We Interview Jim Blackburn

The subject of our environmental film did not disappoint with his interview. In a far-ranging conversation we covered his early life and the influences that ignited his love for nature, his fateful decision to pursue environmental law—a legal area in it’s infancy at the time—and his battles to protect the Texas coastal habitat and the people and creatures that live there.

Of particular focus was the litigation taken up for the Aransas Project against the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority. That year 23 Whooping Cranes died over winter during a drought and a fatal reapportionment of freshwater inflows. Jim’s seesaw of a win, then a loss on appeal, and a final appeal declined by the Supreme Court that resulted an epiphany: in Texas, the only path to eventual victory is a middle way. 

The lion’s share of our discussion centered on the creative initiatives that Jim has developed to strengthen coastal environmental protection using regenerative ranching, increasing ecotourism, and celebrating the environment through a spiritual connection to nature—a place that Jim likes to call the Earth Church.