While on a board member retreat for Houston Wilderness in 2008, Elizabeth Winston Jones and Jim Blackburn worked together on a "green think tank," which was created to develop innovative ideas on how to create a system that utilized the remarkable ecological resources of the Texas coast to solve the region’s greatest environmental problems. This idea was further developed through research at the Severe Storm Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center at Rice University and eventually became known as the Texas Coastal Exchange (TCX). As a nonprofit organization, TCX now enables concerned citizens and businesses to support local landowners through donation-funded grants that help protect natural lands and the ecosystem benefits that they provide from development.
To educate the public and develop, test, and implement innovative tools and approaches to promote the protection and restoration of
To help build a resilient Texas coast supported by an informed public who values the great natural ecosystems of our region and understands and supports the benefits they provide to us all.