It’s easy to take the internet for granted. With high-speed broadband available at home and elsewhere, many of us stay constantly connected at work or school, when we shop, and even when we need health care.

But Texans who live in remote parts of the state often aren’t able to count on reliable internet. Huge chunks of federal and state money allocated in the past few years are supposed to help, but it hasn’t always worked out that way.

In Monahans, Texas, residents did something about it.

Monahans is a town of 8,000 or so, located in the heart of the oil patch. It’s sometimes called “the Center of the Permian Basin.�

Though it’s connected to the world by two major highways, the town feels remote, even isolated. And until very recently, it was really hard to get a reliable internet connection in town.

Teresa Burnett is executive director of the Monahans Chamber of Commerce. She says that securing fast, reliable broadband for Monahans isn’t just about streaming TV shows or making FaceTime calls � it’s about the economy.

“Well, we actually had very limited broadband in Monahans. We did have some providers here, but as far as providing a dependable fast-speed internet system, they did not,� she said.

She realized that internet limitations was hurting Monahans.

“So we started realizing that we were losing a lot of businesses and quality-type businesses come into our area because we did not have sufficient internet to service them and all of their technology needs.�

By 2020, Burnett decided something had to be done to get the town hooked up.

But it wasn’t as if internet companies were lining up to serve Monahans. Running high-speed lines the long distances required would be expensive, and the customer base needed to pay back those investments wasn’t large. That’s why it’s often so hard to get broadband to rural places. Too much cost, for too little return.

Besides the money, the COVID-19 pandemic created an unexpected problem.

“We were doing it right in the middle when the pandemic hit,� Burnett said.

The pandemic quickly became both a barrier and a catalyst, showing that the need for fast internet to connect homes and businesses was even greater than before, while also scrambling the usual ways and means of getting things done in the Permian Basin.

“We had to come up with some money during that time when oil was below zero a barrel,� Burnett said.

But an unexpected opportunity came when Congress passed the in March of 2020, providing grants for businesses, individuals and communities.

Burnett says Monahans applied for and received a grant, which she believes was among the first broadband-related CARES projects to be approved. Other communities had used these grants for roadway or water projects.

To get the CARES money, Monahans needed to raise a 20% match. With a $300,000 grant from the Permian Basin Area Foundation, they thought they were set, raising the rest of what they needed in just three weeks.

But when the Monahans team checked in with federal officials about the grant they had been promised, they learned the funding amount had been cut � not once, but twice. In the end, the CARES Act money amounted to just $1 million of the $3.2 million they needed to design and build a fiber optic network.

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Burnett and company got on the phone with their other funders. Carroll Faulkner, who consulted with Monahans on the technical side of the project, says the community sought and received support from several sources.

“The initial raise on the project was gathered from several sources � some government, some business � and quite a bit, believe it or not, from philanthropic organizations. People like the Murray Hall Foundation out of Midland-Odessa, the King Foundation� Still Water Foundation out of Austin,� Faulkner said.

Altogether, the team cobbled together $3.2 million for Phase 1. They planned to provide broadband connections for 2,000 homes, businesses, schools and government facilities.

To round out their funding needs, Monahans got the venture capital firm View Capital’s American Fiber Infrastructure Fund to invest in their project. Stability and reliability were key goals, Faulkner says.

“It’s an underground, fiber-optic network� We wanted reliability because every time � in the oil patch, in particular, along I-20 � when lines get cut, Monahans just goes without.�

Broadband access lines travel two directions from Monahans, giving the network redundancy. In town, the cables that connect broadband customers are fiber optic, too, running underground � protected from the area’s high winds.

The final piece of the Phase 1 puzzle fell into place when internet service provider Hosted America agreed to offer broadband service to Monahans residents, using the network on a non-exclusive basis. That means other providers will be able to offer services, too.

Phase 1 went live a little more than a year ago.

Around town, residents have embraced a broadband offering they feel they can count on. Chis Powell is pastor of the First Baptist Church in Monahans. He streams church services for parishioners who can’t attend on Sundays.

“It’s really been a game changer as far as enabling us to accomplish a lot more ministry than we could before,� Powell said.

Powell’s family benefits from the reliability of the new service at home, including his wife, who’s a nurse practitioner.

“I’ve got three kids� Before the new broadband came in, we were paying for two different companies so that we could have enough to cover the needs of the five people here in the house. And since Hosted American came in we were able to drop, and just have the one service,� he said.

At the Monahans campus of Odessa College, high school students train for nursing careers. Odessa College’s Debbie Chaney says broadband has made it far easier for students to take tests online without delays or constant computer freezes.

“The testing is what is holding up and is phenomenal. It really is because they’re all testing at one time and no lags, no nothing,� Chaney said.

Burnett, who’s focused on keeping Monahans� economy humming along, says broadband reliability is especially crucial if you’re running a business.

“If you’re a convenience store or you’re a restaurant� and it’s during lunch time and people are trying to pay with their cards, then you have to count on them to come back and pay, Burnett said. “If you’re a motel, then people can check in and check out when they need to. But if your service is down, you can’t do that.�

Just as Phase 1 of Monahans� broadband project was picking up steam, planners turned their attention to Phase 2. And at that point, another potential source of funds, this one aimed squarely at what Monahans had in mind for broadband, came onto the horizon.

In 2021, the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dedicated $42.5 billion for broadband projects in underserved areas, just like Monahans. Of the total, Texas was granted $3.3 billion � the largest award to any state.

The money could support infrastructure, deployment, mapping and adoption of broadband plans. The program is called , which stands for Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment.

To the huge pot of federal money available, the state of Texas was able to add in its own billions. Voters approved $1.5 billion in broadband funding in 2023.

The initiative also set up the state’s first broadband office to administer the voter-approved funds, as well as money coming to Texas from BEAD. The state program became known as Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas, or .

With federal BEAD funds on the horizon, and the state’s BOOT program just getting off the ground, things looked promising for Monahans� broadband ambitions.

The town submitted a $5 million grant request to fund Phase 2 of their plan long before Phase 1 was up and running. But Carroll Faulkner says that the way eligibility was determined was a problem for the Monahans project.

“Under the current guidelines that have been adopted by the Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO), Ward County is not eligible for a single penny of state or federal funds because the state has determined, based on their criteria, that Ward County is 100% covered by reliable, high-speed broadband� And it’s a big sticking point, and a slap in the face to West Texas right now,� Faulkner said.

The problem, according to Faulkner, is the set of federal maps which the state began using after the first round of BOOT grants were made to determine eligibility for funds. He says those maps are especially wrong when it comes to existing coverage in rural West Texas counties.

Challenging the maps is difficult.

“You have to do it one address at a time. You have to provide significant evidence,� Faulkner said. “So in the case of Ward County, where a fixed wireless company� said that they have everything covered 100%, you actually have to go to� the individual subscriber address. And they have to run tests on their network.�

Monahans did challenge what the BEAD maps said about broadband access in Ward County. But they lost out.

The first and second rounds of BOOT funding left the West Texas town high and dry. Faulkner says the bureaucratic challenge process is to blame, but he’s also frustrated with the state broadband office � the BDO.

“It’s extremely frustrating, and the BDO takes no responsibility for assisting in that effort, other than to hold the challenge process,� he said.

Despite the lack of new state or federal money for Monahans, Faulkner says the town is moving forward with Phase 2 of the broadband plan, building on what Phase 1 has already brought to town.

“We’re definitely going ahead� We’re in the process of getting subscribers now that helped pay for that system,� he said. “And then you use that cash flow that you got from that system then to expand your system.�

The community has also raised money that will help get Phase 2 started this fall, with the goal of completion by the end of 2026.

Faulkner says there’s a very human reason that broadband in Monahans has gotten as far as it has. He praised Burnett during a joint interview.

“Well, Teresa is the mainstay in fighting this through for the community, and she’s been so dogmatic about it,� Faulkner says. “She’s just made sure that this thing continues to work.�

Burnett responded: “He means that I’ve been a pain in everybody’s butt, is what he means. Well, I’m passionate about it. If I start something, I want to finish. It. We’re still persevering, and one way or another, we’re gonna make this happen.�

It was bootstrapping rather than BOOT or much of the federal funding programs that brought broadband to Monahans. And it may be the model communities with similar service maps will need to follow.

In the meantime, other rural parts of Texas are taking advantage of grant money. The state reports more than $620 million has been awarded through BOOT in 21 counties for projects that should be online by the end of next year.

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When I sat down to chat with Molly Hale, she had spent part of her morning pushing pieces of string through a small wooden loom.

“I am working on a tapestry, weaving out of different types of threads,� she said. “It just comes randomly what I want. I got three done over there and I also add charms to them.�

Hale is an artist who produces work at SAGE Studio & Gallery, an organization in East Austin that supports and shows the work of creators with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

“My mom is my big advocate,� said Hale. “She got me into all the fiber art stuff. She taught me when I was 13 years old and I am actually 41, so I’ve been doing it ever since.�

Like many studios, SAGE is not just a location where people produce art. It’s a place where creatives find community.

Hale is not originally from Texas and, according to her, the transition to living in the Lone Star State was difficult.

“It took a long time to cope,� she said, “but I suffered enough, and I’m mostly thinking on the bright side of things than on the wrong side of things. I found a couple of good friends here actually in SAGE.�

First founded in 2017, SAGE is not a day program where people with disabilities simply make friends and learn social skills. It is a studio and gallery space that is looking to make a name for itself and the artists it represents.

“To date, we’ve paid over $200,000 in commissions to our artists,� said director of external relations and cofounder Lucy Gross. “We have artists that earn upwards of $30,000 a year from their art sales.�

Artists at SAGE work with a wide range of materials like paint, pastels, colored pencils and fibers. When an artist sells an original work, they keep half of the final sale price. The other half goes to SAGE.

“We’re constantly looking for new opportunities for our artists,� said Gross.

Since its inception, SAGE has done collaborations with companies like Vans, Whataburger and Austin FC. One of its goals is to help artists with disabilities break into and build careers in the mainstream art world.

“My hope is that we can sort of evolve to where we’re just showing art,� said Gross. “Whether that art is made by artists with or without disabilities, that’s kind of moot.�

The burgeoning progressives

SAGE Studio & Gallery is a self-styled progressive studio. These are organizations dedicated explicitly to cultivating and promoting the work of artists with intellectual disabilities.

Progressive studios have been around since at least the late 1970s. Any attempt to come up with an exact count of how many there are is an exercise in futility.

“It’s been really challenging to pinpoint a specific number,� said Cléa Massiani.

Massiani is an independent curator and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland. She is currently working on a dissertation about the history and role of progressive studios.

“I have counted over 80 studios across the country at the moment,� she said. “I’m sure by the end of my dissertation, I’m going to get to at least 90.�

By Massiani’s count, California, New York and Illinois are the states with the most progressive studios. Texas has at least seven.

Part of what makes creating a definitive list impossible is that “progressive studio� is still not a widely understood term in the art world.

“There is a clear lack of scholarship, so a lot of people are not even aware that they are in existence,� explained Massiani.

One of the leading efforts at raising awareness of progressive studios is , a project that has tracked, written about and highlighted the contributions of artists with disabilities since 2014.

“There is more connectivity among studios than when we started,� said cofounder Andreana Donahue. “A lot of us know each other.�

This relatively small movement is still establishing itself, but there have been some recent breakthroughs in visibility.

In December of 2024, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City featured the work of , a painter who works out of the progressive studio NIAD Art Center in Richmond, California.

In conjunction with Mullen’s exhibition, MoMA added the term “progressive art studio� to its list of art terms on the museum’s website, a move that advocates view as helping legitimize their cause.

“I’ve been working in this field for over 10 years, so I’ve been able to witness the continued convergence with the mainstream contemporary art world,� said Donahue.

The pipe cleaner artist

first started making art out of pipe cleaners in third grade, when he had a teacher who incorporated them into a math lesson.

After the class was done, Beverly asked for permission to play with some of the leftover pipe cleaners.

“I made a Sonic figurine. It wasn’t the best-looking thing, but I loved it,� Beverly reminisced. “Sadly, the next day when I went to grab it, a janitor threw it away.�

Beverley attends SAGE Studio & Gallery four times a week, and when he first started coming, he spent most of his time making figurines of anime, cartoon and video game characters.

“I like making silly things and stuff like that,� he said. “Basically I kind of have like a kiddish brain.�

Beverly has worked with pipe cleaners for more than a decade, and in recent years, the scope of his work has expanded. Since joining SAGE, his work has been displayed at more than a dozen exhibitions.

His favorite was a solo exhibition hosted at SAGE called “Go To Your Room.�

“Basically my solo show was a teenage room in the �90s and �80s,� said Beverly. “I made Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em, Hungry Hungry Hippos. I made old classic snacks like the Lunchables Deluxe.�

At the time I interviewed Beverly, he and other studio artists at SAGE were preparing for an upcoming show called , a three-day event hosted at the Loren Hotel in downtown Austin.

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For the exhibition, SAGE will display work alongside 10 other galleries and have an entire hotel room that it’s repurposing with art for a concept that Beverly explained to me.

“It’s going to be a honeymoon for a rancher and his city girl wife,� he said.

For the show, Beverly has made pipe cleaner roses, an engagement ring, cowboy boots, a champagne bottle and many other items that might be found in a recently married couple’s honeymoon suite.

One of the centerpieces of SAGE’s new exhibition is a three-foot, pipe cleaner recreation of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss that Beverly has spent a month making.

“The frame is made out of sparkly pipe cleaners,� explained Beverly. “They’re very very shiny, but the cons are they’re like glitter, so they’re a mess to clean up and they stick all over you.�

Beverly’s reinterpretation of The Kiss is breathtaking.

It glistens and has flowers, and he stitched thousands of pipe cleaners together to make it possible. But the process of creating it wasn’t exactly fun for him.

“It’s kind of like doing homework at school,� he said. “It’s kind of boring to make.�

This is not the first time Beverly has reimagined a famous piece of art. He’s also made pipe cleaner versions of The Birth of Venus, American Gothic and The Last Supper.

“It’s a headache to make these,� he said. “But it’s worth it in the end.�

Recreating the classics is not artistically fulfilling to Beverly, but these pieces are visually striking, widely recognizable and, because they sell, they make his career as an artist more sustainable.

“I’ll keep making artwork until my fingers give out,� he said.

Artists at SAGE Studio will have around 40 pieces on display at the Friends Fair, and everything is for sale. Pieces start at $50 and go up from there.

The most expensive item will be Beverly’s recreation of The Kiss.

The asking price is $3,000 because having a disability doesn’t preclude anybody from ambition.

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In 1939, Irish author James Joyce published Finnegans Wake, a piece of literature that defies comprehension.

“riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s,� it begins, “from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.�

The book starts and ends with a sentence fragment, combines multiple languages and has no clear or linear plot.

It’s a work that’s so dense, one group that started in Austin has been working on it for more than a decade.

“We’re only reading one page at a time,� said Peter Quadrino, founder and organizer of the

Every other week, Quadrino hosts a Zoom call where people from around the world gather and attempt to understand one of the most infamous books in English literature.

The group spends the first 15 minutes of each meeting socializing. Then they all go around in a circle, and each person reads two lines until they’re done with that week’s page.

After that, they spend about an hour and a half researching, annotating and trying to make sense of Joyce’s experimental prose.

“We used to read two pages per meeting,� said Quadrino. “Then at a certain point there was just so much going on in the pages and so much in the discussion that we had to lower it to one page per meeting.�

Finnegans Wake is confusing � and, to many, totally incomprehensible � but the book’s complexity has made it a point of fascination for literary enthusiasts in the eight decades since it was first published.

Houston, New York, Boston, Seattle, Dublin, Kyiv and many other cities around the world host groups dedicated to reading and analyzing Finnegans Wake.

“I’ve spoken at Joyce conferences in I think six different countries now,� said Quadrino, “and just being in this world, I’ve made so many friends.�

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin, TX is moving through its book at a glacial place � and that’s the point. Their focus is the journey, not the destination.

“I never really consider what it’s going to be like when we finish because I don’t want it to end,� explained Quadrino, “and if we do finish, we’ll just circle right back to the beginning and keep reading.�

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While the state’s 89th Legislature is in session, The Texas Newsroom will be helping you get to know the people behind the politics. This story is a part of an ongoing series profiling Texas� lawmakers in their own words.

A Texan her whole life, Rep. Lauren Simmons grew up in Houston’s Third Ward.

“That’s where I spent most of my life,� Simmons said. “I attended schools in the neighborhood. So, I always tell people I’m a very, very proud Jack Yates lion.�

She’s talking about Jack Yates High School, named after an African-American minister and community leader who was born enslaved in Virginia. He lived in Houston for the last three decades of his life.

Simmons says the majority of her family on her mother’s side are “very proud alums from that high school, and my son is actually a senior there now.�

While she was at Yates High, she participated in several extracurricular activities, including marching band.

“I played the piccolo and the flute, which I enjoyed so much,� Simmons said. “I taught myself how to so I could be in the band.�

Simmons also played soccer � she says she wasn’t quite an Olympic athlete but she was one of the top in her area, making the second team all-district one season.

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Outside of school she worked at Target, where she met her future husband.

“It’s a very, very silly story. He has a twin brother,� Simmons said. “His twin brother worked the day shift, and he worked overnight. I met his twin brother first. He said something that kind of offended me and then just walked away.�

At the time she didn’t realize the boy who’d upset her had a twin.

“When I saw the twin at night, I went up to him and I kind of chewed him out, and he said, ‘girl, I don’t even know who you are,’� Simmons said.

Eventually the two properly introduced themselves and began dating. Fast-forward to senior year: Simmons had chosen to go to the University of Texas at Austin. At first she thought they’d just break up. But he decided to move to Austin with her and find a job in town.

That was when her life took a huge transition.

“My freshman year of college, I got pregnant with my son, who’s 17 now,� Simmons said. “I had to grow up really fast.�

During that time she continued to go to college.

“I would bring him to class. I would pump at night so I could have milk in the daytime,� Simmons said. “We were not able to really afford daycare, so we had to be very intentional about our schedule. He worked overnight; I went to class during the day. It was really rough.�

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After graduation, she and her husband moved back to Houston, where she found a job working as a resident service director.

“I really, really enjoyed it. One, because I love interacting and engaging with people, but I would run into families that reminded me a lot of the situation I was in when I had my son,� Simmons said.

During that time Simmons welcomed her second child, her daughter, who’s now 10.

Simmons credits working in social services � and her job with the Texas State Employees Union as a union organizer � for opening her eyes to government. After learning more, she decided to speak out about what she was seeing.

“I went to a community meeting about the takeover that was happening in our school district, and I had a video that went viral just by accident,� Simmons said.

In that 2023 video, she criticizes the state for replacing Houston ISD’s superintendent and elected board of trustees with a new superintendent and board appointed by the Texas education commissioner. One post of that viral video has nearly 9 million views. While what she said that day didn’t change the outcome for Houston ISD, it did change the trajectory of her life.

“That took us on a whole different journey because we were getting interviewed all the time and we just went from being like these little, just a random kind of family that nobody knows or cares about to like every time my kid would get on like social media, he would see like an interview that he had done or that video would pop up,� Simmons said.

Now, she’s in the Texas House and says she’s making her kids proud.

“I remember my daughter, she was talking to her cousin, and she was like, ‘you know, my mom is like a boss,’� Simmons said. “‘She has staff, she has like an office and her name, it’s like outside on the wall.’�

When Simmons isn’t at the Capitol, she’s spending time with her family back in Houston’s Third Ward. Her son is graduating from Jack Yates High this year and headed to his mom’s alma mater, UT Austin, something she says she didn’t force on him.

“I want him to be happy, so I was really hands-off in the process but you know I don’t necessarily hate the idea that my big baby will be in Austin,� Simmons said.

So, if she wins her reelection, the pair could cross paths during Texas� next legislative session in 2027.

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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, a Texan, in front of the White House last week about a dangerous pest on its way back to the United States.

“The New World Screwworm, the NWS for short, is a scourge that is making its way from Latin America up through Mexico,� Rollins said. “And if it hits America, it is going to be absolutely devastating to our cattle industry at the top of the list, frankly to a lot of our industries.�

The New World Screwworm � actually a fly � was a huge problem for U.S. livestock and wildlife until it , and pushed south all the way to Colombia.

Recently however, the screwworm’s steadily made its way north, back toward the United States. The U.S. needed Mexico’s help to control the screwworm, and .

For years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has strategically dropped sterilized screwworms from airplanes to prevent their spread. Rollins said that authorities in Mexico held this up with bureaucratic delays and taxes on equipment.

“The sterile flies on the planes that we’re trying to land, that is what will push that New World Screwworm back into the south of Mexico and into southern Latin America,� Rollins said. “We were having all sorts of trouble landing those planes. They wouldn’t let us land them.�

So Rollins wrote a letter to Julio Berdegué Sacristán, Mexico’s agriculture and rural development secretary, saying that if these delays continued, the U.S. would stop accepting imports of Mexican cattle.

The impasse between the two countries . But a bigger problem remains: pushing screwworms back south again before they reach the United States.

Controlling the screwworms

Generations of American ranchers fought screwworms.

“In the past when we did have screwworms, and we’re going back to the 1960s, �70s, I remember reading about cases in the Dakotas,� said Max Scott, a professor of entomology at North Carolina State University.

Their screw-shaped larvae burrow into the sensitive spots of mammals, causing disease, infection and death.

“This is a critter that we don’t want back in the U.S.,� said David Anderson, a livestock professor and extension economist with Texas A&M University. “If you have livestock, you’re going to be out there all the time checking your animals for any wound. � I think would be a pretty devastating thing if we were to get it back.�

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A Texas entomologist named was one of the researchers who made a major breakthrough in screwworm control, called the sterile insect technique.

Since female screwworms mate only once, Knipling realized he could collapse their population by releasing sterilized male screwworms. Labs in Kerrville and Mission sterilized billions of screwworms over the second half of the 20^th century with nuclear radiation.

Over the decades, wave after wave of sterilized screwworms pushed the insects all the way to Panama’s border with Colombia. The barrier is maintained by a joint venture between Panama and the United States called , which conducts air-drops of sterile insects and on-the-ground inspections. It’s saved an untold number of animals� lives, as well as billions of dollars.

“The screwworm sterile release program had been very effective for you know, 20 years � longer, maybe,� Scott said.

A renewed threat

In 2022, however, the flies broke through COPEG’s barrier and started to spread north. No one knows exactly why this happened, but the illegal movement of people and cattle, as well as regulators being stretched thin by the pandemic, likely contributed.

“The fly started to spread northward through Panama, up into Costa Rica and Central America and then, the first detection November of 2024 in Mexico,� said Jenny Lester Moffitt, who was in charge of the screwworm program at the time as USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. Moffitt was a Biden administration appointee and left the agency in January.

When USDA got word that screwworms had reached Mexico in November, they , like Rollins threatened to do last week. During that time, the agency installed inspection equipment in southern Mexico and started dropping sterile insects in the country. To keep them from reaching the U.S., Moffitt also realized that they would need more flies.

“Starting in November when we had the first detection in Mexico, realizing that we were going to need to have more flies to release, and we needed to really not just rely on the one production facility that we have in Panama,� she said.

The facility in Panama can produce 100 million sterile flies per week.

“The 100 million flies out of that Panamanian facility are not enough flies to push it back down to Colombia probably in my lifetime. It’s going to take an increased amount of flies,� said Wayne Cockrell, a rancher from College Station who chairs the cattle health committee for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

In early April, Cockrell went to Panama with a group of other Texans to see where the flies are made. He was impressed by its size, its staff, and its continuous operation.

“It was absolutely much larger than I anticipated,� Cockrell said. “They have their own water treatment facility, their own sewer treatment facility, backup power. They’re operating 24 hours a day � they can’t have a breakdown and say ‘Oh hey, they’ve ordered the part; it’s going to be here in a week.’�

Push for a US sterilized insect plant

If the plant in Panama shuts down for any length of time, Texas ranchers� best tool to fight screwworms goes away. That’s why Cockrell is one of many in the cattle business pushing to get a sterilized insect plant built on this side of the border, as soon as possible.

“We’re trying to put as much pressure as we can on USDA to give us a plan and give us some figures. And that’s not just cattle, that’s all across livestock. I mean this affects the grain farmer in Kansas or Nebraska just as much, because with a reduction in cattle numbers, that’s a reduction in demand for grain,� Cockrell said.

He and other members of the cattle raisers association met with Rollins in a private meeting at the Texas A&M Beef Center last week to discuss the issue. stressed the need for a new screwworm plant.

“This is not going away. You’re never going to eradicate New World Screwworm. You’re going to push it back. You’re going to put a Band-Aid on it,� Polk said. “But Texas, the United States of America, need a facility, and need a facility quick. You’re talking about 24 to 36 months.�

Polk said that Rollins was receptive to the idea of a new sterile fly facility. He has identified sites in South Texas that might be suitable.

A sterile insect plant can’t just go anywhere. It uses nuclear radiation to sterilize screwworms, which would complicate any review process. It also needs lots of water, a few hundred staffers, and a wide berth from any neighbors who might be offended by its odor (which is “the smell of death,� according to Cockrell).

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican whose district includes much of Texas� border with Mexico, in March urging the USDA to look into building a sterilized fly facility in the southwest.

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Texas Parks and Wildlife is getting another 671 acres in far West Texas thanks to a donation from the Nature Conservancy in Texas.

Heath Canyon Ranch, located just outside Big Bend National Park, . And while it’s a small addition to the Black Gap’s 103,000 acres, it contains what the Nature Conservancy calls a strategic inholding and river access point.

The conservancy bought the land and is donating it to the parks department with the coordination of Big Bend and some donors.

James King, with ranch real estate firm King Land & Water, helped coordinate the sale and joined the Standard to share the details.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Could you start by telling me what’s so special about this 671 acres? 

James King: Well, the location of it is probably one of the most strategic river access points in the whole Big Bend region. There’s a paved road, there’s Farm to Market 2827, and that’s the road that goes to Stillwell Store and goes to the headquarters of Black Gap.

But it goes all the way to the Rio Grande, and there was a historic bridge there called La Linda Bridge. And so that area, you could easily get into and off of the Rio Grande. And so it has served as a strategic location for the utilization of the wild and scenic river there on the Rio Grande.

And although it’s a small piece of land, it’s kind of, I would say, probably one of the most important small tracks there for the public to enjoy the Rio Grande River.

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I was going to say, I’m looking at a map and trying to figure out how this sort of interacts with other areas here. Paint a picture for those who can’t see this: The Black Gap Wild Management Area borders Big Bend National Park. So how will this acreage kind of interact with those already established areas? 

Well, there’s been a lot of effort in conservation and public use in this area of Texas. There’s over a million acres of public lands in this part of Texas. Texas is 96% private lands. But in this neck of the woods, it’s a playground for the rest of the state.

One of the key things about this property is downstream from here, Black Gap has, I think, probably 25 shelters. They’re little places you can drive, get a permit, go camp out on the river. And so, literally, you can put a canoe in here and canoe down and get access to these river shelters.

Another piece of the puzzle here: It’s the takeout point for Boquillas Canyon. Boquillas is a legal crossing on the Rio Grande, and many outfitters put in there for a two-night overnight trip. And they take out at La Linda Bridge, which is Heath Canyon. So not only is it an important place for Big Bend National Park, but it’s also important for Black Gap WMA.

Well, people might be hearing you and planning their trips right now, because that sounds lovely. Do we have a timeline, though, when this will be open and available for folks to use? 

It’s open. It’s been open for a long, long time. And so the family that owns this is the Andy Curry family. So Andy has always provided for that access.

Andy passed away. Their family decided to sell. And so this maintains the permanent public access for the river.

So right now, there are many outfitters. They’re in Terlingua, they’re in Marathon, they’re in different places. And you can get an outfitter or you can put your own canoe and negotiate a shuttle and enjoy this part of the river.

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Well, I’ve got to say, your firm works a lot on this type of project. What does it take sometimes to get land back to the public? 

Well, so in this circumstance, this property came on the market. We learned about it the day after it went on the market, and our family put it under contract immediately.

We knew how strategic it was, and we were competing against another party that wanted to more commercialize the area. And literally, we assigned our contract to the Nature Conservancy.

So, what it takes is direct action. We knew how important it was. We did it for free. We didn’t make any money. We forgo any commission. We did it because it needed to happen.

And, of course, the Nature Conservancy and Texas Parks and Wildlife are longtime partners with King Land & Water, and I actually worked at the Nature Conservancy for 20 years. So those organizations, as well as many others, work real hard to conserve the unique places in Texas.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it . Your gift helps pay for everything you find on  and . Thanks for donating today.

The 100 days marker for presidential administrations is really nothing more than that: A marker.

The benchmark was established during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term because in those first few months as president.

His moves in a relatively short amount of time � helped by a Congress controlled by Democrats � has since defined a period where presidents are expected to show what they are initially accomplishing in the job.

Now it’s Trump’s turn, again.

This time around, we’ve witnessed a reshaping of how the United States , a dismantling of , of , and to administrative functions and funds that support a that serve millions of people.

In these first 100 days, we’ve heard a lot from D.C. pundits. Today, we’re looking at how those decisions are hitting home. We’re focusing on two of America’s biggest and most complex states: Texas and California. Two states with enormous economic power, deep diversity, and very different politics.

In Texas, the Republican leadership controls , and they’ve largely aligned themselves with President Trump’s second-term agenda. In California, where Democrats hold a supermajority, the .

In many cities across both Texas and California, you’ll find plenty of people who share a skepticism � if not scorn � for the second Trump administration. But in more rural areas of both states, support for Trump’s direction is strong, especially when it comes to issues like immigration or cutting what some see as government waste.

Still, this change is happening so quickly it can be hard to keep up. The ripple effects of mass layoffs, deportations, and trade threats are making many people anxious, and that fear seems to be crossing clear party lines.

Journalists at public radio stations and nonprofit newsrooms in California and Texas spoke with dozens of residents, reporters and political observers to dig into that uncertainty. Not just the economics, but across the board � where it’s coming from and what it means.

California, Texas respond to second Trump administration

California and Texas are similar by size and population metrics, but politically, the two states are opposites. In the 2024 presidential election, for example, roughly 58.5% of Californians voted for Kamala Harris, while 56.14% of Texans voted for Trump.

Richard Pineda is an associate professor of communications with a focus on politics at the University of Texas at El Paso. He says Texas leaders at all levels seem to be in “lockstepâ€� with President Trump. But that’s not the case across the state, he added, especially in areas that tend to vote blue â€� like El Paso and AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ counties.

“I think that there is a tremendous amount of concern about some of these changes, especially when you see shifts that are happening politically rolling into things like the University of Texas system,� Pineda said.

Some traditionally blue counties are starting to see increases in Republican voters, he added. That can be seen in � all of which are border counties that have historically voted blue.

“It’s not to a point that the county will change anytime soon, but even short shifts means that the state is becoming even redder than before,� he said.

Paul Mitchell is the vice president of , a voter data firm in California. He says the state, which was seen as the resistance state during Trump’s first term � filing � hasn’t had the same “clear point of focus� this time around.

“A lot of what Trump tried to do early on (in his first term) that really galvanized support from Democrats in California was he was trying to undo Obamacare,� Mitchell said. “In this first 100 days, you’ve seen him , and a lot of Democrats don’t know necessarily what to do with that.�

Many of the Californians polled by journalists working on this project expressed deep concern over the president’s actions, while others said they were “cautiously optimistic.� Some in the latter category suggested their backing of President Trump had to do with frustration over state and local governments more than the federal government.

Mitchell says the 2024 election came at the “perfect time� for those frustrated by these issues in California.

“A lot of voters saw what he was proposing as real action, where they look at California policy makers � whether they’re looking at the lack of action on high-speed rail or these other promises that lawmakers have made � and they say, ‘Well, they’re not delivering here in California, this guy is offering to make big real change,’� Mitchell said. “And I think that that was important to his victory.�

Texas is booming right now: There’s a huge , and . In fact, Elon Musk has picked up most of his operations and moved them out of California to Texas.

Pineda said Texas business leaders have been encouraged by state leadership’s support of the Trump administration’s move to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“The governor and the lieutenant governor taking an active stance to try to undercut those [DEI practices] has allowed some businesses to move without having to worry about having those policies or maintaining those policies,� he said. “That then comes on top of the president pushing against these things, and that’s a good climate for these particular businesses.�

But overall, he said, growth hasn’t remained consistent for all regions of Texas.

“What you’re seeing is developments in these sort of core communities, some of the bigger cities,� he said. “There’s still a lot of rural development that has not happened. We’ve looked to try to expand a that seems to come up every couple of years and die down. I do think that the move to bring some of these companies in dovetails with limitations on previously held restrictions.�

Trade and tariffs

President Trump is no stranger to tariffs � and the battles that come with changing them. During his first term, Trump imposed a number of tariffs on goods imported from China, .

And starting on his first day back in the White House, President Trump promised immediate action on the price of imported goods. Since then, news about tariffs has moved quickly. Over the last three months Trump has imposed, rescinded and reinstated tariffs worldwide.

Whether tariffs are active or on hold, California and Texas will feel it. Of all the U.S. states, these two do the most trade with other countries � and , and Canada are at the top of the list.

Texas and Mexico’s economies are greatly intertwined � in 2023, trade between Texas and Mexico topped $272 billion, ranking .

, president of the Border Industrial Association, says the first 100 days of the second Trump administration has felt like “chaos� for both himself and the members of his organization.

“I mean my world has just been� I get up every day and wonder what’s going to happen,� Pacheco said. “Are we going to lose a prospect that we had close to signing the dotted line? Are we going to see businesses in our industrial base, related particularly to the automotive industry, shuttered?�

California has a similar trade relationship with Mexico, with a highly integrated supply chain that sees individual pieces of larger products often travel back and forth across the border.

Tijuana, for example, hosts a number of car manufacturing plants, . But not all pieces of these vehicles are made in Mexico: Individual parts of each vehicle can cross the border multiple times � and there’s a tariff each time it crosses back and forth. Seat leather, for example, could be produced in one country, processed in another, then finished in another.

San Diego business professionals echoed the sentiment of their counterparts in Texas, many of whom said they feel uncertain about the future.

“We have a relationship with Mexico where we’re not just trading together, we’re producing together,� said Jessica Anderson, the interim CEO and president of the . “This is not a tax on just Mexican companies. This is a tax on U.S. businesses and on U.S. companies directly.�

The and the announced recently that California had surpassed Japan to become the in the world.

State legislative leaders say California’s booming economy is the driving force behind their against the Trump administration.They’ve also said the fluctuating stock market is a risk to California’s budget, which is highly dependent on income tax revenue from capital gains.

Immigration

Within hours after his second inauguration in January, President Trump signed dozens of executive orders, including .

Among other actions, these orders pledge to accused of crimes and stop the resettlement of refugees from countries like Afghanistan.

All of it has � or at least promises to have � a deep impact on Texas and California, hugely diverse states with some of the largest undocumented and refugee populations in the U.S.

Response to these orders has been mixed, largely across party lines:

“I mean, I live here on the border and I’ve seen first hand what happened the last several years with immigration and now it’s the numbers have plummeted,� said Tim Wilkins of McAllen, Texas. “I mean, it’s almost zero activity.�

“The way that the Trump administration is handling this is frightening � deporting people to El Salvador and some of those people are not the gang members that they say they are and there’s no due process,� said Jane Demian, who lives in Los Angeles.

In California, ICE raids and enforcement actions by federal agents in cities like San Diego, Pomona and Los Angeles have heightened fears in immigrant communities. In Texas, agents from multiple federal agencies in late January in a number of cities, including Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio.

Reactions to these operations have mixed � Texans in conservative areas are largely supportive, while Texas immigration advocates and professionals are concerned.

“Many people in the immigrant community, many clients, fear for their future in this country, even lawful permanent residents and naturalized citizens,� said Irving-based immigration attorney .

Since Inauguration Day, a number of university students have . Some international students around the country have .

A number of these California students are . In recent days, a handful with federal judges saying they must not be detained or deported while their cases are heard.

“I would say everybody is scared right now,� Zahra Biloo, director for the said. “The most challenging types of calls we are receiving are from U.S. citizens, and so I think to myself, if U.S. citizens with as much privilege and safety as they carry are scared, so, too, then are student visa-holders as well as undocumented students.�

California leaders are no strangers to taking action against the Trump administration. This time around, California Attorney General staff , and in early February, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved .

The response from Texas leaders has looked a bit different: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced recently that he was , accusing it of having “sanctuary city� policies, or policies that would not allow city staff to cooperate with federal law enforcement in arresting or detaining undocumented immigrants.

Agriculture and business

All eyes are on the economy. The Trump administration’s approach to tariffs and other economic policies have a lot of people wondering where things are headed.

For some, that uncertainty brings on a whole lot of anxiety: “Because he enacted a policy that made me lose my job, yeah, I’m anxious, I’m worried, my budget’s completely changed, and, you know, [I’m] living off beans and rice,� said Benjamin Dechard of Austin.

Others are bullish about the president’s actions: “People are willing to start investing again in their businesses, not holding cash back as a reserve, but now using this as an opportunity to make those investments,� said David Stein from Tyler, Texas.

Agriculture is one business sector that’s got some questions. It’s a huge economic driver in both states: Texas sold about in 2022, and California, the nation’s largest supplier, sold a little more than in the same year. A big chunk of that money comes from exports to countries like Mexico, Canada, and China.

The biggest exports coming out of Texas are , amounting to roughly $2.6 billion dollars every year. But the state also imports and takes in a lot of goods, and farmers are concerned about tariffs affecting the cost to raise their crops.

Materials like , insecticides, seeds and parts for farm equipment are imported and have begun to rise in price, he added.

“I apologize, I don’t mean to sound ignorant, but there’s probably more unknowns than known,� said Dale Murden, a citrus farmer in the Rio Grande Valley. “I’m like� ‘Uh wait a minute, my fertilizer cost just tripled. Where’d that come from?’�

There’s been a lot of back and forth over tariffs. But the ongoing battle is with China, whose leaders responded with their own levies on U.S. goods.

Texas sends a , beef and rice to China. Market leaders are concerned that these U.S.-made goods may become prohibitively expensive for Chinese consumers, and push other exporting countries to swoop in.

“The last time there was a Trump tariff issue, cotton did get caught up in that, and it just caused this great reshuffle,� said , a cotton market specialist with Texas A&M University. “We actually sent more of our cotton to Vietnam, and Brazil took our market share formerly with China. Great big reshuffle. It’s inefficient.�

California’s largest exports are nuts and dairy � the state produces 80% of the world’s almonds � and a lot of that goes to China. Some California farmers share concerns about the state of the industry as tariffs are set to go into effect, though not all of them are sure of what to expect.

Jenny Holterman, a fourth-generation farmer in Kern County, said she’s “worried and sort of not worried,� though she ultimately supports Trump’s tariffs.

She says even if her almond farm takes a hit, she’s hoping tariffs will bring business back to the U.S. But she mentioned she is facing higher costs and she’s already made adjustments in her farm operations because of them. The last time Trump was president and imposed tariffs, .

But Holterman says she’s in a better place than others because she has another job and doesn’t rely on the farm as her family’s sole income. Almonds are also not as perishable as other crops, so she has a little bit more flexibility.

“Eighty percent of the world’s supply of almonds come from California,� Holterman said. “At some point, well, if they want almonds, they have to get them from California.�

Ryan Talley, who owns a that his grandfather started in the 1940s in Arroyo Grande, said he hasn’t seen a big direct impact yet because he sells most of his crops inside the U.S. But he does sell spinach to Canada � and he’s planning on selling bell peppers in that market, too.

But because the Trump administration is constantly changing its mind about the tariffs, he’s worried because, unlike almond-growers, his crops have a shorter shelf life.

“They’re highly perishable,� Talley said of his produce. “We don’t have the ability to hold our products for a month or two to wait for the tariffs to go away.�

On the flip side, some folks in the agriculture business are seeing positive impacts as a result of tariffs. In Texas, people who harvest shrimp and oysters see the tariffs as a bulwark against overseas competition.

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Education

In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to cut a federal program that provides around to buy fresh food directly from farms.

In California, the Local Food for Schools program served up about of meals around the state. It was about the same amount of money for Texas.

Both were part of a broader set of pandemic-era initiatives designed to address food insecurity and support local agriculture during COVID-19 disruptions. The USDA now says these programs no longer line up with priorities.

These cuts have already begun affecting residents of both states. In California’s San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the program will expire at the end of this school year. More than $600,000 was awarded for the region to provide organic strawberries, citrus fruits, apples, and lettuce that ends up in school salads, along with produce like dragon fruit and bok choy.

California has attempted to recreate the program on its own, but schools have to apply to receive grant funding, while the federal program was opt-in.

In Texas, these federal grants amounted to less than a tenth of what state schools were previously spending for local food. But if states don’t step in to subsidize these programs, some students could lose an important lifeline.

Many farmers are in a tough situation because they’ve planted their crops with this program in mind. In one case, a California farmer plowed under fields of kale and collard greens because they were no longer contracted, and replanted an easier crop to offload. In another case, a local poultry farm that had a contract to provide about 160 cases of chicken wings each month to a school stands to lose $13,000 a month in revenue.

Overall impact on California and Texas? You tell us.

The idea for this joint statewide special developed during a transformative time for our country.

Collectively, it’s difficult � and perhaps even unfair � to find the right words that capture what is unfolding. It’s still too early to tell what the true impact will be.

We know reactions in California and Texas are different � they’re bound to be � different states with different budget demands, different priorities, different cultures and different political views among the majority of voters.

Today, granular polling so far in both states is rather lean.

So, what’s the impact of the first 100 days on California and Texas? You tell us. It’ll help us in our coverage going forward, too.

You can reach the Texas Standard by emailing [email protected], and the California Newsroom by emailing [email protected].

This story includes reporting from Angela Korcherga of KTEP in El Paso, Michael Marks of the Texas Standard, Levi Sumagaysay and Carolyn Jones of CalMatters in Sacramento, Stella Chávez of the Texas Newsroom, Gustavo Solis of KPBS in San Diego, Tyche Hendricks of KQED in San Francisco, and Jessica Greenwell of KVCR in Riverside, Calif.

The first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term in office have been marked by relentless headlines.

This time around, we’ve witnessed a reshaping of how the United States , a dismantling of federal agencies, of , and to administrative functions and funds that support a that serve millions of people.

The changes have come at a dizzying pace � and the impact depends on where you look and who you ask.

To assess the impact of Trump’s second term, the California Newsroom and the Texas Standard are teaming up for an hour-long broadcast special focused on two states with enormous economic power, deep diversity, and very different politics.

In Texas, the Republican leadership, which controls both houses in the Legislature and the governor’s office, are with President Trump’s second-term agenda.

In California, where Democrats hold a supermajority, the � although in more rural areas of both states, support for Trump’s direction can be strong, especially when it comes to issues like immigration or cutting what some see as government waste.

Join us for 100 Days: 2 Americas as we listen to residents, reporters and political observers in both states to try and understand the impact so far of Trump’s second term in office. Listen on Tuesday, April 29, or .

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it . Your gift helps pay for everything you find on  and . Thanks for donating today.

Monday marks the beginning of , a time to highlight the value of keeping the night sky dark and to inform folks about the downsides of light pollution.

Some of the world’s darkest skies are in the Big Bend region of West Texas � although in recent years, light pollution from oil and gas development has lightened them.

But according to Stephen Hummel, for the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, that trend has started to reverse thanks to energy companies .

Hummel spoke to the Texas Standard about the broader benefits of keeping our skies as dark as possible.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Can you give us an update on the night sky around where you are, the McDonald Observatory? How are things?

Stephen Hummel: So McDonald Observatory is fortunate to have the darkest night skies of the major observatories in the United States. And my job is essentially to try to preserve that night sky because globally, dark skies are vanishing very quickly.

Light pollution or the washing out of the night sky is getting worse at a rate of 10% per year in North America. So that’s very quick. And we need to actively encourage better lighting to preserve these last places left where we can still enjoy a pristine night sky.

So what are you doing to make sure that the skies around you there remain as dark as possible? 

I work with the surrounding communities, such as Fort Davis and Alpine, Marfa and other communities in the Big Bend region, on outdoor lighting practices. And this includes things, not just turning lights off, but aiming lights down on the ground, or things like using a more amber tone of light so the light doesn’t scatter in the air as much like blue light does.

Is this education helping? Are there parts of the world where skies are getting darker, or is the trend pretty much going in one direction? 

Yeah, so there are a few places in the world where, yes, they’ve been able to preserve dark skies, slow the pace, or reverse the pace.

So for our sky in particular, we had a really large increase in light pollution between 2014 and 2020, mostly to our north, mostly from oil and gas activity. But we’ve actually been able to work with them on lighting, and we’ve been able to reverse the trend, and the sky is no longer getting brighter, but actually has gotten about 20% darker in the last five years.

And it has been about steady. So it does work.

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Well, I can see clearly why this would be important for the McDonald Observatory to have a super dark night sky. And I guess for everybody else, not to dismiss the value of stargazing, but what is the value of a dark sky beyond just the ability to see constellations and the planets? 

The night sky is not just something humans look at. A lot of wildlife use the night sky for navigation or are tuned into the cycles of the sun and the moon. And so introducing artificial light where it normally isn’t can have tremendous impacts on ecosystems.

It can impact everything from bird migration and fireflies communicating with each other to even the growth and cycle of trees and plants. And even larger mammals like bears and even mountain lions have noted to be affected by the presence of artificial light at night.

Well, you mentioned a few of the things we can do at home â€� pointing lights down or making sure they have a cover, maybe changing the color of lights that you use. What else would you suggest for people at home? 

Looking for lights that are dark sky-approved is one way to find good sources. Using motion detectors for security rather than leaving lights on all the time could be more effective at deterring criminals.

So there are ways to reduce light pollution without living in total darkness, right? We can be safe. We can see what we need to see without wasting the light into the sky. And so there’s really easy things everyone can do.

You can learn more about those things on our website, .

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The McDonald Observatory is always a fun place to visit. Do you have anything special planned for this Dark Skies Week? 

Yeah, we have a wide variety of events, not just at the observatory, but through partners around the region and during dark sky week this week. So we have talks on some of our industry efforts on Tuesday. We’ve got star parties going on throughout the week. That’s where we have telescope viewing and guided constellation tours with a laser pointer.

We have free talks as well in some of our partner areas, such as in Marfa and Terlingua. We even have a great talk on bugs at the Fort Davis National Historic Site just down the road. So there’ll be a talk and then a night hike as well.

So lots of things going on throughout the week, lots of ways to participate, and a little bit of something for every age group or every demographic.

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Lawmakers in Washington are that would shut down a plan to potentially expand the , the oldest refuge in Texas.

The refuge covers 6,440 acres of the Panhandle, close to the New Mexico border. The vast grassland is dotted with playas and saline lakes. It’s an indispensable resource for sandhill cranes, pronghorn antelope, quail and many other animals and plants.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, that would allow for its expansion up to 700,000 acres. U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, a Republican from Lubbock, against the idea.

“Somehow we think we need to spend more money on behalf of the taxpayers to buy up more land that we don’t manage. We don’t manage the land that we have well,� Arrington said last week at a subcommittee hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

The hearing included testimony on , Arrington’s bill, which would prevent the plan to expand the refuge from being implemented.

In his view, because of the size of the national debt, the federal government has no business acquiring additional land. And if it does, there could be serious ripple effects for the surrounding rural community. Bryan Baker, a cotton farmer in nearby Sudan and board president of the , told the subcommittee that managing the land for conservation rather than agriculture would erode the local tax base.

“With 700,000 acres potentially being vacated from private landowners and taxpayers, there will be multiple economic losses, including the reduction in the number of teachers, bus drivers, and staff, as fewer children will be enrolled in local schools,� Baker said. “After all, there will be nobody left to live and farm on these acres.�

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This exaggerates the potential impact of the plan, however, . The plan allows for property owners in a 700,000-acre area to either sell land to the government outright or, more commonly, to agree to a , where landowners keep their property but follow certain rules to protect the land. These rules could include prohibiting subdivision of the property, or limiting the amount of impermeable cover that can be built. The wildlife refuge will not grow through the government seizing property, however.

“I think it’s just really important to understand that a conservation easement is voluntary and that nobody can force you into a conservation easement,� said , a lawyer from College Station who helps people set up conservation easements for a living.

Generally, her clients are people who want to protect family land from being developed in the future. Agreeing to a conservation easement is not necessarily incompatible with farming and ranching.

“If the landowner wants to keep the property open and available for agricultural use, a lot of times conservation easements allow for those uses of the property,� Tancig said.

A Georgetown-based interest group called has pushed the idea that the Muleshoe refuge’s expansion is a land grab by the federal government. The group supports private property rights and is led by executive director over access to their property in Nevada. She did not respond to an interview request for this story.

The group linked the expansion plan to the Biden administration’s 30×30 initiative, which sought to federally protect 30% of the country’s land and water by 2030.

“The Biden Administration has targeted this region for permanent protection as a part of their unauthorized 30×30 land grab,� American Stewards of Liberty wrote on their website.

For a while, a rumor circulated that the expansion could include not 700,00 acres, but 7 million, and that .

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Byfield has been critical of conservation easements.

“There’s a lot of really good intentions behind the conservation easement program. However, when you really understand the device, you find out that those purposes are not what it accomplishes,� she said in 2024. “The purpose is to control the land.�

In August, American Stewards of Liberty held a public meeting in Littlefield to rally opposition against the Muleshoe refuge expansion. The speakers included Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who afterward opposing the expansion and linking it to the Biden administration’s agenda.

“While the new land purchases to expand the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge are supposedly ‘voluntary,� the real question remains: why on earth does the federal government need more land? The answer is that it doesn’t,� Miller wrote.

, a land lawyer based in Austin who also helps set up conservation easements, said she’s never encountered private property being seized for conservation purposes.

“I’ve never seen that happen,� Gresham said. “It’s usually a landowner � saying, ‘I want to, you know, my family’s done this for a really long time, or I want to protect the stewardship and legacy.�

So far, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not taken on any new land as part of the Muleshoe expansion. Arrington’s bill to prevent that from ever happening has a long way to go: It still needs to be passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee, and then the full House before being considered in the Senate.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it . Your gift helps pay for everything you find on  and . Thanks for donating today.