Brandon Belcher is The Nature Conservancy’s North Texas Preserves Manager. He oversees several nature preserves, including the Lamar County Smiley Meadow Preserve, for which Ørsted donated the land.

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The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has had a presence in Lamar County for around 50 years, and over that time we’ve developed a strong relationship with the community.

Grasslands like Smiley Meadow depend on “disturbance,” which means they need a periodic resetting. Here, we achieve this through hay cutting. This preserve is in a very healthy, intact condition because it’s been cut for hay on an annual basis for probably the last 150 years. And that hay management continues to this day, thanks to our ongoing partnership with local business Lamar Ranch.

Grassland conservation is so important in North America. We have very little left of our original prairies in Texas, so an unplowed space like Smiley Meadow is special. It's one of the biggest examples of protected native prairie in the state of Texas. Each time I visit this preserve, I find some new plant in bloom. We’ve counted over 300 plant species here, and birds, butterflies, bees and other wildlife bring constant motion. The animals rely on this plant community, and they in turn are integral to the health of the system. The grasslands serve as breeding grounds for different breeds of birds every year—we’ll see neotropical migrant birds that travel a long distance just to nest in a space like this.

Ørsted actually owned this land as part of its lease agreement for the Mockingbird Solar Center, just next door to us. They donated it to TNC, and we can now ensure its continued wellbeing.

My colleague David Bezanson, TNC Land Protection Strategy Program Director, and I have a great relationship with Ørsted’s onsite managers. Clean energy and conservation work well together. I think there’s a lot of ways we can conduct research on the coexistence of a preserve and an adjacent solar farm. We appreciate the importance that Ørsted places on biodiversity. I would encourage other conservation groups like TNC to work together with renewable energy companies such as Ørsted to increase renewable investment while minimizing impacts. Protecting our special places is what The Nature Conservancy is all about, and we’ve got a perfect partner here in Ørsted.