Texas A&M University has been named to the 2026 Texan by Nature 20, an annual list of organizations in Texas recognized for conservation work with measurable results, and it is the first college or university to make the list, the university announced this week.
Texan by Nature, the conservation nonprofit that compiles the list, scores honorees on their commitment, metrics and spending, the return on their conservation results, and their effects on land, water, wildlife, people, waste and energy. A&M said it was chosen for a campuswide approach that ties research, teaching, student projects and building operations together.
Fewer birds hitting buildings
A large part of the university's account centers on birds flying into campus glass. Since 2020, A&M's Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections has kept bird specimens gathered through monitoring tied to Lights Out Texas. Over four semesters of monitoring, volunteers documented nearly 500 dead birds from 67 species at 49 campus buildings.
Twelve of those species are on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's list of Species of Greatest Conservation Need.
In December 2024, students, faculty, staff and nonprofit partners took the problem to university leaders, who formed a working group. Guidelines from a bird collision deterrence guide written with outside experts are now part of the Campus Master Plan and shape building facades, lighting and landscaping, and two major construction projects have written the measures into their designs, the university said.
The AgriLife Center had bird-friendly glass installed at one high-risk spot in May 2025, and the 2026 end-of-season report from Bird Friendly Aggieland recorded no collisions at all along the retrofitted side. This year, a $37,289 Aggie Green Fund grant paid for deterrent markers on a skybridge flagged as another problem location.
