Dallas environmentalists are urging voters to think about the environment

On any given day, you can find Nathan May taking schoolchildren on a nature walk along the banks of the river, pointing out cool bugs along the way. He uses the app to log things like river otters and wildflowers, and he educates the public about what it takes to protect the Trinity River.

May works at the Trinity River Audubon Center and has a real passion for rivers.

“Rivers give us life,” May said on a recent afternoon. “They are a part of us and we are a part of them.”

According to him, the water level in the river is constantly changing. During the year, ponds dry up, and floods moisten normally barren areas. Some of this is normal for a healthy ecosystem like the one the Audubon Center has worked to create.

But downriver, where the Trinity empties into Galveston Bay, it’s a different story. Melting of Antarctic ice causing one of the fastest rising water levels in the world.

Earth is about 71% water, and all of this is connected through precipitation, runoff, evaporation, and condensation. And local conservationists point to the Trinity River as an ecosystem that could be affected by local, state and even presidential elections.

Environmentalists urge people to remember this when they enter the voting booth. But for many voters, the environment is left behind during elections.

“Most Texans believe the environment is a national problem, not a Texas problem,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “The environment consistently ranks below the economy, health and border security as the top concern.”

Longtime conservationists say they understand the importance of environmental policy. For example, since the 1800s, the Trinity River has been horribly polluted. It even had an ominous nickname: “The River of Death,” according to Teresa Patterson.

“They used to dump cow carcasses and whatever else into the river and basically use it as a sewer,” said Patterson, who serves as the paddleway manager for the Trinity Coalition, which works to improve the river.

Also known as “River Mom,” Patterson works to separate today’s Trinity from its sordid history. Now, several times a week, she leads kayak and canoe trips where she encourages people to make a personal connection with Trinity and advocate for her protection.

And she says they’ve come a long way.

“One of our jobs is to help people understand that the river is clean now and getting cleaner,” she said. “For most of the year, it actually reaches the EPA gradient of swimming.”

People like Patterson and Nathan May hope that local environmental regulations will help mitigate the effects of sea level rise. For example, things like drainage ditches absorb water before it damages buildings, and native plants work as allies to share the burden of drought and flooding.

But as urban sprawl continues to encroach on wilderness, local government inaction is no longer enough, May said. Instead, it is important for people to take an active role in protecting the habitat rather than hoping that it will take care of itself.

“I think there’s this idea that if we just take our hands off, let nature take its course, everything will be fine,” he said. “Even when people see this center, it used to be a dump, and ‘now hands off, let nature restore,’ I don’t think that’s entirely true.”

He said it takes a lot of work to manage the responsibility of the land — more than the average person can do without the support of their elected officials.

But experts say neither side has been perfect about the environment.

During the tenure of former President Donald Trump it has overturned more than 100 EPA regulationsincluding nine focused on managing water pollution levels.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration expanded oil productiona major water polluter that is speeding ahead of the Trump administration. Data from the Bureau of Land Management shows that in 2023 alone, Biden issued more than 3,000 permits to drill on public lands.

That’s why conservationists say it’s important to do your homework and get involved at every level — because ecosystems like the Trinity River depend on it.

“Birds, they can’t vote,” May said. – But you can.