Bill Would Have TPWD and TxDOT Draft a Wildlife Corridor Plan

Sen. Molly Cook of Harris County filed a bill Friday that would require the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, working with the Texas Department of Transportation, to write a statewide plan for wildlife corridors and crossing projects. The introduced text of Senate Bill 360, labeled "By: Cook of Harris," was filed Nov. 13, according to the bill history, whose last action is "S Filed." The Senate lists Cook as the member from District 15. An identical companion, House Bill 335 by Rep. Lulu Flores, was filed Nov. 9; both measures share the same council document and the same operative text. The filings are proposals for the 90th Legislature, not adopted law, and they do not appropriate money or order any particular crossing to be built.

The Senate bill would add a new Subchapter I, "Wildlife Corridors," to Chapter 12 of the Parks and Wildlife Code. It defines a "wildlife corridor" as "a designated area that connects wildlife populations and habitats that would otherwise be separated by human activities or structures." A "plan" would mean the wildlife corridor action plan developed under that subchapter.

Under proposed Section 12.802, TPWD, "in consultation with the Texas Department of Transportation, shall develop a wildlife corridor action plan that recommends and prioritizes wildlife crossing projects intended to promote driver safety and wildlife connectivity." The two aims are paired in the text. The bill does not say how those priorities would be ranked if safety and connectivity pulled in different directions, and it does not require TxDOT to construct the recommended projects on a set timetable. Dock Line has previously reported on animal-vehicle crashes in Texas and research on wildlife crossings; this story is about the filed bills, not that earlier research.

In developing the plan, the department "shall use the best available science and department surveys" to identify, list, and describe six categories of information: wildlife corridors; existing and planned barriers to wildlife movement along those corridors; "areas with a high risk of vehicle collisions with wildlife"; habitats that are of high quality for priority species and ecosystem health, occupied by rare or at-risk species, or designated as critical habitat under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973; "migration routes of native, game, and migratory species"; and "land containing a high prevalence of existing human barriers to wildlife corridors, including roads, dams, power lines, and pipelines." This report does not add other barrier types, collision counts, or species lists that the introduced text does not contain.

The plan "must recommend wildlife crossing projects that prioritize promotion of driver safety and wildlife connectivity." For each recommended project, it must include "a description of the project and the proposed wildlife crossing infrastructure or other mitigation techniques recommended to meet the goals of the plan." The department would also have to include "maps detailing high-priority areas for wildlife corridor infrastructure and any other information necessary to meet the goals of the plan."

The deadline is specific. "Not later than December 1, 2028, the department shall submit the plan to the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house of representatives." That submission subsection would expire Sept. 1, 2029. The bill does not say what those officials must do with the plan after they receive it, and it does not require a later legislature to fund the recommendations.

Proposed Section 12.803 would give TPWD a coordination duty: the department "shall assist other state agencies and political subdivisions of this state, and on request any federal agency, to consider and incorporate wildlife corridors, including plan recommendations, when developing any governmental strategic plan, map, or action." The assistance language is mandatory for the department; the incorporation language is that other governments would be assisted "to consider and incorporate" corridors, not that every local map would have to adopt the plan's projects. Federal agencies would be included only "on request."

Section 12.804 would require TPWD to keep the plan published on the department's website and to "periodically update the department's Internet website with information regarding the implementation of wildlife corridor projects recommended under the plan." The bill does not define "periodically," and it does not create a new public-comment process for the plan itself.

The act would take effect immediately if it received a two-thirds vote of all members elected to each house, as provided by Article III, Section 39, of the Texas Constitution. If it did not receive that vote, it would take effect Sept. 1, 2027. This report does not independently restate current Parks and Wildlife Code or highway law from the official statutes site, which was not used. What SB 360 would do, if passed in this form, is assign TPWD and TxDOT a planning, mapping, reporting, and coordination job, with a plan due by Dec. 1, 2028. It would not, by its own terms, build a crossing or set a construction budget. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" (Psalm 24:1).