In a world of ever-decreasing public lands and public land fights over their sale, the last place you'd think of to be adding new public lands would be Texas. Yet, that's exactly what the Lone Star state is doing through a voter-approved public lands buy through a newly created Centennial Parks Conservation Fund.
For those not in the know, Texas is one of the largest states in the US, yet it has almost no public lands. Of its total 171 million acres, only 4% is public land. Compare that to Alaska's 365 million acres and 90% public land, or California's 100 million acres and 15% which is publicly owned. But even that small percentage of publicly owned land was one that developers wanted to pry from the publics hands and, after a housing developer purchased Fairfield Lake State Park in 2023, Texas' voters went to the polls and approved a $1 billion fund to increase the state's public lands.
That is rather unheard of today, and especially from Texas. But the outcome is a win for public land advocates, as well as regular, ordinary citizens, as it both shows that people love public lands and, when push comes to shove, you can actually increase the amount of public lands we have access to. It's a win for US citizens through and through.
