As Texas faces growing water challenges, the donation to the Texas Water Trust — a little-known conservation tool created nearly 30 years ago — was the first in two decades.
JEFFERSON COUNTY — Bob Sanders bumps along the dirt roads of his 1,100-acre ranch in a beat up burgundy Chevrolet Suburban, the engine roaring as his sprawling cattle operation, known locally for its wagyu beef, stretches around him. A shotgun rides in the passenger seat and battered binoculars sit on the dashboard.
The sloping pasture where his rust-colored cows graze gives way to trees that flank a narrow ribbon of water. It doesn’t look like much, just a slow-moving channel threading through sweetgums and cypress, but this 2.6-mile stretch of the Big Cypress Bayou carries a lot of weight — it connects Lake O’ the Pines, the region’s main water supply, to Caddo Lake, the state’s only natural lake.
Water feels abundant in the area. But even in this lush corner of the state, water is increasingly top of mind. For Sanders and many of his neighbors, the bayou represents something increasingly fragile in Texas: water that still belongs to the landscape it came from.
Source: Alejandra Martinez,
Photo Credit: Bob Sanders of Cypress River Ranch looks over Big Cypress Bayou while speaking about the flow of water from Lake O’ the Pines to Caddo Lake and Big Cypress Bayou on Oct. 9, 2025. Sanders is one of only three donors to the Texas Water Trust, a program created in 1997 to allow landowners and water rights holders to voluntarily dedicate water rights to the state. Michael Cavazos for The Texas Tribune
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