Houston preserves parklands as wild places

Last week, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department announced the approval of an ordinance that will protect over 7,000 acres of natural habitat in Houston parks. The ordinance will preserve land within 26 parks, benefitting native wildlife and residents of the city in a multitude of ways, such as storing carbon, mitigating flooding, and improving air and water quality. Protection of these lands is a significant step in the right direction towards making Houston and Texas a greener — and therefore greater —place to live.

The City of Houston is setting an outstanding example for the rest of Texas. We should follow in their footsteps, but with nature and wildlife in peril all over our country, we cannot stop there. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) would give Texas and the other states the funding we need to continue preserving and protecting natural habitats and wildlife in Houston and beyond. The sooner we take action to protect our great state and the wildlife with whom we call this place home, the better off we all will be.