Far West Texas

The cactus and the succulent market don’t stop at your local plant nursery. Collectors who want especially rare specimens hit the lucrative cactus black market. And many of those cacti come out of Far West Texas, where the low level of surveillance and high level of unique specimens have made it an ideal location for poachers.

The Texas Department of State Health Services will hold a one-day vaccine clinic in Alpine for residents throughout the Big Bend region, offering first and second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, as well booster shots for those who qualify.

With the park's long-awaited reopening, staff are capping the number of daily visitors at a lower number than normal — down from 900 to 650 — due to ongoing construction in the park.

Balmorhea State Park will officially re-open on June 26 to visitors for day use only. The announcement comes after years of maintenance problems, which…

Presidio County in Far West Texas is hours away from major hospitals and lacks some basic health care services, but the county’s vaccination rate has far…

Aided by cooler weather, firefighters have mostly contained a wildfire that has so far burned through about 1,300 acres of the Chisos Mountains in Big…

Firefighters in Big Bend National Park continue to battle the South Rim Fire, which has burned through hundreds of acres since last week. The wildfire is…

Preventative Care Health Services — which has clinics in Alpine, Presidio and Marfa — will soon begin holding regular COVID-19 vaccination clinics. This change comes as PCHS gets a stable supply of vaccines after months of struggling to find available doses for Big Bend residents.

Officials with McDonald Observatory are working to make Far West Texas and parts of Northern Mexico an International Dark Sky Reserve. They hope the special designation will help preserve the region’s dark skies and support ongoing research at the observatory.

By Public Radio StaffFor the second time this month, the state of Texas will hold mobile coronavirus testing in three communities in the Big Bend area.The…