Winter 2016

“It’s our job to leave the land
better than we found it.”
Situated on the northern border of the Devil’s River State
Natural Area, the almost 7,700-acre ranch contains both
Sycamore Springs and three miles of Devil’s River frontage.
Together, the properties create a land holding that is large
enough to be ecologically significant.
“The Devil’s River is too perfect to leave its fate to chance,”
said Ruthie, who was the initial driving force behind the
conservation easement on the Sycamore Springs Ranch.
“The conservation easement formalized our commitment to
keeping the river and the land pristine and wild. My sons, who
now own the ranch, share my pride in our stewardship. There
are few things better than conserving unique, important land
for the future.”
Ruthie chose to enact a conservation easement because of
the growing pressure of land fragmentation, which is hitting
the Trans-Pecos particularly hard. According to the Texas
A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, the region
lost a total of 10 percent of its farms and ranches greater than
2,000 acres between 1997 and 2007.
“Although this region is considered to
be remote, it is not immune to the march
of subdivisions and ranchettes,” Ruthie
said. “Ranchettes make it difficult to
conserve land on the scale necessary
to keep habitat intact and ecological
systems functioning. My ultimate goal
was to pass the ranch along to the boys
intact, so it would continue to make an
ecological difference.”
The ranch lies at the juncture of the
Tamaulipan, Balconian and Chihuahuan
desert ecoregions, meaning that the
plant community is diverse, changing
from canyon to canyon, and ranging from
giant live oaks and pecan trees to desert
cactus and ocotillos. The diverse habitat,
combined with the phenomenon of water
in the desert, attracts abundant wildlife
including white-tailed deer, Rio Grande
turkey, javelina, scaled quail, waterfowl
and white-wing and mourning doves as
CASE STUDY 1:
SYCAMORE SPRINGS RANCH
well rare species such black-capped vireos, golden eagles,
peregrine falcons and the Devil’s River minnow.
“The water here is turquoise and crystal clear,” Ruthie
said. “As my sister said when she saw it for the first time,
‘It looks just like the Mediterranean.’ Water in the desert
is rare and special under any circumstances, but this is
spectacular.” In addition to Sycamore Springs, the ranch is
home to three additional springs, each has its own unique
character, she said.
“My family believes in the importance of productive, open
space land for both agriculture and the environment,” Ruthie
said. “It’s a lesson that we learned from my grandparents who
began acquiring our family land in the 1930s. My grandmother
always said, ‘It’s our job to leave the land better than we found
it.’ And then she’d take us out adventuring to see the splendor
of nature first-hand.”
To that end, the family has worked with recognized
naturalist David Bamberger to increase the number of rare
Texas snowbells on the ranch and have created a partnership
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