Lufkin-Angelina County, TX Green Infrastructure Plan

Lufkin and Angelina County are well situated within the Texas Pineywoods, but they have not been able to take full advantage of the potential economic development benefits associated with its proximity to this nationally significant resource.

Using the green infrastructure approach to strategic conservation, the Fund mapped the region’s network of natural assets and identified specific conservation opportunities that would better position Lufkin and Angelina County as a gateway to the Pineywoods Experience. The Fund also convened a Leadership Forum of over 50 public and private conservation partners to provide input on the green infrastructure network design and priority conservation resources. Based on the results from the Leadership Forum and Network Design, the Fund developed an implementation quilt of recommendations on ways to enhance nature-based economic development in the county.

The Lufkin-Angelina County Green Infrastructure Plan was completed in 2008. The rapid assessment delineates the County’s ecological network of forests, wetlands, and aquatic systems and identifies a ‘quilt’ of potential community conservation projects that can help achieve the county’s conservation and economic development vision.

The Green Infrastructure Plan immediately led to the organization of a new Friends of the National Forest and Grasslands organization. The Plan helped the new Friends organization obtain a National Park Service RTCA grant to support trail development. The Angelina Trails Planning Project in Angelina County has been selected to receive technical assistance from the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance program to help move the project toward its goal of a 75-mile trail network connecting the towns of Lufkin, Diboll, and Huntington with the area’s natural resources. This assistance will include community involvement in a planning process that will identify strategies to put trails on the ground. We proposed the trails project, which is one of the Plan’s top recommendations for enhancing Angelina County’s access to its natural resources.

In our first year, the Angelina Trails Group identified three finite priority trail projects to begin working on immediately (Neches River Canoe Trail, Lufkin’s Azalea Trail Extension, Cassells Boykin County Park trail development). The group has begun identifying key trail components for inclusion in the Countywide Trails Plan.

• Green Infrastructure Plan for Lufkin-Angelina County, TX - Summary Version
  (Download PDF - 3.5MB)
• Green Infrastructure Plan for Lufkin-Angelina County, TX - Full Version
  (Download PDF - 5MB)

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Map credit: Wikimedia