Do you love Texas? ‘Cause we sure do!

Texas Land Conservancy works in every region across the state to protect the land, water, and wildlife that make Texas so special. We protect pineywoods in east Texas and Chihuahuan desert in the Trans-Pecos. We even travel down to Port Isabel to protect mangroves. However, our physical office is in Austin, so we participate in Amplify Austin, the city's community giving day.

Amplify Austin is not just for the Austin community. When you give to Texas Land Conservancy, you are supporting the entire community of Texans with your gift.

This year, we have a 100 Donor Challenge: if we collect 100 donations between now and March 2nd, our generous board of directors will match those donations with an additional $2,500!

If this challenge isn’t motivation enough, below we’ve listed 7 reasons we love this beautiful state and we hope you will join us in showing it some love over the next week.

Texas Water

Whether you like throwing the ball for your furry friends at “Barking” Springs, watching the fireworks from your paddle board on Lady Bird Lake, fishing the gulf coast, or floating down the Frio River with a beer and your closest friends, Texas offers plenty of options for getting your feet wet.

But demand for water is also the greatest conservation challenge facing Texas right now.

There are solutions! One of the most successful methods for conserving water is protecting land from being fragmented and developed. It’s true! Healthy land helps maintain our precious quantity and quality of water. So supporting TLC means protecting your favorite swimming holes AND your drinking water.

Texas Wildlife

From our Golden-cheeked warbler hopping through tree branches, to our Guadalupe bass swimming through streams, to our beloved mascot, the Texas Horned Lizard bathing in the warm Texas sun, we love our Texas wildlife.

Cities are expanding at alarming rates and stretching beyond their original borders, encroaching on the homes of our animal friends, threatening serious disruption and loss of species.

However, you can make a difference! A great way to protect Texas wildlife is to protect their homes. Animals rely on entire ecosystems to survive, from shelter, to food, to climate. By teaming up with TLC, you can be the voice for the little critters that can’t speak for themselves.

Texas Views

It’s hard to explain with words the power of a spectacular view. If you’ve hiked the trails in Big Bend National Park, driven the Davis Mountains Scenic Loops, or even climbed up the 99 steps to Mount Bonnell, then you know a beautiful view when you see it.

Because over 95% of land in Texas is privately owned, it can be hard to protect views from billboards and high rise condos.

But you can help! Having large stretches of connected land protected from fragmentation and development helps sustain the homes for plants and wildlife AND protect scenic views. This means we need to partner with private landowners to make sure their properties are protected. By giving to TLC, we can tell more stories like the one from the Hill Country, where four families encouraged each other to conserve their individual properties with TLC, and now we have thousands of acres of land protected, with one incredible view!

Texas Wildflowers

Texas wildflowers are one our greatest showstoppers. All across the state we’re blessed with blankets of color in the spring and a bounty of vibrant accents and wonderful fragrance dotting the landscape the rest of the year. Wildflowers are not only great to observe but an essential resource for our beloved pollinators like the Monarch butterfly that passes through Texas twice a year.

Development and disturbed soils are a hotbed for invasive plant species that often out compete our native wildflowers.

Join us in keeping our wildflowers wild! Our work to protect large contiguous tracts of land from development will help keep our wildflowers alive and well for all to enjoy and help maintain those beautiful back road wildflower views.

Texas Night Skies

If you live in an urban or suburban environment, you may not get to see many stars beyond the popular Big Dipper, Orion’s Belt, or the North Star. But when you get a chance to get out to a state park in the Hill Country, camp out on a ranch a few miles from city, or make your way to the Davis Mountains or Big Bend during a new moon, you will have a completely different experience. You can see a complete blanket of stars.

Dark skies are a diminishing and invaluable resource that are impacted by light pollution from cities and major oil and gas operations. All kinds of wildlife and even humans naturally depend on a normal day-night cycle that can be disrupted by continuous illumination. Light pollution even affects migration patterns of animals like birds and butterflies.

But guess what! You can help! Land conservation is a big part of preventing sprawling development that introduces light pollution. By joining TLC, you will be helping protect the galaxy… or at least our view of it anyway.

Texas Recreation

Whether you’re a hiker, climber, camper, paddler, or bicyclist you appreciate getting outside and playing in nature. And we’ve got some pretty cool spots here in Texas!

But what happens when your favorite swimming hole is too polluted to even dip your toes into, your favorite river is no longer deep enough to float down, or your favorite trail is now a subdivision?

Those things do happen, but you can be a part of the solution! TLC has some pretty great protected preserves that are open for visiting–Oak Cliff Nature Preserve is a natural wonderland tucked away in the southern part of Dallas and a favorite location for the mountain biking community; Ivy Payne Preserve is a great place to enjoy East Texas flora and fauna, especially during our Weekend at Ivy’s camping trip each spring; and Los Rincones provides hunting access to Texas through Texas Parks and Wildlife’s public hunting program. Join TLC and you’ll be part of a community that not only appreciates playing outside, but works to protect our ability to do so.

Texas Pollinators

You gotta love those pollinators that are busy year-round, helping with the reproduction of our trees, flowers, and crops! Bumblebees, other wild bees, and insects like butterflies, wasps, and flies all provide important pollination services. Over a third of the food that we eat depends on these pollinating insects, and we love them for it!

Unfortunately since the late 1990s, reports have shown unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies.

It’s a problem, but you can help! One of the largest threats to bees is the lack of habitat due to urban sprawl. But you can join the effort to save our pollinator friends! TLC, along with our great Texas landowners, helps protect land with nectar-rich plants! The results are beautiful!

Texas is big. Some parts are windy and dusty, others are still and humid. We’ve got prairies, but also forests of pine, bald cypress, or crooked live oak and pecans. There’s the warm coast, but also cold mountains or hot brushy hills. Some parts are a desert; others receive more rain than the North West. This state is truly special, and our natural heritage is a huge part of that.

Texas is rapidly growing, and it’s not just development that impacts our natural places. A changing climate has a significant impact on our coast, as well as on our rivers, wildlife, and landscapes.

We need to act now! Protecting land means protecting everything that depends on that land.

7 Reasons to Show Your Love for Texas