Texas Land Conservation
Stewardship Starts at Home
Chisos takes its name from the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend. The rivers, parks, open spaces, dark skies, and wildlife of this state are part of the inheritance behind our company.
From the beginning, we have tried to support the people doing the daily work of caring for them. Chisos makes direct cash donations and also gives boots and other goods that organizations can use in auctions and fundraisers.
A pair of cowboy boots may seem like a small thing beside a river, a forest, or a state park. At an auction, that pair becomes money an organization can put toward its mission.
We give what we have.
Here are some of the Texas stewardship organizations we have been glad to support.
Hill Country Conservancy
Hill Country Conservancy works close to our home in Austin. It protects open spaces, water resources, and wildlife habitat across the Texas Hill Country. It also gives the public greater access to nature through projects such as the Violet Crown Trail.
Chisos supported Hill Country Conservancy at our launch party in 2019, giving ten percent of the evening’s sales and all raffle proceeds to the organization. In the years since, we have continued contributing boots, belts, and other goods to its fundraisers. (Hill Country Conservancy)
The Hill Country is growing quickly. Once open land is divided and developed, putting it back together is nearly impossible. Hill Country Conservancy works with landowners and communities to protect important pieces while they can still be protected.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation
Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation is the official nonprofit partner of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It brings private donations alongside public resources to support state parks, wildlife habitat, conservation projects, outdoor access, and the work of Texas game wardens.
Chisos began supporting the Foundation early in our company’s life. In 2020, we committed at least one percent of our revenue through the end of the year and participated in its Stewards of the Wild program. We have continued to support the broader work of caring for the lands, waters, fish, and wildlife of Texas. (Chisos)
Texas is too large, and the work is too varied, for any one organization to do it alone. The Foundation helps Texans put private resources behind places and species that belong to all of us.
Big Bend Conservation Alliance
Big Bend is personal to Chisos. Our company carries the name of its mountains.
Big Bend Conservation Alliance engages communities across Far West Texas in protecting the region’s land, water, dark skies, and culture. Its work includes water monitoring, tree planting, dark-sky protection, environmental education, and community-led conservation projects.
We have supported the Alliance through past donations because caring for Big Bend means caring for the whole region around the park.
(Big Bend Conservation Alliance)
Devils River Conservancy
The Devils River Conservancy works to preserve the Devils River, its springs, and the lands within its watershed.
Its work combines education, research, advocacy, and cooperation with the people who live along the river. The threats it addresses include land fragmentation, groundwater pumping, invasive species, overuse, and damage to the riverbed and surrounding habitat.
Chisos has contributed boots to help support the organization’s fundraising. It is one practical way we can help the people protecting a river that remains unlike almost anywhere else in Texas. (Devils River Conservancy)
TreeFolks
Stewardship can take the form of protecting a vast tract of land. It can also begin with planting one tree.
TreeFolks works throughout Central Texas to plant and care for trees in neighborhoods, parks, preserves, schoolyards, and areas damaged by natural disasters. Its volunteers and community partners help restore forests, grow shade, provide wildlife habitat, and strengthen the places where people live.
Their work is especially tangible. Plant a tree, care for it, and leave something living for people you may never meet. (TreeFolks)
Texan by Nature
Texan by Nature brings businesses and conservation organizations together.
Its premise is straightforward: the health of Texas communities and the Texas economy depends on the health of our natural resources. The organization connects conservation projects with businesses, funding, research, and people who can help those projects grow. (Texan 20)
Texas Water Foundation
Everything Texans value depends in some way on water.
Texas Water Foundation works toward a secure water future by developing water leaders, equipping decision-makers, bringing organizations together, and helping ordinary Texans understand where their water comes from and why it matters.
One of its public programs is the Water, Texas Film Festival, which invites filmmakers to tell stories about water throughout the state. Chisos has donated boots to support the festival in both 2025 and 2026.
Policy, infrastructure, and conservation all matter. Storytelling matters too. People are more likely to care for something once they understand their connection to it. (Texas Water Foundation)
Rebuild Sandy Creek
Stewardship also means helping a place recover after disaster.
After the July 2025 floods damaged homes and property around Sandy Creek, members of the community organized to help families rebuild. Chisos contributed a boots, finances, and we physically volunteered.
The donation did not restore a home by itself. It gave the organizers one more thing they could turn into money for families facing the long work of returning to their land and beginning again. (KUT)
Giving What We Have
These organizations work at different scales.The common thread is responsibility.
We should be faithful with what has been entrusted to us, however small. Chisos is one little boot shop in Austin. Our contributions are modest beside the work these organizations do. We still have a part to play.
Sometimes stewardship looks like a check. Sometimes it looks like a pair of cowboy boots sitting on an auction table.
In either case, the purpose is the same: care for what has been placed in your hands, and help the people doing the same.
