News & Updates
2021 Hill Country photo contest winners announced & 2022 Calendar for sale!
This past year has continued to challenge us as a region, a state, and a country in ways that no one could have anticipated, from once-in-a-lifetime snowstorms to an unusually rainy summer. Through it all the Texas Hill Country has given us a steady stream of comfort,...
Developer aims to create ‘legacy’ music venue with massive 20,000-seat amphitheater in Southwest Austin
Developers hope to add a crown jewel to the Austin area's already bustling live music scene: a 20,000-seat amphitheater at the center of a 71-acre entertainment and residential project near Bee Cave. International Development Management Co. aims to open the first...
Freshwater mussels in Guadalupe River could go on endangered list because waters they live in have changed
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed placing six Texas freshwater mussels on the endangered species list and designating nearly 2,000 miles of Texas rivers as critical habitat for them. The Guadalupe River Basin — one of four river basins highlighted by the...
Accolades pour in for Comal county conservationist Jensie Madden, who died Sept. 24 in Fischer
Longtime Fischer resident and San Antonio native Jensie Simms Madden, 74, a “founding sister” of the Comal County Conservation Alliance whose fierce advocacy extended to many other prominent environmental organizations in Comal County, died unexpectedly on Sept. 24...
Loss of a fish affirms fears about growth
A tiny, rare fish found only in a small section of the San Marcos River has gone the way of the dodo. The extinction of the San Marcos gambusia affirms the fears of scientists and environmentalists that mounting development and rapid population growth in Hays County...
City approves incentive package for Spurs training center and research campus at La Cantera
The San Antonio City Council approved an agreement with the San Antonio Spurs organization Thursday to contribute up to $17 million in tax rebates for a proposed new development and practice facility on the far Northwest Side. The Chapter 380 Economic Development...
Greenway system is a jewel, fund it in bond
The Howard W. Peak Greenway system is a jewel, connecting San Antonians to nature in the heart of our city. Bike, walk or run on these 82 miles of developed trails and you will encounter deer, foxes, the occasional ambling armadillo, and an array of butterflies and...
1,400-acre development near Hamilton Pool ignites push to protect salamander
Austin's Save Our Springs Alliance and a group of environmental scientists have filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as "endangered" or "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act. The...
Residents struggle to coexist with quarries
Growing up in the Texas Hill Country, Mark Friesenhahn often would run barefoot through the countryside with his younger brother — but only if their father, “a 150-pound, mean little banty rooster German, full of the culture and work ethic,” hadn’t assigned them a...