LCRA will lease Cooper Farm Natural Science Laboratory, its model wildlife conservation habitat demonstration site in northern Fayette County, to SPJST Education Nature Center for the next 50 years.

Under the lease agreement approved by LCRA’s Board at its meeting on Aug. 20, SPJST ENC will take over the operation and maintenance of the 182-acre property sometime this fall.

SPJST (Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas) is a fraternal benefit society serving Texas families since 1887. It was founded in Fayetteville by Czech settlers.

The agreement specifies that SPJST ENC will operate Cooper Farm in a manner consistent with the farm’s mission, which is "to develop people’s connection with the plants, animals and habitats of Central Texas through educational and recreational opportunities.”

Specifically, this means SPJST ENC will provide summer camps for youth and programs for schools and other groups throughout the year. Cooper Farm will remain a venue for community activities and programs and for wildlife conservation demonstration and education. This will be accomplished in part through a partnership with local wildlife cooperatives.

“Nothing could please us more than to operate Cooper Farm for the benefit of our friends in Fayette County and the State of Texas who look to it as a place to learn the importance of conserving our natural resources,” said Randy Gaas, SPJST ENC president. “We look forward to decades of continued successful community involvement.

“SPJST’s roots run deep in Fayette County, and we now will be able to bring our youth and their families from all over Texas here to teach them about their culture and SPJST’s beginnings,” Gaas continued. “Memories will be made here that will last a lifetime.”

SPJST ENC intends to construct dormitories to accommodate 144 people, a challenge course for team building and recreational vehicle sites for those participating in overnight programs and events. The projected budget for these improvements is $3 million.

Cooper Farm is known in Fayette and surrounding counties for hosting the popular Farm Safety Days, Wildlife Expo and spring and fall meetings of the North Central Fayette County Co-op. Under the agreement, SPJST will continue to make the facility available to the community at no cost for these events.

“For years the people of Fayette County and our neighboring counties have enjoyed using LCRA’s Cooper Farm as a gathering place to share ideas and learn from one another,” said Fayette County Judge Ed Janecka. “Our farmers and landowners have benefitted from the activities held there. We look forward to working with our friends at SPJST to continue these types of programs that are so important to our way of life.”

SPJST ENC was selected from a group of five entities that submitted statements of interest to LCRA. LCRA selected it as the entity that could best achieve LCRA’s financial and operating objectives for Cooper Farm. LCRA sought to lease the property in an effort to reduce operation costs. Leasing Cooper Farm will result in an annual operational savings to LCRA of approximately $145,000.

LCRA acquired Cooper Farm in the early 1980s as part of a larger lignite-mining operation for the Fayette Power Project in La Grange. The mining operation did not materialize, and LCRA developed the property into a demonstration site with a mission to provide significant value to Fayette County landowners through its conservation and education programs.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) designated Cooper Farm as a Texas Wildscape Demonstration Site. The farm is a member of a 30,000-acre wildlife management co-operative composed of neighboring landowners. In 1996 LCRA and the co-op received TPWD’s first statewide Lone Star Land Steward Award for outstanding accomplishments in habitat management and wildlife conservation. In 2007 LCRA received TPWD’s corporate award for land and water conservation programs, with Cooper Farm being a part of that award.