Protecting our most valuable resource requires innovation and your help

Development should not mean the destruction of our cultural and environmental treasures. However, this is what’s happening in Central Texas. Your help is needed to advocate for and insist on innovation.

BASTROP INTERVALE: Agricultural Zone For Food, Recreation and Protect Water, Nature

Wilbarger Bend, Bastrop is a perfect example of what is not working. Fifteen years ago, Central Texas leaders and Bastop residents created the Greenprint for Growth report to guide infrastructure development so that areas crucial to our public, mental and environmental health were protected. This prized recreational area — deemed essential to our health with a rich history of food production and long-established African-American community — is now being destroyed by gravel mining without input from the people who have lived there for generations. (Texas is one of the few states that does not require miners to follow basic national guidelines designed to protect communities and future generations.)

Other Texas communities suffering the impacts of poorly regulated mining operations—dangerous roads, air pollution, water issues, lack of oversight, permit violations, and more - have established Community Advisory Councils to foster communication between industry and neighbors. Bastrop needs this as well. See Friends of the Land to get involved and Texans for Responsible Gravel Mining to learn more.

AGRIHOODS - Farm-centered communities

When the historic Bergstrom farmstead in east Austin (where we have farmed since 2006) was threatened by development in 2015, we proposed an alternative. Why not combine a neighborhood with an existing farm? Instead of paving over a food producing place of cultural significance, the developer agreed to create Austin’s first tiny-home community around our certified organic farm. Come see Village Farm AGRIcultural neighborHOOD to see innovative farmland preservation in action.