Up to date February 9, 2026 12:26PM
Final yr was a troublesome one for public lands. The Nationwide Park Service noticed mass layoffs by the quasi-official Division of Authorities Effectivity, the federal government shutdown brought on widespread chaos in nationwide parks, and the White Home pursued drilling within the Arctic. The specter of promoting off public lands looms as politicians like Mike Lee proceed to suggest such concepts.
In a time when the alternatives for out of doors recreation look like shrinking, they’re truly increasing in an unlikely place: Texas. The Lone Star State, which has one of many highest percentages of personal land possession within the nation, is now pouring thousands and thousands of {dollars} into public lands.
Numerous Land—However Little Public
Texas is the second largest state by land mass, however almost all of that land is personal. On the subject of the share of land that’s publicly owned, Texas is the fifth lowest, at about 4 %.
Lately, Texas’s inhabitants has exploded, going from 26.9 million in 2014 to 31.2 million by 2024. Because the inhabitants elevated, the variety of state parks didn’t hold tempo, and neither did the funding.
Anne Brown, Government Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Basis says buying park funding was difficult through the Eighties, Nineties, and 2000s as a result of there wasn’t a set approach within the funds to channel funding into the parks. “There have been lots of situations of the state having to have a look at parks that they’d and even both give them again to a local people or actually cut back,” she provides. “There was not sufficient cash, not just for new parks, however simply upkeep on present parks.”
Two measures modified the sport for Texas state parks. In 2019, voters had the possibility to resolve on a constitutional modification that will dedicate the gross sales tax on sure sporting items to funding Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD). It handed by a large margin, with 88 % of voters supporting the measure. That gross sales tax supplied a gradual stream of funding towards park tasks.
Then in 2023, voters authorised a measure (77 % sure to 23 % no) to determine the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, a $1 billion endowment to determine new parks in honor of TPWD’s a centesimal anniversary. The curiosity on the fund is for use solely for the creation and enchancment of state parks.
Each Brown and Rodney Franklin, Director of Texas State Parks, hint the general public’s help of the Centennial Fund to the explosion of outside recreation that resulted from the pandemic. “The truth that the demand to get outdoor had been rising and rising and rising together with the inhabitants in Texas [meant] extra individuals had been displaying up at state parks,” Franklin says.
Franklin estimates that within the two years because the institution of the fund, the principal $1 billion has generated $90 million in curiosity for TPWD to spend. With the principal untouched, TPWD is about as much as develop the park system for many years, and have an effect on how total generations expertise the nice outdoor in Texas.
Grahame Jones, Government Director of the Texas Conservation Alliance, says the Centennial Fund is a serious step ahead by way of coverage and funding.
“Structured as an endowment, it gives long-term, secure help that enables TPWD to be deliberate and conservation-driven in buying and creating parks with excessive ecological worth, somewhat than reacting to short-term funding cycles,” he says.
State Parks Increase
Because it received the funds, the TPWD has been on a buying spree. It acquired a number of new parks, together with Bear Creek, Submit Oak Ridge, and Silver Lake Ranch. TPWD additionally used a number of the cash to extend the scale of present parks, tripling the acreage of Enchanted Rocks State Pure Space, for instance.
The brand new parks shield greater than mountain climbing trails. Franklin notes that Submit Oak Ridge State Park, which is true on the Colorado River, is essential habitat for the endangered golden cheek warbler. Bear Creek is true subsequent to Garner State Park, which is Texas’s hottest state park. When it opens, the brand new park won’t solely assist unfold out guests, but in addition supply chicken watching and fishing.
One of many state’s greatest wins has been the acquisition of Silver Lake Ranch, a 54,000-acre Hill Nation property encompassing rocky terrain with a southwestern local weather. In November 2025, the Moody Basis donated its 87.5 % stake within the land, and the TPWD purchased the opposite proportion from an area church. As soon as open, it is going to be the state’s second-largest state park. Crucially, it’s additionally a couple of two-hour drive from the San Antonio metro space. As Brown explains, it’s essential not simply to have public lands, however to have them simply accessible: “I feel that’s one factor [TPWD] is , too, is inside a sure mile radius of your private home, to have the ability to have a weekend that you just’re immersed within the outdoor,” she says.
Though it takes years to purchase, plan, workers, and assemble the infrastructure of state parks, the TPWD is prioritizing making these new areas accessible to the general public in brief order.
The company is planning to open parks in phases, somewhat than ready for all the things to be full. Though it solely acquired Submit Oak Ridge in 2025, it has already hosted hunts and is open for the 2025-26 searching season. It’s a win-win, the state says: Hunters get more room to hunt, and this helps handle the overpopulation of deer. TPWD is already internet hosting guided hikes and applications within the new areas of Enchanted Rocks, together with kid-focused applications like “Junior Ranger Academy” and “Hike Like A Geologist.”
Classes in Public Lands
Whereas each state has its personal context and native issues, Franklin believes Texas may be an instance. “Texas is actually serving as a mannequin in the case of the Centennial Fund for individuals to have a look at to attempt to duplicate in different components of the nation,” he says.
For Brown, the voters overwhelmingly approving two measures to help state parks reveals simply how unifying this difficulty is.
“This [success] was [from] environmental teams … conservation teams, hunters and anglers, the fee, legislators,” she says, “I imply, all people working collectively for extra public land.”
