Salam!

The title picture is a map view from Global Forest Watch. It show areas in Texas that have suffered recent Deforestation. The darker the pink, the heavier the tree loss. IKEA, the Swedish furniture company, has bought thousands of acres in Texas - a state that doesn't have strong laws on the book to save its' forests. Bill Gates, the billionaire, has bought thousands of acres in farmland in Texas and other states. We, the people and not corporations, need to own these lands and preserve these lands for our future generations insha'Allah (if God willing). 

Recently, I have been in search to buy a piece of land in between Dallas and Houston where I can buy/build a small home, grow some food and keep some animals like goats, chickens and maybe a cow. While looking for land listings, I was SHOCKED to see many pieces of lands, for sale, that are:

1) either mostly or completely wooded

2) farms that seem to be recently harvested and suffering a drought with dried-out ponds

For most lands, there are no deed restrictions - that is the buyer can potentially buy the land and do whatever they wish to do with it. I confirmed that with a realtor. Texas is a state that strongly protects the private rights of its' citizens. These rights also include those that are related to whether the owner of land wishes to conserve trees and farms OR NOT.

I spoke to someone in Forestry at Texas A & M University. The biggest issue that affects sellable land in Texas is Fragmentation. As lands are passed on generation by generation, it gets fragmented. Thus, the person that ends up with the forest next to the pasture will try to sell it. The buyer can do whatever with it.

Changing legalities about these Forests and Farms is a long way to go - a battle that will have to be fought with various counties and cities. Cities like Austin have strong laws on the book to preserve trees - countless cities and counties between Dallas and Houston - where I was intending to buy - and many others in Texas don't have these Preservation or Conservation laws.

Our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told us:

Anas bin Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “No Muslim plants a tree or sows a seed and then a bird, or a human, or an animal eats from it but that it is charity for him.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2320, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1553

Texas Forests are habitat to a variety of animals. Furthermore, these trees absorb the carbon dioxide that millions of humans and cars emit. These trees are the clean air we breathe and the legacy that we leave to our children insha'Allah.

Texas Farms grow food for us. No Farms means no Food.

This petition proposes the following strategy to save Texas Forests and Farms - Insha'Allah:

1) Please BUY/DONATE Forest land for sale in Texas and pass it to your children in one contiguous piece. If two or more donors are buying land together OR if you are buying more than one piece of land, please buy contiguous pieces of land. As long animals live in these forests and as long, these trees clean the air for us, you get the rewards. 

2) Please BUY farmland and grow food on it if you can. If you can't, please lease it to someone (free of charge if you may) who can grow food on it or at least prevent it's conversion to a piece of land that grows no food. All or most of our Prophets were shepherds. Please raise a farm animal or grow some crops or maybe some vegetables.

3) Please contact your state lawmakers to create laws to preserve Texas Forest and Farms.

4) Go to Realtor.com (or another real estate listing agency) and choose land/farm to locate these Forests and Farms. Please study deeds for these lands to proceed in an informative fashion.

Buy/Donate/Save Forests and Farms in Texas. This classifies as a Sadaqa Jariyah (Forever Charity) as long as these Forests and Farms exist Insha'Allah.

May God be with you in your noblest intentions and deeds. A'meen. 

Edit #1: If organizations like APPNA can sponsor such projects where they buy certain forests and put their signs such as ‘Donated and Preserved by Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America for Our Future Generations’ or something like that, it would be great Insha’Allah. Please pitch this project if you know people in APPNA or other organizations that may have big donors.