LAMPASAS, Texas (AP) — On a blistering June morning, Andy Sipocz brushes his fingers by the thick, sawgrass fronds rising larger than his head beside a creek within the Texas Hill Nation.
Round him, rocky limestone strains Yancey Creek, streaked in delicate reds and browns — proof of millennia of mineral deposits and weathering.
Sipocz, a pure sources coordinator and biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Division, is one in all greater than three dozen staffers gathered right here to start laying the groundwork for what’s going to in the future be Texas’ latest state park — a couple of two hour drive northwest of Austin.
Sporting cargo shorts and pants, mountain climbing boots, and sun-brimmed hats, the TPWD crew winds its method down a steep hill — no path in sight. That’s the purpose. They’re right here to find out the place the paths needs to be. At this time’s mission: conduct early-stage pure useful resource surveys and habitat assessments to help the park’s future design.
“Like every good enterprise, you might want to know what you have got earlier than you begin,” Sipocz, who has been with TPWD for 35 years, stated. “You may’t make good plans till you recognize what it’s you’ve received.”
After voters permitted the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, a $1 billion funding handed by lawmakers in 2023, Texas started a brand new period of public land acquisition and park improvement. The fund permits the parks division to develop entry to pure areas throughout the state, whereas preserving native ecosystems and cultural landmarks.
Based on a 2022 report by Atmosphere Texas, Texas lags behind most others states in state parkland: The state ranks thirty fifth within the nation for state park acreage per capita, with about 636,000 acres of parkland for a inhabitants of over 29 million as of 2019. The report means that Texas must add 1.4 million acres of state parks by 2030 to fulfill the wants of its residents.
With the brand new voter-approved funding, Texas is poised for a historic growth of its 88-park system. Among the many most up-to-date additions to the state park system are:
1. A 1,100-acre acquisition in Lampasas and Burnet Counties, together with 1.5 miles of Yancey Creek.
2. A 2,020-acre acquisition in Burnet County alongside the Colorado River throughout from Colorado Bend State Park.
3. A 3,073-acre growth to Enchanted Rock State Pure Space in Llano County, which can considerably develop the 1,685-acre park.
The primary two acquisitions will create a brand new Publish Oak Ridge State Park. Centennial fund cash might be used to develop the brand new acquisitions.
“That is form of a brand new factor for the division,” Sipocz stated. “There was an enormous burst of acquisitions of parks within the ’70s and ’80s, and there hasn’t been since. That’s what makes this so thrilling.”
Two ranches will turn into new park
On the coronary heart of the planning course of is JJ Fleury, this system director for planning and geospatial sources at TPWD. Fleury stated Publish Oak Ridge State Park, the place Yancey Creek flows, remains to be within the early levels of improvement. The park was initially two giant ranches, Vann River Ranch and Large Springs Ranch. Park staffers recognized the parcels and finally acquired them as quickly as they went in the marketplace. Collectively the properties value $47.1 million.
Fleury stated the park checked loads of packing containers: throughout the Texas Triangle shaped by Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas-Fort Value, diverse terrain like sweeping canyons, and frontage alongside the Colorado River. He added that the flatter, much less scenic areas of the park may function “again of home” zones for wastewater remedy, upkeep, or employees housing.
This web site additionally sits close to Colorado Bend State Park. When developed, the greater than 3,000-acre new park alongside Yancey Creek will join with the higher Colorado Bend ecosystem, which Fleury stated will develop conservation efforts at a regional scale.
“One of many thrilling issues is that panorama scale of conservation, the place we’re defending now 10,000 acres,” Fleury stated. He additionally added that the park is filling recreation gaps like cabins and RV tenting, which Colorado Bend doesn’t present.
A “herp search” to catalogue critters
Early that June morning Greg Creacy, a pure sources program director for Texas State Parks, leads a crew of biologists, herpetologists, and hydrologists by the ecological stock — strolling the land, cataloging species and habitats, and figuring out what’s uncommon or delicate.
The Yancey Creek survey begins with a herp search — brief for herpetology — which incorporates snakes, lizards, frogs and salamanders.
“(That information) informs our plans for preserve these programs and these species over the lengthy haul,” Creacy stated. “It additionally informs how we handle the positioning, how we develop and the way the general public makes use of the positioning recreationally and doesn’t negatively affect these sources.”
Employees fan out throughout the limestone creek mattress, squatting, lifting rocks, and peering into the shadows as a result of in line with Sipocz, the biologist, that’s the place these creatures like to cover — beneath rocks the place it’s cool and moist. For Sipocz, there’s a thrill in each discovery. He jokes and says selecting up rocks is addictive and provides him excessive.
It doesn’t take lengthy earlier than they’re hollering joyfully from reverse banks.
“OMG, take a look at this!” one yells.
“What have you ever received?” one other replies.
Tadpoles wriggle in shallow swimming pools. A Rio Grande leopard frog makes an attempt to flee with a leap earlier than being gently scooped for identification. A water moccasin slithers by the tall grass — taking Sipocz abruptly.
One crew member spots a vibrant blue collared lizard basking on a sun-warmed rock and picks it up, whereas one other factors out a fragile Maidenhair Fern. Another person finds a tiny skink hiding beneath a free stone, and a plain-bellied water snake within the creek.
Staffers use the iNaturalist app to log each species they encounter, importing pictures and habitat notes in actual time. The information will assist TPWD assess the positioning’s ecological significance and determine delicate areas in want of safety.
These discoveries information the position of trails and amenities — and typically decide what can’t go the place.
“We would discover a flat, buildable space that appears nice for a path,” stated Fleury, “however then our useful resource crew comes again and says, ‘Endangered species habitat — transfer it.’”
Electrofishing in Yancey Creek
Following the herp search, the TPWD crew pivots to the fish group. A small crew steps into the clear, and at occasions knee-deep waters of Yancey Creek. Some put on waders; others merely courageous the water in soaked garments.
Utilizing a technique known as electrofishing, the crew led by aquatic biologist Stephen Curtis, quickly stun fish with a low electrical present — sufficient to make a human hand tingle uncomfortably, however not harmful to fish. Each zap from the backpack-mounted electrofisher triggers a pointy beep as fish float to the floor, the place they’re gently scooped by a web to later be dumped into buckets for identification. The crew paperwork species one after the other, sorting and tallying.
They discovered an array of native species together with longear sunfish, Western mosquito fish, sand shiners, blacktail shiners with their putting orange fins, and Texas tetra. Buckets rapidly crammed, particularly with the “cuss bugs,” an area nickname for a very prickly aquatic insect with small stinging barbs. After they rely the fish and scribble its species on a pad, they launch them again into the creek.
“That’s a great signal,” stated Curtis. “We have now loads of complexity on this stream. We have now a wide range of habitats for fish to occupy and we wish to hold it that method and hold that managed to the place we are able to share this with folks sooner or later.”
Curtis stated that sampling fish is about constructing a deeper understanding of the ecosystem. Fish range can reveal how wholesome the stream is and the way nicely it’s functioning. It should additionally assist them assess how they might want to handle the fish inhabitants when this web site is open to the general public for fishing.
Along with figuring out fish, the crew collected water samples and measured how a lot water is flowing.
Fleury, the park planner, stated that after surveys are executed, park planners will work intently with useful resource specialists to avoid delicate areas for species and begin determining the very best spots for issues like roads, parking, utilities, buildings, and leisure options — assume trails, campsites, and picnic areas.
As they go, the planning crew will create some early idea plans to share with the general public and get suggestions from the general public at a sequence of native and regional public conferences the place they’ll weigh.
The thought is to gauge what sorts of experiences folks need — day use, in a single day amenities, paddling entry, and so on. — and check the early idea plans earlier than they’re finalized.
As soon as a plan takes form, TPWD strikes into design and building.
“It’s like constructing a small metropolis,” Fleury stated.
With the Centennial parks funding, the timeline is quick. He stated that folks can count on to have entry to Publish Oak Ridge State Park, the brand new park at Yancey Creek, inside a yr. That might imply guided excursions, paddling, birding, or restricted day use on present ranch roads. Inside 18 months, the aim is to have primary amenities similar to trails, parking areas, and restrooms. And inside 4 years, a full-fledged state park together with day use and in a single day recreation, administrative help amenities, utilities, roads, and parking.
Again at Yancey Creek, the crew wraps up its survey. Some are sunburned, moist or mud-splattered. They’ve logged dozens of species and mapped vital areas for future planning. As they start the lengthy trek again up the hill, one staffer takes a second to admire the land, which stays uncooked and untamed.
Within the close to future, this stretch of Texas Hill Nation may turn into a spot the general public can cherish and discover.
“This is the reason I received this profession,” Sipocz stated. “We don’t receives a commission lots, however… we receives a commission in sunsets.”
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This story was initially printed by The Texas Tribune and distributed by a partnership with The Related Press.
