AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A prominent Hill Country ranch may soon become Texas\u2019 second-largest state park as the state works to bolster its parklands and outdoor recreation spaces.<\/p>\n
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is moving to approve the acquisition of 54,000-acre Silver Lake Ranch from the Moody Foundation in a vote set for Thursday.<\/p>\n
The ranch sprawls across Kinney and Edwards counties, just around 125 miles west of San Antonio. Canopied by \u201csteep canyons and rolling hills,\u201d Silver Lake Ranch \u201cwill provide greater outdoor experiences and opportunities for the citizens of Texas,\u201d according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.<\/p>\n
This deal is part of Texas\u2019 recent concentrated efforts to acquire more state-owned land under the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, which voters passed in 2023 and allocates $1 billion toward the purchasing and development of new Texas state parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Texas has so much wide open space, the Lone Star State ranks toward the\u00a0bottom for state parkland per person<\/a>, making this acquisition an important step toward expanding public access to the outdoors,\u201d Environment Texas said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Big Bend State Park, which covers 300,000 acres of West Texas, is the only Texas-owned parcel to surpass Silver Lake\u2019s expansive acreage.<\/p>\n If approved, Silver Lake Ranch would be the first purchase using money from the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund. State law says that the sale price may not be disclosed until the transaction is completed.<\/p>\n The Moody Foundation currently owns the land, but the department described the owner as \u201ca willing seller.\u201d<\/p>\n Silver Lake would additionally join three other parks acquired this year under the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, including Bear Creek State Park, Post Oak Ride State Park and land purchased in Llano County to expand Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.<\/p>\n Environment Texas Research and Policy Center Executive Director Luke Metzger said this investment ensures \u201cfuture generations can enjoy the freedom and beauty of our great outdoors for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a dream come true for park lovers across Texas,\u201d Metzger said. \u201cWe fought for years to create the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, and now, we see the fruits of that effort. Silver Lake Ranch could be protected forever, and generations of Texans may soon be able to camp under its stars, paddle its spring-fed lake and hike its rugged hills. This is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A prominent Hill Country ranch may soon become Texas\u2019 second-largest state park as the state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,102,837,223,82,27,23250,1569],"class_list":{"0":"post-37030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-laura-baker","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-san-antonio","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-outdoors","17":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}