Includes bibliographical references and index.

Overview map -- Land -- Land protection -- Prairies, pastures, cropfields, and lawns -- Desert bighorn sheep -- The Big Thicket -- Protecting the Neches Valley -- Conserving land and wildlife -- Cooperation -- Wildlife, land, and taxes -- The fall and rise of the American bison -- Water -- Surface water -- High Plains Playas -- Reservoirs -- Drought and water use -- Stream flows and water rights -- Water planning and interbasin transfers -- Dams in the Big Bend -- Trinity barge canal -- Fishing, swimming, and polluting -- History and prehistory of Lake Amistad -- Falcon Reservoir's drowned history -- Exotic fish in Texas -- Groundwater -- Lost springs and old trails -- Barton Springs, Austin, and nonpoint source pollution -- Ogallala Aquifer -- Comal, San Antonio, and the Edwards -- Houston subsidence -- Gulf of Mexico -- Reefs -- Storms and the Texas Coast -- Kemp's ridley sea turtle -- Air -- Lead, Smeltertown, and the family car -- The ozone hole -- Tobacco and secondhand smoke -- Upsets -- Monarch butterflies -- Energy -- Coal -- Oil and gas, water and wastewater -- Brown pelican -- Wind energy -- The built world -- Population growth and shift -- Sprawl -- Fire ants! -- Lights in the night -- Billboards -- Shared sacrifice? -- Colonias -- The Border and the Borderlands -- Sparrows, starlings, and doves.

Description based on print version record.