Program areas at Texas Conservation Alliance
Texas Conservation Alliance conducts a number of conservation projects, participates in the state's water planning process,supports issues led by other conservation organizations, holds or participates in events such as Earth Day, serves on state and federal advisory boards, and disseminates general conservation information directly, at events, via email, on our website, through a newsletter, and via social media. Specific projects not listed in Part III, Lines 4b, 4c, and 4d include: support for funding for state parks and national parks and refuges, dissemination of information on water conservation and water recycling, protection of rivers, bays, and estuaries, and input to decisions regarding management of national forests.
Habitat Restoration and Lights Out for Wildlife: TCA recruits people from a wide range of constituencies, particularly young people, to participate in habitat restoration events planting trees and native prairie plants, cleaning up trash harmful to wildlife, turning off nonessential lighting during spring and fall bird migrations (called Lights Out for Wildlife), and eliminating invasive plants from natural areas. In FY22, TCA held or co-hosted more than 50 events at which over 2,000 volunteers planted 10,500 trees and 8,300 prairie plants, erected 29 wood duck nest boxes, and picked up more than 5,600 lbs of trash from Texas waterways. TCA staff and volunteers conducted on-foot surveys of downtown Dallas on 160 mornings to gather data about bird mortality due to light pollution and to rehab injured birds.
Marvin Nichols Reservoir: TCA coordinates a coalition of property owners, timber industry officials, citizens engaged in agribusiness, conservationists, and other Texas residents who oppose construction of the 66,000-acre Marvin Nichols Reservoir on the Sulphur River in Texas and who advocate for cost-effective water supply options that are less damaging to the natural and human environments. TCAs project, Preserve Northeast Texas, has generated more than 2000 signatures on a petition, drafted resolutions subsequently passed by two county commissioners courts and one city, and generated extensive media coverage of the issue.