Sipping Wild, Giving Back: WildGins Helps Preserve Texas Biodiversity

The world of craft spirits often celebrates local ingredients, but for WildGins, local botanicals are more than a trend; they are the foundation of our entire enterprise. Born from the rugged, untamed essence of West Texas, WildGins is the only gin in the world distilled from the region’s unique juniper trees. Because of our inextricable link to this extraordinary region, we have made giving back to the land an essential part of our mission. This commitment is realized through our “Give a Wild Buck” campaign, a vital initiative that directly links every bottle sold to the preservation of West Texas’s astounding biodiversity. 

Give A Wild Buck: Our Essential Commitment to Conservation

 Our annual “Give A Wild Buck” campaign is a simple way to give back to the lands that bring us our unique Texas Junipers.  Here are the basics:

• What? For every bottle purchased of WildBark or WildJune ,we give $1 to preserve West Texas Lands
• Who? We give the proceeds to The Nature Conservancy - West Texas Chapter
• Why? We want to preserve the lands that gave us our wild Texas junipers 
• When? Every November 1st through February 28th (4 full months of giving) 

By purchasing WildBark West Texas Dry or WildJune Western Style Gins, customers are actively drinking a wild part of Texas while giving back to the folks keeping Texas Wild.

Why Preserve West Texas? A Sky Island of Biodiversity

We forage our alligator and redberry junipers that we feature in WildBark and WildJune Gin from the Davis Mountains and surrounding areas in West Texas.  The unique climate, elevation, history, and soil of these West Texas lands has created an isolated hotspot of biodiversity known as a 'sky island'. Sky islands become home to unique flora and fauna that survive and thrive in the mountainous cool climates but can't make it in the drastically different biome found in the surrounding lowlands. The Trans-Pecos Sky islands (that includes Davis, Guadalupe and Chisos mountain ranges) came into being as we transitioned from an ice age 20,000 years ago into a warming trend for the next 11,000 years.  The old forest plants and animals that once permeated the region became restricted to higher elevation with cooler climates while an entirely new set of plants emerged in the Chihuahuan desert below.

Sky islands are guardians of the past and bastions of present-day biodiversity. Because these geographically isolated regions are rare, as are the animals and plants found within them, they are well worth preserving. Here are some of the unique flora and fauna in the Trans-Pecos Sky Islands:

• Montezuma Quail, pygmy nuthatches, and juniper titmice 
• Rare species of Hummingbirds (e.g. Rivoli's)
• Four of the 8 Great Juniper Species of Texas call the Trans-Pecos Home

Our Gins highlight the uniqueness of the Trans-Pecos Sky Island, and we are committed to preserving these precious lands.

Why The Nature Conservancy? 

Quite simply, no other land conservation organization is doing more to preserve the unique lands found in the Davis Mountains area than the TNC- Texas.  Since 1964, The Nature Conservancy in Texas has been essential in:

• Conserving over 1 million acres of land in Texas. 
• Protecting species from extinction The TNC works with scientist to help protect the 1300 species of Greatest Conservation Need in Texas.
• Creating the Davis Mountain Preserve.  a 32,000+ acre preserve with adjoining areas that constitutes 110,000 acres of protected lands to ensure this sky island continues to thrive. 

The Nature Conservancy in Texas, specifically focusing on West Texas and land conservation in the Davis Mountain area, has been a vital force protecting this unique region with its exceptional biodiversity.

What the Davis Mountain Sky Island Gives Us?

The Davis Mountain sky island is found in Jeff Davis county in Texas, alongside four species of juniper.  This level of juniper biodiversity is unheard of.  For comparison, the entire continent of Europe contains 4 species of juniper, while we Texans have that level of juniper biodiversity in a single county.  Every other gin you've ever had contains the common juniper (Juniperus communis) which is the dominant juniper in Europe. As a biology professor by day (at the University of Texas at Austin), I became aware of Texas' unparalleled juniper diversity with 8 species in total across our state.  So I went on a nature hunt to find the very best species for gin.  Given the rare ecosystem found in the Davis Mountains' sky island, it should come as no surprise to be informed that the best two species call the Trans-Pecos home.

We take great pride in serving up the unique flavors of West Texas in a bottle, and we do so by creating gins that contain some of the most unique junipers on the planet.  The two Texas junipers that are the stars of our gins include:

• Alligator Juniper (Juniperus deppeana), also known as the Checkerbark Juniper, is named for its rugged bark and is featured in our WildBark West Texas Dry Gin.  The alligator juniper grows only at high elevation (>5000 ft) and is the largest of the 8 Texas junipers. It can grow over 60 feet tall by 40 feet wide and live to over 200 years old. Its' berry is larger and bolder than the common juniper which is why I often refer to WildBark as our James Bond or James Dean of Gin . While Alligator juniper grows in two  other western states (New Mexico and Arizona) the isolated nature of the Davis Mountains has made this variety a sub-species with its own unique flavor and chemical properties.  
  
  
• Redberry Juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) is a truly Texas original.  It grows in no other US state, and immigrated to West Texas and the panhandle from Mexico during the early cattle drives.  The flavor profile of the redberry is as rare as its geographic range.  While most junipers have a very aromatic 'piney' flavor to them, the redberry has a sweetness that is as uncommon as her red color.  We feature her in our WildJune Western Style Gin and complement her sweet attributes with 10 other botanicals that add depth and complexity. Hence, I often refer to her in the feminine because of her complex but sweet nature.

You can read more about how these two junipers lend themselves to two entirely different (and uniquely Texas) gins on Our Products page.

Preserving and Honoring our Trees

You can read how we honor each of our trees by naming them and creating single distillation batches in our previous  "WildGins 101: From Berry to Bottle-- How we make WildBark & WildJune Gin" post.  But the best way you can participate in preserving and honoring the uniqueness of West Texas is to take part in our 'Give A Wild Buck' Campaign. 

We invite you to purchase WildGins either in Texas retail stores that you can find on our Where to Buy page or simply order them online and we'll ship them to your doorstep (whether you live in Texas or any other state).  It's a great Holiday gift too  (just ask the writers at Forbes Magazine!) , so you can share with your friends and relatives outside of Texas while knowing your gift is helping Texas stay Wild. 

Until the next sip, wander boldly, taste deeply, and savor the wild.

— Molly & the WildGins Team

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