Texas treasures at risk

Barton Springs, east Texas forests, our state park system—these treasures are a big part of what makes Texas special. Our natural areas provide us with clean, plentiful water, beautiful places to take our families on a swim or nature hike, and give us a glimpse into Texas’ disappearing wilderness.

Unfortunately, out of control development is threatening these special places. Every hour, 20 acres of our forests, working farms, and natural areas are destroyed to make room for new strip malls, subdivisions, and other developments.

Our natural areas are threatened by development

Despite our state's great size, out of control development is threatening the scenic hill country, east Texas forests, and even our state park system.

Save Barton Springs
Called the ‘Soul of the City’, Barton Springs is known across the state for great swimming and clean drinking water, but encroaching development threatens its future. More.

Don’t develop Big Bend Ranch
Already ranked 49th in the nation in per-capita spending on state parks, the Texas Legislature cut $2 million from the parks department budget in 2005, forcing the parks department to consider selling part of Big Bend Ranch State Park to a developer. More.

Preserve Texas Forests
Water developers are seeking to dam the scenic Neches river in east Texas to build an unnecessary reservoir. This would drown Texas' last best hardwood forests, destroying habitat for wildlife like bobcats, river otters, and the endangered bald eagle. More.

The time is now to protect our natural treasures

To protect Barton Springs, our forests and our state parks we need to act fast.

With at least 7,500 acres of Barton Springs land immediately threatened with development, a bond to provide funding to buy these vulnerable places is critical to their survival.

Far from growing to meet the needs of our natural resources and growing population, the parks system is barely surviving. Governor Perry and the Legislature should establish sustainable and substantial funding to meet the park systems' basic needs and in order to support new park acquisition.

With more than 75% of the hardwood forest in Texas already destroyed, the old-growth oaks and bald cypress trees along the Neches river are ranked a "number one priority" for conservation by the federal government. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should move forward immediately with establishing the area as a national wildlife refuge.

Action for preservation 

Environment Texas is working hard to preserve Texas natural areas. In 2004, we helped convince the Temple-Inland Corp. not to expand its headquarters over the Barton Springs watershed. In 2006, we helped defeat a planned industrial park on land intended for the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Our long-term plan for preservation is to: 

• Keep existing parks and wildlife refuges off-limits to new development.

• Encourage local governments to approve bond money for open space acquisition.

• Get the Texas Legislature to establish 55 acres of state parks per 1,000 people—that’s an additional 860 square miles of state parks by 2030.

• Fund the Texas Farm & Ranch Lands Conservation Program to give incentives to private landowners to protect open space.

Help Preserve Texas

Preserving Texas is not going to be easy. State and local governments have long deprioritized parks and open space protection and powerful developers continue to fight growth planning efforts. Citizen support is going to be critical to convince our policymakers.

Support Environment Texas
Our contributing members make our research and advocacy possible. Support Environment Texas.

Send us your photos
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Having photos of Texas families enjoying natural areas, backed with a note from you, sends a powerful message to policymakers. Send us your photos.