Moulton Waring Ranch
In Susan Moulton’s experience, a ranch is the ultimate childhood playground.
“As a rancher’s daughter, the land shaped who I was—and who I am,” said Moulton, who lives in San Antonio. “What happens to us below a certain age forms who we are and stays with us forever.”
Until she was five, Moulton lived on a family ranch near San Marcos. Her immediate family moved to San Antonio to care for her grandmother about the time she started kindergarten.
“I don’t remember much about being in kindergarten, but I remember a lot about being on the land,” Moulton said.
When she became a mother, Moulton raised her sons, Charlie and Will, as children of the land. Every chance she got, Moulton introduced them to the natural wonders of the Moulton Waring Ranch in Kendall County, where she’d been making memories for more than 50 years since her own childhood.
“The ranch is our special part of a special pocket of Texas,” said Moulton, noting it is home to the Guadalupe River and plentiful native wildlife ranging from white-tailed deer to armadillos. “Here’s where my boys dug in the dirt, walked in the woods, pondered the stars. They learned to watch out for rattlesnakes, hunt, fish and appreciate nature.”
Rapid development throughout the Hill County, especially around nearby Boerne, prompted Moulton to research ways to permanently protect her land.
“Waring has been spared so far, but pressure is mounting,” said Moulton, who has declined multiple offers from developers interested in purchasing a portion of the ranch. “Several neighbors had enrolled their properties in conservancies and they introduced me to conservation easements.”
After weighing her options, Moulton chose a conservation easement to protect the almost 193-acre ranch, used for grazing and hay production. She donated the easement to TALT.
“TALT was recommended to me because it has a good reputation for accomplishing the goals I wanted to achieve for my land,” Moulton said. “Throughout the process, the staff worked to make sure my expectations were realistic, my needs were met and that I was thinking through every eventuality clearly, so that I didn’t inadvertently paint myself into a corner.”
According to the Texas A&M 2017 Land Trends study, Kendall County lost about 3 percent of its agricultural land and the population has increased 87 percent since 1997.
“I just see so much encroachment—and it’s picking up pace,” Moulton said. “If we don’t try to keep larger tracts together, we lose the ecological integrity that our life depends on.”
She continued, “As a student of history, I know we must learn from the past or we will make the same mistakes. Destroying habitat and the natural world that gives us life is a huge mistake that we can’t recover from.”
Moulton, a frequent visitor to Africa, was also motivated by changes she has witnessed in Botswana.
“The way it [Botswana] was, isn’t the way it is now,” Moulton said.
Highways now bisect elephant habitat. To reach water, the elephants have to cross the roadways.
“The habitat was destroyed in the name of progress and in search of money,” Moulton said. “I don’t want to see Texas in the same shape.”
In addition to tangible ecological benefits, protecting the land in perpetuity also has spiritual benefits.
“The land is my church,” Moulton said. “I believe in God, but I don’t go to services every Sunday because the outdoors is my sanctuary. For me, it’s the land, the trees, the animals and the dark night skies without the sounds of modern innovations that bring the greatest joy and peace. These things can’t stop with us.”
And for Moulton, conserving the land has a huge emotional component. Keeping the Moulton Waring Ranch intact forever honors the memories of her sons. Will died when he was 8 and Charlie when he was 28. (Through The Will Smith Foundation, Moulton supports a variety of life-changing efforts for children in Africa, Hawaii and Texas including the Will Smith Zoo School, which incorporates the outdoors as a classroom giving youngsters indelible early experiences.)
“This land is part of my legacy,” Moulton said. “I hope it points to a woman who appreciates what nature gives us and wants to share it with future generations. A conservation easement gave me a way to ensure that children, whether they are in my family or not, have the same opportunities that my children and I had to appreciate nature in its raw form.”
All photos taken by Wyman Meinzer.