Border Sanctuary: The Conservation Legacy of the Santa Ana Land Grant
by M.J. Morgan
From Texas A&M University Press:
The Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge lies on the northern bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, about seventy miles upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. In Border Sanctuary, M.J. Morgan uncovers how 2,000 acres of rare subtropical riparian forest came to be preserved in a region otherwise dramatically altered by human habitation.
The story she tells begins and ends with the efforts of the Rio Grande Valley Nature Club to protect one of the last remaining stopovers for birds migrating north from Central and South America. In between, she reconstructs a two hundred-year human and environmental history of the original “two square leagues” of the Santa Ana land grant and of the Mexican and Tejano families who lived on, worked, and ultimately helped preserve this forest on the river’s edge.
As border issues continue to present serious challenges for Texas and the nation, it is especially important to be reminded of the deep connection between the region’s human and natural history from the long perspective Morgan provides here.
Santa Ana NWR is a magical place. We birders, not to mention the birds, are fortunate to have it. I’m looking forward to reading about how it came to be.
Border Sanctuary: The Conservation Legacy of the Santa Ana Land Grant
by M. J. Morgan
Hardcover; 240 pages
Texas A&M University Press; August 10, 2015
ISBN: 9781623493202
$32.00
Posted by Grant McCreary on November 6th, 2015.
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