File photo
File photo
A Wharton County ranch will preserve as many as 5,000 acres of elm, green ash, hickory, oak and pecan trees for at least 10 years in a deal with a nonprofit group.
Texas Coastal Exchange will pay Pierce Ranch using a $100,000 donation from Spring Waste Services, a Houston industrial waste management company for the oil industry, mySA reported. The nonprofit manages the preservation of natural ecosystems on local property owners’ land by paying them.
“It is difficult to generate cash flow from stewardship alone,” Laurance Armour, general manager of the Pierce Ranch, told mySA. “(This could) represent a turning point for Texas landowners committed to stewardship and maintaining working ranches.”
Pierce Ranch will be able to preserve between 2,500 and 5,00 acres of land, which will equate to 3,750 tons of carbon dioxide storage. Climate change effects are reduced as trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Each ton of stored carbon dioxide is worth $20 in Texas Coastal Exchange’s calculations.
The nonprofit wants to create a way for landowners to afford to save these ecosystems, said Jim Blackburn, the group’s president and a professor of environmental law at Rice University.
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