Walking the Talk

Heart of Texas Conservancy is proud to welcome landowner Michelle Pokorny to our family of land conservationists.  As with all our landowners, we appreciate the confidence and trust in our team at Heart of Texas Conservancy. Rio Lupe is our first conservation easement under the guidance of the Prop A Bond issue approved by 67% of Kendall County residents in 2022. 

Michelle Pokorny’s deep connection to Texas stems from childhood days spent at her family’s South Texas ranch and in the hills surrounding the Guadalupe River. In 2019, she returned to San Antonio and the Hill Country.    It was during her search for land that she began to realize the Hill Country of her childhood was being “gobbled up and broken up”.  The rapid sprawl was a call to action.  Michelle joined and now leads the Hill Country Alliance, an organization dedicated to protecting the region’s lands and waters.

In 2020 Michelle found the open prairie, terraced cropland, and live water of Rio Lupe.   Her home, completed in 2023, blends into the view-scape overlooking the Guadalupe River valley. “I feel as though I am on a permanent vacation,” she quipped, “it’s the quiet and isolation from a busy world that I needed.”

Michelle’s world remains busy as she adds an additional 219 acres to 158 acres of the original purchase.  Her stewardship plan balances agricultural land with enhanced habitat.

“We are in a migratory path and currently are seeding the prairie with a variety of native grasses from the Native American Seed Company”, she explained.

Along the half mile of Guadalupe River frontage, great care is taken to encourage natural riparian growth on the riverbanks and to enhance water quality.  Following the devastation of the July 4^th flood, there is a conscious effort to protect the integrity of the banks as well as the ecological functions during the repair of the stairway to the river.

Rio Lupe is under agricultural exemption, but what about future protection from residential or commercial development?  Stewardship is a long-term strategy, a labor of love.  So, when Michelle heard about the Kendall County Prop A program to use county bond monies to encourage open spaces with conservation easements, she figured “why wouldn’t I do this now?”.

Working with the Heart of Texas Conservancy, Michelle has placed one conservation easement on the property with another to come on the newly purchased property.  “It’s a no brainer for me,” she continued, “yes, there are financial benefits with some tax relief.  But the intent is to ensure the property is never developed.”

Placing land in a conservation easement is in effect a gift donation of the development value of the land to future generations while maintaining ownership and enjoyment of the land for the family.  In the event of a sale, the conservation easement remains with the land and is monitored in perpetuity by the Conservancy.

As Michelle pointed out, understanding conservation easements is “a great learning opportunity” working with experts in the field.  At the heart, the meaningful value is protecting the land, water, and wildlife for the present and the future.

DONATE NOW