Dear Friend:

Welcome to the borderlands and the world of los dos Laredos! For those of you who may be experiencing the region for the first time, you're in for a treat. LareDOS is a great place to learn about fun things to do along the border, including hunting, fishing, camping, state parks, bird watching and more.

The key to enjoying these activities is water, and in Texas that means having enough clean water in our rivers. People who live, work and play along the Río Grande probably understand better than most the challenges facing our rivers.

Growing up in north-central Texas on Lost Creek, which at best could be called an intermittent stream, I always wondered what it took to be a river. Lost Creek drains into Pecan Bayou, which in turn feeds into the Colorado River near Goldthwaite. The Colorado , one of the major rivers of Texas , supports the Highland Lakes , from Lake Buchanan to Austin 's Town Lake , and hundreds of miles later, feeds into Matagorda Bay , one of the most productive estuary and bay systems in the world.

I have learned through the years that how we manage the land -- even the watershed on our little ranch southeast of Abilene -- really does impact the quantity and quality of water downstream.

If my family -- and private landowners like us -- provide abundant ground cover on our ranchland by implementing deferred-rotation grazing, and if we use prescribed fire to control undesirable brush species and stimulate the growth and production of native grasses and forbs, the rain that falls on the vast private lands of Texas will be slowly filtered through those plants and soak into the protected soil. That same water will appear again in our springs, creeks and rivers for the use and benefit of all Texans, and for our fish and wildlife.

In contrast, the bare, baked ground that results from continuous overgrazing will cause the rapid run-off of rainfall, soil erosion and the deposition of vast quantities of sediment into our rivers, lakes and bays, seriously undermining the quantity and quality of our water supply.

The state of Texas receives millions of acre-feet of fresh, pure rainwater annually. It comes to us free, clean, crystal-clear and ready for all of our uses and needs. Almost all of the land on which this water falls is held by private landowners. We must manage and conserve every drop when and where it hits the ground.

Through good land and watershed management, Texas becomes a huge sponge, absorbing, conserving and returning this abundant supply of fresh water from the Caprock in the Texas Panhandle to the bays and estuaries of the Gulf Coast .

There is still time to insure an abundant supply of clean water for people and wildlife in Texas , but we must act now. We can do it. Get involved and be part of the solution.

 

Sincerely,

Robert L. Cook,

Executive Director

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department