An innovative program to encourage landowners to help two endangered songbirds and other endangered species in the Hill Country of Texas was started by Environmental Defense in 1999. Landowners responded positively: as of February 2003, 43 landowners had enrolled over 74,500 acres in the program, and sign-ups are continuing. In December 2000, the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a safe harbor permit to Environmental Defense. Landowners who also enroll in this Texas Hill Country endangered songbirds safe harbor plan receive assurances that their good deeds will not cause them to incur additional regulatory burdens.

The golden-cheeked warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) and the black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapillus) are both declining due to loss of habitat and nest parasitism by cowbirds. Although their ranges overlap, their habitat needs differ: the warbler inhabits mature oak/juniper woodlands, while the vireo prefers scrubby, early successional habitat. In the Texas Hill Country, much of this land is used for cattle and goat ranches, and the listing of the two species as endangered has been controversial with landowners, who fear the birds' presence will bring restrictions on their property. Both birds stand to benefit from habitat restoration by landowners.

Under the Landowner Conservation Assistance Program, Environmental Defense is providing financial and technical assistance to landowners who agree to undertake such actions as removing invasive ashe junipers, conducting prescribed burns, and trapping cowbirds, which parasitize vireo nests, and to a lesser extent those of the warbler. Surveys for the birds and for the endangered Tobusch fishhook cactus (Ancistrocactus tobuschii) have also been funded by the program. The program has three goals:

• To restore as much acreage as possible for the birds;
• To demonstrate that incentives can influence landowners' willingness to help endangered species; and
• To reduce the historic level of tension among landowners, the federal government, and conservationists with respect to endangered species.

Although the program is still in its early stages, it has already demonstrated that landowners need and appreciate technical assistance with land management activities which not only benefit endangered species, but also management for game species - a lucrative undertaking in Texas, where hunting leases can be a valuable source of income.

The Disappearing Texans: Improving the Lives of Texas' Rarest Citizens. A short article describes the plight of endangered species in Texas, a state where 97 percent of the land is privately owned and imperiled animals and plants are largely dependent upon landowner stewardship activities.