Thornscrub Sanctuary Mission Statement & Explanation

Thornscrub Sanctuary is a 501c3 Non-profit based out of South Texas that’s dedicated to conservation, education and research around the rare habitat type known as Tamaulipan Thornscrub, an ecosystem which is found only in the South Texas-Northern Mexico Borderlands and harbors a number of rare plants - especially cacti - and animal species.

Thornscrub Sanctuary owns a 150 acre stretch of Thornscrub Habitat that harbors populations of rare plants such as Lophophora williamsii (Peyote), Mammilaria sphaerica (Pale Mammilaria), Nahuatlea hypoleuca (Chumonque), Echinocereus poselgeri (Pencil Cactus) and rare animals such as the Reticulated Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus reticulatus).

Our mission is to protect and conserve these species as well as study them. Numerous threats to the cactus species such as Lophophora williamsii and Mammilaria sphaerica exist in the region. Some of the greatest threats to these species which are causing drastic declines in their populations are land clearance/habitat destruction, poaching, and excavation and uprooting by feral pigs. We hope to host researchers, visiting scientists, Native American groups (for whom Peyote and Peyote habitat is sacred), and educators. Our goal is to have the infrastructure to provide temporary housing for visiting researchers, as well as fencing to protect our conservation property from feral hogs which have caused extensive damage to some areas of the habitat, especially on populations of Mammilaria sphaerica, a cactus species which only grows in the South Texas/Northeastern Mexico Borderlands.

Our primary expenditures right now are fencing to protect certain regions of the habitat that have the densest cactus populations. We also hope to raise funds to drill a well so that there is water for wildlife tanks as well as for minimal human use such as showering. We have no other infrastructure on the property right now except for a small shade structure, but hope to eventually raise funds to erect a main building on the North Side of the property to host groups, have a kitchen area, bunkhouse, library, and small lab for microscopy.

We are in the process of completing botanical surveys for the property so that we will eventually have a complete plant list of every plant found on the property, as well as soil maps illustrating the 4 or 5 different habitat types found on the property, from thin-soiled caliche lomas to deeper-soiled mesquite woodlands.

We hope to one day serve as an epicenter of research for botanists, biologists and ecologists looking to study this rare habitat type as well as a place of spiritual respite for members of the Native American Church looking for a place to pray or hold ceremonies.

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“Tamaulipan Thornscrub” is the name given to the habitat type that occurs in South Texas, a region that contains dozens of plant and animal species found nowhere else in the United States. To many that live in the region, these scrubby and spiny plants are referred to simply as “brush” and sadly viewed as disposable and worthless. Plants here are seen as standing in the way of “economic progress”, which today in America usually means endless sprawl in order to build retail centers, parking lots and tract housing with lawns. But the plants that grow here are some of the most resilient in the world when it comes to dealing with heat, and together with the soil biome of fungi and symbiotic bacteria they compose a living network of vastly remarkable and understudied organisms that is being destroyed before it is even fully understood. Recognizing how valuable and precious this ecosystem is, we decided to come together and form a base of operations where we could both conserve and work to restore what little is left, while also providing education and outreach to the people of South Texas about the biological riches that they are living on top of so that future generations may come to appreciate and respect what too many people today seem unwilling to.

Aside from serving as a research station, base of operations and waypoint for botanists and field researchers in the area, we hope to serve as an education center for the endangered plant community that occupies this habitat as well.

In addition to conservation, another of our goals is to be able to help facilitate and advise native plant propagation and planting in places where applicable, whether it be at schools, municipal buildings or even the front yards of private residences.

Our immediate expenses will come mainly in the form of pig-fencing, a well, and most importantly construction costs for an on-site, 2000 sq. ft building near the entrance and unpaved (for now) parking area and establishment of a tall fence to keep feral hogs away and mitigate unauthorized entry. We hope to eventually establish a grey-water system and composting toilets.

The building is to serve as a meeting space, library, presentation gallery, small lab for microscopy and potentially PCR and molecular sequencing of plant & fungal species, and will have a small kitchen, 2 bathrooms, shower and small lounge area.

Ideally, we hope to one day be able to host interns and have somebody live on site. Aside from two buildings and a storage container near the entrance to the property, there will be no other construction anywhere else on the 150 acres.

It is important to mention that a large part of what Thornscrub Sanctuary hopes to accomplish is also, in effect, the farming and mass-production of seeds of native and especially endangered plant species to serve as a resource for others in the region that need a reliable seed and plant source for their own restoration goals. We aim to do this by maintaining robust and genetically diverse populations of native plants, both grouped together in small monocultures for ease of seed-harvesting and mixed in with each other. Being that pollination is required for the production of seed, we hope to be monitoring and observing pollination studies on all of the species within our care and producing good data as to insect species observed and the plant species that they frequent. Being that this is one of the most understudied ecosystems in North America, we feel that this work is incredibly important to understanding how such a heat adapted ecosystem functions.