The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has acquired 2,850 acres in Stephens County that will become the Robbie Davis Wildlife Management Area, the agency announced in an Aug. 5 news release. The Aug. 3 acquisition caps more than a decade of partnership between TPWD and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
The new WMA sits in the western Cross Timbers ecoregion and will be operated as part of the Cross Timbers and Prairies Ecosystem Management Project within TPWD’s Wildlife Division, according to the release. The property features post oak and live oak forests, ponds and seasonal wet-weather drainages, and rocky sandstone hillsides and bluffs, and the agency said the acquisition will ensure long-term conservation of the habitats and wildlife on the land.
The department also emphasized what the property means for hunters in a state dominated by private land. The new WMA will operate as a public hunting site, offering walk-in style dove hunting and drawn hunts for deer, turkey and possibly waterfowl in a region where relatively little public hunting land currently exists, the release said. “The new Robbie Davis WMA will go a long way to increase public hunting opportunities and support our hunting heritage that is part and parcel to Texas,” said Alan Cain, TPWD Wildlife Division director. “Hunting has and always will be critical to the conservation of our native lands and wildlife.”
The property’s path to public ownership began when Stephens County ranch owner Robbie Davis died and left her 2,850-acre family ranch to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation with the hope that it would one day benefit the people of Texas, according to the release. Since receiving the property in 2015, the foundation has worked with TPWD and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to steward the land, invest in habitat restoration and secure philanthropic support. “It’s incredibly rewarding to see that vision fulfilled through this partnership with TPWD and the generosity of so many supporters,” said TPWF Executive Director Anne Brown.
The WMA will include the Dan Craine Unit, named for the former foundation board member through a gift from the Cross Timbers Quail Coalition and contributions from Craine’s friends. Long-term management plans include habitat improvements to benefit bobwhite quail and other grassland species, the release said.
The foundation sold the property to TPWD at 75 percent of its appraised value, with the remaining 25 percent representing a charitable contribution, and sale proceeds will establish an endowment supporting habitat work at the new WMA and others across the state. “This project illustrates how private philanthropy and public conservation can work together to create lasting benefits for the wild things and wild places of Texas,” Cain said.