
Garrett Powers
Project Manager
Garrett.Powers@ag.tamu.eduGarrett joined the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute as a student technician in 2012, while working to earn his Bachelor of Science in Spatial Sciences that he later received in 2013. Following his undergraduate degree, Garrett served four years in the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer. He returned to the institute in 2018 as a graduate research assistant, while pursuing a Master of Science degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science with a focus on Remote Sensing technology. In his current role, Garrett provides geospatial support within the geospatial analysis team for NRI and the Texas Water Resources Institute. His studies are focused on the application of remote sensing technologies to solve challenges in natural resource conservation.
Garrett is from Houston, TX and during his free time can be found traveling around the state looking for good food and outdoor recreation.
Publications
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Assessing ecological and socio-political factors in site selection for ocelot reintroduction in Texas
Mar 2024
Martinez, L. A., J. V. Lombardi, G. Powers, A. D. Anderson, T. Campbell, & R. R. Lopez. 2024. Assessing ecological and socio-political factors in site selection for ocelot reintroduction in Texas. Conservation Science and Practice, e13113. https:// doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13113
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Using LiDAR to Enhance Distribution Models for the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) in Texas, USA
Aug 2022
Walkup, D.K., W.A. Ryberg, R.J. Hibbetts, K.L. Skow, G. Powers, L.A. Fitzgerald, B.A. Collier, and R.R. Lopez. 2022. Using LiDAR to enhance distribution models for the dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) in Texas, USA. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 17, 349-361.
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Structural and environmental predictors of tricolored bat presence and abundance in Texas caves
Dec 2021
Meierhofer, M.B., S.J. Leivers, B.L. Pierce, G.W. Powers, J.W. Evans, and M.L. Morrison. 2022. Structural and environmental predictors of tricolored bat presence and abundance in Texas caves. Journal of Mammalogy 103:407-414.
Research Reports
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Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program: 2020 Evaluation
Nov 2020
Lund, A.A., G.W. Powers, R.R. Lopez, L.A. Smith, L.M. Olson, and L.F. Gregory. 2020. Texas farm and ranch lands conservation program: 2020 Evaluation report. Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, Research Report Number 2020-1. College Station, Texas, USA.
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Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands 1997 - 2017
Dec 2019
Smith, L.A., R.R. Lopez, A.A. Lund, B.N. Wegner, J.C. Cathey, A. Lopez, R.E. Anderson, G.W. Powers, K.L. Skow, M.A. Crawford. 2019. Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands. Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI), College Station, TX, USA.
Field Notes
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NRI expands web tools to help protect military training spaces from incompatible development
Jul 23, 2025
With funding from DOD's Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, NRI developed the new Texas Compatible Use Zones (TCUZ) Viewer (tcuz.nri.tamu.edu), the first centralized web tool to display military compatible use zones (using DOD AICUZ and ICUZ data) for active-duty installations across the state. The TCUZ Viewer helps anyone considering development near a military installation in Texas identify whether their location of interest may conflict with military operations in that area.
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Featured Map: Out of this world imagery for natural resources management
Apr 14, 2023
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.
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Featured Map: What satellites tell us about drought in Texas
Oct 10, 2022
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.
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Featured Map: Cattle trails to Texas highways
Mar 11, 2022
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.
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Texas airspace planning and forecasting to combat encroachment on military preparedness
Jan 14, 2022
NRI’s latest web tool, the Texas Airspace Planning and Forecasting Tool, provides a comprehensive solution for planners. Employing easy-to-navigate functionality, the tool combines those military installation fence lines on the ground and airspace boundaries over head with forecasted land development data up to year 2050.
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New military land use compatibility tools to shape the future of action plans across the nation
Jan 3, 2022
NRI developed several reports and web tools to assist installation personnel and community stakeholders in addressing various aspects of encroachment issues facing Texas installations from airspace, land and threatened and endangered species forecasting.
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TxMAP: A new way to map with conservation data
Oct 16, 2021
Creating your individualized, conservation-minded map of Texas just became the bee's knees.
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Featured Map: Land ownership types across the U.S.
Sep 16, 2021
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.
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Reboot: The Texas Land Trends Data Explorer
Jun 2, 2021
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.
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A new perspective on Texas phenology
Aug 25, 2020
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.