Watershed Texas

I had the privilege of walking the open coastal prairie wetlands at Sheldon Lake State Park last week during my routine quarterly monitoring. This photopoint monitoring is one of my favorite excuses to do work and get some “pond therapy”.  The restored ponds encompass roughly 315 acres and it takes hours to walk and hit each photopoint for all 15 ponds.  This walk-through gives me perspective and inspiration.  Last June we were already deep in the drought and the wetland ponds were suffering, dominated by mostly dead, brown vegetation.  So what an incredible contrast to walk the same areas a year later and see lush, green, vibrant vegetation!  The restored wetland survived and thrived—a testament to restoration itself and the resiliency of the resource.  

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The political season is upon us.  Politicos will be making hay on anything they can. Smart growth and sustainability are two ideas VERY susceptible to political manipulation. For many, the anti-sprawl message smacks of liberal elitism. Nothing could be further from the truth, but sometimes sustainability practitioners can be their own worst enemy in this regard.

The issue of sustainable and resilient communities is way too important to let it become a partisan political issue. Read this blog from Bacon’s Rebellion: Smart Growth for Conservatives.  James Bacon makes some very convincing arguments that the things that smart growth is all about, particularly communities choosing their own path, are very much at the heart of the traditional conservative movement.

This essay is very important for those of us in Extension working in this area. It is not about us telling communities what they need. Sometimes we in academia take the white-coated doctor’s approach of telling the patient what is good for him or her. In reality we need to be more like a coach helping our clients to make the best decisions they can, insuring that they have access to the very best of what our university brain trusts have to offer.

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