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The Texas Department of Transportation is dedicating over a million acres of land, including 73,038 miles of center lanes, to the conservation of the iconic monarch butterfly.
The Monarch Butterfly Candidate Conservation Agreement for Energy and Transportation Lands by the University of Illinois-Chicago is accepting almost 450,000 acres in the agreement, which was created to make right-of-ways and other lands a habitat for monarchs.
The project was initiated by the University of Illinois-Chicago through a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region. The university's program manager, Iris Caldwell, said that TxDOT will help bring others to participate in the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances, or CCAA.
"TxDOT's early participation in the CCAA has helped us make huge strides towards the conservation targets laid out in the agreement and build momentum with other transportation agencies and energy companies interested in supporting the monarch butterfly," Caldwell said. "TXDOT is a natural leader for this work given their well-established wildflower program and key position along the monarch flyway."
Monarchs, which bring their bright orange hues to Texas during their fall and spring migrations, have lost about 90% of their population in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in two decades. Milkweed, which serves as an egg-laying site and caterpillar food for monarchs, has been on the decline alongside other native plants they need for nectar.
The butterflies are Texas' state insect and will be treated as such as TxDOT works to support and grow milkweed and other necessary plants. The department will work to eliminate threats to the species on transportation corridors by creating and enhancing habitats, conducting brush control and conservation mowing and applying herbicides to unwanted plant populations. They will also continue their regular vegetation management and plant nectar-producing wildflowers along the corridors.
Under the agreement, energy and transportation-related companies will use their right-of-ways and other nearby lands as a habitat for the butterflies. In return, the 16 current partners will receive a certificate of inclusion and receive "regulatory assurance and predictability under the Endangered Species Act."
While monarchs are not officially endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in 2020 that the species will be regarded as endangered or threatened once higher-priority species are listed.
TxDOT's efforts will undoubtedly help other pollinators as well, said James Stevenson, TxDOT maintenance division director.
"TxDOT's rights-of-way are excellent habitat for wildlife including pollinators such as the monarch butterfly as well as bats, bees, birds, and many more," Stevenson said. "Since milkweed is a crucial host plant for monarchs, TxDOT fully supports milkweed growth on state rights-of-way. Thousands of acres of milkweed appear on rights-of-way every year due to TxDOT's longstanding wildflower and pollinator programs."
For more information on the agreement and conservation efforts, check out the Service's Save the Monarch website.
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(Paxton Smith/Instagram)
Paxton Smith’s 2021 valedictory speech at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas wasn’t the same speech she had previously shared with school administrators. She dropped the approved speech and made a case for women’s reproductive rights after lawmakers passed the Texas "Heartbeat Bill.”
Her advocacy made news on NPR, YouTubeTV and in The Guardian. Just over a year later, the “war on (women’s) rights” she forewarned has come to a head as the U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protection for abortion access.
“It is up to the people to show up and show the courts and the politicians that we won’t sit back and let this happen,” Smith told Austonia Friday morning. “We will show up, we will fight back. Before, we were scared of them, now they should be scared of us.”
Now a University of Texas sophomore and abortion rights activist, 19-year-old Smith said she wanted to give the same speech in the “the most public way possible” to reach “as many people as possible who don't agree that I deserve this right.”
However, she says the response was “actually overwhelmingly positive” and supportive of her cause. According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
The speech opened up further opportunities for activism: she advocated for reproductive rights at the International Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, interviewed with Variety magazine and spoke to tens of thousands at Austin’s Bans Off Our Bodies protest at the Texas Capitol in May.
Smith also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, a national nonprofit organization that helps fund abortions or medication abortion—like Plan C pills—in all 50 states. Most recently, Smith has been attending protests in Washington, D.C. leading up to the ruling.
“This is land of the free. This is where you get to choose how you live your life,” Smith said. “Overturning Roe v. Wade violates everything that we have come to believe about what it means to live in this country. I think a lot of people aren't willing to accept that this is a human right that is most likely just going to be gone for over half of the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Bracing for the next steps, Smith gave some tips for supporters:
- Find a protest to attend.
- “I would say invite somebody to go to those protests with you, invite a couple of friends, invite people into the movement,” Smith said.
- Talk about the issue on social media—use the platform you have.
- “Have these kinds of conversations where people can just talk about their fears and then find ways to go and advocate for yourself,” Smith said.
- Volunteer at a nonprofit near you.
“I feel like a lot of the reason things have gotten as bad as they have within the abortion rights world is that people are not making a scene, not protesting, not putting the effort into ensuring that the government doesn't take away this right,” Smith said. “I want to emphasize that if you're not doing anything, don't expect the best scenario, expect the worst because that's the direction that we're going in.”
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(Council Member Chito Vela/Twitter)
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion, Friday morning. Moments later, Austin City Council set a special meeting for next month to pass a resolution aimed at decriminalizing abortion.
The GRACE Act, which stands for guarding the right to abortion care for everyone, is a twofold plan submitted by council member Jose “Chito” Vela. It recommends that city funds shouldn’t be used to surveil, catalog, report or investigate abortions. It also recommends that police make investigating abortion their lowest priority.
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who co-sponsored the resolution along with council members Paige Ellis, Kathie Tovo and Mayor Steve Adler, said the importance of the GRACE Act cannot be overstated.
“By introducing this resolution during a special session, City Council is doubling down on fighting back for reproductive health,” Fuentes said. “Items like the GRACE Act will promote essential healthcare while enabling individuals to exercise their bodily freedom.”
The act takes an approach similar to when former council member Greg Casar moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Ultimately, state law doesn't allow city officials to order police chiefs to adopt specific enforcement policies so the resolution would be a request to Police Chief Joe Chacon. In May, Politico reported that Vela is having "ongoing conversations" with Chacon about the proposal.
Austonia contacted Attorney General Ken Paxton for comment on the GRACE Act but did not hear back by time of publication. On Friday, Paxton celebrated the overturning of Roe and announced an annual office holiday on June 24 in recognition of the high court's decision.
In a press release, Vela said the Texas state government has a history of overturning municipal protections of human rights. Thirty days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Texas will ban all abortions, with exceptions only to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent “substantial impairment of major bodily function.”
Still, Vela expressed hope for the GRACE Act’s longevity. Council’s special meeting on it is set for the week of July 18.
“We know this resolution is legally sound, and Austin is not alone in this fight,” Vela said. “We are working with several other cities who are equally horrified by the prospect of an abortion ban and want to do everything they can to protect their residents.”
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