The journey
Making a distributed network visible.
A distributed conservation network is hard to support because it is hard to see. A park has gates, a name, a footprint you can walk. A thousand front yards woven into the same ecological fabric do not. We built this page to make the network visible, to translate every square-foot of habitat committed into a landmark you already carry in your head.
The journey runs across twenty-five milestones, each tied to a real place in Houston, Texas, or the country beyond. Together they tell the story of what becomes possible when private land is held in common purpose.
Where we are now
We've matched a An Inner Loop residential lot.
The next landmark on the journey is A Heights residential lot. Every front yard added gets us closer.
Tier 1. Foundations of connection
Where the journey begins.
Every front yard added is a foothold. These first milestones, all under two acres, are the proof that distributed conservation is happening, and what we're asking the city to recognize.
- An Inner Loop residential lotReached
A typical lot inside Houston's 610 Loop. About 2,500 square feet of front yard turned over to native habitat. The first proof, scaled across the city.
- A Heights residential lotNext
A full residential lot in the Heights, around 6,600 square feet. Quietly larger than the inner-loop average, and a useful neighborhood-scale anchor.
- A Houston residential lot
The citywide average residential lot, around 7,131 square feet. When the network reaches this size, the case for residential land as conservation land is unanswerable.
- A football field
A regulation American football field, roughly 1.3 acres. The first milestone you can pace out in your head, woven across thousands of front yards.
- A Houston city block
A typical block inside the Loop, about 1.4 acres. The scale at which neighbors start to recognize each other's yards as part of the same place.
Tier 2. Neighborhood anchors
When the network shows up on a city map.
Between two and twenty-five acres, the cumulative footprint reaches the size of the parks our city was built around. Distributed across thousands of yards, but the same area, the same ecological weight.
- Tranquility Park
Tranquility Park in downtown Houston, named for Apollo 11's landing site. Four acres of civic space, recreated through distributed conservation.
- POST Houston Skylawn
The rooftop park atop POST Houston, five acres on what was once the city's post office. A symbol of what a city's leftover space can become.
- Levy Park
Levy Park in Upper Kirby, six acres of community gathering and play. A neighborhood-scale park, reassembled across many neighborhoods.
- Emancipation Park
Houston's oldest park, purchased in 1872 by freedmen for their community. Almost twelve acres of profound civic memory, mirrored in front-yard sanctuary.
- Discovery Green
Discovery Green downtown, twelve acres that redefined what a Houston park could be. A regional landmark, distributed across the city.
- Sam Houston Park
Houston's first municipal park, nineteen acres just outside downtown. The civic origin point, scaled across many yards.
- Chicago Millennium Park
Chicago's Millennium Park, twenty-four and a half acres of cultural commons. Different city, same lesson: dedicated public space changes a place.
Tier 3. Civic catalysts
When we're the same scale as the institutions.
At twenty-five to two hundred acres, the network matches the footprint of the institutions that already shape Houston's relationship with land. Botanical garden. Stadium. Major bayou park.
- Daikin Park
The Astros' ballpark and grounds, about twenty-nine acres. The first time the network's footprint is the size of a stadium.
- Houston Botanic Garden
The Houston Botanic Garden, one hundred and thirty-two acres. The full footprint of a conservation institution, distributed across thousands of homes.
- Buffalo Bayou Park
Buffalo Bayou Park, one hundred and sixty acres along the city's defining waterway. A civic landscape, recreated front-yard by front-yard.
Tier 4. Cultural ecosystems
When distributed becomes monumental.
From two hundred to two thousand acres, the network reaches the scale of the city's defining cultural and ecological landmarks. Central Park. NRG Park. Downtown Houston. Memorial Park. Held by no single institution. Held by thousands of households.
- NRG Park
NRG Park and its grounds, three hundred and fifty acres. The largest sports and entertainment complex in the city, matched by a distributed network.
- Hermann Park
Hermann Park, four hundred and forty-five acres. The first of the city's century-old cultural landscapes to fall within reach.
- Central Park (New York)
Manhattan's Central Park, eight hundred and forty-three acres. The benchmark by which urban parks are measured worldwide, recreated through distributed habitat.
- Downtown Houston
The entire downtown footprint, just under twelve hundred acres. A scale at which the network is unmistakably a city in its own right.
- Memorial Park
Houston's Memorial Park, fifteen hundred acres of forested civic land. The largest urban park in Texas, matched by a distributed network of households.
Tier 5. Bioregional lodestars
The long horizon.
Beyond two thousand acres, the journey crosses into multi-decade territory. State parks, national forests, the bioregional commons. We name these to be honest about where the model leads if it works. They are direction, not deadline.
- Galveston Island State Park
Galveston Island State Park, just over two thousand acres of coastal prairie and bay. The first horizon where the network crosses out of the city and into the bioregion.
- Brazos Bend State Park
Brazos Bend, nearly five thousand acres of bottomland forest south of Houston. A working state park, scaled by the network.
- Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
Enchanted Rock, the granite batholith in the Hill Country, around fifty-four hundred acres. A piece of Texas geology, mirrored in distributed habitat.
- Sam Houston National Forest
Sam Houston National Forest, one hundred and sixty-three thousand acres of public land. A regional commons, the size of which the network can only aspire to.
- Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone, two and a quarter million acres. Named here to keep the horizon honest: the model, fully realized, is bioregional, not municipal.
A distributed network is built one yard at a time.
Every donation, every native plant, every neighbor who turns a lawn into habitat moves the whole network forward. The landmarks are the way we measure. The yards are the work.