Lone Star Land Steward 2026 Ecoregion Winners Announced

Lone Star Land Steward 2026 Ecoregion Winners Announced

April 1, 2026

Media Contact: TPWD News, Business Hours, 512-389-8030

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AUSTIN - Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is pleased to announce the 2026 Lone Star Land Steward Ecoregion Award winners.

This year's award winners represent a variety of conservation efforts, ecosystems and accomplishments, all demonstrating excellence in natural resource management and stewardship.

The Lone Star Land Steward Award recognizes private landowners in Texas for their exemplary contributions to land, water and wildlife stewardship. With 95 percent of the land in Texas under private ownership, the conservation and stewardship efforts of private landowners are vital to the state.

The following is a list of this year's ecological region award recipients and a summary of their stewardship achievements:

Blackland Prairie - Wisdom-Bennett Farm, Navarro County

The Wisdom-Bennett Farm, owned by Billy and Beth Bennett, is a one-of-a-kind Blackland Prairie classroom that serves as a demonstration and learning site. Reseeding, prescribed fires, brush control efforts and landowner field days over the last 10 years have proven fruitful. Through community engagement with both children and adults, as well as habitat management, the impact of the ranch can be seen beyond its gates.

Billy Bennett's efforts as president of the Western Navarro Bobwhite Recovery Initiative and his daughter's outdoor-centered pre-K have helped not only preserve the rare plant communities of the rapidly developing Blackland Prairie but also build an appreciation among Texans.

Edwards Plateau -Stowers Ranch, Kerr County

The Stowers Ranch, owned by Richard and Josephine Smith, is one of the largest intact, permanently conserved private properties in the Hill Country. The proximity to TPWD's Kerr Wildlife Management Area results in a large, connected landscape and habitat corridor. The property was placed under a conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy in 2007.

The ranch is maintained as an open oak savannah with little cedar growth. The many spring-fed creeks and the North Fork of the Guadalupe River benefit from the deep infiltration of rainwater supported by healthy grassland. The property is managed using prescribed fire, brush work and a rotational grazing system focused on leaving good grass cover and enhancing wildlife habitat as part of its commercial hunting operation.

The ranch also includes historic cultural sites, including a documented Native American encampment from 1782 described in Spanish accounts.

Pineywoods - Rock Creek Ranch, Polk County

Rock Creek Ranch, owned by the Gordy Family, stands out in East Texas. An intensive partnership with Tall Timbers has resulted in heavy thinning of former pine plantations, yearly prescribed fires and intensive quail restoration efforts across much of the property.

Regular prescribed fire and herbicide treatments maintain an open understory and support the diverse native wildlife, as well as hundreds of translocated northern bobwhite quail, that have positively responded to the improved habitat. The ranch uses autonomous recording units, radio-marked quail and regular maintenance activity to inform goals and objectives for property management. A desire to learn from their efforts, document activities and continue to innovate and motivate others drives their goals.

Rolling Plains -Chadbourne Ranch, Coke, Nolan and Runnels Counties

The Chadbourne Ranch, owned by Garland Richards and family, gets its name from Fort Chadbourne, which was built on what would become the ranch premises in 1852. Fort Chadbourne was named after Lt. Theodore Chadbourne, who was killed in 1846 at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma during the Mexican American War.

The ranch has more than 150 years of stewardship history, and the family has restored many of the historic fort buildings. The restoration efforts included building and operating their own museum with artifacts, firearms and accounts of life on the Rolling Plains of Texas.

Water distribution efforts, rotational grazing and brush control along with lease hunting help keep the family busy on the property north of Bronte.

South Texas - Chaparrosa Ranch-Flying B Ranches, Zavala County

The Chaparrosa Ranch, owned by Alberto Bailleres for more than 30 years, was purchased with the intent of keeping a large portion of South Texas open and in production agriculture while supporting a large and diverse wildlife population.

The ranch has a thriving cattle operation, despite a decade's long drought, that has been utilized to fund management efforts to manipulate forage to best support quail, turkey and white-tailed deer habitat. A comprehensive brush control program utilizing mechanical and chemical methods helps maintain brush diversity for wildlife while keeping pastures open to support cattle.

Intensive record keeping has resulted in a data set of over 30,000 harvested white-tailed deer showing changes over time with management and the effects of range conditions to help inform decision making in the hunting operation. The installation of 13 new water wells in the last 10 years, along with dozens of miles of water line, ensures that the ranch keeps wildlife and livestock well distributed to avoid range or habitat overuse.

The ranch donates thousands of pounds of venison to the local community, hosts the South Texas Buckskin Brigades camp for Texas youth, serves as a research site for numerous university projects and continues collaboration for the advancement of wildlife research and knowledge.

Wildlife Management Co-op - Fayette Prairie Chapter of Native Prairies Association of Texas

In 2020, a small group of constituents south of La Grange set out to raise awareness about the disappearing prairie landscape in a rapidly fragmenting portion of the state. In less than six years, the Fayette Prairie Chapter of the Native Prairies Association has grown to 325 members across Austin, Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Gonzales, Lavaca, Lee and Washington counties. They have raised over $300,000 in support of prairie conservation, preservation and habitat management work.

Members participate in workdays at Elder Prairie, a more than 200-acre prairie remnant in Washington County. This allows individuals the opportunity to learn and appreciate the natural landscape in their area.

In 2025, the chapter hosted 10 outdoor workshops focused on soil health, birding, invasive species control, native seed propagation, tours of restored properties and plant identification. They also hosted two classroom seminars with over 185 participants and 10 webinars with topics about climate impacts in the local area, water impacts for an urbanizing state, restoration techniques and estate planning for the conservationist.

Through fundraising efforts, the chapter has also created a Small Acreage Restoration Program to fund work on properties that may not qualify for restoration programs with minimum acreage requirements hosted by state or federal agencies. They conducted 33 site visits and enrolled seven properties for assistance with restoration. In addition, the chapter has partnered with TPWD and committed funding toward prairie restoration in support of TPWD's Pastures for Upland Birds Program and monarch conservation over the next two years.

Community outreach has focused on a regular newsletter with a distribution to more than 475 individuals, plant grow-outs for native landscaping and restoration and collaboration with the local prescribed fire association for management of restored and remnant grasslands. Members have presented at numerous regional conferences discussing their organization and efforts at a local, landowner-driven level.

The awards are presented by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as part of the Lone Star Land Steward Awards program, which is supported by TPWD's official nonprofit partner Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. Funding is provided by generous donors across the state, with major underwriting provided by Lee and Ramona Bass, Toyota, ConocoPhillips and The Wagley Ranch.

Learn more about the Lone Star Land Stewards program and private lands stewardship on the TPWD Private Lands and Habitat Program website.