LANEY TARLTON SLATER RICKMAN

1952-2017

Laney Tarlton Slator Rickman, 65, died unexpectedly and suddenly on 26 August 2017 at her farm in Cuero, Texas after a week of physician care for debilitating chest pains of undetermined origin. The center of Hurricane Harvey was passing over the farm as EMTs worked gallantly and professionally in attempts to revive her.

Descended from the Austin 300 family of Robert Hemphill Millican, Laney was a 9th generation Texan. Millican’s Gin in Jackson County was owned by her in-line grandparents. The gin was the site of the Lavaca-Navidad Meeting in1835 which presaged the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Laney was born 15 April 1952 and raised in Houston. She was a member of the graduating class of 1970 from Robert E. Lee High School. She attended the University of Texas at Austin, Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and the University of Houston, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish.

Since 1998 Laney was President/CEO and co-founder of the nonprofit Bird Endowment, Inc. based in Cuero, Texas. As well -- and much to her absolute delight! -- she had recently become a prizewinning photographer in the start of a serious interest she intended to master. Prior to Bird Endowment, Laney had been an executive with the Houston Post newspaper. She previously had worked at the Houston Chronicle where she met Jack, her husband of 38 years.

She is an internationally recognized speaker-writer known for many accomplishments in the in-situ/ex-situ conservation of the Blue-throated Macaw (BTM). This Bolivian-endemic parrot is critically endangered and near extinction, with only about 300 remaining in the wild.

The American Federation of Aviculture presented Laney and Bird Endowment with its singular 2013 Silver AVY Award for achievement with an individual avian species.

“She was recognized for her work with the Blue-throated Macaw ex-situ for advocating raising those birds that were in captivity as closely as possible to the way they would be raised in the wild by the parents. Laney advocated that parent-rearing by wildcaptured parents already in the pet trade helps preserve the wild species culture of the threatened BTMs in their domestic flock,” said an AFA member.

Laney, with Bird Endowment, Inc., originated and developed the impactful Nido Adoptivo nest box project in 2007 in Bolivia in partnership with the Bolivian bird conservation NGO Asociación Armonia. Nido Adoptivo supporters supplement the dwindling supply of natural hollow-tree nesting sites by sponsoring nesting boxes affixed to trees for the wild BTM population. The successes of the Nido Adoptivo Program are demonstrated by the 71 BTM hatchlings that have fledged from the nest boxes, including in 2017 the first chick to be raised by parents who both had fledged from these nest boxes.

“We are sure that the Blue-throated Macaws of El Beni, Bolivia, will always thank Laney, the fact she provided to the next generations a brighter future,” said Wolfgang Kiessling, whose early 1990s conservation efforts as founder of Loro Parque Fundacion is perhaps the singular cause the Blue-throated Macaw is not already extinct. Kiessling is also president of the popular European resort Loro Parque located in Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands).

Also, when the purchase by other donors of the privately owned ~1500 acres Esperancita (Hope) ranch is completed, it will be known thereafter as the Laney Rickman Reserve. Esperancita is the first private-land acquisition in protecting the southern range, Lareto, of the Blue-throated Macaw. The northern range, now with ~27,000 protected acres of BTM habitat, is known as the Barba Azul (Bolivian name of the BTM) Reserve.

Laney was predeceased by her mother Dorothy “Dot” McDonald Slator. She is survived by her father Damon Tarlton Slator, her husband Jack or Jackie (Jackson) Rickman of Cuero, her daughter-of-the-heart Valda “Che” Rickman and husband Matt Crawford, and her granddaughter Sway Opal Crawford of Houston; her sister Dorothy Slator Paterson and husband Malcolm Paterson of Houston, and her sister Helen Slator Young and husband Holland Young of Austin and Galveston; as well as her nieces and nephews: Audrey Tarlton Paterson of Knoxville TN, Andrew Slator Paterson and wife Kim of San Francisco CA, Rachael Slator Baker and Grady Damon Baker of Austin.

A celebration of Laney’s life and accomplishments is planned for January 2018 in Houston. In her honor, Laney’s family, the Bird Endowment, the Asociación Armonia (Bolivia), and the American Bird Conservancy (USA) have partnered to establish the “Laney S. Rickman Memorial Fund for Blue-throated Macaws.” The fund will continue the Nido Adoptivo project as well as long-term conservation and support for the wild Blue-throated Macaw in Bolivia. If you wish to make a memorial donation in remembrance of Laney, please go to www.abcbirds.org/rickman-memorial-fund/ OR, to make a donation by mail, please send a check made out to American Bird Conservancy to:

American Bird Conservancy

“Laney S. Rickman Memorial Fund for Blue-throated Macaws” P.O. Box 249 The Plains, VA 20198 “It is a difficult time, but we have to keep alive her determination to succeed, her resilient spirit and her constant overcoming aim, and continuing the project she pushed, because she will be proud to see her friends achieving the goals she had in mind. In doing so her legacy and principles will remain with us forever,” Kiessling said, in offering “the support of Loro Parque and Loro Parque Fundacion.”