Local News

BASTROP (Texas Forest Service) – Dallas-based Meadows Foundation is donating $850,000 toward Bastrop County's wildfire recovery efforts.

The gift will be shared with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), Texas Forest Service (TFS), the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Texas and the Austin Humane Society.

TPWD’s share of the money will be used to replace some department-owned fire-fighting equipment lost in the fire, along with two pickup trucks and one all-terrain vehicle destroyed in the fire, and for hazard mitigation and erosion control efforts at the state park.

A large part of the money will go to TFS as pass-through funding to volunteer fire departments not only in Bastrop, but across the state.

In other wildfire news, more than a third of the nearly 36 million cubic feet of timber killed earlier this year by fires in Grimes, Jasper, Trinity and Polk counties has been salvaged, according to TFS analysts.

The timber will be used to produce up to $110 million worth of products, including homes, furniture and paper, the creation of which will spur roughly $241 million worth of total economic activity in East Texas.