Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

14 Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002
Your Environment
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tively conserve habitat on private lands TPWD should
advocate for a funded statewide private lands conservation
program. One example of such a program is a
Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program. A
PDR program, being actively promoted in Texas now by
the American Farmland Trust, would buy development
rights from willing landowners and compensate them
for conserving wildlife, water, and open landscapes
rather than selling family lands for development and
further fragmentation.
Water Resources
In regard to water the draft plan recommended that
TPWD continue to study the freshwater needs of river
basins and bays and estuaries and that TPWD remain
actively engaged in the regional water planning
process. Though these studies are critical the draft
plan falls short in recommending how TPWD would
actually protect freshwater needs for fish, wildlife, and
recreation. The Lone Star Chapter commented that
TPWD should set specific goals for acquiring water
rights and support limits on new water diversions so
that Texas streams and rivers maintain enough flow
to help protect water quality and to support recreational
activities and fish and wildlife.
Financing Conservation
One of the most critical issues – how TPWD will
finance the final recommendations of the plan – was
left out of the draft plan entirely. Funding options
such as lifting the cap on revenue generated from the
sales tax on sporting goods and authorizing the issuance
of bonds for parkland and wildlife habitat acquisition
should have been recommended in the plan.
(Currently a portion of the revenue from the sporting
goods sales tax is dedicated to spending for state and
local parks, but that amount is capped at $32 million
per year, far below the estimated total state revenue
from that source.) The inclusion of options for funding
acquisition of parkland and protected wildlife habitat
would help to guide future debate and action on how to
finance a state park and land conservation system.
The Final Plan
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission was
scheduled to adopt the final plan on August 29. As of
August 1, TPWD had already received hundreds of
comments on the draft plan, most of them advocating
the type of strengthening of the plan envisioned by
the Sierra Club. It is hoped that this large volume of
constructive criticism results in a plan that truly
meets the needs of Texas and Texans in the 21 st
century. An update on the outcome of the plan will be
included in the Winter Issue of the Lone Star Sierran
and will be available earlier on the Lone Star Chapter
website at www.texas.sierraclub.org.
Conservation in Texas...
Continued from Page 12
Looking Ahead
As a follow-up to this successful conference
and the anticipated adoption of the TPWD Land
and Water Plan, the next milestone in the Lone
Star Chapter’s Wide Open Spaces Campaign is
the publication this fall of a “special places”
report that will provide a selective look at areas
in Texas that need to be preserved for current
and future generations. Check the Lone Star
Chapter website (www.texas.sierraclub.org) in
October for the latest information on the special
places of Texas.
Public Meetings to be Held on
Designation of Groundwater
Management Areas
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB),
the state water planning agency, was directed in
SB 2, enacted by the Texas Legislature in 2001, to
designate groundwater management areas covering
all major and minor aquifers of the state. The
initial designation is to be completed by September
1, 2003. According to the statute: “Each groundwater
management area shall be designated with the
objective of providing the most suitable area for the
management of the groundwater resources.”
Following a stakeholder meeting in May the
agency has developed a map of Texas with proposed
groundwater management area boundaries and is
seeking public input on the proposed designations.
The map may be accessed through the TWDB web
site at www.twdb.state.tx.us. The agency has
scheduled eight public meetings around the state
and one public meeting in Austin to take public
input on the proposed designations. Complete
information on the public meetings may be found
on the agency web site. The dates and cities
where meetings will be held is as follows (all are
scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.):
September 5
Plainview
September 9
San Angelo
September 10
Alpine
September 12
Fredericksburg
September 18
Corpus Christi
September 19
Wharton
September 25
Tyler
September 26
Stephenville
The official public hearing on the proposal will be
held on September 30 (1 to 5 p.m.) in Austin in
Room 118 of the Stephen F. Austin Bldg., 1700 N.
Congress Avenue.