On any given day, you can find Nathan May leading school children on nature walks along the riverbanks — pointing out cool bugs along the way. He uses an app to log things like River Otters and wildflowers, and he educates the public on what it takes to protect the Trinity River.
May's with the Trinity River Audubon Center, and he's really passionate about rivers.
"Rivers give us life," May said on a recent afternoon. "They're a part of us, and we're also a part of them."
The water levels of the river are in constant flux, he says. Throughout the year, ponds dry up and floods drench usually barren areas. Some of that is normal in a healthy ecosystem like the one the Audubon Center has worked to establish.
But downriver, where the Trinity feeds into Galveston Bay, is a very different story. Antarctic ice melt is causing water levels to rise at one of the most rapid rates in the world.
Earth is roughly 71% water, and it’s all connected through precipitation, ground runoff, evaporation and condensation. And local conservationists point to the Trinity River as an ecosystem that could be affected by local, state and even Presidential election outcomes.
Environmentalists encourage people to keep that in mind whenever they enter the voting booth. But for a lot of voters, the environment is an afterthought during election season.
"Most Texans feel like the environment is a national problem, not a Texas problem," said Brandon Rottinghaus, political science professor with the University of Houston. "The environment is consistently ranking below the economy, healthcare and border security as a top issue."
Longtime conservationists say they understand the stakes of environmental policy. For example, dating back to the 1800's, the Trinity River was horribly polluted. It even had an ominous nickname: "The River of Death," according to Teresa Patterson.
"They used to dump cow carcasses and whatever into the river and basically used it as a sewer," said Patterson, who serves as the paddling trail manger for the Trinity Coalition, which works on improving the river.
Patterson, who's also known as the "River Mom," works to separate today's Trinity from it's dirty history. Now, a few times a week, she leads kayaking and canoe trips in which she encourages people to form a personal connection with the Trinity and advocate for it’s protection.
And she says they've come a long way.
"One of our challenges is helping people to understand that, right now, the river is clean and getting cleaner," she said. "For much of the year it actually reaches swim grade on the EPA's gradient."
People like Patterson and Nathan May are hopeful local environmental regulations can help mitigate the impacts of sea level rise. For example, things like runoff zones absorb water before they cause damage to buildings, and native plants work as allies to share the burden of drought and flood.
But as urban sprawl continues to encroach on wildlands, a hands-off approach from local government isn't enough anymore, May said. Instead, it's important for people to take an active role in protecting the habitat rather than hoping it will take care of itself.
"I think there is sort of this idea that if we just take our hands off, let nature take its course, everything's going to be OK," he said. "Even when people see this center, it used to be a dump, and 'now our hands are off, we're letting nature reclaim it,' I don't think that's true at all."
It takes a lot of work to manage land responsibility, he said — more than the average person can do without support from their elected officials.
But experts say neither party has been perfect on the environment.
During former President Donald Trump's time in office, he rolled back more than 100 EPA regulations, including nine focused on managing water pollution levels.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration expanded oil drilling, a major water pollutant, at a rate out-pacing the Trump administration. Data from the Bureau of Land Management shows Biden granted more than 3,000 permits to drill on public land in 2023 alone.
That's why conservationists say it's important to do your homework and to get involved at every level — because ecosystems like the Trinity River depend on it.
"Birds, they can't vote," May said. "But you can."
