About the Center
A Texas where private-lands continue to sustain our water, food, wildlife, economy, rural communities, and way of life while remaining productive, resilient, and well-stewarded for future generations.
Private lands built Texas, and they still keep the Lone Star state running. The families who own and work our farms, ranches, and working lands produce the water, food, wildlife habitat, open space, and jobs that every Texan depends on — whether they've ever set foot on a ranch or not.
That work is only getting harder. Water scarcity, rapid growth, new development, transmission and energy projects, land fragmentation, shifting agricultural economics, and the challenge of passing land to the next generation are converging on landowners at once. Lawmakers and communities are wrestling with the same questions from the other side of the table.
The Texas Center for Private Lands exists to help Texas get ahead of these challenges.
As an independent, research-driven organization, we act before options narrow and problems become crises. We identify fast-moving threats and opportunities, fill urgent research and resource gaps, and develop and pilot tools, programs, and voluntary, market-based approaches that landowners and partners can put to work.
Rooted in Texas. Built for Results.
Our team brings deep expertise in Texas land, agriculture, natural resources, policy, research, law, and markets — and a foundational belief that a solution only works if it makes sense for the people who own and steward the ground.
