George Bristol

Region: Hill Country

Topics: Parks, Photography, Poetry, Fundraising, Lobbying

 
Mr. Bristol is a businessman and lobbyist with a passion for the outdoors that has found expression in the arts, including writing poetry and creating nature photography, and in public interest education and advocacy.  His education efforts have been associated with his board membership at the National Park Foundation, Glacier National Park Fund, Texas Conservation Foundation, and Audubon Texas. His advocacy work has grown out of a concern that Texas state parks were being neglected, with infrastructure maintenance ignored, and acquisition opportunities passed up, due to a shortage of public funding.  To build the economic rationale, broaden public support and enact added funding for state parks, he organized and served as staff for the Texas Coalition for Conservation, a non-partisan non-profit group.  In 2007, the Coalition was successful in helping increase dedicated sporting goods tax revenues for the Texas Parks and Wildlife program, and in passing a park bond package.