Coalition Building: Part 2

Fairfield Lake State Park and Beyond...

Mar 21, 2023

Last week I spent Spring Break in Far West Texas, in the Davis Mountains. It’s a haul from where I live in the Houston area, about 9 hours of driving time. We always break it up into two days of driving for our sanity, but someone with more patience and a lot of caffeine can easily do it in one fell swoop. That area of the state is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I recommend anyone who has the chance to check it out for themselves.

Because cell service is rather spotty as well as radio stations, we were subjected to Marfa Public Radio for the news, and internet only when we were in town or on a good mountain top. Even then, cell service was mostly non-existent. It was divine! I did however hear that Fairfield Lake State Park was reopening for day use, just as had been suggested by Representative Ashby in the March 9th hearing about the state park. I was glad to know that action had been taken to make it happen, to at least give more folks a chance to enjoy the park while the lease is still active. When I returned to life at home I saw so many people posting their photos to the Facebook group, sharing their fish catches, or kids playing on the trails! All really great things to see!

Being away gave me some time to think not only about Fairfield Lake State Park but also the state of the state park system itself, one I’ve been noticing for many years now. I’ll hit pause on that last bit and save it for a later post because I do want to talk more about coalition building today.

The primary method of information I’m seeing about the state park is coming from the Facebook group and news articles. I originally came to find out about the entire fiasco via an Instagram post but for the most part that seems to be siloed into folks sharing information personally to their own feeds, no major group sharing information about the park on that app. And with exception of a handful of people on the Facebook group, I would say there is no tangible person leading the efforts there, either. It’s a free-for-all.

Normally, I would say that an official group should form to advocate for the park, and to create some cohesion and strategy in working with the agency, and this is where a “Friends of” group should be involved. I recalled vaguely seeing evidence of a Friends of Fairfield Lake State Park group around the state park but really didn’t know anything about it. Google shows a listing on Charity Navigator and on the TPWD Park Friends page, but I’m not able to find an official website or even a Facebook group for this entity. If you happen to know if this group even still exists or what they may be doing on their own, please let me know.

So, without cohesion we’re left with chaos. As I mentioned, there are a handful of people driving the discussion and reposting news articles and video as well as sharing information on upcoming hearings. These people are doing wonderful work. and to be honest one person can’t cover it all, so it is really good to see multiple people stepping in to provide accurate (as much as possible) information to visitors of the Facebook group.

Unfortunately, there is also bad information and fearmongering, as well as some language terms meant to be derogatory like “woke”, which serve no purpose and do not help the cause whatsoever. I am just using that word as an example but there have been others like it. The language is trite and lacks substance. Not only is it uninformed, it does not promote any forward movement in saving the state park. Focus on actual actions from our officials, the land owner, and likely future land owner, instead of resorting to what is essentially name calling as a defense tactic. And that goes for the fearmongering, don’t share unsubstantiated information without anything to back it up. And if you do have something to back it up, you should be sharing it with a journalist or lawyer.

It’s obvious no official group is forming for this so, we’re on our own as individuals to do our best…So, where do we go from here?

The state park is open for the time being. That’s cause for celebration! Enjoy the park and DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. Take photos, submit your observations to citizen science apps like iNaturalist or eBird. If/when it is gone, there will be a record of what was there.
Continue writing to your representatives. Use Who Represents Me ? and fill in your address to find all of the people you should be contacting! Do this a couple of times a month and honestly, any time you are grumpy about any particular issue. Instead of venting on social media and not doing anything about it, send them an email! They aren’t mind readers and can’t know what you are thinking unless you contact them.
Read. If this is your first foray into activism, I hope this inspires you to read more about our state and its environmental history. From Ned Fritz to Lady Bird Johnson and many others, we do have environmental folk heroes in our midst. I know that the environment often gets shuttled into partisan politics but clean air and water and open spaces affects everyone across all political landscapes and it would behoove you to learn about the history of environmental laws and acts passed over the last century. It helps you understand the “why” when things go south, as they have done with the park. And it will help you understand why Todd Interests is so adamant about having the water rights to ship water back to DFW. The coming water wars have been talked about for more than a decade and we’re on the precipice of greater issues in Texas with regard to drought and water availability. Again, plenty of books on that, too!
Talk to your friends and family, in person and on social media. Ask them if they know about the state park, take them up there if you have the chance. More importantly, get outside and into your own neighborhoods and parks to see what is there. You can’t protect it if you don’t know it exists. Texas is a huge state, there is more than likely another green space near you that needs protection just as much as Fairfield Lake State Park does. Get involved with local orgs related to that and do the work hyper-locally.
Finally, there’s a hearing on March 23, 2023 at 9am for the Culture, Recreation, and Tourism committee. If you have the time to listen, it would be worthwhile to do. In the meantime, you can also submit public comments to Rep. Orr’s HB 2332 regarding the granting of power of eminent domain for the preservation of Fairfield Lake State Park. You can submit your comments here.

Going forward, I’ll update about the state park when there is noteworthy information to share. I’ll do my best to share more hot-off-the-press type stuff as well. And if you have information you think is pertinent to the park, please share or drop me an email—my contact information is here. However, I’ll be returning to writing more broadly about Texas nature because it is all important. I do want to thank all of the new readers and subscribers I’ve gotten in the last month, I hope you’ll stick with me!