Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Roxanne and Elvis Hernandez live in Bastrop County and turned their 53 acre Rancho ZunZun into a thriving wildlife habitat with enhanced Houston Toad protection.

10-Roxanne and Elvis, they are so passionate about their land stewardship ont heir property for all wildlife species–not just the Houston Toad.

Their hard work earned them a Lone Star Land Steward Regional award for the Lost Pines ecosystem. Wildlife biologist, Meredith Longoria, provides the couple with technical assistance.

15-They have taken leaps and bounds since they started through the landowner Incentive Program, including: native grass plating, and pine reforestation, and prescribed burning. They’ve utilized just about every tool they’ve learned about on their property.

The Lone Star Land Steward awards honor landowners who preserve our natural heritage. The Hernandez’s bought their land in 2004, and began restoration work.

25– We planted 35-hundred trees the year right before the drought. Here, this whole area was filled with cedars–you couldn’t even walk through here–and we had that removed and cleared, and did the prescribed burn back in 2012. Yeah, you can still see all the burn scars on the trees. For our wildlife management, we provide supplemental shelter, which are the brush piles; we have five nest boxes, which are frequented by bluebirds. We have a bat box.

They said they’ve seen all wildlife populations on the ranch flourish. Learn more about the Lone Star Land Steward Program on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.