Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.

Conservation Texas Style

I make my living doing ecological restoration and by providing consultation and the tools to perform habitat revegetation/restoration. My job fulfills me both monetarily and spiritually, I consider myself very lucky to be able to make a living doing something that I believe in with all my heart. Most people, aside from real teachers, do not have that luxury.
Recently, I was asked, “Do you find it difficult in TX to affect change? Besides Austin, the state does have a conservative rep lately. And we all know that conservatives don't do much environmental conservation.” and I thought it might be a good time to dispel a few myths about how Texas really is.
First and foremost, George W. Bush is not from Texas. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, which could make him an East Coast Yankee Liberal, but he is certainly not a Texan. He may claim to have been raised in Texas, however, he is still from back east. Just because I was raised by a pack of wolves, does not make me a wolf, I’m still a Drunken Oso. Good Ol’ Dub-ya is probably one of the most kind hearted, caring, compassionate people that you could ever meet. He is also a complete and utter fucking idiot. He is duller than a sack of hammers and has the common sense of a rotten stump. That said, in Washington, he has been surrounded by and controlled by some truly evil men and he is too stupid to do anything, except what they want. I could go on for hours about the subject, but I expect that most of you have at least a small grasp on how the politics are dys-functioning at the present time, so I’ll move on.

Believe it or not, Texas is actually one of the world leaders in conservation. It is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to organic gardening and food production. While the rest of the country is still trying to figure out what Rodale was talking about when it comes to using compost, men, in Texas, like Malcolm Beck, John Dromgoole, J. Howard Garrett, and Paul Dowlearn, have been out in the fields and the landscapes observing Nature and “finding” new means to bring about healthy soils and thereby healthy flora, which of course leads to healthy fauna (and that includes people). Texas produces more organic produce than any other state in the Union. If you are wearing an organic cotton T-shirt right now, odds are that the cotton came from Texas (check the label). Texas is also where the world’s largest chain of whole food/organic grocery stores got its start (Whole Foods, based in Austin, TX). They now have stores in 29 states and 3 countries. Not bad for a bunch of in-bred rednecks.
Texas is also a leader in Wildlife Conservation. Texas was one of the first states to allow for conservation easements and has the best Private Lands Wildlife Management programs in the country. Where most states give little or no tax relief to people protecting their land for wildlife, Texas actually gives the same tax evaluation to both agricultural land and wildlife management land. So, whether you are raising cows or quail, pigs or clean water, wheat or deer, soybeans or songbirds, ec cetera. You are taxed the same. Check out your state tax laws, and you’ll probably be frightened at how biased they are towards destroying nature, to make room for more “commodities”.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. employees more Wildlife Biologists than the federal government does. The people of Texas demand that our public lands be looked after by the most highly trained and skilled professionals. Red-necks like to hunt and fish, and without proper land management that is not possible. Remember, the first American conservationists (Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, John Audubon, et al) were hunters trying to preserve something for the future.
One of the things that makes Texas unique is that there is very little public land. Almost all of Texas is in private ownership (how can you own the land or the sky?) and for the most part people take better care of what they perceive as belonging to them. The mentality that it is just BLM land or USFS land doesn’t work in Texas. The land belongs to the rancher and if he fucks up his land he is looked down upon by his peers. The ranchers in Texas may be against queers, pinkos, hippie’s, colored’s, and Satanists (meaning Mormon’s, Jews, Catholics, and other non Baptists), but he does have a bit of respect for the land. For that I give him credit, he is a close minded, bigoted, piece of shit in a Ford truck, but he does care for his land, and maybe that’s a start.
We do have plenty of problems here in the Lone Star State, that we are working hard to fix, but don’t let the actions of politicians in Washington fool you, Texas is a lot greener than you think.