“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”
I am not the Lorax, but I will speak for Fairfield Lake State Park.
Last week I requested open records information from Texas Parks and Wildlife regarding the Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment that was conducted in late August and early September this year to satisfy part of the requirements for the funding mechanism the state needed to move forward with the eminent domain process. I really should have done this in October but it escaped my mind to do so until now. The court denied permission for them to conduct a Phase 2 ESA as the developer didn’t want them to do that and the court sided with the developer. That was being appealed in a different court and I’m unsure where that might be at the moment.
I received a pile of photos, videos, and the report. In this post I included the photos showing the clearing at the park as it was in late summer, though I also have photos of Brownfield site junk on the north end of the property that was Vistra’s as well as images of the dam and pumps and other related imagery taken for a Phase 1 survey.
Looking at the photos, I was more hopeful for rehabilitation for the state park but once I really started watching the videos I about lost it. I put them together into a 16 minute video and it’s heartbreaking. And the awful thing is these are three month old photos and videos!
It must be even worse out there now.
There’s minimal further commentary on this post. I have photos, the video, a podcast interview I recently did about the park, plus two news segments from Brett Shipp this week, including one with yours truly.
I’m still looking for more coverage for this with journalists or environmental advocacy groups. Leave your email or contact info in the comments if you can help.
This post is likely too long for email with the number of photos, please click through if you read on email.
Stronger Than — Losing A Texas State Park - Podcast episode
Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.
—Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), Sand Country Alamanac, 1949.
Misti writes regularly at Oceanic Wilderness and can be found on Instagram at @oceanicwilderness. She hosts two podcasts, Orange Blaze: A Florida Trail Podcast, and The Garden Path Podcast.
And now, sadly, it appears to be over as the state has dropped the condemnation suit. Developers win, citizens lose, Freestone County Commissioners make bank. Sucks. I never saw it without the Big Brown stacks.
Thank you for your witness and advocacy. Hard to see how this could work out well in a society in which money is everything.