Don’t TREAD on Me: The Advocacy Group That’s Protecting Texas Landowners’ Rights

A bipartisan landowner advocacy group is ramping up its work ahead of the 2025 Texas legislative session to ensure that Texas landowners know their rights and have a voice in things like access to water and broadband services — and are protected when the dreaded eminent domain rears its ugly head. 

Many CandysDirt.com readers live in urban areas and are more concerned with walkability than water for their horses, but as high-speed rail and Interstate 345 construction pick up steam, property rights have floated to the top among concerned citizens. 

There also are numerous subdivisions in rural parts of North Texas that have been underserved for decades when it comes to accessing basic human necessities like water. 

The Texas Real Estate Advocacy & Defense Coalition (TREAD) formed in 2017 by land attorneys who were “litigating issues they thought could be addressed by landowner education and resources, as well as policy changes in the legislature,” TREAD CEO Jessica Karlsruher told Land.com in November. 

Our rights are individual, but it takes a coalition to defend them.

Texas Real Estate Advocacy & Defense Coalition

Don’t TREAD on Our Land

As advocates prepare for the 2025 Texas legislative session, TREAD’s priorities include oil and gas pipeline reform, eminent domain reform, fair property taxes, conservation, and water rights, according to the nonprofit’s informational brochure. 

Additional legislative priorities include expanding broadband to rural communities, access to healthcare and rural public health, telehealth in rural communities, rural economic development, and promoting local artists. 

“With Texas becoming more urban, the issues change, and legislative representation leans toward urban concerns,” Karlsruher said in the Land.com article. “As more issues are viewed through an urban lens, it is even more imperative that rural citizens unite and be a part of a coalition that is actively defending private property rights and working to solve the myriad of issues caused by land fragmentation.”

TREAD membership is open to all Texans, regardless of how much land they own. Benefits of membership include access to educational materials, “TREAD Talks,” and a voice at the state Capitol. 

“We work with peer organizations on sound policy and best practices to promote smart growth and thoughtful land stewardship,” Karlsruher said. “TREAD also engages with the various caucuses in the Legislature providing them with data and real-life examples of what’s happening with their constituency so they may influence their peers to protect rural Texas.”

For more information, visit treadcoalition.org.