Ben Eldredge is the Executive Director of the Heart of Texas Conservancy, a land trust and environmental policy organization that has conserved almost 15,000 acres in the Hill Country and promoted the passage of two conservation bonds in Kendall County.   
Growing up in Dallas, Ben waded in the littered shallows of Turtle Creek and frequented the few parks with mountain bike trails.  This contrasted with his experiences in the Hill Country, with its pristine streams and vast open spaces, cultivating both a love of nature and a desire to address the harms that humans inflict upon the natural world. 
Ben eventually moved to the Hill Country to oversee the grazing, hunting and ecotourism operations at his family’s ranch.  Ben’s experience with applied ecology and passion for holistic management practices attracted the attention of the Cibolo Center for Conservation, where he served as an environmental educator and spearheaded its efforts to influence regional development policy.  
Through his influence on the City of Boerne Unified Development Code Committee, Ben was instrumental in establishing the most environmentally protective city ordinances in the state, including stormwater rules that prioritize water quality and protection of stream banks.  He was similarly instrumental in a partnership that created the Boerne Water Data Hub in cooperation with the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas and Duke University.  Ben later served on the Kendall County Transportation Planning Committee, chairing a collaborative effort to envision a multi-modal transportation and trail network.  
Ben currently serves on the boards of the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District and the Hill Country Alliance.  He is an active member on numerous planning and policy groups, including the steering committee for the Hill Country Conservation Network, the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Partnership, the Guadalupe River Flood Planning Group, and the Texas Water Data Interest Group.