Gorgas Science Foundation Inc | |
| Abbreviation | GSF |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1947 |
| Founder | Barbara T. Warburton |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| 74-2284635 | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
| Headquarters | Brownsville, Texas |
| Website | https://www.sabalpalmsanctuary.org/ |
The Gorgas Science Foundation is a nonprofit foundation based in South Texas established to support conservation and education.
The mission of Gorgas Science Foundation is to provide the highest quality educational opportunities, to foster greater awareness and understanding of ecological issues, and to encourage conservation of critical natural resources. [1]
The foundation was started in 1947 and incorporated in 1983 by Texas Southmost College biology professor Barbara T. Warburton. The name honors pioneering research scientist Dr. William Crawford Gorgas who served at Fort Brown in the 19th century. [2]
In collaboration with the Audubon Society, the foundation operates the Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville, Texas. [3] [4] In 1994 the Gorgas Foundation produced the 18 volume "Treasures of the Rio Grande Delta" documentary that focused on the history and habitat of the region. [5] [6]
In 2010 the foundation published the bilingual Spanish and English El Valle: The Rio Grande Delta an exploration of the biodiversity and culture of the region.
In 2016 the foundation published Hummingbirds , by John C. Arvin. the first volume of the two volume set book on Hummingbirds. [7]
In cooperation with the University of Texas at Brownsville, the Gorgas Foundation has operated two biology field stations in the cloud forests along the eastern escarpment of northeastern Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental. The foundation's work at Rancho del Cielo and Rancho el Cielito research stations laid the groundwork for the creation of the 360,000 acre El Cielo Biosphere Reserve in Tamaulipas. [8]
The Gorgas Foundation supported years of field work in the Western Ghats of India that culminated in a 60-minute documentary by prizewinning cinematographer Sandesh Kadur titled "Sahyadris – Mountains of the Monsoon." [9]
Brownsville is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Cameron County, located on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The city covers 145.2 sq mi (376.066 km2), and had a population of 186,738 at the 2020 census. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, it is the 139th-largest city in the United States and 18th-largest in Texas. It is part of the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan area. The city is known for its year-round subtropical climate, deep-water seaport, and Hispanic culture.
The Lower Rio Grande Valley, commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The region includes the southernmost tip of South Texas and a portion of northern Tamaulipas, Mexico. It consists of the Brownsville, Harlingen, Weslaco, Pharr, McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, San Juan, and Rio Grande City metropolitan areas in the United States and the Matamoros, Río Bravo, and Reynosa metropolitan areas in Mexico. The area is generally bilingual in English and Spanish, with a fair amount of Spanglish due to the region's diverse history and transborder agglomerations. It is home to some of the poorest cities in the nation, as well as many unincorporated, persistent poverty communities called colonias. A large seasonal influx occurs of "winter Texans" — people who come down from the north for the winter and then return north before summer arrives.
The University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) was a public university in Edinburg, Texas. Founded in 1927, it was a component institution of the University of Texas System. The university served the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas with baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees. The Carnegie Foundation classified UTPA as a "doctoral research university". From the institution's founding until it was merged into the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), it grew from 200 students to over 20,000, making UTPA the 10th-largest university in Texas. The majority of these students were natives of the Rio Grande Valley. UTPA also operated an Upper Level Studies Center in Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas. On August 15, 2014, Dr. Havidan Rodriguez was appointed interim President of UTPA, the institution's final leader.
Texas Southmost College (TSC) is a public junior college located in Brownsville, Texas, United States.
Resaca is the name given to a type of oxbow lake in the southern half of Cameron County, Texas. The resacas constitute former channels of the Rio Grande and are naturally cut off from the river, having no inlet or outlet.
Brownsville Independent School District is a school district based in Brownsville, Texas, United States.
Valley Nature Center is a 6-acre park and nature preserve in Gibson City Park, Weslaco, Texas. Its focus is environmental education about the natural history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville combined statistical area is made up of two counties in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. The CSA consists of the Brownsville–Harlingen metropolitan statistical area and the Raymondville micropolitan statistical area. A 2013 census estimate puts its population at 439,197.
The Tamaulipan mezquital is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion in the Southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It covers an area of 141,500 km2 (54,600 sq mi), encompassing a portion of the Gulf Coastal Plain in southern Texas, northern Tamaulipas, northeastern Coahuila, and part of Nuevo León.
Sabal mexicana is a species of palm tree that is native to far southern North America. Common names include Rio Grande palmetto, Mexican palmetto, Texas palmetto, Texas sabal palm, palmetto cabbage and palma de mícharos. The specific epithet, "mexicana", is Latin for "of Mexico."
The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail is a state-designated system of trails, bird sanctuaries, and nature preserves along the entire length of the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States. As the state of Texas hosts more bird species than any other state in the U.S. the trail system offers some of the most unusual opportunities for bird-watching in the world. The "trail" is actually 43 separate hiking and driving trails that include 308 birding sites. The sites themselves feature a variety of viewing opportunities with boardwalks, observation decks, and other amenities. The trails boast more than 450 bird species. The trail system is managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as part of the Great Texas Wildlife Trails which also include the Heart of Texas Wildlife Trail, the Panhandle Plains Wildlife Trail, and the Prairies and Pineywoods Wildlife Trail.
Matamoros–Brownsville, also known as Brownsville–Matamoros, or simply as the Borderplex, is one of the six transborder agglomerations along the Mexico–United States border. It is part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley region. The city of Matamoros is situated in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, on the south bank of the Rio Grande, while the city of Brownsville is located in the U.S. state of Texas, directly north across the bank of the Rio Grande. The Matamoros–Brownsville area is connected by four international bridges. In addition, this transnational conurbation area has a population of 1,136,995, making it the fourth-largest metropolitan area on the Mexico-U.S. border.
Sandesh Kadur is an Indian wildlife film producer and conservation photographer known for his contributions to BBC Planet Earth II. Sandesh's films have been shown on various television networks including National Geographic Channel, BBC, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.
The Sabal Palm Sanctuary is a 557-acre (225-hectare) nature reserve and bird sanctuary located in the delta of the Rio Grande Valley in Cameron County near Brownsville, Texas. It is noted for being one of the last locations in the Rio Grande Valley with a profuse grove of sabal palms, an edible-heart-bearing palm much prized by pre-Hispanic inhabitants and noted by early explorers. As a relatively habitat-rich remnant of this Valley, it is a prized birdwatching and butterfly watching location for persons interested in the ecology of the Valley and adjacent states of northern Mexico.
The University of Texas at Brownsville was an educational institution located in Brownsville, Texas. The university was on the land once occupied by Fort Brown. It was a member of the University of Texas System. The institution was formed from a 1991 partnership between the two-year Texas Southmost College and University of Texas-Pan American at Brownsville. The partnership ended in 2011 as UTB became a standalone University of Texas institution, and Texas Southmost College returned to being an independent community college. UTB itself offered baccalaureate and graduate degrees in liberal arts, sciences, education, business, and professional programs.
The El Cielo Biosphere Reserve is located in the Sierra Madre Oriental in the southern part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas near the town of Gómez Farias. The reserve protects the northernmost extension of tropical forest and cloud forest in Mexico. It has an area of 144,530 hectares made up mostly of steep mountains rising from about 200 metres (660 ft) to a maximum altitude of more than 2,300 metres (7,500 ft).
Hummingbirds is a large format, fine art book coffee table book about hummingbirds written by John C. Arvin, with 212 illustrations of hummingbirds in their habitat, and published in 2016. The book is published by Gorgas Science Foundation in the United States of America and Felis Creations in India.
Felis Creations is a Bangalore, Karnataka-based film production company founded in 2006 by Sandesh Kadur. It produces factual programs for international broadcast. Felis Creations is also involved in wildlife documentation and conservation activities in collaboration with Wildlife Conservation Organizations. Felis creations was the producer for recent TV series Planet Earth II broadcast by the BBC.
Sangeetha Kadur is an Indian artist from Bangalore, India. Her illustrations have been published in several field guides, wildlife books and magazines. The Hummingbird book, for Gorgas Science Foundation for which she has contributed artworks, has been acclaimed worldwide.
Maria Alma Solis is an entomologist at the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) of the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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