Parks Commission to Vote Nov. 5 on Buying 7,500 Acres Beside Powderhorn on the Coast

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission will meet Nov. 4 and 5 in Fort Worth and vote on the second day on buying about 7,500 acres next to the Powderhorn wildlife area in Calhoun County — roughly a 50 percent enlargement. Online comment on the purchase and on six other land items will close at 5 p.m. Nov. 4.

Powderhorn is the state’s showpiece coastal holding. In 2014 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation bought a 17,351-acre Calhoun County ranch for $37.7 million, paid for largely by $34.65 million from the fund that distributes the criminal settlements BP and Transocean reached over the Deepwater Horizon spill. Most of it was donated to the state in 2018 and became the wildlife area; a smaller piece was set aside for a state park that has never opened and remains in planning.

The department’s briefing on the item says the owners of a neighboring ranch called Powderhorn West have agreed to sell 7,500 of its roughly 10,000 acres to The Conservation Fund, which would hand the land to the state at closing. Staff would call the tract the Coloma Creek Unit. The department publishes no price, no funding source and no name for the selling owners; the land talks are set for closed session, as real estate discussions customarily are. Commissioners started the public notice process on this tract in August, though the department has posted the wrong file at the address for that work session’s transcript, so no public record of the discussion is available.

The rest is rules. Members vote on fishing and oyster rule changes written to cut repetition of statute, the second of three stages in a rewrite ordered by a new regulatory office in the governor’s own shop. They are also asked to publish proposed rules carrying out a 2025 law that makes anyone building higher than 575 feet in about two dozen coastal counties seek a department review first, meant to protect migratory birds. Further proposals would extend the alligator season and loosen chronic wasting disease controls for deer breeders.

The commission also holds a regional public hearing at 2 p.m. Nov. 4, a travelling session at which anyone may raise any matter in its charge; registration opens an hour before and speakers get two minutes. Both days can be heard on a listen-only phone line.

Meeting at a glance

Commission members

• Paul L. Foster — chairman; El Paso; investor and former university regent.
• Oliver J. Bell — vice chairman; Cleveland; former prisons board chairman.
• Wm. Leslie Doggett — Houston; truck and equipment dealership founder.
• Anna B. Galo — Laredo; cattle company executive.
• John A. McCall Jr., O.D. — Crockett; optometrist and optical network founder.
• Robert L. “Bobby” Patton Jr. — Fort Worth; investor and Dodgers co-owner.
• Travis B. “Blake” Rowling — Dallas; hotel group parent company president.
• Dick Scott — Wimberley; co-owner of a rail transportation company.
• Timothy Timmerman — Austin; investor; president of a river land trust.

The roster follows the department’s commissioners page, read October 26, with one correction: that page still shows a February 1, 2025 term for Bobby Patton, who was reappointed April 16, 2025 to a term ending February 1, 2031. Paul Foster was named chairman June 3, 2025; Oliver Bell has been vice chairman since November 2, 2023. Lee M. Bass and T. Dan Friedkin serve as honorary, non-voting chairmen emeritus and are not counted in the nine. No seat is vacant and no 2026 appointment to this commission was found in the governor’s releases. Composition is set by Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 11. David Yoskowitz has been executive director since October 2022. Meeting contact: James Murphy, general counsel, (512) 389-8877.