+ What makes up the Big Bend Region?

The Big Bend region spans the Trans-Pecos River and encompasses the 18 westernmost counties in Texas, from Midland west to El Paso down to Presidio – the home of the Big Bend National Park – and east to Val Verde County.

With the notable exceptions of Big Bend Ranch State Park, Big Bend National Park, Davis Mountains State Park and the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the vast majority of this western expanse consists of privately owned ranch land.

+ What is at risk?

The Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin calls West Texas the most energy intensive region of the United States, if not the world.

This energy activity has consequences not just for the people who live there, but also for the natural resources – the land, water and air – which make life possible.

• Land: The Big Bend region includes the northern portion of the Chihuahuan Desert. It’s among the most biologically diverse deserts in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and a habitat for many bird, mammal, reptile and plant species, including some which are threatened and endangered. Many migrating birds rely on the Chihuahuan Desert as resting areas during journeys north and south.

• Water: Lack of rainfall makes recovery from energy development-related damage to the desert extremely difficult. Needless to say, water is a scarce resource in the Big Bend region and already at risk of overuse and pollution, even without further energy development. The groundwater which sustains ranching, agriculture, industry, recreation and tourism – and of course day-to-day life for thousands of Texans – is a resource that will not replenish itself.

• Air and Sky: The Big Bend region is famous for its open vistas and night skies. It’s home to McDonald Observatory, near Fort Davis, one of the premier observatories in the world. The high and dry peaks of the Davis Mountains make for some of the darkest and clearest night skies in the region and provide excellent conditions for astronomical research.

• Communities: Most important, the Big Bend region is home to many thousands of Texans – independent people and iconic communities – with a unique heritage of ranching and cowboy culture.

+ What makes the Big Bend Region special?

To visit the Big Bend region is to take a step into the mythic American frontier. It’s home to endless high desert vistas, soaring mountain ranges and most important, fiercely independent people whose lives intertwine with the natural landscape in ways most Americans only dream about.

+ What are the origins of the Respect Big Bend Coalition?

The Respect Big Bend Coalition launched with support from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, a Texas foundation that seeks innovative, sustainable solutions for human and environmental problems. CGMF works as an engine of change in Texas, supporting high-impact projects at the nexus of environmental protection, social equity and economic vibrancy.

+ What did the Respect Big Bend Coalition set out to do?

In the Tri-County area – Brewster, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties – our coalition is bringing together community, business and philanthropic leaders along with landowners and industry leaders in a regional planning process informed by the best scientific data available. The process will look at the Tri-County region as a whole, rather than individual development sites, and by doing so, it can avoid, reduce and mitigate impacts on communities, land and water.

Outside the Tri-County area, the approach may be different – because energy development conditions and communities' needs vary across the area – but they all will focus on bringing all kinds of people together to maximize the benefits of responsible energy development while conserving natural and cultural resources.

+ Why are private lands both the promise and challenge of the Big Bend Region?

Because so much of the land in the Big Bend Region is privately-owned, energy development decisions are made by energy companies and private landowners.

There are few regulatory requirements related to siting new energy facilities, and local governments have almost no legal authority to influence siting decisions.

This framework makes it difficult to plan for energy development on a broad scale and take steps to avoid landscape-level negative impacts on conservation values and communities.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the private property rights of our rural landowners also provide significant societal and natural resource benefits. These private, rural lands are where rainfall recharges our aquifers, where our air is filtered, carbon is sequestered, where our wildlife lives and where a great deal of our food and fiber is grown.

Property rights are fundamental to liberty and, more to the point, serve as a powerful motivator for land conservation. An owner of a tract of land has a vested interest in being a good steward of it. Erode those property rights, and motivation to steward the land begins to soften.

+ How did the Respect Big Bend Coalition achieve its goals?

The Respect Big Bend Coalition adapted and tailored its approach using “Development by Design,” a strategic process pioneered by The Nature Conservancy for communities to use to evaluate the impacts of future energy development on nature and their way of life. Respect Big Bend's Stakeholder Advisory Group used this process to develop recommendations on how best to balance conservation goals and energy development in the Tri-County Region.

The Respect Big Bend’s Stakeholder Advisory Group followed five major steps related to the “Development by Design” process.

• Step 1 – Conservation Values Develop a conservation vision that captures what people value and want to preserve in their community, way of life and natural resources.

• Step 2 – Mapping Map the values to the landscape in order to visualize their geographic footprint.

• Step 3 - Energy Projections Project future energy development by exploring where and why it is occurring today and estimating where, how much and what types of development may occur in the future.

• Step 4 - Estimated Land Impacts of Energy Development Estimate the impacts of current and projected future development on the landscape, and consider those impacts in the context of community-based priorities.

• Step 5 - Mitigating the Impacts of Energy Development Identify opportunities to guide development to avoid or minimize potential impacts to conservation values and prioritize areas for restoration action.

+ What were the key findings of the Respect Big Bend Coalition?

1. Within the 18-county study area, the Tri-County Region contains the highest concentration of high-quality, intact landscapes with natural resources that members of the Stakeholder Advisory Group value highly;

2. Renewable energy sources have a footprint on the landscape that is more expansive than oil and gas, but fewer impacts on water and air quality.

3. Because renewable sources have considerable flexibility with respect to siting, and there are large areas in the Tri-county region with characteristics suitable for renewable development, it should be possible to site the facilities in a way that minimizes or avoids impacting conservation values;

4. The Stakeholder Advisory Group found the Respect Big Bend landscape-scale decision framework to be a useful tool that could be used by stakeholders in other parts of Texas and the United States.

+ What were the recommendations coming out of the Respect Big Bend approach?

1. Obtain stakeholder input to avoid negative impacts of energy development.

2. Establish a center for landowner and community resources.

3. Support programs to keep large tracts of land intact, to preserve the values that they provide to all the citizens of the state.

4. Restore land disturbed by energy development.

+ What is the Greater Big Bend Conservation Partnership?

The Greater Big Bend Conservation Partnership is an example of an organization utilizing the Respect Big Bend framework and strategic planning process.

The United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced an investment of $3.5 million in the Alpine, Texas-based public-private partnership in late April 2021.

Th initiative will include a robust partnership between the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross University, the Texas Agricultural Land Trust and the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.

As a spin-off of the Respect Big Bend initiative, the ad-hoc organization will use the coalition’s framework and strategic planning process to develop land management activities to protect rangelands from development, restore wildlife habitat and protect water resources in the greater Big Bend Region of Texas. Project partners plan to convene teams of experts to provide comprehensive technical assistance to producers participating in the project.

+ What are the sources of funding for the Respect Big Bend Coalition?

The Respect Big Bend Coalition was launched and funded by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation with additional support from the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation, Meadows Foundation, Permian Area Foundation and the Still Water Foundation.

+ Who are the Respect Big Bend Coalition's partners?

The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, Averitt & Associates, Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross University, the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, Environmental Defense Fund, Texas Agricultural Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy.