President Carter among Valley birders

Former President Jimmy Carter was reluctant to bird the Rio Grande Valley, suggesting his group elsewhere in Texas.

Eventually he gave in to pressure from a local birder to visit the Valley and he was happily surprised. On a visit in 2004, Carter sighted 41 different birds for the first time in his life, he recounted for Bird Watcher’s Digest.

“We were surprised to learn about the intense effort being made by public officials and private citizens to improve the habitat for all wildlife,” Carter recounted in an article headlined “The Remarkable Rio Grande Valley.”

More than 1 in 5 Americans is a birder, according to a study released in July by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Within that community the Valley is famous for an array of habitats that support one of the most diverse collection of birds, butterflies and bugs in the U.S.

It was only 10 years before Carter’s visit that the Valley largely became aware of just how many people were making the trip. In 1994, the Valley Land Fund hosted the first of its annual wildlife photography contests, the South Texas Shootout. That same year, Harlingen hosted its first annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.

The McAllen Convention and Visitors Bureau would later estimate that nature tourism brought in $125 million that year and supported 1,250 jobs. There have been no estimates of economic impact since.

“The birders were already aware, they were already coming. The local folks didn’t realize they were here,” said Nancy Millar, vice president and director of the McAllen Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “When they saw all these people coming into town, all at the same time with binoculars, and all the money they left behind, then it started making sense.”

BIG MONEY

Along a 120 mile stretch from Roma to South Padre Island, only about 5 percent of the natural Tamaulipan Thornscrub habitat remains. But with the heightened awareness of the potential tourism dollars, Valley cities joined the effort to build more park space and preserve the fragile natural land.

In 1998, the city of McAllen outbid developers for Quinta Mazatlan, a Spanish Revival adobe hacienda near the airport, mall and golf course. They spent about $3 million to purchase and develop the 15 acre property into a wildlife sanctuary.

Mazatlan became part of the World Birding Center, which was a federal, state and city effort to team up with nonprofits to create a string of nine outposts across the Valley for birders. At the center’s headquarters in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in Mission, volunteers revegetated 175 acres of farm land with native flora.

“We’ve seen coyotes out there. There’s been a burrowing owl that has shown up for the last two or three years,” said Jennifer Hall, assistant superintendent for the park. “The wildlife is taking to what used to be a farm field.”

In 2001, cities across the Valley organized their efforts to promote nature tourism as the South Texas Nature Co-Op. Since then, the group has routinely sent Millar and others to birding festivals and conference around the world.

They’ve also managed to get press coverage for the Valley in magazines and newspapers across Europe.

This year, they snagged the Fox Sports Network to film three episodes of a new birding show in the Valley. Birding Adventures will air the episodes in early 2010.

Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.