in the interest of Texas Parks &
13 Wildlife, as well as the local entity, we would
14 make a staff recommendation to the commission.
15 And your responsibility, as we see it, would be
16 to approve the conditions of that transfer and to
17 approve the transfer at that time. I don't have
18 one today to submit to you, but that is the
19 process that we're going through and those are
20 the ones that we have currently active.
21 I'd be available for any questions.
22 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: That's not a
23 short list for you to walk through.
24 MR. DABNEY: No, ma'am.
25 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: It's a good
.0008
1 list.
2 MR. DABNEY: Yes.
3 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Is the Jim
4 Hogg Park the one that's got the cabins out in
5 the woods and there's a little museum in one of
6 them?
7 MR. DABNEY: Yes.
8 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Is that which
9 Jim Hogg it is?
10 Well, those look like you have some
11 good candidates, too, on the list. Any questions
12 or comments?
13 CHAIRMAN BASS: Keep pushing.
14 MR. DABNEY: Keep pushing. Okay.
15 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Thank you,
16 Walt.
17 MR. DABNEY: Yes, ma'am.
18 AGENDA ITEM NO. 3: BRIEFING - WETLANDS
19 CONSERVATION AND DUCKS UNLIMITED.
20 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Our next item
21 of business is a briefing and our presenter is
22 Vernon Bevill, and this is Ducks Unlimited
23 briefing.
24 DR. GRAHAM: Madam chairman, I'm
25 Gary Graham, director of the wildlife division.
.0009
1 And it's my privilege to introduce you to Ken
2 Babcock with Ducks Unlimited. And other than
3 the stigma of being from Arkansas, Ken and I have
4 a lot in common. We both graduated with our
5 master's degree from LSU and Ken has worked with
6 the Missouri Department of Conservation for 27
7 years and during part of that time he was chief
8 of the wildlife division. He ultimately became
9 assistant director of that department and since
10 1997 has been director of operations for Ducks
11 Unlimited.
12 About two months after I took this
13 job, I attended a DU ceremony at a North American
14 Wildlife conference meeting and was very
15 impressed with Ducks Unlimited and the
16 conservation activities that they're involved
17 in. And it occurred to me at that time that with
18 respect to the public-private partnership
19 opportunities that are out there, Ducks Unlimited
20 was a winner, and one that we ought to
21 participate even greater within. And that
22 ultimately led to this presentation. So I'm
23 pleased to have Ken Babcock down here to talk
24 about Ducks Unlimited.
25 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Welcome to
.0010
1 you. It's good to have you. Thanks for coming.
2 MR. BABCOCK: Thank you very much.
3 Madam chairman and members of the conservation
4 committee, Director Sansom, ladies and gentlemen,
5 it is a pleasure for me to be here and I bring
6 you greetings from our national headquarters in
7 Memphis, Tennessee, and our newly appointed
8 executive vice-president Don Young, who I know
9 has been in Texas since his appointment and I'm
10 sure will be coming to visit with you folks later
11 on.
12 I sincerely appreciate the
13 opportunity to visit with you today about our
14 mutual goals concerning the protection,
15 restoration, and enhancement of wetlands in
16 Texas.
17 Ducks Unlimited accomplishes all of
18 our work through partnerships. We do nothing
19 alone. And when we put together our list of
20 valued partners, state fish and wildlife
21 agencies, and specifically the Texas Parks &
22 Wildlife Department is among the top of our list,
23 as far as our valued partners.
24 My objective today in terms of the
25 comments that I want to make is, I want to share
.0011
1 with you some of the accomplishments that we have
2 made together. But more importantly, I hope to
3 excite you with the idea that there's probably a
4 lot more that we can do in terms of building on
5 this. I think I can speak for Gary and Vernon
6 and others with the Texas Parks & Wildlife
7 Department when I use the words from the old
8 vaudeville actor Al Jolson, and I say, "You ain't
9 seen nothing yet," to talk about the things that
10 we can do together as we move on down the line.
11 I think generally when people hear
12 Ducks Unlimited their first thought is an image
13 of a group of duck hunters getting together to
14 raise money to send to Canada to protect wetlands
15 in Canada. And certainly that image is
16 justifiable. For most of the first 50 years of
17 our 63-year existence, that's exactly what our
18 core business was. We raised money in the United
19 States and we sent it to Canada. And still today
20 I want to point out, that is a very integral part
21 of what we do in Ducks Unlimited. But during the
22 past two decades, DU has expanded its vision to
23 cover the entire North American continent and we
24 have adopted a slogan recently of "Ducks and
25 More," when we want people to think about Ducks
.0012
1 Unlimited.
2 Ducks Unlimited rose from the dust
3 of the dirty '30s, the dust bowl days, and as
4 stated previously, the organization was formed by
5 U.S. hunters concerned about diminishing
6 waterfowl population from prolonged drought,
7 particularly across the Canadian prairies. The
8 duck factories in Canada had become very dry and
9 the desire was to try to restore those very
10 important production areas. This region was the
11 single purpose focus that Ducks Unlimited had
12 until the mid 1980s when our board of directors
13 established a new mission for us that expanded
14 our views of waterfowl to cover the entire life
15 cycle, to give us an opportunity to take the same
16 vigor that we had put in terms of working on
17 production areas, and apply those to migration
18 and wintering areas.
19 The first step toward development of
20 this U.S. conservation program was the MARSH
21 program. This is a program whereby seven and a
22 half percent of all the money that Ducks
23 Unlimited raises in a particular state comes back
24 to that state to do conservation work. MARSH
25 dollars are matched at least one to one, but more
.0013
1 often, it's three and four to one. I'm going to
2 have a little more to say about MARSH in Texas a
3 little bit later on.
4 One of the other things that I think
5 is important in terms of the development of the
6 U.S. conservation program by Ducks Unlimited was
7 establishment of regional offices. Our first
8 office outside our national headquarters was
9 established in the great plains region in
10 Bismarck, North Dakota, in the mid 1980s. The
11 great plains region is shown in red on this map.
12 This office was -- allowed us to just extend the
13 work we had done on the nesting areas of Canada
14 southward into the north central United States,
15 and deal with the important prairie pothole
16 production areas of that region.
17 The next U.S. office shown in green
18 was established in Sacramento, California, in
19 1987. And that office was the first that
20 actually emphasized wintering areas for
21 waterfowl. It was focused on the highly altered,
22 very, very damaged wetland systems of the
23 California central valley.
24 And many of you all know that that
25 area winters more than 50 percent of all the
.0014
1 ducks and geese and a lot of shore birds and
2 other nongame birds that migrate through the
3 entire Pacific flyway. This office continues to
4 be very, very important working on some very
5 imperiled wetlands out in that area.
6 In 1990 the southern regional
7 office, of which Texas is a part of, was opened
8 in Jackson, Mississippi, and this office was
9 opened specifically with the objective of working
10 with state and federal agencies -- to work with
11 private landowners, primarily, but to also work
12 on public lands to secure migration and wintering
13 habitats in the three eastern flyways, namely the
14 central flyway that Texas is in, the Mississippi
15 flyway, and the Atlantic. Within this southern
16 region in any given year, up to two-thirds of
17 North America's waterfowl either migrate through
18 or winter in this region. So it's extremely
19 important from a continental standpoint.
20 In 1998 the fourth regional office
21 shown in green was opened in Ann Arbor,
22 Michigan. That office serves the most highly
23 populated region, probably, of the United States,
24 highly industrialized, but very important. Some
25 of the more imperiled species of Canada geese are
.0015
1 associated with that area. This is an extremely
2 important production and migration habitat for
3 the Atlantic flyway, and of course most of the
4 continent's black duck population resides in the
5 Atlantic flyway.
6 In addition to the regional offices,
7 DU also maintains an office in Washington, D.C.
8 I don't have to tell you folks that oftentimes a
9 lot of the hard work that we all do in terms of
10 conservation can be impacted positively or
11 negatively at a stroke of a pen with regard to
12 land use policy that guides particularly
13 agriculture issues. And we saw fit several years
14 ago to establish an office and work with other
15 conservation organizations and congressional
16 leaders to try to make sure that land use policy
17 is consistent with DU's mission.
18 And as I said earlier, our corporate
19 headquarters is located in Memphis, Tennessee,
20 and has been there for about ten years.
21 The southern regional office
22 establishes its priorities on the basis of joint
23 venture areas, which are defined by the North
24 American Waterfowl Management Plan. Portions of
25 three of the top five priority regions in the
.0016
1 southern region are located in Texas, and I'm
2 going to have a little bit more to say about that
3 specifically later on.
4 Our flagship project in Texas has
5 been the Texas prairie wetlands project. The
6 partners that are involved in this project
7 include the natural resource conservation
8 service, fish and wildlife service, Ducks
9 Unlimited, and of course the Texas Parks &
10 Wildlife Department. DU and the Texas Department
11 have pooled our financial and our human resources
12 to provide nonfederal match for a series of
13 grants that we have gotten through the North
14 American Wetland Conservation Act that has been
15 the primary financial underpinning for this
16 partnership.
17 The Texas Prairie Wetlands Program
18 is aimed at providing quality wetlands on private
19 lands, in the rice prairies and along coastal
20 marshes. Through this project we provide
21 engineering design for wetland restoration and
22 some funds for levies and water control
23 structures. In turn, the landowners pay any
24 residual costs for the actual development, and
25 they agree to maintain this project for a minimum
.0017
1 of 15 years and provide the water annually at
2 their own expense.
3 The Texas Prairie Wetlands Project
4 includes 28 coastal counties. These of course
5 are some of the most important wetland areas in
6 the state of Texas, and I would add in the entire
7 central flyway. In each of six of these counties
8 shown in green on this map, more than a thousand
9 acres of wetland have been restored through this
10 partnership. And in an additional five counties,
11 accomplishments have included between 500 and a
12 thousand acres. And all of these areas are in
13 very important waterfowl and wetland areas in
14 Texas.
15 A diversity of habitat has been
16 provided through this Texas Prairie Wetlands
17 Project. About one-third of the project acreage
18 involves reflooding of rice fields. I'll have
19 something to say a little later on about our work
20 with agriculture and how we view that. An
21 additional third is managed as moist soil and for
22 natural vegetation that's important for waterfowl
23 and other wetland wildlife. More than 20 percent
24 is maintained in fresh marsh, and the remainder
25 is in either permanent open water or a variety of
.0018
1 other kinds of wetland habitat.
2 In total, the Texas Prairie Wetlands
3 Project has brought nearly 20,000 acres under
4 management. Equally important, it has brought
5 160 Texas landowners into partnership with your
6 department, with Ducks Unlimited, and the other
7 partners in this effort. And in addition to the
8 direct project acreage that's been involved, our
9 staffs, yours and ours collectively, have
10 provided technical assistance regarding wetland
11 management and other things that will enhance
12 lands not necessarily included in this project to
13 another 280,000 acres; this is certainly very,
14 very significant.
15 Another thing is that we have
16 collectively put our staffs together to monitor
17 these projects, to make sure that we continue to
18 give advice to people, to ensure that the return
19 on the dollars that we invest is certainly
20 maximized.
21 By all measures I think we would
22 agree that the Texas Prairie Wetlands Program has
23 helped us move toward our common goals as far as
24 wetland restoration and enhancement in the state
25 of Texas. And the importance of these wetlands
.0019
1 has never been more evident than it was this
2 year, as we have faced the drought. I think that
3 the work on this program has probably helped
4 lessen the blow that this drought is delivering
5 all of us in the wildlife management business.
6 Growth in the program here in Texas
7 is limited only by available funds. And I can
8 tell you that from what we see with our staff and
9 what your staff reports, landowner interest in
10 this region and other parts of Texas is certainly
11 very high.
12 These partnerships with the Texas
13 Parks & Wildlife Department has included publicly
14 owned lands as well. Most of this work has been
15 accomplished through the aforementioned MARSH
16 program. And I would add that "MARSH" is an
17 acronym for "Matching Aid to Restore State
18 Habitat." Very clearly earmarked toward the
19 State. DU has made available about $2 million --
20 actually it's slightly in excess of $2 million --
21 through the MARSH program for conservation work
22 on public lands in Texas. Almost 93,000 acres
23 have been conserved on 44 projects in Texas.
24 DU's funds have been matched three and four to
25 one to accomplish about $10 million worth of
.0020
1 actual work in Texas wetlands. I think we would
2 all agree that this is the kind of stuff that we
3 want to see done. The Peach Point area is a
4 great example of that kind of work. And there
5 are 43 other projects along that line.
6 Historically Ducks Unlimited -- when
7 we assigned our projects and developed our
8 priorities, we did this on a project-by-project
9 basis. And that served us well for a long time.
10 But in more recent times, we have taken a
11 landscape look -- a landscape approach in
12 determining what priority projects we should
13 deliver and consort with our partners. I don't
14 have to tell you folks that most landscapes that
15 include wetlands and that are important to
16 waterfowl and other wetland wildlife, always
17 includes agriculture as a major land-use. It's
18 some of the most productive soil in the continent
19 and it's only natural that agriculture would
20 become a part of that landscape.
21 We at Ducks Unlimited determined a
22 long time ago that we're a lot more successful in
23 terms of achieving our mission if we find ways to
24 work with agriculture instead of working from an
25 adversarial standpoint.
.0021
1 In California we developed a program
2 we called Valley CARE, for the central valley of
3 California, and the Great Plains Prairie CARE.
4 And in the Mississippi alluvial valley, we have
5 an ecosystem project we call River CARE. And in
6 each of these landscape programs, "CARE" is,
7 again, an acronym for "Conserving Agriculture
8 Resources in the Environment." We are absolutely
9 convinced that this is the only way we will
10 succeed in terms of restoring wetlands. We find
11 willing partners among agriculture, and we're
12 certainly going to continue to build on that.
13 As stated earlier, there are three
14 of Ducks Unlimited's five top priority areas
15 located in Texas. We think we can apply this
16 CARE concept to each of these or to all of them
17 collectively, as we move on down the line. The
18 strategy of using an ecosystem approach or using
19 this kind of approach has proven very successful
20 for Ducks Unlimited.
21 In 1998 and '99, our most recent
22 fiscal year that we have completed, we generated
23 about two to two and a half million dollars for
24 conservation work each in Louisiana and
25 Arkansas. This is about twice what we have done
.0022
1 in Texas, in terms of being able to put
2 conservation work on the ground. The difference
3 in the current fiscal year, I would point out, is
4 even greater than that. The River CARE program
5 has proved to be a very good marketing tool for
6 us in the Mississippi alluvial valley. And we're
7 having another really good year in that regard.
8 We at DU believe that the priorities
9 for wetland conservation in Texas is certainly
10 equal to that in Arkansas and Louisiana. It is
11 the most important wintering area for waterfowl
12 and a lot of other migratory birds in the entire
13 central United States. And we stand ready to
14 work with the department to increase our presence
15 in this fine state.
16 Our partnership with Texas and other
17 states includes not only work within the states
18 that I've talked about, but also Ducks
19 Unlimited's core business of working on the
20 Canadian breeding grounds. Through our state
21 grant program, state conservation agencies
22 contribute money to Ducks Unlimited. We, in
23 turn, match those dollars and then we use those
24 dollars to leverage North American Wetland
25 Conservation Act funds that are, by law,
.0023
1 earmarked for expenditure in Canada on wetlands.
2 This was a very important piece of legislation
3 that gave us the opportunity to take U.S. dollars
4 and move them into Canada, and to Mexico, to do
5 good wetland restoration work. If you think
6 about how this money is leveraged, actually by
7 the time a dollar that we get from a state
8 agency, matched by us, then matched again by the
9 North American Wetland Conservation Act, put on
10 the ground in Texas -- or put on the ground in
11 Canada, about every dollar that comes out of the
12 state ends up being increased fivefold by the
13 time it hits the ground in Canada.
14 We set a collective goal about ten
15 years ago of trying to raise $10 million
16 throughout the United States through this
17 program. We have fallen far short. We only do
18 about 2 million a year. But I'm pleased to
19 report that more than half of that comes from the
20 southern regional states and I want to take this
21 opportunity to thank you all for the contribution
22 that Texas has made to that program as well.
23 I'd like to -- maybe conclude my
24 presentation by emphasizing that while DU's
25 priorities relate to wetlands and waterfowl, the
.0024
1 work we accomplish does so much more. Our
2 project benefits other game species, song birds,
3 marsh birds, endangered plants and animals. They
4 also improve water quality, help control floods,
5 and provide a great base for recreation in Texas
6 and in other places. And while we at Ducks
7 Unlimited are pleased with the work we have done
8 in Texas, we're not satisfied. I had an old
9 coach one time that used to tell me, "I'm
10 pleased, but not satisfied." I had to live a
11 long, long time to fully understand what he
12 meant. But we don't think you in Texas are
13 particularly satisfied either.
14 DU currently generates about five to
15 six million dollars of revenue from all sources
16 in Texas, including our events, including grants,
17 corporate contributions, and so on. With your
18 help we think we can increase that to more than
19 $10 million a year, with a significant proportion
20 of that being expended right here in Texas.
21 DU's goals in Texas are to maintain
22 and expand the Texas Wetland Prairie Program. I
23 told you that funds is the only thing that limits
24 our ability to expand that. We want to increase
25 our activity on the coastal marsh areas, which is
.0025
1 a part of that Gulf Coast joint venture, but an
2 area that we haven't given the kind of attention,
3 particularly on private lands, that we would like
4 to give. And we want to expand our presence with
5 staff in the playa lakes and in the piney woods
6 regions, again, two other important focus areas
7 for Ducks Unlimited. We want to replicate what
8 we've done in the Texas Prairie Wetlands
9 Program.
10 I would like to just maybe pause at
11 this moment and introduce Ed Ritter of our Ducks
12 Unlimited staff. Ed is the guy that has worked
13 with your people on the ground here in Texas to
14 deliver the Texas Prairie Wetlands Program. We'd
15 like to replicate Ed and his staff in a couple of
16 other areas, namely the playa lakes and the
17 eastern part of Texas where you have a lot of
18 bottomland hardwood areas.
19 We want to work with you and your
20 staff to develop scientifically-based plans for
21 wetland enhancement in Texas. We can call it
22 Texas CARE or maybe it's Lone Star CARE or some
23 other acronym that helps point out the fact that
24 we want to build on the programs that we have.
25 Again, I want to thank you for your
.0026
1 time and your attention and all that you-all do
2 in a leadership role for the State of Texas. And
3 I can point out that your staff provides
4 leadership roles far beyond your boundaries in
5 working with other states and our organization.
6 And, finally, I want to thank you-all for your
7 support at Ducks Unlimited in helping us achieve
8 our mission. We cannot succeed in the state of
9 Texas without you. And I mean that sincerely.
10 Thank you.
11 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Well, thank
12 you. And welcome to you, Mr. Ritter.
13 Gary, did you want to add anything
14 else?
15 DR. GRAHAM: Well, I'm just looking
16 forward with excitement to these future
17 partnership possibilities and we'll be discussing
18 the possibilities of Texas CARE over the next
19 several four or five months.
20 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: That's a very
21 exciting opportunity. I have -- ever since the
22 wetlands restoration project started at Mad
23 Island marsh, which Ducks Unlimited supports,
24 I've gone down every year to see the progress.
25 And it's just remarkable what you can accomplish
.0027
1 when you put some money and attention on to land
2 that hasn't really had anybody caring for the
3 wetlands. And that's prairie also down there.
4 It's really great to see what you're doing.
5 MR. BABCOCK: Well, we appreciate
6 that. And certainly, again, that's a great
7 example of how collectively we can do so much
8 more than we can try to do alone. And we think
9 there's even greater opportunities at Mad Island,
10 and we're going to be working toward that as
11 well.
12 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: That's good.
13 Any comments or questions from the other members
14 of the committee?
15 Well, we'll look forward to hearing
16 about progress. And thank you again for coming.
17 MR. BABCOCK: Thank you
18 AGENDA ITEM NO. 4: ACTION - LAND
19 ACQUISITION - JACK COUNTY.
20 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Our next
21 order of business is the land acquisition in Jack
22 County. Kathryn Nichols, welcome.
23 MS. NICHOLS: Thank you. Good
24 morning, madam chairman and commissioners. This
25 is a revisiting of an acquisition that y'all
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1 looked at in November at Fort Richardson. It was
2 one of three small additions.
3 The one we're going to revisit today
4 is the red tract you see on the map. When we
5 brought this up in November, we had not had the
6 property appraised yet. And the owners were
7 offering it at $75,000. When the appraisal came
8 in at $35,000, he ended up offering it to his
9 renters, and came back to us -- the only way we
10 were able to outbid those competing offers was to
11 offer $45,000. So we have a revision to the
12 approval that you had in November, which was at
13 appraised value when we didn't know what that
14 number was, to the contract value at $45,000.
15 And this is one of the abutting
16 tracts with some buildings we would like to
17 remove for the protective viewshed at the fort.
18 And the staff recommends that you approve the
19 contract price of $45,000.
20 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: I talked with
21 Mike Herring about this a couple of weeks ago
22 before they prepared the agenda, and he brought
23 me up to date on where they were with this. The
24 appraisal came in substantially lower than what
25 the owner was asking, but so did the size of the
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1 tract of land come in lower than what the owner
2 had thought that he had out there.
3 The buildings are quite unsightly.
4 And you really can -- it really does interfere
5 with one's enjoyment of interpreting the
6 historical area. And so I think this is quite an
7 important tract. But we felt it was important
8 for the members of the Commission to realize that
9 although we had approved the acquisition at
10 appraised value, it was not a deal that we could
11 consummate at the appraised value. And this is
12 such a -- this is such a small amount of money in
13 the overall scheme of what it would do for that
14 park, that I really think it's an important
15 acquisition.
16 And, Kathryn, I congratulate you on
17 being able to get a contract at this price. I
18 know it wasn't easy for you.
19 MR. SANSOM: It's still about half
20 what he was wanting for the property.
21 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Yes, if
22 you'll recall. So Kathryn has done a fine job
23 for us but it just didn't quite come together the
24 way we had hoped it would when we approved it.
25 And so we have it on the agenda for this
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1 committee meeting to revisit to make sure that
2 you know where we are. And then it's on for
3 final action tomorrow on the agenda.
4 MS. NICHOLS: And we also would see
5 it as a possibility for a consent item since
6 you've already approved the acquisition once
7 before.
8 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Very good.
9 Are there any questions or comments?
10 CHAIRMAN BASS: Kathryn, you
11 mentioned that the tenants that he offered it to
12 were willing to pay more than the appraised value
13 also. Do you have any idea of what their top bid
14 was?
15 MS. NICHOLS: $40,000 is what he
16 told me they would do. And, you know, we could
17 have done $40,500 but he just kept insisting
18 on -- that he wasn't going to sign the contract
19 if it wasn't for that dollar figure.
20 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: All right. I
21 think we need a motion to --
22 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I want to make
23 a motion for the consent agenda.
24 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: And for the
25 consent agenda. Thank you.
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1 Second?
2 COMMISSIONER WATSON: Second.
3 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Any further
4 discussion?
5 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Just a
6 question. On matters like this, just for
7 information, will this require our rescinding of
8 previous action and reinstituting or is it just
9 up and down.
10 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: I think it's
11 just a motion that we acquire at this price
12 rather than the original -- the original motion.
13 MR. SANSOM: Basically giving us the
14 authorization to exceed the appraised value.
15 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Yes. And
16 that's how this motion would read, I think.
17 Any further comment or question?
18 All in favor say aye. Those opposed?
19 (Motion passed unanimously.)
20 MS. DINKINS: Motion carries. Thank
21 you. Thank you, Kathryn.
22 That concludes the public portion of
23 our agenda. And the committee, I believe, has an
24 executive session scheduled for later this
25 morning. And so with that, we'll stand in recess
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.0033
1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE
2 STATE OF TEXAS )
3 COUNTY OF TRAVIS )
4
5 I, MELODY RENEE DeYOUNG, a Certified Court
6 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, do hereby
7 certify that the above and foregoing 31 pages
8 constitute a full, true and correct transcript of
9 the minutes of the Texas Parks and Wildlife
10 Commission on JANUARY 19, 2000, in the commission
11 hearing room of the Texas Parks and Wildlife
12 Headquarters Complex, Austin, Travis County,
13 Texas.
14 I FURTHER CERTIFY that a stenographic record
15 was made by me a the time of the public meeting
16 and said stenographic notes were thereafter
17 reduced to computerized transcription under my
18 supervision and control.
19 WITNESS MY HAND this the 18TH day of
20 FEBRUARY, 2000.
21
22
MELODY RENEE DeYOUNG, RPR, CSR NO. 3226
23 Expiration Date: 12-31-00
3101 Bee Caves Road
24 Centre II, Suite 220
Austin, Texas 78746
25 (512) 328-5557
EBS NO. 37595
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