State park finally nearing public access

Plans for how TPWD will manage public use of the park if the land acquisitions are successful are being worked out, said Russell Fishbeck, deputy director of the agency's state parks division. The park could provide high-quality primitive camping, mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, limited public hunting and other outdoor activities in a truly wilderness-like setting.

"We've got some ideas and are looking at some possibilities," Fishbeck said.

Although Chinati Mountains State Natural Area has been a part of the state park system for 18 years and the second-largest chunk of public land in that system, few Texans know the park exists. The agency doesn't list it in its State Park Guide, and no mention of the park can be found on TPWD's website.

That may be about to change. Finally.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Outdoors-State-park-finally-nearing-public-access-5379757.php

snip:
Saying that diverting funds earmarked for state parks compromises the integrity of the state budget and the quality of parks, some legislators are looking to end the practice.
State Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, has filed Senate Bill 175, which would eliminate the diversion of funds from the sporting goods tax, which according to state law is supposed to go toward parks.

“I’m an outdoors guy myself,” Estes said Thursday at a news conference. “It’s important that we maintain all of our parks. It preserves our Texas heritage, and it needs to be carefully guarded not only for us but for future generations.”

link

Mulie/elk country!!!!

Aoudad country. Some Mearns quail too.

Any updates on this?

This bill needs to pass! It's a crock that the state pulls from Park and TPWD funds whenever they wish, then close public lands citing funding as the reason. There's a word for that: theft!

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=SJR24
Actions: (descending date order)
Description Comment Date Time Journal Page
S Referred to s/c on Fiscal Matters by Chair 03/18/2013
S Referred to Finance 02/05/2013 169
S Read first time 02/05/2013 169
S Filed 01/31/2013
S Received by the Secretary of the Senate 01/31/2013

For eight years, Kulhmann and his team have been working to gain public access to 39,000 acres donated to create a new state park.

“But that’s been blocked by either no funds or landowners changing their minds or just other priorities with state parks, as far as money could go when we had money,” Kulhmann explains. “It turned out a lot of the lands here are just a bowl of spaghetti.”

The four tracts of land needed to open a public road to the park were not straight-forward deals. There was the family that wouldn’t sell to the state and instead sold to a developer, who then sold back to the state; a landowner that had to be tracked down in Florida through Facebook; and a deal negotiated with Presidio County after a default on taxes gave them the land, says Kulhmann.
more
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/10...l-area-secured/

I love this area. We just spent a week down in Presidio & Brewster counties.