Friends Group · Terlingua, TX
Big Bend Conservancy
Named for Big Bend
2 staff + 21 volunteers74¢ of every dollar to the workFounded 1996
Stand · Find your defenders
Who’s defending Big Bend?
2 groups have it in their care
National park in Texas, 801,163 acres, managed by the National Park Service, designated in 1944.
The defenders
The groups doing the most work here
One group is on the record for Big Bend, in the order they carry the weight. The range says how strongly our editors, the court dockets and their own filings tie each one here. Give directly; nothing routes through us.
71–76% match
1 more group also work this ground
The situation
What’s happening to Big Bend
The Rio Grande bends through ancient limestone canyons, and the Chisos Mountains rise from the Chihuahuan Desert like a fortress. In August 2026 bulldozers rolled into the park itself, clearing pristine desert for border barrier infrastructure, patrol roads and surveillance towers with environmental review waived. Local officials, businesses and park lovers across the political spectrum pushed back hard enough that the administration paused the work within a week, but the project is not dead, only under review. Big Bend’s remoteness has always been both its greatest asset and its deepest vulnerability. Out of sight is how a bulldozer gets into a national park.
- 1944Established as national park
- 2025Budget cuts threaten already minimal park staffing
- 2026Bulldozers begin clearing parkland for border barrier project
- 2026Administration pauses construction for a CBP on-the-ground evaluation
Bulldozers begin clearing parkland for border barrier work
Source: NPR · August 12, 2026
Remote park disproportionately hit by budget cuts
Source: National Park Service · March 1, 2025
No public comment window is open on Big Bend right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.
Our reporting
What we’ve published on Big Bend
Your move
How to stand for Big Bend
GiveGive to Big Bend Conservancy
Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.
Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representativesA ready call script on Big Bend, plus any comment window as it opens.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands MapBig Bend has defenders. It needs more.
1 group on the record, Big Bend Conservancy with 2 staff + 21 volunteers. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.