As the ocean slowly warms in the first hours of daylight, a gentle pressure difference between land and sea begins, blowing a mist of saline and sand further inland than any beach sign may read. Over 10,000 years, this natural seabreeze produced a unique concentration of coastal sand covering roughly 1.5 million acres along the Texas Coast, now formally known as the South Texas Sand Sheet. With each drift of wind, dunes gradually formed, leaving depressions in their valleys that accumulated water. In an otherwise arid desert, wetlands spawned to produce a landscape with diverse vegetation and abundant wildlife. When rain doesn’t fall, the sandy soil becomes a desert not suited for farming, but prime for ranching cattle. This fickle balance determined the future of the landscape.
In 1895, a man by the name of Edward Cunningham Lasater gazed across this sandy landscape with no fence lines in sight and established one of the largest cattle ranches in Texas, covering 350,000 acres. A few years later, he founded the town of Falfurrias, now known among the hunting community for its revered abundance of seasonal game that thrive in the landscape. In those early days, little thought was given to conservation as cattle overgrazed the region, taking their toll on the landscape, and subsequently the wildlife struggle began. By the 1980s, an understanding of the region’s rich biological history moved to the forefront of many cattle ranchers’ awareness, with a new economic engine driving it. Hunting enthusiasm produced income for the region that saved this sandy landscape from an overgrazing demise Today, one such operation, covering 16,000 acres of the former Lasater Ranch, has its focus on continuously improving the land through diligent annual programs that enrich the landscape, increase accessibility, and ultimately benefit the wildlife that call it home. Through no
