News & Updates
It’s time to pay attention to the water we cannot see
Texas’ rivers are iconic. The groundwater that sustains them is invisible. We see the dichotomy in state law. Naturally flowing water in rivers and streams is owned by the state and held in trust for the public good. That’s because we can see that water and what it...
Clean water projects in Texas awarded $72M from EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) $72,632,000 to provide low-interest loans to fund clean water projects in Texas. EPA provided the grant under the Clean Water Act’s Clean Water State Revolving...
Black conservationists and scientists who led the way
Some of the Black leaders on this list are well known. Some lesser so. But all of them have made an indelible mark on the understanding and preservation of our natural world. They have served as trailblazers in fields that have not always had the benefit of a...
Survey window opens for draft Hays County Transportation Plan
Your time is now to comment on Hays County’s Transportation Plan update, which has been in development since the summer. Virtual Open House Round 2 and public input survey (due by Feb. 7) are available online: https://www.haystransportationplan.com/open-house-2 A...
Inside the McDonald Observatory’s mission to preserve the darkest skies in West Texas
Bill Wren remembers the night sky rising like wallpaper above him when he was a child in rural Missouri. But after a move to Houston in 1970 when he was 15, lights from the city’s sprawl obscured all but a few stars. It wasn’t until he was 21 years old, on a camping...
‘Everything was there and then it wasn’t’: Developers allowed to skirt tree ordinance
In 2019, a city environmental plans examiner emailed then-state Rep. Roland Gutierrez to inform him he had violated San Antonio’s tree preservation ordinance by chopping down a large heritage oak without a permit on a lot he was developing. “There will be a work...
Will nature go mainstream in 2021?
One of the many things we’ve learned from the global shock of COVID-19 is just how intertwined humanity is with nature. A wildlife-borne pathogen has infected more than 70 million people, disrupted global supply chains, spotlighted inequities and exposed new...
Texans for Responsible Aggregate Mining (TRAM) invited to contribute to House Interim Committee’s Study on Aggregate Production Operations
Hill Country Alliance - Community Program Note: The Hill Country Alliance is an active member of the Texans for Responsible Aggregate Mining (TRAM) coalition. Quarries, gravel mines, sand mines, and concrete batch plants are increasingly posing significant challenges...
Editorial: Rivers are lifeblood of region
The owners of a youth camp near Vanderpool have filed a request for a permit to discharge 60,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day into a tributary of the Sabinal River. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which has jurisdiction in the matter, should...