A Tangled Web: The Fight for Fairfield Lake State Park Continues
A video from the developer of bulldozing and other earth works at the former state park is making the news rounds.
I live my life in a fairly small bubble. I think most of us do. We generally have an idea of the greater sphere of things happening out in the world but it is often harder to piece all of that together, to understand how it all works. This fight to save Fairfield Lake State Park has shown me how much of a tangled web it actually is, how much bigger of a bubble it is than the one I live in. It gives me a glimpse into a world 99% of us will never see.
Looking back on all of my writing here about the state park since earlier this year, I can see the evolution of the status of the park as well as my own opinions. New information, new interactions, hearing things directly from TPWD themselves, you get a bit more of the full story. I look back and see how wrong I was on some aspects, right on others. It’s taken so much reading and deep-diving to even get to some of these conclusions, conclusions that the majority of the general public will never see nor care about. But they are all important in the overall context of what is at play here.
At many times it has felt a lot like this gif of Carrie Mathison and Saul Berenson from Homeland, except make it browser tabs. You open one browser tab and soon you have 25 open because now you are chasing down the next lead. How many LLCs can one man have? Far more than I, a lowly plebe, ever expected.
I’m struggling with how to write here because there is just so much to share. Some things I can’t quite share, others that might seem insignificant to most unless I explained some huge backstory, which I don’t think this is the place for—yet, at least. Let’s just say, this thing is much bigger than any of us ever imagined and likely has gone on longer than the last year, too.
Part of the problem with the general public not really knowing what is going on is because very few news outlets are even taking it up. And when they do, articles are so short, often rehashing old news from four months ago, supplemented with the latest spin from Todd Interests. Occasionally we get the op-eds in favor of the developer, or as such, last week Shawn Todd actually, finally, put his name on an op-ed in The Dallas Morning News. This week we’ve had two bigger news articles from the DMN and Fort Worth Star-Telegram covering the bulldozing that’s been going on the last two months. I’ve also done two public records requests in the last few months and finally some information from an April request was released by the Attorney General’s office. That information gave me a lot more insight into what has happened in the last year and I’m going to share a little bit of that, too.
Where to start?
I guess we will start with the editorial from Shawn Todd last week. It’s much the same as things we’ve heard him say publicly on the June KNES 99.1-FM radio interview and what he said at the Freestone County courthouse, but man, he really has it out for Arch Aplin III. I do not know what kind of millionaire vs millionaire scuffle they have gotten into but it’s absolutely demented. And for all I know it’s a one way grudge, Todd against Aplin. It’s says a lot about the character of someone to hold personal anger towards one person while the rest of us are punished for it.
I’ve tried a couple of times this year to get my own op-eds published in a couple of newspapers, to no avail. I hadn’t tried a Letter to the Editor yet but after reading Todd’s op-ed, I’d had it with the TPWD hate so I banged out a letter and sent it off. They modified it, dropped a sentence and changed the end of another but otherwise this is what I submitted. I had my dad pick up a copy of the paper on Monday so I would have it for myself later, much better than a PDF print out of the internet version with ads! Sandy Emmons also had a letter reply show up in that same issue. I don’t have a photo of it so I’m going to copy it in quotes below. Sandy’s was also altered, too, and even some of the language changed.
Todd Interests needs transparency and accountability. It’s time that Texans stand up and require this from developers and others who bypass the normal wait time by using EB-5 investment projects.
Texas ranks 47th in public land areas even though we have one of the largest states and population influxes. We cannot lose natural areas, wetland habitats, watershed protections and recreational areas. All Texans should have access to recreational spaces.
Fairfield Lake State Park, a public recreational gem for over 50 years, was designated park of the year in 2022. Todd has already destroyed delicate, protected ecosystems and bulldozed park buildings, all the while knowing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department voted for utilizing eminent domain to protect the park.
He was offered $25 million to back out of the sale and allow TPWD to purchase the park from the seller, Vistra. He needs to emulate true altruists like landowners like Ronnie and Terry Urbanczyk of Honey Creek State Natural Area, who passed up millions to turn part of their ranch into a nature preserve.
Money isn’t everything. Or in Todd’s words, “Some of our best deals are the ones we didn’t do.”
Sandy Bates Emmons, Waxahachie
So, I posted a few weeks ago that it appeared some heavier work had been done at the park via satellite imagery. If we rewind a bit to some of that open records information I got, it looks like discussions began between Vistra and TPWD in late July last year regarding clearing work to be done, ramping up in September. TPWD tried to limit it to 5 acre increments, but often there were multiple 5 acre sections that Vistra, via Todd Interests, was asking to be cleared. TPWD did their best to be selective about where they were doing it for cultural and natural resource reasons. A TPWD map from April 2023 shows about 100 acres being cleared by that time. And of course, we have visual sightings of it happening with visitors last fall, though no one knew what was going on then. And paired with the June KNES 99.1-FM interview, apparently he’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on it. But once they took ownership and the park closed, we weren’t sure what was going on until the satellite imagery came available. And then a visitor to the Facebook group mentioned that the park office had been demolished. Well, as luck would have it, I was traveling to Dallas last weekend so I had my husband detour off the highway and drop by the park so I could get a photo.
And yep, the park office was gone. It was surreal to see the board up and the gates there and the park office razed. I had thought I might be more emotional about it but it was more disorienting than anything. We’ve since heard via reliable sources that every TPWD building that was out there is now gone. Which isn’t unbelievable after you see the next set of articles.
The FWST posted an article Wednesday which linked to a video clip from the developer showing bulldozers and dump trucks working in the park. It’s honestly sickening. Thursday morning the DMN published their own version of the article, also linking to the video. (Coming back to edit this later, I am hearing that the video played on NBC5 and WFAA in DFW Thursday night, too. Here’s a morning segment on WFAA from Friday morning.)
A lot of people have asked, “What can we do?” And that answer is murky. First, you have to tell people what is really going on. There is so much bad information out there and many people, including environmental organizations, have decided that “It’s a done deal.” Which is irritating and frankly disheartening to see. I’ve tried reaching out to several groups in the last few weeks, including the Native Prairies Association of Texas because their name was on the information I had about the destroyed prairie. I received no reply. I’m still holding out hope that communication with one organization I have will work out but I’m not sure.
What I really, really need is a dedicated journalist to take this on. And when I say take this on, there is a lot of information I’m not even sharing here that would get you some great investigative reporting. I consider myself a writer but not in that kind of format, so while I could take the opportunity to write about it or pitch a story, it is much better off for someone with the resources of a paper or magazine behind them to deal with the bulk of it. Brett Shipp at Spectrum News has covered a lot of it in a tv format, but it isn’t enough. Spectrum News doesn’t cover the whole state and not everyone watches the morning or evening tv news anymore. I need a variety of demographics getting eyes on this. (And another edit, this may be happening already. Between beginning to draft this and coming back to edit there seems to be more folks getting wind of the story, so *crossing fingers* this will take off shortly. Either way, I hope more people start paying attention.)
Most people will say that the state failed or TPWD shouldn’t use eminent domain and to that I say, look deeper! While I do think the state failed in the sense that the Texas Legislature didn’t provide their own agency with the proper funding for decades (and I’m sure there are other agencies needing proper funding, too), Vistra/Luminant has a huge part in this too. Vistra/Luminant wanted to sell the property for the highest amount possible, likely to recoup money from their bankruptcy a few years earlier. On September 27, 2018 Luminant sent a notice of termination letter to the TPWD Executive Director at that time Carter Smith. In it it said (this is from a public information request I received):
As discussed, because of the extended notice period, Big Brown would appreciate TPWD withholding public notice on the termination for six months. We are hopeful that in the next six months we will make progress on the sale of the property and be able to communicate to TPWD the name of the new property owner and their plans for it, avoiding TPWD having to consistently and frequently update their constituents. If by March 1, 2019, Big Brown does not have a final buyer or otherwise does not have specific information for TPWD with regard to the future of the Lease, TPWD is welcome to inform its constituents as it sees fit.
So, if Vistra hadn’t imposed this on TPWD, the news could have been out much sooner to the public. As it was, articles did start appearing low-key in 2019.
To re-cap the timeline a bit here:
Changes Coming for Property Leased by Fairfield Lake State Park - Freestone County Times, Feb 22, 2019
Texas State Park Could Close As Vistra Energy Seeks to Sell Land Near Shuttered Power Plant - Texas Observer, Feb 20, 2019
By late 2021 the park is officially on the market in a visible manner. I have documentation saying around August 2021 they intend to start coming in to the park to do video work with the real estate company but am having trouble finding that exact email in my files right now. However it is reported a few months later:
Want to buy your own gorgeous lake in Texas? You’re in luck—if you have $110 million - Fort Worth Star Telegram, October 6, 2021
A state park in Central Texas may soon become a private development - Texas Public Radio, January 4, 2022
Going, Going, Gone? Changes in Power Plant Usage Could Reduce Fishing Waters - Tyler Morning Telegraph, June 23, 2022
And to continue on, I have emails between Vistra and TPWD from late July 2022 stating that they would like to start clearing some areas of brush on the land and the beginnings of a potential buyer coming into the property to look around, emails regarding how to get these folks in through the gate without needing to pay, etc. Between all of this, there are at least two other potential buyers who were rejected. One was Conservation Equity Partners out of Nacogdoches and another was a developer. The other developer was amenable to letting the park stay, and Conservation Equity Partners was also likely to strike a deal to give the park land back to the state. Vistra rejected those offers, as well as TPWD’s offers to buy only the state park. This needs to be clear as it keeps being reported and stated that they didn’t try to buy the park. They did, Vistra wouldn’t negotiate.
TPWD holds adamant that generally any landowners they have worked with in the past have been generous and willing to work with the department and the circumstance with this developer has been a whirlwind of different. It also needs to be clear that the legislature never appropriated any funding to buy the park until this all came to a head this spring. It’s one thing when you see the recent Honey Creek Ranch addition to Honey Creek Natural Area in the news back in June, which TPWD purchased the 515 acres for $25 million via “the Land and Water Conservation fund, state appropriations for land acquisitions and private donations.” And another to realize they are cobbling together money to purchase these things because the state isn’t appropriating funding, and haven’t really for 30 years.
So yes, TPWD knew the park was closing, probably had inklings earlier in the 2010s with the slow downs at the power plant and the bankruptcy, but you can’t do much if your hands are tied for spending. Vistra and Todd Interests knew this and I can’t help but think they took advantage of the situation.
Todd Interests has owned the property for two months. They are not a legacy landowner in Freestone County. TPWD, while yes, they had a lease on the land, which was given to them by the original incarnation of Vistra back in the early 70s as a way to offset their environmental impacts, had 50+ years of land and environmental stewardship built into the property. It is definitely interesting to see what Vistra tried to offset when you zoom out and look at the environmental devastation the mining operations did nearby. It was a convenient Band-Aid, the state park.
So, that’s the short of it. I was alerted this morning that Mr. Todd was back on KNES 99.1-FM in Fairfield this morning and listened for about seven minutes or so, catching the tail end of the conversation. It was angering, of course, but I don’t think the videos of clearing are working in his favor.
If I were to go back and re-write some of my original essays about this I would not be so hard on TPWD. I’d direct more anger at Vistra and legislators. I’m angry at Todd Interests, of course, for not having the ethics to stand down, knowing how important the park was to Texans. It shouldn’t be surprising, though, because when I came into the KNES interview this morning he was saying “…it will be a financial windfall for us!” and “We were buying water.” We’re working on getting that recording together so you can hear it for yourself.
This will continue for quite a while as TPWD is soon to be making their second, final offer in these first eminent domain steps, after having had an appraisal conducted. If Todd Interests rejects that, which is likely, it goes to the court system where a Special Commissioners Court takes into account what should be fair market value. And after that, it could end up in a civil court case. Even if it is settled in the next month or two, TPWD now has to rebuild all of their buildings, plus fix whatever else has been destroyed. The park isn’t reopening this year, maybe not even next year. And with a civil case? There may be luxury homes and a golf course on it by then, not to mention whatever will happen with the lake and water.
Going back to my opening statement about living in a tiny bubble, what this has shown me is really how well connected the rich are. It isn’t like I didn’t know this but now I know-know it. And that there is a blatant difference in having a few million bucks and having a comfortable retirement versus having hundreds of millions—or the access to hundreds of millions—and knowing which strings to pull, which people to be acquainted with, who to call to make things happen. It’s well beyond what a scrappy group of dedicated Texans have access to and certainly none of us will ever see the lifestyle this developer wants to bring to rural Freestone county. It honestly makes me cry, knowing this whole world exists and how callous it actually is when we have people fleeing for their lives from other countries trying to come to this country, scraping by on next to nothing.
I’ve had a few new subscribers recently—welcome! I’m not sure why you are here but I promise I wasn’t ever intending to write about Fairfield Lake State Park so much. It’s really just the biggest story in the state right now, environmentally speaking. Don’t worry, I have more things to write about and I hope you stick around to learn about Texas nature and the environmental issues we face here. I’m learning as I write and I hope you are here to learn, too.
New here (blame Deece). From the very first I heard of this, I put all the fault on Vistra. I wouldn’t be surprised if their Execs get first dibs on property. I’m sad I won’t get to visit the park. I was looking forward to seeing the lake without BBSES on the horizon.