ABOUT US
The Heart of Texas Conservancy, originally founded as the Cibolo Conservancy, serves as a land trust helping Hill Country landowners preserve, protect and conserve the natural beauty and value of their land.
We have been helping Hill Country landowners design their own legacies for over twenty-seven years. We currently hold 37 easements on over 20 square miles of private land, totaling 14,443 acres in Kendall, Bandera, Comal, Real, Uvalde, Hays, and Gillespie Counties.
We are focused on securing funding for conservation, supporting regional resilience strategies, and promoting sensible natural resource protections. ​​
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to conserve the cultural and natural resources of Texas for generations to come.
OUR VISION
We envision a future where the natural beauty and resources of the Texas Hill Country are protected and stewarded for the benefit of current and future generations.
OUR WORK
We support landowners seeking to protect their land through conservation agreements and promote conservation solutions to regional decision makers.
OUR HISTORY
The Cibolo Conservancy was founded in 1989 by passionate members of the Cibolo Nature Center who endeavored to create a separate non-profit to serve as a land trust for landowners seeking to permanently conserve their land. Art Wilson and Bill Kennon were two trailblazers who boldly took the first steps of placing their historic family land into easements.
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In 2000, Brent Evans stepped up to lead the organization in a volunteer capacity. During his tenure, he successfully established 34 conservation easements and stewarded the passage of 2 Kendall County bonds to create parks and conserve open space. ​
The first county bond was passed by voters in 2004 and provided $5 Million that was used to purchase Joshua Springs Park, James Kiehl Park and Kreutzberg Canyon Natural Area.
​In 2019, the Conservancy led an exciting initiative to protect water resource land culminating in a $20 Million bond on the November ballot in 2022 "for acquiring open space and conservation land and acquiring conservation easements on land for any authorized purposes, including to ensure its availability for recreational or open-space use or to protect wildlife habitat and the water quality of creeks, rivers and springs." ​
In 2024, the Conservancy celebrated Brent Evans receiving The Heart the Hill Country Award for his remarkable contributions to conservation and the proclamation of "Brent Evans Day" in Kendall County. As Brent retired, the Conservancy recruited Ben Eldredge to serve as the Executive Director, bringing his extensive experience in conservation and stewardship to lead us into an exciting future!​
In 2025, we saw that our name should reflect the regional dimension of our work, hence the name change to the "Heart of Texas Conservancy" because our heart has been in this work all along, and we know how much heart is involved in land ownership in Texas.