News & Updates
Judge Rules For Local Landowners In Groundwater Export Dispute
A state district judge in Bastrop has ruled in favor of four local landowners in a dispute over permits that allow massive amounts of groundwater to be pumped from Lee and Bastrop counties. Judge Carson Campbell’s January 4, 2018 order (see below) ruled that the Lost...
Despite rules, former Hays commissioner to remain at CAMPO board
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, the long-term planning group for the region’s roads and highways, took the eyebrow-raising action on Monday of making its leader a man who no longer holds public office. Former Hays County Commissioner Will...
In Dallas as in Phoenix, people look to trees for relief from urban heat islands
Few neighborhoods in America need trees more than South Oak Cliff, a sun-blasted shade desert in this rapidly warming Texas city. Like much of Phoenix, the south-side Dallas district lacks sufficient shade for comfort during summer and safety during heat waves, when...
Using the Airbnb Model to Protect the Environment
As the world’s population grows, so does demand for land. One upshot is that setting aside big tracts to protect endangered species and carbon-rich forests is increasingly expensive. Enter the Airbnb economic model. While it’s not a panacea, it provides attractive...
Bastrop County landowners can challenge groundwater permit, court says
Four Bastrop County landowners won a decisive court victory this week when a district judge decided he would allow them to challenge a permit to withdraw 15 billion gallons of groundwater annually from the Simsboro formation of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. The...
Seeing Stars in Dripping Springs
Dripping Springs’ municipal motto—“Gateway to the Hill Country”—suggests the city is westward-looking, more in tune with its rural roots than with the buzzing boomtown glowing like a giant arc lamp 25 miles to the east. Culturally, politically and ecologically, the...
San Antonio River, a City’s Pride, Yet Still Impaired
People in San Antonio are more educated about water conservation and management than anywhere else I have lived, and as the city’s Tricentennial approaches in May, people are understandably proud of the $384 million San Antonio River Improvements Project. The...
Be wary of border ‘takings’ for wall
Abuse is precisely what occurred when the government acquired border land a decade ago, including for a barrier in southernmost Texas, according to an investigation by the Texas Tribune and ProPublica. The reporting by T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and the Texas...
Ecologist challenges the myths about Cedar, Texas’ most hated tree
Every year, cedar fever descends on Central Texas, and with it comes a deep-seated, Texas-sized hate for the mountain cedar. “Cedar fever is not just any allergy,” wrote Patricia Sharpe in a 1986 issue of Texas Monthly. “It’s a scourge, a plague that smites the just...