The story of Texas’s working lands, or privately owned farms, ranches, and forests, is one of rapid changes that have widespread implications for national and food security, rural economies, and the conservation of wildlife, water, and other natural resources. Over 139 million acres of valuable landscapes supporting these processes are threatened by suburbanization, rural development, and land fragmentation driven by rapid economic and population growth.

Because we are uniquely positioned to speak on land trend issues, we seek to share our expertise about critical natural resource issues with all Texans. Most recently, we had the chance to mentor some of our future leaders and on how they can work together to improve Texas lands from their own hometowns.

What do natural resources professionals have in common with rocket scientists?  More than you might think. Spacecraft-based cameras that orbit the globe have been providing images that guide natural resource management for decades.

Scientists employ various methods, models and data to track weather patterns, including drought – a condition closely monitored by Texans, especially those involved in agriculture and natural resources. 

Depicting their latest discovery, the Texas Land Trends team developed a new map series featuring the original Texas cattle trails to show how the historical cattle drive routes and supply posts have evolved into major highways and urban centers today. 

Creating your individualized, conservation-minded map of Texas just became the bee's knees.

Working lands, whether private or publicly owned, provide substantial economic, ecological, and recreational resources across the U.S. Here in Texas, we often boast of being a “private land state”, meaning the majority of the land (~95%) is held in private ownership. Many may wonder how this came to be and if other states fall under similar ownership patterns. For this new Featured Map, we briefly explore the history of land settlement across the nation and demonstrate the unique ownership landscape that exists today.

Under the Texas Land Trends project, informative reports have been developed over the years to empower public and private decision-makers with the information needed to plan for the conservation of vital working lands. Public usability and access to this report data has been a cornerstone of this long-standing effort, promoting the creation of the Data Explorer tool, which was first launched in 2015.

In our latest featured map, we took satellite imagery collected throughout 2019 and stitched them together in an animation to illustrate the phenological changes of vegetation across Texas.