After 10 years as Bayou Land Conservancy’s executive director, Jill Boullion reflected on her time spent in leadership and the progress the conservancy has made over the years. According to its website, the conservancy works to preserve land along streams for better flood control, clean water and wildlife. It preserves land within watersheds that feed into Lake Houston in north Harris and Montgomery counties, according to the website.
As she prepares for retirement in August, Boullion said she hopes her efforts to spread awareness of conservation in Montgomery County will leave an impact across surrounding communities. In a Q&A with Community Impact, Boullion described her hope for the conservancy as future leadership steps into the role.
You’ve been the executive director at the Bayou Land Conservancy for the past 10 years. What motivated you to pursue your role?
Before I came here, I was at the Greens Bayou Coalition. I had spent all my career in marketing and advertising, so it was kind of like getting to take all the experience and skills I had built up over all that time and put them into something I was passionate about. I didn't know anything about conservation easements, and I thought, how often do you get to have a job that you get to do something really good and impactful for the community and learn more stuff along the way? I could have a bigger impact in the community than what I was doing ... an even larger footprint.
What do you wish more people knew about the Bayou Land Conservancy?
A lot of people don't realize where we get our support and what makes us run. A big part of what we do is connecting people with nature so that we're a sustainable organization. A lot of people don't understand how conservation benefits them ... it keeps their water cleaner, their air cleaner; it allows habitat for animals that are threatened or are losing their places to live. In a lot of cases, for us and others, we have preserves that are publicly accessible, so if you want to get out and experience nature, then we provide that, too.
What are some of the biggest projects you’ve tackled during your time at the Bayou Land Conservancy?
We preserved about 4,000 acres in the time that I've been here, which is about 400 acres a year, and it is pretty good because we're doing less mitigation projects and more projects with private landowners. The first one would be our 15 miles for Spring Creek Nature Trail, which isn't a conservation project per se ... It's here in The Woodlands area, and it’s built on land that's owned by other entities, like Howard Hughes, The Woodlands Township or Montgomery County Precinct 3. Another project that was really fulfilling was our Arrowwood Preserve, which is located in Tomball right across the Spring Creek from Lone Star College, Tomball campus, and that is a property that we own. So most of our preserved land is conservation easements, and that's the biggest. The other one is quite small on Cypress Creek, but this one is 117 acres, and our vision ... was it [could] be an outdoor living laboratory that it would be a place where students, community groups and people could do hands-on projects and really help us build something.
Over the past 10 years, what growth have you seen at BLC?
We're a small organization, but we have grown. We've added staff over the time I've been here. We have more resources, we can do more.
That's really the bottom line. And there are some species of greatest need here in the Houston area that additional conservation would be so beneficial for. One of them is the alligator snapping turtle. I think that people don't realize the great diversity of wildlife species that we have here, and without connected green spaces, we lose that. I think people in Montgomery County are starting to realize that the county has really grown population-wise. Yes, there are some places in the county [where] you're still out in the country, but that's going away, and I think that there's a realization that there's something worth protecting in the county.
What legacy or impact do you hope to leave with the community as you retire?
I hope my impact will be remembered not necessarily for a specific project; although if I did, we did Arrowwood [Preserve] while I was here, which was great. I know we've had a lot of focus on making sure that everyone feels welcome and safe at our public preserves, and that's really important to me that I know everybody has a different level of comfort when it comes to being outside. I want people in the community to feel like they can go to our public preserves and our trails and feel safe and feel welcomed.
Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify which county was being referred to.
