I had no idea there were 15 Texas state parks on rented private land, and I suspect I'm not alone. What a stupid idea. With that number about to be reduced to 14 with the land of Fairfield Lake State Park being sold to a developer, the Lege should tell Tpwd to get out of this, and to not spend a dime on any more improvements to private sites until it does get out of this. At Fairfield Lake? Over the past 50-plus years, they've pounded $76 million into this. Worse, most of these sites appear to be on former electric utility coal-fired plant generation sites, which means climate change has been subsidized by the state.

Worse yet? Vistra (successor to Texas Utilities) gave TPWD an option to buy Fairfield in 2020 when it announced it was terminating the lease and the state made no offer.

Worse yet? Among the 14 remaining parks on private land, rented, are hugely popular sites such as Cedar Hill and Ray Roberts.

Forrest Wilder visited the park for the Monthly, and also further visited the negotiations between Vistra and TPWD, their discussion before the Lege, and related issues.