ACEP-ALE Success Story: Four Winns Ranch

Across our nation, we are seeing success in implementing Agricultural Conservation Easement Program-Agricultural Land Easements funding to conserve our farmland and ranchland for future generations. The following case study shows how ALE programming has helped the conservation of Four Winns Ranch in Texas.

Hill Country Conservancy, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, worked with the owners of Four Winns Ranch to conserve 165 acres of land in central Texas with a conservation easement.

James Buchanan “Buck” Winn, Jr., one of Texas’ most well-known artists in the 1900s, owned and resided on a 1,164-acre piece of land that the Four Winns Ranch is a part of. Buck Winn’s descendants chose to protect its culture, history and beauty.

The land originally belonged to nomadic Indigenous people who used the land for game and water until the Spanish arrived in the 1600s. Today, the property is home to an abundance of plants and wildlife that thrive off the plentiful habitat, food and water sources.

Thanks to the Winn family and the support of the NRCS’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, the Four Winns Ranch will continue to protect Central Texas’ water quality and cultural history. Not only is the easement protecting the land for future generations, but it is providing economic vitality and allows for agricultural and ecotourism purposes.