Tamara Swindle Trail

Trmara Trail is in her element when she’s outdoors, and she’s particularly in her element when she is helping others learn more about enjoying the world around them. Trail offered instructions during TWA’s Women of the Land program participants at the 5-stand range in September.

Planting Trees, Savoring the Shade

Article by LORIE A. WOODWARD

By her own estimation, Tamara Swindle Trail was destined to become a conservation educator.

“God just worked it all out,” said Trail, who was reared in San Angelo and now lives in Albany.

The groundwork was laid early. For vacations, her family hiked and camped close to home and in Colorado. She also hunted and fished alongside her dad and her uncles. Her Uncle Andy was a favorite hunting companion. The World War II veteran downplayed his knowledge of animal behavior and habitat, but continuously predicted where and when the duo would see animals and explained their various behaviors. He took time to stop and show her important plants and animal sign.

“He was a student of the land before I ever knew there was a term coined for that,” said Trail, noting that a deer blind often doubled as an outdoor classroom where her lifelong love of science blossomed. Later, she also used nature’s classroom to

engender the same wonder, curiosity, and passion in her three daughters: Hannah, a sophomore at TCU, Robyn, a high school junior, and Charlotte “Charli”, a seventh grader.

In addition to sparking Trail’s curiosity, the outdoors also captured her heart and her imagination. In an era when most girls were swooning over Donny Osmond, John Travolta, or Shaun Cassidy, her first celebrity crush was Grizzly Adams, who she dubbed “the perfect man.” And instead of reenacting favorite episodes of “Happy Days,” “The Partridge Family” or other hit television shows, Trail and her cousin imagined themselves as the host and guest on “Jimmy Houston Outdoors,” providing color commentary and angling tips as they drifted down Dove Creek near San Angelo pursuing bass and perch.

“Yep, I was that girl,” Trail said, laughing.

When that girl graduated from Central High School in 1990, the world was her oyster. She had significant scholarship offers from several universities, and all were in play until she flipped through Texas A&M’s course catalog and spotted the degree plan for wildlife and fisheries sciences.

“I just knew that’s where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do,” Trail said.

Although the Aggies didn’t offer the same level of financial support as other schools, Trail’s parents were all in. Until she announced her decision, she didn’t know that her father had wanted to be a fisheries biologist earlier in his life but didn’t have the opportunity.

“My folks said, ‘Let’s figure out how to do this,’” Trail recalled.

And they did. In 1994, Trail graduated with her B.Sc. in wildlife and fisheries sciences. Then she earned a master’s degree in rangeland ecology and agricultural economics, graduating in 1997.

REAL WORLD EDUCATION

In the absence of a full-ride scholarship or abundant aid, Trail rolled up her sleeves and worked through her entire college career. Along the way, she developed a network of mentors, including familiar TWA stalwarts such as Dr. Don Steinbach, Dr. Dale Rollins, and David K. Langford.

“Looking back, everything worked out just as it was supposed to,” Trail said. “If I hadn’t had to work, I wouldn’t have gained the experiences I did, met the people I did, or ended up on the career path I’ve enjoyed.”

As a co-op student, she gained hands-on experience working in the field alongside noted wildlife professionals such as Dr. Doug Slack, who was not only a national expert on Whooping Cranes and Black-capped Vireos, but a passionate teacher. She also occupied a front row seat to the changes, challenges, and controversies that were reshaping conservation in the 1990s.

For instance, her co-op position took Trail back and forth between Oregon and Texas, immersing her in the differences between public and private lands states. At the time, in the Pacific Northwest, the proposed listing of the Spotted Owl as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, dominated headlines across the country and led to hostilities in many of the region’s small towns.

Although the issues were far more complex, many news reports positioned the controversy as a struggle between loggers’ jobs and protection of the owls’ ancient forest habitat. In the community where she lived and worked, forestry and salmon fishing were the economic lifeblood. Tensions were high.

“During those very heated discussions, it became apparent to me that natural resource management is as much about people management as it is about what takes place on the land,” Trail said.

Meanwhile, back home, Texas was embroiled in its own Bird Wars, which centered on the Black-capped Vireo and Goldencheeked Warbler. These battles were prompted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s ill-conceived attempt to name portions of 33 Texas counties in the Hill Country and Central Texas as critical habitat for the rare songbirds.

To landowners, it appeared that the agency and its allies were going to “save” the endangered species by permanently wresting control away from private landowners, either by taking the land or purchasing the land at fire sale prices from those who found themselves in a financial fix. Ranch gates slammed shut. Cedar trees were strapped to truck hoods as landowners rallied at the Capitol. Tensions were high.

During that maelstrom, TWA, which was still a fledgling organization itself, perfected what has become its signature move— identifying common ground and then using that common ground (and the partnerships built upon it) to creatively solve conservation problems. Because TWA put the interests of wildlife and habitat above all else, the organization became a trusted ally for groups standing on all sides of any given issue. In the case of the ESA, TWA helped people recognize the value and power of using a tempting carrot instead of a threatening hammer.

Trail paid close attention. Whether she realized it at the time or not, finding common ground, building trust, and working together to solve big challenges would become a signature of her work as well.

All of these things would prove to be increasingly important because Texas was changing, too. People began moving into the Lone Star State at a record rate, exacerbating urbanization, natural resource illiteracy, and fragmentation.

As economics made it even more difficult to keep ranches intact, hunting, as a revenue stream as well as a conservation vehicle, was becoming more important as was nature tourism. In fact, Trail’s thesis explored the decision-making process of landowners who were managing for enterprise diversification in this “changing Texas landscape.”

Agencies and non-profits developed outreach and education programs to address the changes and challenges. In many cases, the Texas-based programs were partnerships or collaborations involving Texas AgriLife Extension, TPWD and TWA. Trail, as a graduate student, volunteered with TPWD’s Becoming an Outdoors Woman program and with TWA’s early outreach efforts, including the newly formed Texas Youth Hunting Program.

As she was completing graduate school, Trail transferred her co-op back to Texas and was working on the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge near Port Arthur. Steinbach and opportunity called. AgriLife and TPWD were partnering to cre-

Photo courtesy of Tamara Trail

Good friends make a good hunt. Tamara Trail (right) enjoyed a day of dove hunting the best way possible.

ate a conservation education position and Steinbach suggested she apply.

The interview stands out clearly in her mind even after almost 30 years. She left the refuge way before daybreak to make it to College Station on time. As she settled in before the interview panel that included Steinbach, Rollins as well as Dr. Billy Higginbotham and Dr. Ron Howard, she realized that in her rush and in the dark, she had put on one brown pump and one black pump. Fortunately, fashion was much less important than philosophy.

While the probing questions were fired rapidly, she remembers one answer in particular because it was also an epiphany that determined the path of her career.

“I remember telling the panel that while I valued my experience on the refuge, it is one thing to make a difference on a few thousand acres but it’s an entirely different thing to make a difference in people’s lives,” Trail said. “If you can educate and influence people, then you can make a difference on hundreds of thousands of acres.”

She got the job and began making a difference in people’s lives. In the role, Trail worked as a “special agent” lending her talents to a variety of different programs such as 4-H Shooting Sports, 4-H Sportfishing, Becoming an Outdoors Woman, and TYHP where she helped write portions of the first program manual, and Texas Brigades where Rollins tasked her with creating the Buckskin Brigade, the first offshoot of the Bobwhite Brigade.

She also planned and implemented programming such as field days and conferences, thereby learning the Extension model of outreach. Trail traveled and spoke extensively on nature tourism as a ranching enterprise and various future of hunting initiatives.

Trail took her first real sip of the Kool-Aid that draws people to non-profit conservation education.

“When you get to see, feel, and experience other people get excited about nature and conservation for the first time— whether it’s catching a fish, harvesting a deer, or watching a sunset—it’s addictive,” Trail said. “It’s what makes you keep doing it again and again.”

In 2001, when TWA got ready to fully launch its education efforts, Trail got a phone call from Langford. He shared the organization’s plans and suggested she was the right person for the job.

She said, “My first question was, ‘What does Don [Steinbach] say about this?’”

Unbeknownst to her, Langford had reached out to Steinbach, who was very active and instrumental in TWA, before he brought the opportunity to her attention. Although Steinbach wasn’t keen to lose her, he saw the potential of the new programs with Trail at the helm and was onboard.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Trail said.

The rest is history.

A CONSERVATION LEGACY

From the beginning, TWA’s Conservation Legacy programs, which started in earnest around 2001, harnessed the power of partnerships. The first step was collecting tried-and-true curriculum from trusted partners to “move forward without completely reinventing the wheel.”

While the foundational curriculum wasn’t completely original, TWA leaders, meeting around a campfire at Steve Lewis’ ranch, identified two essentials tenets that ensured TWA’s efforts would always be unique. They determined that all education would reinforce the role that both hunting and private landowners play in conservation.

By then, Texas had become an urban state. In schools across the state “third generation apartment dwellers were teaching fourth generation apartment dwellers” and the connection to the land was becoming ever more distant. When data showed that the most missed question on the state’s standardized science test involved natural resources, TWA used that sadly startling fact as its entry into public schools.

“TWA has been able to do what it’s done because passionate people said, ‘Not on my watch will we lose hunting, private land stewardship or our state’s historic connection to the land,’” Trail said.

Since 2007 when the Conservation Legacy staff began keeping outreach records, the program has directly impacted almost 4.9 million Texans.

“We could have never accomplished any of this without the legions of committed volunteers who dedicated themselves to making our shared vision a reality,” Trail said.

Of course, the need for conservation literacy is increasingly urgent. The trends of urbanization, fragmentation, and competing demands for natural resources are accelerating. What’s more, the pandemic and its associated appetite for outdoor recreation, increasing recognition of the role of nature in overall human health, a burgeoning interest in sustainable food sources, and emerging environmental and social government mandates for corporations that reinforce idea that “good stewardship is good business” create new opportunities for connection.

“We’ve got to continue bridging the urban/rural interface if we landowners and land managers are going to remain relevant,” Trail said. “The public needs to understand that the efforts of landowners are not just for their own good, but the common good.”

Moving forward, it’s important to recognize that homeowners are landowners too, just on a smaller scale and they’re interested in healthy soil, native plants, clean and plentiful water, and healthy wildlife, she said. TWA and its trusted partners are uniquely qualified to identify the common ground and connect.

“People who are hungry for information are going to get it from somewhere and it sure as heck better be us,” she said.

These days, Trail isn’t on the front lines delivering conservation education on a daily basis; instead, she serves on TWA’s Executive Committee and co-chairs the Conservation Legacy Advisory Board, which just recently helped launch CL 2.0, the second generation of Conservation Legacy. She likens the experience to “sending your children off to college and watching them grow into the mature versions of themselves.”

As she looks back, Trail measures program success in terms of people. Things like letters from parents who described the

almost unimaginable changes in their children after a Brigade experience or the conversations that would have never occurred without time shared in a TYHP deer blind, are more valuable to her than any income she might’ve enjoyed by pursuing a more lucrative career.

And while she’s far from done, passionate people are also part of her legacy. As she looks at the best and brightest in conservation in Texas, she takes special pride in those next generation movers and shakers who she hired and worked with directly, such as Jenny Sanders, Justin Dreibelbis, or Helen Holdsworth or those like Sarah Biedenharn, current TWA president, Anson Howard, and Whitney Marion Klenzendorf, who found their passion through TWA and partnered programs like Texas Brigades.

“In conservation education, you get a lot of ‘one hit’ wonders where kids are exposed to the natural world to raise their awareness and concern,” Trail said. “But to have the opportunity to play a small role in creating true ambassadors who embrace their own passion and go on to spread the stewardship message is almost indescribable.”

According to her, the experience brings to mind a Texas Brigades’ Silver Bullet, which says, “One generation plants a tree. Another enjoys the shade.”

“I’m enjoying the shade and watching others planting their trees for the next generation of Texans,” Trail said.

While Trail is enjoying the shade, she’s not sitting still. She stays busy supporting her girls’ activities, providing leadership in her community and other conservation organizations. She’s also considering her “kingdom work” and envisioning an effort that harnesses the healing power of nature and faith to help people recover from trauma of many kinds.

In nature, people let their guard down. In the vulnerability, there’s an opportunity to hear their stories and develop deep intentional relationships, which has always inspired Trail as much as managing natural resources.

“What fires me up—and always will— is the ability to make a difference in someone else’s life. I look forward to continuing to do that, but in a slightly different way.”

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