DYING TO GET INTO STATE PARKS 
Texas’s Parks and Wildlife Dept. is considering a novel way to expand parkland. Nothing’s carved in stone, but Ted Hollingsworth, director of land conservation, says that the department will continue to discuss with the Green Burial Council the possibility of “partnering with death service providers or funeral directors” to annex properties adjacent to existing state parks after they’ve been transformed into green burial sites: “We wouldn’t own or manage the cemetery,” Hollingsworth tells teevee reporter Josh Hinkle, “but where people pay for [green] burials a certain part of that payment takes out that land, and pays for that land, that then does get added to the state park. . . . Makes more habitat for turkey, quail, deer, snakes, lizards. . . . Makes more room for trails, picnic areas, all of that. Where we have opportunities to add land, especially not at the cost of the taxpayers, we want to explore those.” Hinkle adds: “However, [Hollingsworth] said bodies would not be near campsites — a relief for regulars like Dave and Kanita Riggle.” [KXAN] Photo of Huntsville State Park: Flickr user TX Diva
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GRAND PARKWAY WILL PILE ON THE DEAD 
An agreement between TxDOT, the Harris County Historical Commission, and 5 Native American tribes over what to do with the prehistoric human remains unearthed in the prairie highway’s path will allow construction of the Grand Parkway Segment E to continue — with only a bump in the road: “Under the agreement, TxDOT will fill the excavated areas and cover them with rip rap, creating a permanent burial site near where the road would cross Cypress Creek, about three miles south of U.S. 290.” The reburial might confuse future anthropologists, though: “[UH professor of anthropology Kenneth] Brown expressed frustration over TxDOT’s handling of the site, saying crews saved some artifacts but ruined the area for richer study. The agency’s crews scraped and sifted mechanically instead of digging by hand. ‘When you scrape, you will find things, but you won’t be able to see how they were associated,’ Brown said. ‘That is a shame because we do not know what people were doing 10,000 to 14,000 years ago, and we won’t know now.'” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of gravesite: abc13
A sudsy education center for the “beer curious,” Premium Draught tore the butcher paper from its windows and started pouring this week at 733 Studewood, the former Kaboom Books spot. The store shares a Heights strip center with the high-usage Antidote — and also shares the intersection of Studewood and East 7th 1/2 8th with the recently opened Sonoma Wine Bar. Premium Draught owner Johnny Orr realized he might have to rethink his plans to build the usual sit-and-stay-awhile bar. “After taking a look at the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood,” he tells Swamplot, “we opted to pursue this beer for carry-out business model instead. Parking in this town and in the immediate neighborhood around the store is minimal. As the White Oak corridor continues to develop we wanted to try and avoid the type of mess that has occurred on Washington. . . . The Heights did not need late night bar traffic clogging the streets.”
- Previously on Swamplot: Craft Beer To Go in the Heights, To Stay in Garden Oaks
Photo: Allyn West
