Government Canyon Good news from San Antonio-land.  ¶ 8:46 PM 0 comments

  park underfunding Nice piece in the Star-Telegram on the shamefully low level of funding for state parks in Texas.   ¶ 4:18 PM 0 comments

  And more on Big Bend From Dallas Morning News hunting/fishing columnist Ray Sasser: "The aborted Big Bend Ranch deal was business as usual for the current TP&W Commission, which has a track record of manipulating game laws to suit wealthy landowners and justifying the laws as 'wildlife management."  ¶ 10:22 PM 0 comments

  more bad doings at TPWD "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will close or transfer nine state parks unless it finds about $2 million more annually in funding, according to a letter sent to state leaders."  ¶ 10:17 PM 0 comments

  No sale Parks commission rejects sale of Big Bend land.  ¶ 9:23 PM 0 comments

  More on Big Bend Ranch Including maps.  ¶ 8:29 PM 0 comments

  Fire sale at Parks & Wildlife? Although it's reassuring that apparently Bright Leaf State Natural Area will remain part of the state park system, why would TPWD consider removing it in the first place? According to TPWD's own site, Bright Leaf is a 217-acre "urban natural area" and a nesting site for the endangered golden-cheeked warbler (which, by the by, should really be our state bird, not the common-as-dirt mockingbird).

And more alarming still, the department has been negotiating to sell off one-sixth of Big Bend Ranch State Park to an adjacent developer. TPWD does offer some justification, at least:

Parks and Wildlife Executive Director Bob Cook said Monday that selling the odd-shaped land that juts out from the rest of the park could help the department square up the park's boundaries and simplify management of the vast desert site in West Texas.

The sale would provide money that could be used to buy some of the more than 25,000 acres of private holdings within Big Bend Ranch State Park, Cook said.

"It is a management nightmare having (private landowners) on your land," Cook said. "Our neighbor to the north inquired about it, and the staff came to me. We're trying to buy land from willing owners to square up the park, and that's the bottom line of the whole thing to me."

Sounds persuasive, but I don't think giving away 45,000 acres of park to get 25,000 acres of inholdings is necessarily a very good deal. And I have to agree with Ken Kramer of the Sierra Club about the secrecy of the deal: "To have something like this happen without public discussion is bad public policy." But don't worry: "Cook said the parks department wasn't trying to hide the sale, only to protect the ongoing negotiations." Got it?  ¶ 8:56 PM 0 comments

  hunter-centric lands directory Useful. At biggamehunt.net.  ¶ 10:03 PM 0 comments

  What we're losing Texas shows up in a recent NYT article on a Wildlife Conservation Society report on the global extent of human impact on the environment. The article closes with a look at four still-pretty-wild areas around the country, including:

Texas Grasslands

Coastal prairie along the Gulf of Mexico.

CONDITIONS About 1 percent of the wild grassland remains, in patches as small as 10 square miles.

OUTLOOK These areas are being rapidly degraded. Three percent of Texas land is under public control; conservation efforts rely mostly on private landowners.

Private landowners can do great things, but the fragmented ownership along the Gulf Coast is unlikely to lead to ecosytem-scale protection.

Here's the WCS map of the human footprint in Texas.  ¶ 9:35 PM 0 comments

  Welcome to TPLN Here I'm going to put news and thoughts on the lamentably small portion of Texas that's in public hands. I'll also talk about how we might improve the situation. Public lands are a management challenge, but they're also vital for outdoor recreation and preserving native ecosystems. Not to mention keeping a few of our vaunted wide-open spaces.  ¶ 9:12 PM 0 comments