Heritage Lost
Fri., Oct. 13, 1995
Given his employment history, one would expect Sansom to save the Heritage
Program. After all, he came to TPWD from The Nature Conservancy of Texas
(TNCT), an environmental group that buys and protects land containing rare and
threatened species. The Heritage program was created by TNCT in the early
1980s, shortly before Sansom left it to join TPWD. A few months after taking
over the helm of TPWD in 1990, Sansom told the Austin American-Statesman
that he wanted to help protect non-game species. So, he created the Texas
Conservation Passport, a $25 card which allows the owner unlimited access to
state parks for one year. "Over the years, the Sierra Club comes in and says,
`We need more conservation
for endangered species,'" Sansom told political
writer Dave McNeely in February of 1991. With the passport program, Sansom
said, "Our intent here is to give that non-hunter the opportunity to help
defray the costs."
But the political winds are blowing against endangered species, and by dumping the Heritage Program, Samson may have decided to bow to prevailing forces. Sansom did not return repeated calls from the Chronicle.
As reported previously in this column, this program has been on the chopping block for some time. And TPWD has been actively discouraging its endangered species scientists from doing anything controversial. The agency recently took disciplinary action against Andy Price, their most knowledgeable biologist on Central Texas salamanders, for working on a report which listed threats to the region's salamander population.
In late August, Dean Keddy-Hector, a Heritage program zoologist, wrote a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) director Mollie Beattie, contending that TPWD had violated the Endangered Species Act on a number of occasions. "There has been an internal conspiracy to cover up the impacts of potentially destructive activities," said Keddy-Hector, "which threaten the continued existence of species such as the San Marcos Wildrice, Fountain Darter, Black-Capped Vireo, and Golden-Cheeked warbler and other endangered and threatened species." Although Keddy-Hector is still working within TWPD, his future is said to be uncertain.
Over the past few weeks, TPWD has given conflicting stories about the future of the Heritage Program. Indications only a short time ago were that the program had a future and that officials were reorganizing the placement of scientists. Last month, Larry McKinney, the head of TPWD's resource protection branch, said, "We are moving a number of people into the field." The plan was that one Heritage Program scientist would go to west Texas, two others would go to Bryan-College Station, and other staff would go to various other locations around the state. McKinney said the move would make the Heritage Program more effective.
Property rights advocates, including State Representative Bob Turner (D-Voss), have been pushing hard for the dissolution of the program. On September 18, Turner sent a letter to Governor George W. Bush criticizing the cooperative agreement between TPWD and FWS which allows information from the Heritage Program to be shared with FWS. On September 26, Sansom wrote to Turner, assuring him that the cooperative agreement expires at the end of the year and that "the Heritage Program has been dissolved so it will no longer be a factor."
Turner, along with Rep. Susan Combs (R-Austin) was one of the leading proponents of a property rights bill passed by the Texas Legislature earlier this year. He and Combs also passed a bill which prohibits TPWD scientists from gathering any endangered species information from private lands without written permission from landowners. The law also limits the agency's ability to enter endangered species data into the Heritage Program's database or any other publicly accessible database.
Publicly, Nature Conservancy officials are making cautious statements about the demise of Texas' Heritage Program, one of several the group created in 40 other states. "We are concerned about it and are watching it very closely," said Robert Potts, the acting state director of TNCT. "We prefer that it stay the way it is. We have been assured by TPWD that the Heritage Program won't exist as such, but that a lot of the functions that Heritage performed will not be lost."
Over the last fiscal year, TPWD took in $3.08 million from the Conservation Passport program, which Sansom said would help support non-game programs. Now, under his leadership, TPWD is killing the Heritage Program, even though it accounts for just $390,000 of the agency's $149 million budget.
"Endangered species are now going extinct 400 times faster than at any other time in recorded history and yet, Parks and Wildlife is dismantling the very tools we need to address that problem," said Scott Royder of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club. "Now we have no state agency involved in protecting our natural resources." n SALAMANDER REPORTS: TO LIST OR NOT? Five independent scientists have finished their reports on the Barton Springs Salamander and the Jollyville Plateau Salamander. And while the individual reports differ on some of the fine points about the rare animal, the summary of their reports says that "threats to salamander viability in Travis County, Texas, are both real and growing."
The scientists' study was paid for by the City of Austin. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department provided the personnel who compiled the report. And although the scientists' work was not supposed to support or oppose the addition of the Barton Springs Salamander to the Endangered Species List (ESL), many of the points in their seven-page list of recommendations agree with things local scientists and environmentalists have been saying for years. The recommendations include: "Establish long-term conservation plans and policies to insure that no intolerable deterioration of water quality occurs in the Barton Creek and Bull Creek watersheds," and "Restrict development in critical areas in the watersheds until data clearly show that continued development will have no further negative effect on water quality."
As for the listing of the salamander, the water is muddier than ever. Jana Grote, the acting field supervisor of the local office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), said the agency is trying to determine whether the Congressional moratorium on listing new endangered species is still in place. "The last moratorium expired on September 30," said Grote. "There may be a moratorium in place. I'm seeking clarification on what the status is."
The salamander has been in bureaucratic limbo since 1992, when UT zoologist Mark Kirkpatrick and geologist Barbara Mahler petitioned FWS to add the salamander to the ESL. n AND WHAT ABOUT THE CONSERVANCY? The only environmental group that could have mounted an effective fight to save the Heritage Program was The Nature Conservancy of Texas (TNCT). But the group has been largely toothless in recent months. The reason may be attributable to the pending departure of Director David Braun. The official explanation for Braun's departure was that "he was tired." The man who presided over the initial phase of the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan will leave the post effective October 20. TNCT spokesperson Terri Bronocco said that Braun "worked very hard and very long and he decided he wanted to see what else is out there."
But sources close to the situation offer a different explanation. "Nobody got along with him," said the source. "He was running people off at a high rate." The group, which employs 50 people, may be the most influential environmental group in Texas. But it has been hampered lately by a lack of leadership. A lawyer by training, Braun has headed the group since 1988. No word on when a successor will be appointed. n
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