Local environmental preservation supporters may be pleased to hear some good news.
Recent negotiations between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and Texas Branch Brokers, based in Burnet, have settled on the purchase of more than 1,000 acres of pristine land near Burnet and Lampasas counties, as part of an ongoing TPWD plan to manage additional space near Colorado Bend State Park.
Texas Branch Brokers Mike Bacon and Drew Colvin estimated the purchase at more than $12 million.
According to TPWD officials, funds for the purchase were allocated from the Texas Centennial Parks Conservation Fund and sporting goods taxes.
The major part of the settlement calls for no commercial development upon the acres, Bacon said. “It is for preservation of a very large piece of land for the benefit of the public,” he added. “It is really wild, beautiful country in its natural state.”
Meetings about the potential sale of the property between TPWD officials and the local brokers began last February.
“TPWD reached out to us,” Bacon told the Bulletin.
Also, TPWD officials conducted numerous visits and inspections of the land before presenting their purchase offer, Colvin recalled. Then, Conservation Fund representatives and the brokers convened for several “complex” and “technical” discussions, which eventually produced an amicable agreement between TPWD and the anonymous land owner, Colvin said.
“Discussions went very well, very smooth, very professional,” he recalled.
Part of the land includes a tributary of the Colorado River, Bacon said. “There is one-half mile of Yancey Creek running now through the property,” he added.
Combined with the TPWD recent purchase of another 2,000 acres in Burnet County, more than 3,000 acres of park land will be preserved in the area, state officials said.
