Buena Suerte Ranch

When Charles Albright was looking for ranch land to buy in 1996, he originally intended to buy a fairly small parcel as a weekend getaway from his busy life in Houston. He ended up with over 500 acres in southeast Texas in Lavaca County. 

“It was cheaper per acre than what I had been looking at, and the owner was willing to finance it, which was important at the time,” said Albright. “So, I made an offer on it.” 

The night his offer was accepted, he happened to be in Las Vegas at his brother’s bachelor party, where, starting with a $30 bet, he ended up winning $9,500. That bit of good luck factored into his decision on what to name his new ranch: Buena Suerte.

Albright is also lucky enough to have hunted all over Texas, and he appreciates good land management that supports healthy wildlife populations. He joined the Texas Wildlife Association about the same time he bought the ranch, and sought advice from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) biologists on how he could improve wildlife habitat while supporting his ranching operation. He runs a purebred Beefmaster herd on the ranch and manages the land for his cattle herd, hunting and recreation.  

The ranch is part of the Lavaca County Wildlife Management Association, whose chairman, Joel Wagner, is the former TPWD biologist for the area. The association involves many private landowners in managing wildlife habitat at a countywide scale, a more effective approach than managing it ranch by ranch. After Wagner left TPWD, Albright hired him a few years ago as his wildlife biologist. 

“Charles has always been very interested in doing what he can to improve wildlife habitat, especially for quail,” said Wagner. “When he sets his mind on a wildlife management goal, there’s no getting in his way, he’s going to get it done no matter what it takes. That’s an admirable quality.” 

Photos taken by Wyman Meinzer.

Charles met his wife Elizabeth on a blind date in 2011. The two met for cocktails, which went well, so Elizabeth agreed to a dinner date. 

“He showed up in a ratty old pick-up,” she recalled with a laugh. “And I thought to myself, well this should be interesting!”      

 “It was a 1998 one-ton GMC, which I thought was pretty cool,” countered Charles.   

The two hit it off and were married the following year. They share a blended family of four adult children, one grandchild (so far), and two German Shorthaired Pointers. 

In 2014, they purchased another parcel of land adjacent to the Buena Suerte, enlarging its footprint to 896 acres. They also built a new ranch house. 

“I quickly realized Elizabeth wasn’t going to come out to the ranch very often if I didn’t step up the housing game,” said Charles. 

“It was ​an extremely ​well-used, 30-year old FEMA single-wide,” Elizabeth pointed out. “Now we have a place for the whole family to gather​ and​ to entertain guests.”

Having grown up in Houston, Elizabeth has learned to appreciate the wide-open space of their ranch.

“We love bringing our dogs out here,” she said. “​We often dog-sit for the kids resulting in​​ a total of seven dogs. Six German​ Shorthaired Pointers​​​​​ and one basset hound. They love to ​run ​free for hours​, and it’s neat to have them out here and let them ​get all the running and swimming they can handle.​” 

As the ranch’s footprint expanded, the couple began to explore ways to protect it forever and ensure it would never be subdivided or developed. 

“We love this land, and we looked into many different options on what we could do within our will to ensure it would always be protected,” said Charles. “Everything we explored seemed very impractical.” 

In May of 2022, Charles learned about conservation easements from a representative of a coastal prairie conservancy, and wanted to learn more. He discussed his interest in easements with his friend Doug Jobes who is a native seeds expert at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M-Kingsville. Jobes suggested he reach out to the Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT). Charles researched TALT online, and on his way home to Houston from the ranch, he listened to a TALT podcast and liked what he heard. He ended up speaking with Andy James at TALT, and, as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one. 

“Coincidentally, I had just had a conversation a few days before with Andy James about speaking at our upcoming wildlife management association meeting,” said Wagner. “We are always looking for ways to encourage more landowners to consider conservation easements.” 

As luck would have it, Wagner and other members of the Lavaca County Wildlife Management Association had also discussed what they could do to help their member landowners protect their properties from future development. 

“We’re very concerned about the fragmentation of wildlife habitat that’s happening across Texas,” said Wagner. “We’re a fairly rural county, but we’ve seen our fair share of habitat loss, and we want to do what we can to encourage landowners to take steps to conserve their land in perpetuity.” 

The Lavaca County Wildlife Management Association board of directors approved a $5,000 donation to help cover some of the transaction costs for the conservation easement on the Buena Suerte Ranch held by TALT. The easement will forever protect 896 acres of the Post Oak Savannah and Gulf Prairie ecoregions in Lavaca County, including native post oak forests, grassland prairies, and wetlands. It is the first ever donation for TALT from a wildlife management association. 

“This is our first project, but we’re trying to get the ball rolling and get more people interested,” said Wagner. “We appreciate what TALT is doing to preserve and protect Texas working lands.”