Lindsay Mader, 254-291-1749
Austin, Texas – Yesterday, the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club urged the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to delay its Jan. 25 meeting where the agency plans to vote on a proposed land exchange involving SpaceX. In a letter from Conservation Director Cyrus Reed, the Lone Star Chapter emphasized the rushed and non-inclusive process that has unfolded regarding a proposal to take 43 acres in Boca Chica State Park, a site beloved by the community for generations, and give it to SpaceX in exchange for 477 acres near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
In response to the rushed process undertaken by TPWD, Sierra Club issued the following statements:
“We have serious concerns about the proposed transfer, and we don’t believe TPWD followed code in the way it provided the public with notice about this controversial proposal,” said Cyrus Reed, the conservation director for the Lone Star Chapter. “The agency also, as far as we know, failed to provide public notice in Spanish and in Spanish-language news outlets. This is an important decision involving state lands, and the public deserves the right to know and provide input before a decision is rushed through on behalf of a private developer like SpaceX.”
“Texas Parks and Wildlife has not engaged the community, including the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas that has ancestral ties to the land it wants to take from the public and give to SpaceX,” said Emma Guevara, a Brownsville field organizer for the Sierra Club. “We were all blindsided, to be honest, and the people are trying to find ways to respond in a matter of days. With the rushed public notices, and that these were not available in Spanish, we suspect the agency wants to speed this along. We know that TPWD can include the community in decisions when it wants to – it did this with oyster harvesting – so we urge it to delay the meeting and truly provide the people with a chance to participate and respond.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.