Texas Conservation Science (TCS) provides science-based environmental and ecological consulting and implementation for land-water conservation, including management, restoration, monitoring, and regulatory activities. TCS focuses on baseline and impact analyses to sustain land and water resources, rare and endangered species, natural areas, and local communities throughout Texas and beyond.
Conservation of native biodiversity and critical ecosystem services is integral to all TCS conservation and outreach programs.
With the diverse skill set provided by the in-house staff and our technical collaborators, TCS offers a wide range of services. We are ready to tackle a variety of environmental and ecological assessment and implementation tasks, including special projects. The following list of services provides examples of the scope of our work.
Animal and Plant Inventories: Monitoring and adaptive management plans and implementation.
Best Management Practices (BMPs): Assistance with designing and implementing BMPs during construction and other land-use change.
Carbon-Offsets Protocols: Provide support for the development, implementation, and monitoring of protocols to certify market-based carbon credits based on the Climate Action Reserve and other certification programs.
Conservation Easements: Facilitate agreements between landowners and easement holders to protect natural resources and related benefits. Conduct related monitoring activities.
Conservation Plans: Produce comprehensive overviews documenting significant conservation elements for watersheds, aquifer zones, urban forests, and other land-water ecosystems. Assess viability and threats relative to each conservation element, including rare species, sensitive habitats, and other biotic communities. Develop goals and strategies for their stewardship. Assist in the development and implementation of management plans for significant landscapes and conservation areas.
Ecological and Environmental Baseline and Impact Analyses: Plan and conduct a wide range of baseline and impact analyses related to land and water resources, including jurisdictional wetlands, endangered species, water rights, and related mitigation.
Environmental-Flows Analyses: Quantify flow regimes to sustain and restore floodplain habitats, riparian forests, in-stream resources, and downstream wetlands.
Environmental Forestry: Forest and woodland restoration, timber management, and urban forest stewardship.
GIS and Remote-Sensing Analyses: Local and regional conservation planning, and habitat and land-use mapping.
Golden-Cheeked Warbler Conservation: The Golden-Cheeked Warbler (GCWA) is a federal- and state-listed endangered species that influences habitat and watershed stewardship throughout its breeding range, which encompasses the Edwards/Trinity Aquifer region of the Texas Hill Country. ECA undertakes GIS-based range-wide analyses of GCWA habitat trends, including habitat model updates, aerial monitoring, and incorporation of occupancy data.
Habitat Assessment and Trend Analyses: Endangered and rare species, karst features, biotic communities, landscapes.
Habitat Restoration: Plan and implement management practices that maximize wildlife habitat and shelter to increase diversity and productivity. Ongoing projects include vegetation establishment and monitoring, and water management. Protect habitat for species of concern, including control of vegetation and animals. Targets of control activities may include imported fire ants, invasive plants, and feral hogs.
Land-Use and Infrastructure Development: Review specific projects (e.g., wastewater discharge applications, proposed highway extensions, land development proposals, etc.). Recommend measures for avoiding or mitigating impacts to important natural resources, aesthetics, and other landscape features. Develop strategic plans and databases, to address compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act and applicable state and local regulations during development and other land-use activities, including aquifer pumping and surface-water diversions.
Low-Impact Development: Planning and implementation support for sustainable development, low energy and water consumption, renewable energy, gray water, composting, xeriscaping, best management practices.
Photography, Professional Artistic: Help display and present your natural area with images.
Photography, Technical: Aerial reconnaissance, permanent photo points, infrared and multispectral image acquisition, remote-camera monitoring, and interpretation.
Vegetation Inventory and Monitoring: Determine dominant vegetation types and species, and establish adaptive management to sustain and increase native plant populations, and control invasive plant species.
Water Quantity and Quality: Provide technical basis for public and private decisions that maintain spring flows from the Edwards and Trinity formations in Central Texas, including downstream stream and river flows to the Gulf of Mexico estuaries. Develop and distribute databases and supporting materials to sustain the water quality and quantity, and promote water conservation.
Watershed Management: Augment the scope of watershed projects, including microclimate, groundwater, and soil-moisture monitoring, as well as environmental-flows analyses. Collaborative efforts recruit and support new regional and statewide alliances, citizen-science networks, and other private-public partnerships, for the sustainable management of aquifers, watersheds, and associated ecosystems.
Website Design: One-on-one design and implementation, web interactive mapping, ongoing support.
Wetland Determination: USACE Section 404 and 10 on-site assessments, permitting, and mitigation.
Wildlife Census: Conduct regular census of wildlife populations to determine population diversity and density.
Wildlife Management Agricultural Valuations: Develop plans and implement management practices to sustain native wildlife and meet county tax appraisal district requirements for associated property-tax benefits that will either replace or compliment current agricultural operations on a property. This helps landowners maintain lower cost of land while relieving the burden from crops and livestock.
Website Design: One-on-one design and implementation, web interactive mapping, ongoing support.
Wetland Determination: USACE Section 404 and 10 on-site assessments, permitting, and mitigation.
Wildlife Census: Conduct regular census of wildlife populations to determine population diversity and density.
Wildlife Management Agricultural Valuations: Develop plans and implement management practices to sustain native wildlife and meet county tax appraisal district requirements for associated property-tax benefits that complement current agricultural operations on a property. This helps landowners maintain lower operational costs.
Conservation of native biodiversity and critical ecosystem services is integral to all TCS conservation and outreach programs.
With the diverse skill set provided by the in-house staff and our technical collaborators, TCS offers a wide range of services. We are ready to tackle a variety of environmental and ecological assessment and implementation tasks, including special projects. The following list of services provides examples of the scope of our work.
Animal and Plant Inventories: Monitoring and adaptive management plans and implementation.
Best Management Practices (BMPs): Assistance with designing and implementing BMPs during construction and other land-use change.
Carbon-Offsets Protocols: Provide support for the development, implementation, and monitoring of protocols to certify market-based carbon credits based on the Climate Action Reserve and other certification programs.
Conservation Easements: Facilitate agreements between landowners and easement holders to protect natural resources and related benefits. Conduct related monitoring activities.
Conservation Plans: Produce comprehensive overviews documenting significant conservation elements for watersheds, aquifer zones, urban forests, and other land-water ecosystems. Assess viability and threats relative to each conservation element, including rare species, sensitive habitats, and other biotic communities. Develop goals and strategies for their stewardship. Assist in the development and implementation of management plans for significant landscapes and conservation areas.
Ecological and Environmental Baseline and Impact Analyses: Plan and conduct a wide range of baseline and impact analyses related to land and water resources, including jurisdictional wetlands, endangered species, water rights, and related mitigation.
Environmental-Flows Analyses: Quantify flow regimes to sustain and restore floodplain habitats, riparian forests, in-stream resources, and downstream wetlands.
Environmental Forestry: Forest and woodland restoration, timber management, and urban forest stewardship.
GIS and Remote-Sensing Analyses: Local and regional conservation planning, and habitat and land-use mapping.
Golden-Cheeked Warbler Conservation: The Golden-Cheeked Warbler (GCWA) is a federal- and state-listed endangered species that influences habitat and watershed stewardship throughout its breeding range, which encompasses the Edwards/Trinity Aquifer region of the Texas Hill Country. ECA undertakes GIS-based range-wide analyses of GCWA habitat trends, including habitat model updates, aerial monitoring, and incorporation of occupancy data.
Habitat Assessment and Trend Analyses: Endangered and rare species, karst features, biotic communities, landscapes.
Habitat Restoration: Plan and implement management practices that maximize wildlife habitat and shelter to increase diversity and productivity. Ongoing projects include vegetation establishment and monitoring, and water management. Protect habitat for species of concern, including control of vegetation and animals. Targets of control activities may include imported fire ants, invasive plants, and feral hogs.
Land-Use and Infrastructure Development: Review specific projects (e.g., wastewater discharge applications, proposed highway extensions, land development proposals, etc.). Recommend measures for avoiding or mitigating impacts to important natural resources, aesthetics, and other landscape features. Develop strategic plans and databases, to address compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act and applicable state and local regulations during development and other land-use activities, including aquifer pumping and surface-water diversions.
Low-Impact Development: Planning and implementation support for sustainable development, low energy and water consumption, renewable energy, gray water, composting, xeriscaping, best management practices.
Photography, Professional Artistic: Help display and present your natural area with images.
Photography, Technical: Aerial reconnaissance, permanent photo points, infrared and multispectral image acquisition, remote-camera monitoring, and interpretation.
Vegetation Inventory and Monitoring: Determine dominant vegetation types and species, and establish adaptive management to sustain and increase native plant populations, and control invasive plant species.
Water Quantity and Quality: Provide technical basis for public and private decisions that maintain spring flows from the Edwards and Trinity formations in Central Texas, including downstream stream and river flows to the Gulf of Mexico estuaries. Develop and distribute databases and supporting materials to sustain the water quality and quantity, and promote water conservation.
Watershed Management: Augment the scope of watershed projects, including microclimate, groundwater, and soil-moisture monitoring, as well as environmental-flows analyses. Collaborative efforts recruit and support new regional and statewide alliances, citizen-science networks, and other private-public partnerships, for the sustainable management of aquifers, watersheds, and associated ecosystems.
Website Design: One-on-one design and implementation, web interactive mapping, ongoing support.
Wetland Determination: USACE Section 404 and 10 on-site assessments, permitting, and mitigation.
Wildlife Census: Conduct regular census of wildlife populations to determine population diversity and density.
Wildlife Management Agricultural Valuations: Develop plans and implement management practices to sustain native wildlife and meet county tax appraisal district requirements for associated property-tax benefits that will either replace or compliment current agricultural operations on a property. This helps landowners maintain lower cost of land while relieving the burden from crops and livestock.
Website Design: One-on-one design and implementation, web interactive mapping, ongoing support.
Wetland Determination: USACE Section 404 and 10 on-site assessments, permitting, and mitigation.
Wildlife Census: Conduct regular census of wildlife populations to determine population diversity and density.
Wildlife Management Agricultural Valuations: Develop plans and implement management practices to sustain native wildlife and meet county tax appraisal district requirements for associated property-tax benefits that complement current agricultural operations on a property. This helps landowners maintain lower operational costs.
