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More than 95 percent of the remaining wildlands in Texas are in the hands of private landowners.

The future of the Lone Star State’s wildlife remains in the hands of ranching families like Tina Yturria Buford’s whose ancestors first settled in deep South Texas more than 150 years ago.
 
Buford, whose family ranch is north of Raymondville, was recently elected as the first woman president of the Texas Wildlife Association based in San Antonio

She is the first person south of the Alamo City to head the statewide organization.
 
 “TWA represents about 5,300 members and it also represents about 40 million acres across the state of Texas,” she told The Nature Report.
 
Stewardship of the land has been a hallmark of the Yturria ranches where wildlife and cattle peacefully coexist. 

Buford takes an active role in the management of family property, and that will go hand in hand with the goals of the Texas Wildlife Association.
 
One of the goals that Buford has set for her two year tenure as president is to get more children involved in the outdoors.

The TWA has a special program called LANDS or Learning Across New Dimensions in Science that will encourage students to spend time on private property and learn first hand about working ranches and the environment.
 
“What is so special to me is that I am connected to this land,” she said. “We recognize that it is so special, and I look forward to passing that on to the next generation.  I’ve got two boys and my sister’s got one, and we are looking forward to having them out here on the ranch and explaining to them the relationship between nature and the people that live on it.”