Bob Sanders makes his case for keeping water where it falls by starting at the creek-ribbon he knows best: the Big Cypress Bayou, a 2.6-mile stretch that runs through trees and a narrow channel before linking two key bodies of water in northeast Texas. Sanders, who runs an approximately 1,100-acre cattle operation in Marion County, said the bayou’s health depends on water that remains in the local system instead of being diverted for use elsewhere.
In making that argument, Sanders described the Big Cypress Bayou as more than scenery—he said it connects Lake O’ the Pines, the region’s main water supply, to Caddo Lake, which the state calls its only natural lake. For Sanders and many neighbors, he said that local connection is increasingly fragile in Texas as droughts strain rivers and reservoirs and demand pressures rise across the state.
Sanders’ donation centered on the Texas Water Trust, a state program created in 1997 as part of the broader Texas Water Bank program. Through the trust, water-rights holders can voluntarily dedicate their water to preserve flows in rivers and streams and support improved water quality and habitat for fish and wildlife. The arrangement can be made temporarily or permanently, according to how the rights holder and the program structure the agreement.
Sanders said he chose to donate rights because he fears that moving water out of the watershed would undermine his ranch and the broader ecosystem. He told the Texas Tribune, as distributed by the Associated Press, that “That’s what I am trying to preserve, is water to keep this bayou system healthy,” adding that if North Texas takes the water, “this ranch would be in a perpetual drought,” which he said would “break us and destroy the ranch.”
As Texas plans for a possible shortage by 2030 if a historic drought returns, growing cities have looked for new supplies and, in recent years, some proposals to move water have met resistance in East Texas. The report described local opposition after a Dallas developer announced plans to drill more than 40 high-capacity wells in three East Texas counties to export billions of gallons from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to water-stressed areas of the state. It said locals viewed the plan as an “existential threat” to regional water supplies, and the local groundwater conservation district voided the developer’s permits after litigation involving a poultry farm and then the developer.
The Texas Water Trust itself has been used rarely since its creation. The report said only three water rights have been placed in the trust since 1997—two tied to the Rio Grande and another connected to the San Marcos River in Central Texas. It said Sanders’ donation was the first since 2006 and cited his account that his decision was shaped by the drought of 2011, when a multi-year dry stretch left his family concerned it would not sustain grazing and when mature trees began to die from lack of water.
Sanders said the drought pushed his family to look for alternatives to keep the ranch afloat, and he linked his experience to a lesson about water’s permanence in living systems. He told the Texas Tribune, as distributed by the Associated Press, “Life is in the water,” saying that while some ailments can be rehabilitated, “when a tree is short of water and has a stroke, it doesn’t come back. It dies.”
The report said Sanders connected with state agencies and organizations already involved in his local conservation work, including the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Caddo Lake Institute and the Army Corps of Engineers. Those contacts, the report said, led him to The Nature Conservancy, which agreed to buy a portion of Sanders’ water rights and place them into the state water trust.
Experts said the trust’s limited participation stems partly from how difficult the donation process can feel to landowners. Myron Hess, a Texas water policy attorney who consults for environmental nonprofits, said there is “a lot of complexity around water rights,” noting that many landowners may not realize that water in a river today may not remain there if someone else takes it out. Marty Kelly, a water resources program coordinator at Texas Parks and Wildlife, said “Not a lot of people are aware of (the trust),” and the report said the agency, environmental groups and other partners have held workshops, made presentations and met with landowners to explain how participation works.
The report also said lawmakers expanded Texas Parks and Wildlife’s role in 2021, directing it to encourage and facilitate voluntary donations, help landowners navigate the process, and manage rights after they are placed in the trust. Kelly said that change gave the program clearer leadership, and Hess said it was “a step in the right direction … There’s actually somebody who needs to be out trying to encourage people to put rights in the trust.”
Concern about Caddo Lake has become a central part of the appeal for the program in East Texas, according to The Nature Conservancy’s Ryan Smith. He said the 2011 drought forced landowners to confront how vulnerable their operations could become during shortages, and he described Caddo Lake as “a very special place to everyone.” The report said the lake sits on the Texas-Louisiana border and is known for bald cypress trees emerging from dark water, and that several waterways—including Big Cypress Bayou—feed the lake, with the health of one affecting others.
Smith said the growing challenge of demand requires multiple tools to find a balance, and he pointed to both potential efforts to sell or export water from the Cypress region and to the need for similar balancing in other growing-demand cases. In the weeks after talking with neighbors about the trust, Sanders said his decision ultimately came down to legacy as he approaches retirement, with his son Dustin helping run the ranch. He said he worries most that water could someday be redirected out of the watershed or dry up completely, and he expressed a belief that wider participation could help safeguard the bayou system’s rivers and hardwood bottoms—and, ultimately, Caddo Lake itself.