Padre Island National Seashore
Stand · Find your defenders

Who’s defending Padre Island?

4 groups have it in their care

National park in Texas, 130,434 acres, managed by the National Park Service, designated in 1962.

The defenders

The groups doing the most work here

3 groups are on the record for Padre Island, each tied to it by a source our editors read, in the order they carry the weight. Give directly; nothing routes through us.

On the ground

Also in the fight

1 more work nearby but is not tied to Padre Island on the record

The situation

What’s happening to Padre Island

Seventy miles of undeveloped barrier island, the longest stretch of its kind in the world, and the most important nesting beach in the United States for the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. On March 31 the Endangered Species Committee voted to exempt all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations from Endangered Species Act compliance through 2029. The first time in the ESA’s history that such a broad exemption has been granted for an entire federal program. Any drilling platforms approved during this window will operate for 40 to 50 years with minimal ESA oversight. The vote took 17 minutes behind closed doors.

  1. 1962Established as national seashore
  2. 2026Endangered Species Committee exempts Gulf drilling from ESANPCA · March 31, 2026

No public comment window is open on Padre Island 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.

Your move

How to stand for Padre Island

Build my lineup around Padre Island: the leading group here opens it, and the other seats fill from this record.

Padre Island has defenders. It needs more.

3 groups on the record, National Parks Conservation Association with 217 staff + 900 volunteers. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.

Sources and methodThe situation, timeline, and threats: the MTJP threatened-lands record for Padre Island, with per-item sources. Group crews and program ratios: IRS Form 990 via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, latest filed year, EINs on each group’s profile. Which groups are on the record for this place: MTJP editors tie a group to a fight only with a source link they have read, one link at a time. A group without one is shown as likely to care, a guess from the federal court record and the group’s own mission and footprint. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Data verified as of 2026-09-28. Nothing on this page is pay-to-play.