Todd Interests appears to have obliterated a G1G2 prairie remnant.
I knew something like this would happen but I didn't know how utterly devastating it would feel when it did.
I swear I have other things to write about. I’ve been drafting a couple of posts but as always, FLSP continues to have urgent needs that should be shared to folks who read this newsletter. I literally cannot wait for the state to finalize eminent domain proceedings so my brain space can be taken up with other, more peaceful things.
My favorite days this summer have been the days in which I barely think about Fairfield Lake State Park. Those days have been few and far between in the last month and a half. I have asked myself a million times why I care so much and the reason always comes down to…someone has to. I’m certainly not the only one who cares—there has been an outpouring of people supportive of the park, often drowned out by a loud and often ignorant minority.
In all of this, I’m more curious as to why someone would have the audacity to buy a 50 year old state park and think they could get away with constructing homes for the ultra wealthy on it without escaping notice or criticism from the public. Pardon my language but, the literal balls to have to think we would roll over and accept this, state failings or not, blah blah blah (god, I’m so sick of that commentary). All of that is besides the point. Who does this? TO A STATE PARK!?
So, today, as I’m trying to not think about this damn park every five minutes, my son’s summer camp had a family picnic day for lunch. It was very pleasant, a lot of fun, and best of all, indoors! This is Texas, during record heat, after all. I decided to check Facebook, which yeah, bad call on my part. And finally, after weeks of wondering what is really happening out there, we get our answer.
The clearing that Shawn Todd proclaimed to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on during his KNES appearance in June, and the noise of construction equipment visitors to the Chancellor-Union cemetery just outside of the park have heard recently, have now been corroborated with satellite imagery from yesterday, graciously posted by Alexander Neal, known as the Texas Water Punk. We had been trying to get someone with a drone to go out there but to no avail.
Let’s see what has happened to the park since the park closed at the first of June. These are all screenshots but you are welcome to read through yourself here.
The habitat on the peninsula via TPWD data I have on that area is Quercus stellata-Quercus marilandica/Schizachyrium scoparium cross timbers woodland. And while it is listed as G4S4 on Nature Serve (Apparently Secure), Alexander suggests this was likely an older growth forest, likely not cutover in the last 100-125 years, if not longer than that.
Cutting over forested habitat like that is devastating enough but the more devastating is that prairie. It was Schizachyrium scoparium - Sorghastrum nutans - Andropogon gerardii - Bifora americana Vertisol Grassland, a G1G2 remnant prairie. G1 is critically imperiled.
I mean, I shouldn’t expect anything more from someone who proclaimed there weren’t any “red cheeked warbler” or “red capped vireo” to worry about in this area. (For non-Texans, he meant the federally endangered golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo, Texas hill country species of concern, especially to developers wanting to clear Ashe juniper from tracts of land. But he’s not actually a conservationist so he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.)
Shawn Todd/Todd Interests has continually proclaimed to be a conservationist and preservationist, so why in the the hell did he decimate a G1 prairie that could have been a highlight for his wealthy homeowners to enjoy, a place to pat himself on the back for conserving such an important piece of rare habitat in Texas?
Only someone who isn’t a true conservationist would do such a thing.
What can you do? You can write letters to the editors of the major newspapers in the state, for one. The outrage should be read far and wide. I’ve been doing my best to get more eyes on the story and Green Source DFW covered it last week, in addition to the on-going news coverage Brett Shipp is giving it on Spectrum News. I’m trying to get the Dallas Sierra Club to write a press release as well as other environmental groups in the state to do the same.
You can also submit your emails of support of the park and TPWD’s use of eminent domain to protect the property via their Question/Answer Center. That is the place I’ve been directed to tell people to go to from folks at TPWD, as to prevent an overload to personal emails. Mr. Rodney Franklin is the Director of State Parks and Mr. David Yoskowitz is the Executive Director of TPWD. You may not get a reply but all of the messages will be noted.
Keep up the fight!
A quote from Wendell Berry:
“There are no unsacred places;
There are only sacred places
and desecrated places”