If I had a money tree, unfurling green
dollars on each branch, would I nurture
it, and help it grow to produce more and
more green dollars?
You bet I would. Most folks would
be thrilled to have a green money tree
growing in their yard.
Well, there are several money trees
growing in my yard. Almost every Valley
yard grows money trees. The Valley
is full of money trees. Our money
trees here do not grow green dollars on
each branch, instead they grow birds on
each branch. Birds attract bird watcher
tourists, people we call birders. Birders
bring money with them and leave half
a billion dollars a year here with us,
spreading it around Valley businesses
and birding destinations. We know this
from a research study published by Texas
A&M University (see
southtexasnature.org,
click on Nature Reports, then
Economic Impact of Nature Tourism,
and on pdf report Economic Impact of
Nature Tourism).
Birders convert our trees into money
trees, with their spending. But which
trees are the money trees? They are typically
trees native to the Valley. They have grown
here for millennia, so are well adapted to Valley
conditions of years of drought interspersed
with wet tropical years. In particular, Anacua
is very bird friendly, producing crops of yellow
berries after rainfall. Other native Valley
trees easy to grow and popular with birds for
fruit, foraging, nesting, or roosting are Anacahuita
Wild Olive, Blackthorn, Brazil, Catsclaw,
Coma, Cedar Elm, Ebano, Hackberry, Huisache,
Mesquite, Mexican Ash, Retama, and Tepehuaje.
While most of these money trees are available
at Valley nurseries, it is amazing after
rain to look around in the yard and find them
growing on their own. Usually they have been
planted by birds (from undigested seeds in their
droppings). When they are small and short they
are easy to transplant into a good location in
our yard. These trees attract the birds we enjoy,
and the birds that birders seek. But to complete
the circle, how do we attract the birders, letting
them know that we have great birds? The Valley
is particularly successful in this skill.
We have a non-profit organization that specializes
in attracting birders. Formed in 2001,
South Texas Nature Marketing Co-op (STN)
is a non-profit supported by Valley Chambers
of Commerce, Convention & Visitors Bureaus,
Valley Cities, birding destinations and service
providers. It is unique in U.S., attracting birders
mainly in two ways.
Firstly, by hosting outdoor writers from all
over the world, and showing them our Valley
birds, restaurants, and culture. These writers
typically have a great time and pen wonderful
stories about the Valley and its birds in magazines,
newspaper travel sections, and online,
reaching tens of thousands of birders on each
story. This attracts more birders here, often carrying
the story with them in their luggage so they
can follow the route recommended in the story.
Secondly, STN exhibits at bird festivals in
U.S. and bird fairs in Europe. These events offer
birder trade shows, lectures, and field trips,
and are attractive to birders who travel, our
Valley target market.
Over the past 13 years this work has been
so successful that other birding destinations in
Texas have joined to support our effort.
With the richest birding in the United
States occurring in Texas, this has
raised our exhibit profile, an exhibit we
call Texas Birding, and made it easier to
attract attention. With the richest birding
in Texas being in the Valley, it has
raised the Valley's profile too, and made
the Valley much more attractive, positioning
us here as the richest birding location
not just in Texas, but also in the
United States. The Valley is number one
in the U.S., and is in the top thirty birding
spots in the world.
During the past year STN has exhibited
at the following events:
British Birdfair, Great Britain,
attended by 27,000 birders
Cape May Birding Festival, NJ,
3,000 birders
Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, Harlingen, TX, 3,000 birders
Space Coast Birding Festival, FL, 5,000 birders
Norfolk Birdfair, Great Britain, 2,500 birders
Scottish Bird and Nature Fair, Great Britain, 5,000 birders
Hamburg Birdfair, Germany, 2,500 birders
These events have reached an audience of
48,000 birders. Typically birders do not attend
these events annually, but rather once in
3 to 5 years. So our audience there is largely
new each year. The British Birdfair STN has
worked since 2002, and the others we have exhibited
at from 1 to 4 years.
Between the media and bird fairs coverage,
STN has successfully grown the birder tourism
in the Valley quite substantially, from my estimate
of under $100 million a year in the 1990s
to about $500 million currently.
There are other factors that attract birders to
the Valley, in particular our great diversity of
birds and of birding destinations, but that is
another story, Locating Money Trees. Next it
would be great to find out how to benefit from
this birding resource, and that is the following
story,
Tapping Into Money Trees.