ALPINE The Trans-Pecos region of Texas is an area of incredible biodiversity with more rare and endemic species of wildlife than anywhere else in the state. Chihuahuan Desert grasslands are one of the most critical natural systems in the Trans-Pecos, providing important habitat for myriad species from pronghorn to a variety of grassland birds.
The Trans-Pecos is also home to much of the last remaining intact rangelands in Texas, and the region encompasses many large historic working ranches. These properties are vitally important as key grazing lands for producing food, and the land also provides wildlife habitat and ecosystem services that benefit us all.
Thanks to funding from a federal grant through the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Borderlands Research Institute (BRI) is now offering additional resources for West Texas landowners.
“Thanks to this partnership and new grant funding, we’ve recently hired a new grazing specialist to assist landowners with grazing management plans and other resources,” Billy Tarrant, who leads BRI’s Center for Land Stewardship and Stakeholder Engagement, said in a news release. “We’re pleased to bring Dr. Eduardo Gonzalez-Valenzuela on board. He has decades of experience in assisting landowners in achieving their land management goals.”
Most recently, from 2019 to earlier this year, Gonzalez was an assistant professor with Texas A&M University-Kingsville, teaching grazing management, rangeland improvements, range and wildlife principles, and rangeland plants. Before that, he worked 30 years as a researcher in the program of Forages and Rangelands of the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agricolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP). He was Chair of the Aldama Experimental Station and National Leader of Forages and Rangelands. He also served six years as a Professor with the Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas teaching Natural Resources Management, Rangelands and Forages. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua, and his PhD from Texas A&M University.
Along with providing technical assistance to landowners to help them meet their goals and objectives for their properties, Gonzalez will also serve as a visiting professor in the College of Agricultural, Natural, and Physical Sciences at Sul Ross State University.
“I’m looking forward to this next chapter of my career, working with young people who are interested in natural resources, and with landowners who care about the rangelands they steward,” Gonzalez said in the release. “My experience has been that landowners want to do the right thing, and what they really need is more information to make their operations more sustainable. It is the grazing plants and the grazing programs that will make sure the land will remain productive for this generation and the next.”
More information about resources for West Texas landowners can be found on BRI’s website.
