2023 Jensie Madden Comal Conservation Award Presented
to Honey Creek Spring Ranch Owners
On May 23, 2023, The Comal County Conservation Alliance (CCCA) presented the Jensie Madden Comal Conservation Award to sisters Joyce Moore and Cynthia Martinez for their foresight, commitment to good stewardship and contribution to protecting Honey Creek Cave and the Edwards Aquifer.
Moore and Martinez are owners of the 621-acre Honey Creek Spring Ranch which has been in their family for 150 years. In January 2022, the sisters placed their ranch in a conservation easement which will allow them to continue to own and be good stewards of the ranch but will protect it from the possibility of future development. The ranch, in western Comal County, provides nesting grounds to the endangered Golden-cheek Warbler and Black-capped Vireo and sits above Honey Creek Cave. Honey Creek Cave is the longest known cave system in Texas and drains into the Edwards Aquifer.
This award has special meaning to LWV Comal Area members as its name honors longtime League member Jensie Simms Madden who served on the local Board of Directors in several positions, chaired the committee that updated our Land Use study and position in 2017, and served as the LWV Texas Land Use Issue Chair. Madden was an educator at heart and a model citizen who worked to bring people together to build a better community. She cared deeply about justice for people and for the environment.
Madden was integral to the formation of CCCA in May 2018, and a founding Board member who helped guide the fledgling organization. She strove to foster engagement with elected officials through the Government Affairs Committee which she chaired. Earlier, Madden was very instrumental in bringing stakeholders together to create the Comal Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and served on that Board for several years.
In 2020, the CCCA Board decided to develop an award to publicly recognize outstanding efforts of people within the community to promote and achieve preservation of land, water, and wildlife in Comal County. On January 6, 2022, the Board of Directors voted to honor Madden by titling the award The Jensie Madden Comal Conservation Award. Her qualities of great vision, inclusive leadership, skillful organization, respectful personal engagement, accountability to herself and others, and dedication to the preservation of natural resources in Comal County and beyond are what CCCA honors through this Award and lifts up as an example and inspiration to all. The inaugural award was given posthumously to Madden in 2022 to honor her contributions to conservation in Comal County.
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