As the heart of Texas — the Texas Triangle — swells with population, the cornfields and sunflower stands recede before the march of the suburbs. But there is a glimmer of hope because ranchers and environmentalists, hunters and city dwellers now have something crucial in common: harnessing the runaway development of the suburbs and exurbs. Interestingly, Arizona might have a thing or two to teach us.
 
As the Lone Star State booms, our wide-open spaces shrink
Richard Parker
Dallas Daily News
They take flight in bursts of 10 and 20 — sleek, gray birds that dart at 40 mph over irrigated fields and sandy, scrub desert. At the end of a long, hot summer, it has finally arrived: hunting season.
Yet for the first time in 15 years, I won’t see the sweltering opening day of dove season in my beloved Texas. Old haunts, a few minutes from my Hill Country home, have been plowed under and cemented over for a shopping mall. That’s partly why this opening day, my 12-gauge and I are in Arizona. My story is hardly unique.
As the heart of Texas — the Texas Triangle — swells with population, the cornfields and sunflower stands recede before the march of the suburbs. But there is a glimmer of hope because ranchers and environmentalists, hunters and city dwellers now have something crucial in common: harnessing the runaway development of the suburbs and exurbs. Interestingly, Arizona might have a thing or two to teach us… Read more from the Dallas Daily News