Texas is Worth Keeping Wild

Texas has never been just one landscape.

Head out west and the horizon opens into desert, mountains, canyons and some of the darkest night skies in the country. Follow the rivers through the Hill Country and you'll find limestone cliffs, clear water and cypress-lined banks. Go east and the land changes again, into towering pines, bottomland forests and bayous. In the Panhandle, red, yellow and purple canyon walls rise unexpectedly from the plains. Along the coast, marshes and barrier islands create an entirely different kind of wild.

Bison still roam the plains. Black bears have returned to parts of their historic Texas range. Alligators inhabit our eastern wetlands. Mountain lions move quietly through some of the state's most remote country. There is a lot of wild left in Texas, but there's no guarantee that it stays that way.

Keeping Texas Wild

When we started Wild Texas Project, Keep Texas Wild wasn't intended to be just something that looked good on a T-shirt. It's an idea we believe in. Texas is growing quickly, and growth brings consequences. Open land disappears. Wildlife habitat becomes fragmented. Rivers and springs face increasing pressure. Development reaches places that once seemed safely remote. And sometimes the threats are much more immediate.

We've seen proposals for new barriers through the Big Bend region, one of the wildest landscapes remaining in Texas. We've watched development pressures reach places like Dinosaur Valley. Then there's the fact that Texas ranks near the bottom when it comes to accessible public land. Even some of the public land we already own remains out of reach. At Palo Duro Canyon, for example, less than half of the state-owned land is currently accessible to the average hiker or camper.

These aren't abstract issues to us. They're reminders that the Texas we inherit isn't necessarily the Texas we'll leave behind. Hell, if we work hard enough, we might even pass along a Texas that is better and wilder than the one we inherited.

Wild Places Need People Who Love Them

There's another side to conservation that doesn't get talked about enough. People protect what they know. A kid who has stood beneath a canopy of loblolly pines is more likely to understand why those forests matter. Someone who has watched the sun disappear behind the Chisos Mountains will probably think differently about protecting Big Bend. Seeing a herd of bison at Caprock Canyons makes the story of Texas wildlife something more than a paragraph in a textbook. Experiences create connections. That's why the shortage of public lands makes the places we can expore together--our state parks, national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, trails and other public spaces--especially valuable. We don't just need to protect wild places. We need people to experience them.

Every Kid Deserves a Little Wild Texas

That belief is also why the mission of Wild Texas Project goes beyond conservation. We want to help create opportunities for kids who have experienced trauma to get outside and experience wild Texas for themselves.

For a child whose life has included violence, instability or trauma, getting outdoors can offer something very different from everyday life: room to explore, opportunities to try something difficult, the satisfaction of reaching a destination, and the simple experience of being somewhere beautiful. There is a mountain of research and evidence that outdoor experiences build confidence, hope and resilience. 

Maybe it's sleeping under the stars for the first time. Maybe it's hiking farther than they thought they could. Those experiences alone can't erase what a child has been through. But they can become part of a much bigger story about what comes next. And we know from our own experience that when you create the right kind of outdoor adventures for kids, they feel more connected to nature and confident about being outdoors. 

That's why Wild Texas Project supports opportunities that help kids affected by trauma experience the outdoors. We want the next generation to inherit wild places. We also want them to have the chance to fall in love with those places.

Welcome to the Wild Texas Journal

That's what this Journal is about. We'll explore Texas trails, state parks and wild places. We'll tell stories about the wildlife that makes this state extraordinary. We'll talk about conservation, public lands and threats to places worth protecting.

We'll also tell you about people and organizations doing good work across Texas, ways you can get involved, and our own efforts to help more kids experience the outdoors.

And, yes, we'll occasionally tell you about a T-shirt. Wild Texas Project is, after all, a business. Selling outdoor apparel makes the rest of this possible. But we started WTP because we thought a Texas outdoor brand could stand for something beyond selling things. We believe business can help build a community around a shared idea.

Ours is pretty simple: Texas is worth exploring, sharing and protecting. And Texas is worth keeping wild.

Wear the Mission

Our new Keep Texas Wild — TX Bold tee celebrates the wild places, wildlife and outdoor experiences that make Texas worth protecting. Every Wild Texas Project purchase helps support Texas conservation and create outdoor opportunities for kids impacted by trauma.