Lisa Williams

"This side looked exactly like that cornfield seven years ago," said Lisa Williams, a local project director with the Nature Conservancy, as she pointed to the tangle of wild growth which included haunting tepegauje trees -- a key species of the area -- their feathery leaves blowing in the wind.

"These are the pearls in a necklace which we are trying to string together," she said.

In reality one of the most ecologically diverse corners of the United States has been diced up by farming and urban sprawl into isolated fragments of habitat that support far less wildlife than when they were whole. [ ... ago," said Lisa Williams, a local project director with the Nature Conservancy, as she pointed to the tangle of wild growth which included haunting tepegauje trees -- a key species of the area -- their feathery leaves blowing in the wind. "These are the pearls in a necklace which we are trying to string together," she said.

Lisa Williams, project director for the Nature Conservancy in the Valley, is worried that thieves may attempt to remove a stand of rare star cactus and other species on the foundation's 350-acre Chihuahuan Woods Preserve in remote Starr County.

"Poaching is a big problem in the Valley, and it's not just rare species," Williams says.

Lisa Williams, South Texas Land Steward, The Nature Conservancy of Texas
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Left to right: Lisa Williams, Carrie Cate, Sue Sill, Chris Best, Mike Quinn at a planning workshop.

The property was purchased from a family for $228,800, said Lisa Williams, a spokeswoman for the Nature Conservancy.It was paid for with grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the 3M Co.

The star cactus was discovered in 2000 but has been threatened because of habitat destruction and poachers who sell such rare plants to collectors.

The preserve will be off-limits to the public, although there are plans to offer tours at some point.

Starr County, on the Mexican border, is an ecologically diverse area filled with floodplain forests, clay hills and brushland.The Las Estrellas Preserve alone is home to at least 16 species of rare and unique plants and animals, such as the Texas indigo snake, Williams said.

The property was purchased from a family for $228,800, said Lisa Williams, a spokeswoman for the Nature Conservancy.It was paid for with grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the 3M Co.

The star cactus was discovered in 2000 but has been threatened because of habitat destruction and poachers who sell such rare plants to collectors.

The preserve will be off-limits to the public, although there are plans to offer tours at some point.

Starr County, on the Mexican border, is an ecologically diverse area filled with floodplain forests, clay hills and brushland.The Las Estrellas Preserve alone is home to at least 16 species of rare and unique plants and animals, such as the Texas indigo snake, Williams said.

Lisa Williams, The Nature Conservancy of Texas

Story 4: Lisa Williams is The Nature Conservancy project director for the new Las Estrellas Preserve.

Lisa Williams, project director of the Nature Conservancy of Texas, said the organization

About 300 of those acres are leased to a tenant farmer, Charles Loop, who is interested in the project, said Lisa Williams, project director with the Nature Conservancy in the Valley.