Houston Intramet: Conservation Resources for the Houston Metro Area

The Houston Intramet, at http://www.houtonintrament.org, is a relatively new website designed to introduce private landowners and others to conservation resources. This site covers the 8-county Houston metro region providing tools and resources to support wildlife habitat, open space, and energy efficiency. Its goal is to deliver usable conservation and estate planning information to help the Houston area thrive both ecologically and economically.

For each of the eight counties–Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, and Waller–the Houston Intramet provides information on topics such as alternative energy, conservation associations and programs, education programs, tax and estate planning for conservation, agriculture and forestland, green building, transit info, and interactive maps.

Houston Intramet, supported in part by the Houston Endowment and ExxonMobil, is a program of the Resources First Foundation (RFF). RFF is a registered 501(C)(3) non-profit organization established in 2000 to provide conservation education tools and solutions to promote conservation and restoration activities for fish, wildlife and other natural resources primarily on privately owned lands across the United States.

Since its inception, RFF has been guided by the principle that any comprehensive conservation strategy must address the human component for widespread adoption of conservation values. As such, RFF recognizes private landowners as stewards of the land, and caretakers of our future natural resources. 61% of our nation’s landscape (71% of the continental U.S.) is in private ownership, yet the overwhelming majority of our public and philanthropic financial resources are focused in public land conservation, ignoring the largest segment of the market needing conservation assistance, tutelage and freedom to innovate.

Program manager Amos Enos has over thirty years of involvement with government agencies and environmental organizations such as National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Based on this experience, Amos has become convinced that privately owned lands ought to be a critical focus of conservation efforts. Texas, which is 98% private land, is a primary target area for connecting private landowners with conservation resources.

More information can be found at http://www.houstonintramet.org.