Very cool. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center of The University of Texas at Austin has been selected by the Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) to serve as the local grower of loblolly pines to restore wildfire-damaged Bastrop County. The 2011 Bastrop County Complex fire destroyed 1,691 homes while burning 33,000 acres that gave the [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Bastrop County’
Interview with Ronnie McDonald
One of the more interesting candidates in a race that isn’t currently considered top tier is Ronnie McDonald, who is running in the redrawn CD27 against first term Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold. McDonald has been a trailblazer for much of his life, having been elected the first African-American yell leader at Texas A&M, and then [...]
What we lost in the wildfires
It’s going to take a long time to recover from the fires. The fire burned through the heart of the Lost Pines area, a unique ecological island encompassing some 64,000 acres of loblolly pine, the westernmost stands of the great pine forest originally carpeting the southeastern United States. Incinerated, too, was the largest single tract [...]
Our gay state
Is getting gayer, according to the Census. It’s no secret that Austin and Central Texas have much appeal for same-sex couples, but new census data from 2010 underscore the depth and breadth of the attraction. Among the highlights from an American-Statesman analysis of the data: • Travis County has the state’s highest rate — 1.25 [...]
The Census and Central Texas
While much of the focus post-Census will be on redistricting, the data it contains is fascinating and illuminating in its own right, absent any political context. This story about explosive growth in former small towns around Austin that now serve as its suburbs is a good read. A couple of points: The total population in [...]