Big Bend News

Thousands of endangered Rio Grande silvery minnows reared at a national hatchery in New Mexico were being prepared Wednesday to be trucked to Texas, where the tiny fish will be released into the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park. The release is part of a five-year experiment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a population of minnows in the river's southern reaches. More than 400,000 silvery minnows were released at Big Bend last year and surveys have shown that there are still minnows in the area.

Enos Mills likely never saw one, at least not in the national park he helped establish in 1915, and he traipsed all over the area.

Big Bend National Park has recently completed the first phase of a partnership project to improve exterior lighting throughout the park. The first phase includes dramatic improvements to the exterior lighting at the Panther Junction Visitor Center and the Panther Junction Service Station. 

Garry slipped his raft into the slender entrance to Santa Elena Canyon as easily as a key into a lock. Adana followed, and then Mike. Our three-raft flotilla had begun an overnight trip last October through the most spectacular and most accessible canyon on the Rio Grande.

There are few places I've visited that have struck my soul with such resonance as Big Bend National Park on the north side of the Rio Grande in extreme West Texas. 

The nesting sites of Big Bend National Park’s Peregrine falcons will be closed to public entry from Feb. 1 through May 31.

The Rio Grande within Big Bend National Park recently reached record or near record flood levels after heavy rains fell in the area and within the Rio Conchos water basin. Floodwaters covered parts of the road between Castolon and Santa Elena Canyon, Cottonwood Campground, Rio Grande Village Campground and the boat ramps at the park’s east and west ends.

IMBA urges mountain bikers nationwide to support new singletrack in Texas' Big Bend National Park. The park is requesting initial public comments -- your input is crucial to the project's success.

The National Park Service proposes to construct new housing, operations and recreation facilities in Big Bend National Park. The public, organizations and other agencies may review and comment upon a draft environmental assessment (EA) describing the proposal. The new construction would occur at Panther Junction, Rio Grande Village and Castolon. The proposal is to construct 27 structures, of which 15 would serve new purposes and 12 would replace temporary or inadequate facilities.

Big Bend National Park sprawls across more than 800,000 acres of western Texas. Rugged mountain peaks look out over sweeping stretches of desert. Limestone cliffs rise precipitously over the green waters of the Rio Grande, separating Texas from Mexico. Adobe ruins pay testimony to the ranches of the Old West. And, it turns out, mountain lions and black bears frequent the area, along with deer, javelina and hikers.

The Dallas Morning News Q&A with William E. Wellman, superintendent of Big Bend National Park, about his proposed management of the Christmas Mountains. Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson opposes the transfer, demanding the Park Service change restrictions on guns and hunting.

Butch Hancock probably isn't the first singer-songwriter to wind up, 35 years after that first promising album, sleeping under a tarp down by the river. But he is the first one I've ever watched wake up. When I crawled out of my tent that chilly morning, he lay a few yards away, flopped near the water's edge, barefaced under the sky. Soon the two of us were lined up with the others for coffee from the camp stove.

To comply with federal air quality requirements for national parks, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is revising the State Implementation Plan, SIP, to address visibility at both Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains parks and at protected areas in neighboring states. The federal rule calls for visibility improvements at national parks on the haziest days and no additional visibility impairment on the clearest days. It also requires states to take into account their impact on such areas in other states when determining their own reductions.