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Texas is comprised of 142 million acres of private farms, ranches and forests, leading the nation in land area devoted to privately owned working lands. These lands provide substantial economic, environmental and recreational resources that benefit all Texans.

Rapid population growth is driving suburbanization, rural development and ownership fragmentation that increasingly threatens working lands. These threats result in a fundamental change in the Texas landscape, impacting:

  • rural economies,
  • food and water security and
  • conservation of natural resources.

The Texas Land Trends project monitors the status and changes in land use, ownership size and land values of working lands. Research results are published as topic-based reports through the txlandtrends.org, an award-winning interactive website. Users can also explore and query the Texas Land Trends data through the web-based mapping service. Texas Land Trends provides decision-makers and stakeholders with timely information to support the conservation and strategic planning of working lands within a spatially explicit context. Here's a preview of a few tools we've developed through the Texas Land Trends GIS project:

Data Explorer

  • This tool allows users to curate land trend data based on their area or areas of interest. Custom data queries by users generate an output of summary statistics, which demonstrate land demographic data in three primary categories: land use, land values, and ownership. These data are displayed through interactive mapping, tables, graphs, and general text to allow unique visualization of occurring changes on the selected areas of interest.

 

Texas Early Notification Tool (TENT)

  • This tool allows users to create custom queries based on their area or areas of interest. If the area selected intersects a military asset notification area that warrants early notification, the tool will generate an output with the notification areas and associated point of contact information. These data are displayed through interactive mapping, tables, and general text.

 

Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program (REPI)

  • This tool provides users with GIS locations of all military installations nationwide with completed REPI transactions, along with relevant information and resources for these projects such as economic data and project profile pages. Custom query feature allows users to pull REPI data for multiple installations at the local-, state-, and regional-level.

 

TxMAP — 

  • We developed a web mapping application that allows users to view and map natural resource data, and then publish a summary report on an area of interest. TxMAP enables users, such as private landowners, to define an area to perform an intersect query based on user input of geospatial data layers. The data is grouped into categories, matching our program areas of Wildlife Conservation, Rural Land Trends, Military Sustainability and Private Land Stewardship. The tool produces a report that includes maps and relevant information for the landowner to use in property management plans.

 

About the Texas Land Trends Data:

The Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute’s (NRI) Texas Land Trends project informs private and public decision-makers about the status and trends of our state’s working lands through the detailed curation and combination of multiple statewide datasets. It is NRI’s policy to operate this project based on scientifically and statistically developed principles and protocols. Inherent to this policy is our necessity to maintain and protect the integrity, validity, and security of our data, analyses, and processes.

NRI has dedicated significant resources to develop the methodology used to create our Texas Land Trends database, and do not share shapefiles or raw data with external entities. However, public usability and access to this data is a cornerstone of Texas Land Trends, leading to the creation of our innovative Data Explorer tool. Users can explore specific areas of interest (e.g., counties or ecoregions) or view statewide trends, with results presented through tables, charts, graphs, and maps alongside informative text to help explain common trends. This web tool allows users to visualize the data and even download select graphics. See our About the Data page for all data sources and descriptions.

 

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    News

    14 Jun

    Texas Land Trends tracks a changing state

    Is Texas a rural state? Yes. Eighty-three percent of the state’s lands are farms, ranches and forests. But it’s also an urban state. Eighty-six percent of Texans live in urban areas.

      Blog Posts

      25 Nov

      Map of the Month: Night Lights of Texas

      Through our Texas Land Trends project, we have been tracking and telling the story of rural land use changes and trends across the state for the past few decades. Using remotely sensed data, we can better illustrate these changes; especially those related to urban and energy industry growth.

      6 Jun

      Texas Land Trends meets Real Estate

      Earlier this year, NRI was invited by the the San Antonio Board of REALTORS® (SABOR) Farm and Land Committee to present the story behind Texas Land Trends: How and Why Texas is Changing.

      7 Mar

      The value of conservation easements: An interview with Roel Lopez

      Listen to Dr. Roel Lopez and Blair Fitzsimons, CEO of Texas Agricultural Land Trust, provide clarity on the importance of conservation easements in Texas from ensuring the public benefits remain available to helping future generations through the actions we can take now. 

      1 Mar

      Map of the Month: Conservation Easements in Texas

      Our latest Texas Land Trends report examines conservation easements, an important tool that can complement both landowner and public needs by supporting rural economies, creating recreational opportunities. and providing intrinsic benefits.

      11 Apr

      Map of the Month: Freshwater Mussels: Key Indicators of Ecosystem Health

      Freshwater mussels play an important role in the health of freshwater ecosystems by providing food and habitat for other aquatic species, stabilizing stream bottoms, and filtering the water in our lakes and rivers. The Rio Grande basin is home to three mussel species suffering from habitat loss and growing human populations in this area may be threatening the water systems necessary for their survival.

      22 Feb

      Map of the Month: Bright lights and big cities: urban growth in Texas

      From scattered rural settlements to big cities, the density and distribution of people in Texas has changed dramatically over time. As "urban sprawl" continues to increase development in the outlying areas around cities, it will affect the resources, amenities, and job opportunities for the people who live there.

      21 Dec

      Map of the Month: Wind Energy in Texas

      Texas is the largest wind energy producing state in the U.S. As the wind energy industry continues to expand, challenges of compatibility with other national priorities continue to be a consideration—including military training. 

      1 Dec

      A Story Map: Habitat Requirements of Texas Quails

      A Texas Land Trends Story Map: Texas is home to four species of quails: Northern Bobwhite, Scaled Quail, Gambel’s Quail, and Montezuma Quail. Many Texans fondly recall experiences with quail, whether they were hunting or watching them, or just listening to their songs. Despite the interest in these quail species, their overall abundance, especially northern bobwhites, have declined over the past few decades. Recent research efforts seek to determine what factors have and continue to contribute to the decline of quail in Texas. 

      21 Jun

      Map of the Month: Wildlife management land use acres

      While ag tax evaluations traditionally involve practices such as haying, cropping, grazing and livestock, the state added a wildlife management use component in 1995. This non-traditional approach to preserving open space lands and their values has gained momentum in the past two decades, as the total number of acres enrolled has risen from 93K in 1997 to 3.2M in 2012. So how do you qualify and what is the process to switch from a traditional ag use property to wildlife management use?