Lone Star Nature News Vol. 4
Water is still the primary concern in the state and will be for years to come.
Summer is now in full swing, for my family at least, and thus I feel like the transition between school/not school is over for now and my brain can settle back into a routine. I know, I know, technically it isn’t summer according to the calendar but Texans and those in the Deep South know summer isn’t a calendar event. I have a lot on my mind to write about and will be getting back to regular writing here as well as publishing my monthly Gratitudes + Delights for paid subscribers.
First up, I’m resurrecting the Lone Star Nature News. The last time I did one was May 2024. Oops. I’ve been gleaning a few different news stories and things that have come across on social media over the last few weeks that I thought were worthwhile to share.
Onward to the news!
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has apparently taken enough heat on their obscenely slow pace of opening new state parks and is now working to start fast-tracking access to newly acquired land before it is truly accessible for camping and more multi-use amenities. All I can say is: it is about damn time! I’d like to think my rants about this here on the newsletter finally hit a nerve with someone who passed it on to the right people but I know I was not the only person in this state grumbling about the problem. At least with this method perhaps we can have off-trail exploration for those with the capabilities or at least guided tours a few times a month to some of these properties. It’s beyond time! (I really want into Davis Hills SNA.)
This is an older story from last August (2024), that somehow I missed covering when I wrote Water, Water, (not) Everywhere earlier this year—the City of Houston has become so faulty with water line maintenance in the last decade they’ve lost 32 billion gallons of water due to leaks. Add this to the “Blue Hole” discovery in Dallas in 2023, another Dallas neighborhood complaining of leaking pipes for two years, plus many similar stories, and we have an infrastructure problem on our hands. An article from July 2024 in the Texas Tribune outlines just how big of a problem it is for the state’s major cities: “The cities of Houston and Dallas saw the biggest increase in lost water reported. Houston saw a 30% jump from last year's audit, while Dallas saw an increase of 18%. Houston is the largest populous city in the state, home to roughly 2.3 million Texans; it lost around 31 billion gallons of water last year.”
Continuing with the water theme, the Edwards Aquifer continues to head into dire straits. In late May, Bexar County (San Antonio for the non-Texans reading) declared Stage 5 water restrictions. Things are getting pretty bad in central Texas with regard with water shortages and will only continue to get worse as more people move to the highly scenic region and continue to pilfer water from a supply that has been overdrawn for decades, paired with long periods of drought.
The flip side to this is that heavy rains the last couple of weeks have allowed Jacobs Well to start flowing again, though there is still no swimming allowed at this scenic Hill Country locale. Sadly, I think it would take a significant shift in mindset for how water is pumped and used in the region for Jacobs Well to return to is historic flow rates, and that goes beyond the drought issues. I don’t know that Texans and our legislature have the fortitude to make this happen, though.
Well, looks like we’re going to continue the water theme for news point number 5—do you sense where we are going in this state? DFW’s proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir is still as contentious as ever. “The project would require landowners to sell their property along the Sulphur River in Red River and Titus counties, or see it taken through eminent domain. The reservoir would send most of its water to the booming DFW Metroplex.” Public comments are available for the regional water plan through July 18th here. Wild DFW author Amy Martin sent in a fabulous rebuttal to the DMN’s pro-reservoir editorial recently.
And lastly, I’m just seeing news via the South Texas Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation via Facebook that the legislature has given control over access and closures to Boca Chica Beach and the highway leading to it to the city of Starbase, aka: SpaceX. Not much in the way of official news is being reported other than one article I found from KURV, which details that the access is being moved from the county to the city. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I’ll end there with the news round-up. If you’ve got any news you’d like to share that I missed, please leave a comment or hit reply to this via email and let me know. I’m going to work to be more diligent about sharing these every 4-6 weeks.
Gratitudes + Delights will be showing up later this week! And next week: sea turtles!
Thank you, Misty for resurrecting Lone Star… news. And updates on Texas water (or lack thereof). I look forward to your postings about these issues.