The Texas Water Trust received its first donation in nearly two decades thanks to East Texas rancher Bob Sanders, benefitting critical flows to Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake. www.texastribune.org/2026/03/16/e...

President Trump wants to build a wall through Big Bend National Park. One of the most sacred places in Texas. Texans have a message for him: Come and take it.

Talking about the Dallas "Blue Hole" - Fighting Water Woes with a Kayak and a Camera - 2024 Lightning Round at the Hill Country Leadership Summit, hosted by the Hill Country Alliance www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R32...

New from @scottnicoltx.bsky.social: From the Santa Ana refuge to La Lomita chapel, some of the most sacred places in the Rio Grande Valley are at risk from Trump's border wall ... if Congress doesn't act soon to save them.

Feds waive environmental protections to fast-track Big Bend wall bigbendsentinel.com/2026/02/18/f...

If you care about the Big Bend, this is a good time to start paying attention to the border wall plans. CBP told me there will be "new infrastructure or upgrades" as part of the smart wall within both the national park and the state park. insideclimatenews.org/news/1702202...

@texasstandard.bsky.social Per reporting from the Big Bend Sentinel, this canyon within Big Bend Ranch State Park is within the proposed footprint of a new, steel border wall. The hundreds of feet of canyon wall, as seen from canoe, are apparently not tall enough for DHS' disastrous project.

In case you missed this quick listen on legal and political updates at The Cutoff.

New updates and history on the Cutoff of the Trinity River in Henderson County, where legal battles abound regarding stream navigation law. Last week from @texastribune.org: www.texastribune.org/2025/10/23/e...

Hearing @gregjstoker.bsky.social on @texasstandard.bsky.social this morning is awesome.

Last night, identities of 3 individuals were released who have been directing TXDOT to aid a landowner on his conquest to privatize a beloved 735-acre waterbody (The Cutoff) owned by the State of Texas. They are: House Representatives Keith Bell and Cody Harris, and Senator Robert Nichols.

as gale force winds endure 200 miles south of the eyewall, masked bobbies plunging into the seawater amid 20+ foot waves to feed on various fish potentially including flying fish, squid, small tuna

up close and personal with the spiral rainbands of Hurricane Erin this morning aboard @royalcaribbeanintl.bsky.social's Wonder of the Seas. ~200 miles south of the eye, enduring gale force winds from SW, wave heights well over 15 feet

can't wait to paddle the upper Guadalupe River later this year and witness all the thousands of cypress trees which survived flow rates that more than doubled that of Niagara Falls some pictures I took from Guadalupe River State Park this spring:

Per the Rio Grande Guardian this week: City of Brownsville, Cameron County, and their partners (Freese and Nichols and a real estate broker) are being completely secretive about this $500 million project and its "River Walk" along the fourth longest river in the US. rgv.me/thread/3954

I grew up poor and in the country without cable. Know what channel always came in? PBS. Fuck Trump.

Greg Abbott Killed the Best Chance to Save Jacob's Well www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

From historian Char Miller, author of West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement (2021):

Federal DEI funding cuts threaten the work of the few remaining Black farmers in East Texas

Guadalupe River at further risk: I am hearing reports from Kerr County that debris removal contractors have been emphasizing getting out as much material as possible because they are being paid by weight - so they were getting material out while it was still wet, green and heavy.

Out today: Although Texans have been doing flood-prevention planning, most of those analyses are based on the statistics from past storms without attempts being made to better define the current reality. More importantly, we don’t treat floodplains with the respect they deserve and demand.

Proposed Transmission Line Threatens Texas’ Largest Reservoir www.texasobserver.org/locals-oppos...

I went on the Talk+Water podcast hosted by Texas+Water to discuss produced water, the Rio Grande and more. Thanks to Todd Votteler for having me on. You can listen to the episode here: texaspluswater.wp.txstate.edu/2025/07/18/t...

"Globally, in the last 20, 25 years, we lost more than 500,000 sq. km. of natural floodplains. And that’s almost the size of France. So protecting the natural floodplain is fundamental to protecting people from flood hazards, but we are not doing that." txst.us/lvjrtx

'Looks like it did 200 years ago' | Centuries-old trees and trails wiped out by mistake in Garland www.wfaa.com/article/tech...

Four maps of the flooding in Kerr County, TX. Each newsroom drew on varied data sources & focused on a different aspect of the disaster. Refined combination of color-coded rainfall data & shaded relief by Laris Karklis, @washingtonpost.com wapo.st/3IpvrTu #dataviz #cartography #ddj 1/4

What alternatives were recommended, if any? No public input, no initial contact with TPWD Kills and Spills Team, now a world class birding facility, educational and recreational amenity is closed off to the public with unknown effects to migratory wildlife. Particularly disturbing event timeline.

This is particularly tragic and heartbreaking, as Spring Creek Forest Preserve contains some of the last old growth forest in the southeastern US.

Self-described environmentalist, Dallas-based hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass, is looking to take over 46,000 acre-feet (15 billion gallons) of water per year out of the Carrizo-Wilcox in East Texas www.ketk.com/news/local-n...

Checked out a neat beaver lodge on the shore of Richland-Chambers Reservoir on Saturday. It is a hybrid of both common types of lodges: the classic conical lodge & the bank lodge. Setting up a game camera to monitor their dam maintenance activities for the next couple weeks.

Last weekend's overnight paddle down the Angelina River was one for the books. Deep, cool oxbow lakes, full of fish, surround the Angelina before it meets the Neches. 46 species of birds heard & seen, highlights: dozens of prothonotary warblers, parulas + 2 swallow-tailed kites.

Snapshot from @alereports.bsky.social & @texastribune.org regarding Texas' Water Crisis on display during lecture by Dr. Matthew Berg at @TAMU this afternoon during the annual Water Day event at the university. Great, innovative presentations and posters shared today by students & faculty.

Texas' water supply is threatened by a changing climate, rapid population growth, and outdated infrastructure, which loses billions of gallons of water each year. State lawmakers are poised to devote billions to save the state’s water supply. Here are some of the ways Texas could spend the money.

NEW from me: Bianca Sicich, a 30-year-old Texan, was abruptly fired by DOGE two weeks ago. She's so dedicated to protecting the endangered Attwater prairie chicken that she's been working her federal job at a Texas ntl wildlife refuge *without pay* ever since. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

as we head towards spring, gentle reminder that nearly 90% of the developed infrastructure and landscape at s***hole tesla gigafactory is in the floodplain : - )

Paddling on the San Marcos River yesterday on a warm February afternoon with @rivergeek.bsky.social and singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Beth Galiger. Got up close and personal with a great horned owl while on one of the most special rivers in Texas.

Two years ago TX lawmakers created a $10 million program through the TCEQ (state environmental agency) to address leaking wells in rural counties. None of the money has been distributed. The TCEQ’s rulemaking process still isn’t finished. via @texastribune.org www.texastribune.org/2025/02/04/t...

Exploring the Flow: New Book Highlights Freshwater Inflows into Bays and Estuaries www.harteresearch.org/new-book-fre...

excellent piece today in the Dallas Morning News on industrial solar in northeast Texas and what solar's unregulated rise means not just for East Texas but for all of rural America www.dallasnews.com/news/environ...

'Don't take our homes' | East Texans rally against proposal to flood their land for DFW's water supply www.wfaa.com/article/news...

Q: How much does it cost to pay off three-letter agencies in Texas so you can break- and re-write environmental laws in Texas? A: $26,000.

Woke up to some snow at Beech Ravines Scenic Area, Sabine National Forest, yesterday; icicles in the chasms of Upper Colorow Creek. Steepest hillslopes in Deep East Texas in an obscure part of the state. Feeling ready to take on 2025 today.

tx glo: spends tens of millions of state dollars on ineffective border "walls" while tx ranks 43rd in the nation for school funding and tx teachers make less today than 10 yrs ago, given inflation... and tx glo boasts about how much they help school funding. pigs.

Today on the Burleson County scanner: non-operational oil pad explodes around 10:45am, 3 miles from the Brazos River. Reports suggest the boom could be heard over 20 miles away and that the blast could be felt in buildings over 10 miles away. Awaiting details on the cause.

While Meta is down at lunch... enjoy these pictures of an old growth bald cypress tree in East Texas. Tree is perhaps over 500 years old and lives in an ancient, cypress-lined oxbow lake from a meander scar of the Neches River at Upland Island Wilderness Area in the Angelina National Forest.

Journalist @gaigedavila.bsky.social, based in the Rio Grande Valley, wrote for @deceleration.bsky.social this week about how industrial projects are reshaping the region. He highlights how these projects are influencing the culture and daily lives of communities that have lived here for generations.

The Texas General Land Office has the most pathetic social media of any state gov probably in the nation. They routinely reshare old success stories each year disguised as 'new' stories. Let's look at a warm rebuilding story from Hurricane Harvey: reshared in '21, '22, and twice in '24.

Fox News reporting this morning that Trump's Border Czar Tom Homan will be in Eagle Pass tomorrow with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. What Abbott once referred to as his "war" with the federal government now appears to be evolving into a partnership aimed at deporting millions.