Mason County ranch named 2016 Leopold Conservation Award Winner

AUSTIN – The Blue Mountain Peak Ranch has been named the 2016 Leopold Conservation Award recipient for Texas.

Richard Taylor and partner Suzie Paris accepted the crystal award, the state’s highest honor for private land conservation, and a check for $10,000 at the 21st Lone Star Land Steward Awards dinner May 19.

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the prestigious award is conferred each year by Sand County Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to private land conservation, in partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards program. 

Since the program’s inception 21 years ago, over 200 landowners have been honored for conserving more than three million acres of fish and wildlife habitat. In Texas, the Leopold Conservation Award Program is sponsored by the Lee and Ramona Bass Foundation, DuPont Pioneer, and The Mosaic Company.

Taylor and his late wife, Sally, purchased the land in Mason County in 2001 with dreams to rehabilitate the land to what it looked like before European settlement in the 1800s. ​