Lawmakers just authorized lots of money to acquire new parkland. We asked advocates and conservationists to dream big.
By Forrest Wilder
June 16, 2023
Originally published on Texas Monthly
For the hundred-year anniversary of the Texas state parks system, lawmakers have come up with a generous gift. In late May, Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation authorizing a billion-dollar fund to buy land for new parks and expand existing ones. The measure still needs voter approval, but given the popularity of the state’s 87 parks, Texans have permission to begin imagining what natural wonders can be added to the public-lands portfolio. Double the size of the super-popular Enchanted Rock State Natural Area? A new destination park in the wilderness of West Texas? A little slice of Piney Woods heaven in East Texas? Miles and miles of riverfront paradise an hour’s drive from San Antonio or Houston or Dallas–Fort Worth?
Personally, I would love to see Texas Parks and Wildlife expand its footprint in the Davis Mountains, find a way to give the public access to the Pecos River, and buy a big chunk of land in the rapidly developing eastern fringe of the Hill Country. But I was also curious what other parks enthusiasts, both insiders and regular outdoorspeople, have on their wish list. I asked a handful of folks—a state official, a longtime East Texas conservationist, a conservative activist and political donor, and an executive with the Nature Conservancy—to do some “informed daydreaming” about what Texas can do with this historic investment in public lands.
Nearly everyone I spoke to stressed the transformative nature of the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, as it’s called. “It kind of blows my mind that we have this opportunity staring at us,” said Jeff Francell, the director of land protection for the Nature Conservancy in Texas. For decades, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) lacked the funding to buy land and to open new parks. In 2001, a Texas Tech study found that the state needed to add 1.4 million acres of state parkland by 2030—the equivalent of 852 Enchanted Rocks. Needless to say, that hasn’t happened…
