Texas Heritage Protection Initiative Launched

Today, a group of Texas business and community leaders announced the launch of a new initiative designed to raise public awareness of the growing litter problem in our state and to help clean Texas clean by educating Texans about the high cost of litter and the economic development and increase tourism opportunities that come with litter abatement and preserving our state’s natural beauty and unique heritage.

Launched by Texans Dr. Robert Brandes, Jack Stowe, and Jerry James, Texas Heritage Protection will work with citizens and lawmakers to help safeguard the air we breathe, the water we drink and the wildlife and natural systems that sustain our life on earth by promoting responsible stewardship of the land and our state’s unique natural resources and encouraging common-sense, science based solutions to curtail litter, safeguard our environment, and help keep Texas clean. 

“We will look to great Republican leaders who have gone before us such as Theodore Roosevelt’s accomplishments in ecological preservation, Richard Nixon’s work on reducing air and water pollution and Ronald Reagan’s initiative to repair the earth’s ozone layer to help find solutions that will enable us to hand future generations, the same beautiful state that past generations of Texans have handed to us,” said Dr. Robert Brandes, one of the group’s founders.  

“God created the earth and charged man with its stewardship. Texans have a long history of preserving our natural environment and being good wildlife and land resource managers,” said Dr. Brandes. “That same spirit of protecting our state’s natural resources lives on today in Texas Heritage Protection where we will strive to be responsible stewards of the state we love and call home and to help others do the same,” Brandes added.

Dr. Robert J. Brandes, PhD is the principal owner of Robert J. Brandes Consulting, an engineering consulting firm in Austin, Texas. No stranger to studies, committees and expert witness testimony, Brandes has been lending his expertise to environmental concerns since he finished his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in 1972.  During his extensive career, Brandes has provided consulting assistance on projects involving surface and ground water hydrology and hydraulics, drainage, flooding, water rights, resource planning and development, water supply, water quality, nonpoint source pollution control, and varying aspects of waste management.  In the past he has been Chairman of the Science Advisory Committee for the Legislative-appointed Study Commission for Environmental Flows and currently is vice chair for the Senate Bill 3 Texas Environmental Flows Science Advisory Committee. He is past president of the Texas Water Conservation Association. 

Jack Stowe is a director of NewGen Strategies & Solutions, a management and economic consulting firm specializing in providing professional services to public and private sector utilities. Since 1975, Stowe has helped assist public entities and private businesses achieve substantial cost savings by negotiating major utility services contracts and participating in cases before state and federal agencies throughout the United States. In addition to knowing the ends and outs of utility ratemaking under federal, state and municipal jurisdictions, Stowe’s has overseen in his current and past firms numerous studies involving solid waste and illegal dumping issues.

Jerry James has more than 35 years of experience overseeing a variety of public work departments and projects throughout Texas. Until retirement, James was the Director of Environmental Services for the City of Victoria where he managed the City’s solid waste division along with the air quality division and water resource and regulatory management practices division.  Prior to that, James was the Director of Utilities for the City.  While working for the city, James was instrumental in converting the City’s groundwater system to surface water based system as well as obtaining additional surface water supplies for the City from the Guadalupe River. James was extensively involved in development and passage of the Edwards Aquifer Authority Legislation that established the groundwork for overcoming the impasse between the regions over the best management of the Aquifer considering endangered species and the water needs of aquifer users and surface water users dependent on Edwards Aquifer spring flows. James also served as a non-voting Director of the EAA representing downstream water users. Additionally, James served on a SB 3 Stakeholder Committee on environmental flows for the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers.

You can learn more about Texas Heritage Protection and its unique mission by visiting their website at texasheritageprotection.org or the group’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/TexasHeritageProtection

Contact Information

Maia Corbit

Spokesman

Texas Heritage Protection

(1) (512) 298-4852

info@texasheritageprotection.org