I honestly don’t feel qualified to guess at whether you could crack the top tier where the aid is most generous. I know that these schools do try to accept some community college transfers. And I think you could stand out as someone with an interesting profile. So to some extent I feel that if you can knock community college out of the park academically and show a few interesting EC’s combined with the work ethic that your employment record shows, then why not you? But there are more qualified applicants than they can accept, so it isn’t to be counted upon. Did your parents go to college? If you’re a first generation college student, that could help.
What’s missing here are some middle-ground options in between the TX publics (which would be fantastic if affordable - the real downside is that they aren’t that inexpensive for you) and the super-reaches. As others have said, there are some great OOS publics for your interests - it just depends whether there are any that would beat the TX ones in terms of offerings vs. cost.
In terms of more attainable LAC’s, most don’t have sufficiently specialized programs for what you want, but it’s worth looking for options. Juniata College in PA could be worth considering - need-sensitive admissions would work against you, but the aid is fairly generous and the transfer acceptance rate generally is over 50%, so even if being high-need lowers those odds, it could still be more attainable than the Cornell/WashU tier. Wildlife Conservation | Juniata College
Would you qualify financially for Berea College? It’s a work college where all students are low-income - tuition is waived for all admitted students, and living expenses are covered by on-campus employment. They have a working farm on campus, and while the academic programs may not be an exact fit for your interests, they do have Agriculture & Natural Resources and Forest Resource Management majors in addition to the various emphases within Biology, and they offer an “Independent” self-designed major, so you could probably put together something that would work academically, given the financial advantages and the very strong alumni network which could open doors post-graduation. Transfer acceptance rate is around 40% Financial Eligibility - Berea College