Wednesday, October 16, 2024
San Antonio Country Club
6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30pm
RSVP by October 3rd
– Casual Attire –
Honoring
Blair Fitzsimons
Blair Fitzsimons served as the founding CEO of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, which was created in 2006 to conserve Texas’ disappearing working lands. During Blair’s tenure, TALT protected more than 235,000 acres of farms and ranches from development. She also worked at the state and federal levels on numerous policy initiatives, including the creation of a state-funded conservation easement program and spearheading a comprehensive statewide outreach strategy to communicate the importance of working lands conservation. Previously, for American Farmland Trust, Blair commissioned the Texas Land Trends study to analyze trends in rural land loss and continues today to inform land policy development in Texas.
A native Texan and graduate of Princeton University, Blair served on the Land Trust Alliance Board from 2015-2018, as well as on the members committee of Terrafirma from 2012 to 2014. Previous board service includes as gubernatorially-appointed chair of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board, a $1.5B fund created by the Texas legislature to deploy technology to rural Texas, and on a committee of the Texas Water Development Board that helps to write the state’s water plan. Today she also serves on the boards of non-profit Texas Water Trade, whose mission is to stimulate innovation and market solutions for Texas’ water challenges, and the Texas A&M University Press.
After leaving TALT, Blair returned to the Fitzsimons family’s San Pedro Ranch in Carrizo Springs, Texas, where she and her husband Joseph raised and homeschooled their children. Beginning in 1989, Blair and Joseph implemented Holistic Resource Management which uses cattle as a tool to enhance grass cover, biodiversity, wildlife habitat and water resources. Protected by a conservation easement in 2009, the ranch is a former recipient of the regional Environmental Stewardship Award from the National Cattlemen Beef Association as well as other conservation awards. In addition to NCBA, the Fitzsimons are active members of Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers and Texas Wildlife Association. Today Blair is focused on her family’s ranch, Calvert Brothers Ranch, Dilley, Texas, where she is a managing partner. Passionate about fly-fishing, wing-shooting, horses, their grandchildren and working lands conservation, she and Joseph divide their time between South Texas and Big Horn, Wyoming.
