A Message from Executive Director, Susan J. Kibbe

Dear Members,

Though it is not April yet, (I’m fairly confident that the phrase “April showers bring May flowers” did not originate in South Texas) we have a deficit of moisture that we need for growing grass, farming, and effective wildlife management.

Moisture would also go a long way in helping prevent the wildfires that have been occurring here in South Texas.

Many of you might have heard about the Miller fire south of Falfurrias that flared up this past Friday, leaving six families in the Cantù Subdivision homeless. There was also a large Duval County fire that burned over 2,000 acres, with several others in surrounding counties.

Wildfires such as these can be very destructive, but prescribed burning/fire is a key landowner management tool. All South Texas landowners should seriously consider themselves a stakeholder in wildfire prevention as well.

There is a wildfire preparedness meeting planned in Linn tomorrow, Thursday, March 10, 6pm at the Brewster School Cafetorium. This discussion will be incomplete without significant landowner participation. I hope you make plans to attend. See information.

Last month I organized two landowner/border security stakeholder meetings. The first one was held at the Kenedy County Courthouse in Sarita. Landowners expressed concerns about the State Guard’s plans to leave the county after serving as a great deterrent to illegal activities along and near US Highway 77, while also acknowledging the tremendous benefit it provided them and their neighbors.. The State Guard, DPS leadership; (including a representative from the Governor’s office), Border Patrol, and local law enforcement, heard directly from landowners on how they were affected by property damage and security issues prior to the DPS and Guard’s installed presence, and the difference that they had made following the installation. Border Patrol also reiterated those praises, testifying to the tremendous help that DPS had provided them in the current Border Security crisis.

The following week we traveled to Del Rio to co-host a landowner/ stakeholder meeting with a U.S. Congressional delegation headed by Congressman Chip Roy and several State Representatives. The meeting was held at the Val Verde Wool & Mohair Warehouse. The landowners there had a different set of issues and spoke up on how they thought their issues could be addressed.

We have several STPRA member and friends gatherings planned, one in Live Oak County on March 23 and two in May. We’d like to invite those who live in the area to come and support our efforts. We can’t continue to serve without you.

Thank you for everything you do for this association!

Until next month,

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Susan J. Kibbe
Office (361) 522-5194
Susan@STPRA.org

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