The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is celebrating a century of state park operations this year, and a nationally acclaimed conservationist and native Texan has written a book to celebrate the occasion.
Texas State Parks: The First 100 Years 1923-2023Â tells the story of the establishment of the first Texas State Parks Board in 1923 and the development of the 89 parks that currently make up the state’s park system. The book was authored by George L. Bristol, founder of the Texas Coalition for Conservation and a long-time state park advocate.
Bristol told The Texas Standard in an interview that he has been interested in wildlife parks since he was young and had even worked at Glacier National Park for two summers while attending the University of Texas in Austin.
He cited Bastrop State Park and Enchanted Rock as two of his favorite state parks because of the fond memories created there with his family when he was growing up.
“So it’s just been a longstanding love affair with parks, and the last 20 years, I really put a lot of time and effort into getting true funding for the parks,” said Bristol, according to Texas Standard. “We finally did it in 2019. And so I wanted to put down my thoughts about how it all came about. And one thing led to another and led to the book.”
Proposition 5, passed in 2019, “guaranteed that all the funds that were supposed to go to the state parks went to the state parks. The Legislature had capped the amount of money at $32 million and used the rest of the funds for other projects, and that just was not acceptable to me and a lot of other people,” Bristol explained. “We had an election in November of 2019, and it passed by 88% of the people of Texas.”
He also urged Texans to vote for Proposition 14 in the upcoming general election in November. The constitutional amendment would create the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, a separate trust fund outside the state treasury used solely to create and improve state parks.
“I think we in the Legislature and everybody learned our lesson: Don’t make it open-ended,” said Bristol, according to Texas Standard. “And so that money, if it passes –- and I think it will pass rather handily; the polls show we’re doing extremely well – then I think it must be spent to buy land for future parks.”
Bristol also credited a number of Texas leaders, including former Govs. Pat Neff and John Connally and former Sen. Don Kennard, for their early efforts to help create and support parks across the state.
A press release from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) notes some of the good parks do the state.
“Texas State Parks play a significant role in conserving habitat that benefits people and wildlife, encompassing some 630,000 acres, including 481,000 acres of Texas aquifers, rivers, and reservoirs that protect our drinking water. Parks also provide critical habitat for wildlife, including more than 50 threatened and endangered species.
“They also attract close to 10 million visitors every year, generating $891 million in economic value and $18 million in sales tax revenue.”
TPWD encourages everyone to celebrate the parks system’s centennial by exploring all that the state parks have to offer.
