Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Looby.
Hi Karen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
A native Texan with historic generational roots, I grew up fully versed in Texas lore and with an appetite to explore its wide-open spaces. I grew up in the country just outside of College Station, TX. My father was a marine biologist, and my parents had a heart for wildlife. In addition to the standard types of pets like dogs, cats, etc., we also took in various types of wildlife here and there, typically nursing them back to health and re-releasing them into the wild. Horses were my passion. I spent as much time as possible on the back of my horse. I often rode my horse with friends who lived nearby through neighboring farms and ranches. I appreciate the farmers and ranchers who opened their gates and allowed us to explore the rolling hills of the expansive Blackland Prairies and the Brazos River bottoms right in our “backyards.’
When it was time for college, I went to the only school that I ever considered, Texas A&M University. There, I earned my Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees and obtained school principalship and superintendency certifications. Over more than 3o years, I earned experience in public education as an elementary school teacher, administrator, professional learning facilitator, researcher, and program evaluator. I conducted program evaluations for public school and nonprofit programs, focusing on student, staff, and organizational outcomes. I often served in an advisory capacity for local, state, and national projects.
Upon retirement from education in 2020, I had the opportunity to embark on a new journey. In July 2020, Desert Door Distillery (my husband, Brent Looby, is one of three founders) started Wild Spirit Wild Places® (WSWP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to help protect the wild lands of Texas. With years of nonprofit and project management experience, I was asked to get this fledgling entity off the ground and running. My expertise puts me in a unique position to help fulfill Wild Spirit Wild Place’s mission of educating the public on the importance of Texas’ ranch lands, facilitating studies to advance land stewardship practices, and encouraging the practice of sustainability and conservationism.
In just 3 years, WSWP has implemented multiple education and land stewardship projects focused on restoring and maintaining biodiversity on Texas land to maintain the aquifers that feed Texas groundwater, sustain a healthy terrain, and support the needs of native wildlife. WSWP also launched its WILD TALK series in 2022. These interactive events provide community members with opportunities to engage with distinguished experts and one another to develop a community committed to conserving the lands and wildlife of Texas.
Partnership and collaboration are key strategies for the work of WSWP. We join forces with other like-minded corporations and business partners to support our land conservation and education efforts. The power of partnerships will allow us to elevate and extend exemplary work being done in the Texas land conservation space and create opportunities for community connection and engagement. Our motivation is simple — we don’t want to be the generation that sat idly by while our wild places disappeared.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My life path has been a mixture of traditional and non-traditional endeavors. I have been blessed to have many unique opportunities presented to me. Most of these have had structures within to work. Creating Wild Spirit Wild Places@ gave me a blank palette to work with others to develop a vision, mission, strategy, and connections. It sounds exciting, but this process is something you can do with others. It requires the engagement of others passionate about our future in Texas. There are many organizations, agencies, and businesses doing some great work. We want to build on that and fill in the gaps. We have found a need to connect individuals within our communities around the work that will benefit all. This is a challenging task. It requires lots of collaboration, communication, and relationship-building over time. All of this takes time and patience with the understanding that even the smallest of individual efforts can be joined together for a big impact. Getting the word out about the work and communicating the role we all have to play is a constant challenge.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The work of Wild Spirit Wild Places® presents an opportunity for me to return to my roots and ensure that we have a future in Texas. I always cherish the memories of our small community and how everyone depended on one another and worked together. This is why Wild Spirit Wild Places® creates connections and builds a community committed to protecting the expansive wild lands of Texas through conservation and education efforts. The Census Bureau reports Texas is now one of only two U.S. states with a population of 30 million or more: the nation’s second-most-populous state reached a population milestone by passing the 30-million threshold. Texas’s population is second only to California, which is unsurprising given its consistent place in recent years among the nation’s fastest-growing, largest-gaining states. From 2000 to 2022, the population of 11 of Texas’s 254 counties more than doubled.
Today, the expansive wild lands that are the hallmark of Texas are threatened by increased land development and fragmentation. This loss is problematic as open land provides water filtration and storage, provides habitat and migratory corridors for wildlife, mitigates air pollution, sequesters carbon, and preserves farmland needed to feed our communities. Over the years, Texas has experienced a significant decline in open and working land, and approximately 95% of Texas’s land is privately owned (Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, 2020). From 1997 to 2017, Texas lost about 2.2M acres of working land, with a loss of nearly 1.2M within the last 5-year period. Private land stewardship is considered the most effective to protect and improve natural resources in the state (Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, 2021). Private land stewardship conserves a property’s natural resources over a long period. It involves keeping soils, native vegetation, and water bodies intact and healthy, benefitting wildlife and their habitat. We can make a difference and fill gaps.
Our theory of change follows:
We can connect and engage our communities through conservation and education efforts to help protect the wild lands of Texas. Then, we can create powerful and sustainable networks committed to mitigating the effects of land development and fragmentation by keeping soils, native vegetation, and water bodies intact and healthy, benefiting wildlife and their habitat.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Connections to the land and one another are critical to protecting the expansive lands of Texas. These connections between individuals and organizations can significantly impact local communities across the state. Strong connections and engagement are considered effective measures to protect the environment and to leverage resources for sustainability.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wildspiritwildplaces.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildspiritwildplaces/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildspiritwildplaces
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/wild-spirit-wild-places-269696294
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wild+spirit+wild+places
