News
Hill Country leaders gather in Dripping Springs for 2022 Hill Country Leadership Summit – Our shared stories: Past, present, and future
On Thursday, September 29th, conservation leaders from across the Texas Hill Country met at The Hall at Jester King Brewery for the Hill Country Alliance’s annual Leadership Summit. The event theme, Our Shared Stories: Past, Present, and Future, brought together more...
Contentious Comal County quarry gets its air quality permit back
A proposed 1,500-acre limestone quarry between New Braunfels and Bulverde has secured its air quality permit from the state, leading to outrage and frustration from environmentalists and nearby residents. A three-judge panel of the Third Court of Appeals reversed a...
With midterms ahead, is water on the ballot?
With midterm elections just around the corner, Texas voters must consider immigration, abortion access and gun violence. But when prompted, many worry about water, too. Eighty-four percent of Texas voters want the Legislature to create a fund to update aging water...
Central Texas home to all 5 of state’s dark-sky communities
Central Texas lies within the main corridor of North American bird migration with flocks of aviators flying south for the winter and vice versa for the summer. But despite the innate directional awareness, some birds can get confused or harmed by lights shining in our...
Hill Country Alliance Leadership Summit provides information, knowledge, and a path forward
Last week Deborah and I attended the Hill Country Alliance’s Leadership Summit in Dripping Springs. We’ve been following the Alliance for many years and, especially in the last ten years, have come to rely on them as the source for information about the health and...
Ex-slave’s relatives battle to save farm
To Texas transportation officials, expanding U.S. 183 is a chance to alleviate congestion south of Austin. But to the Alexander family, it’s a threat to the land they’ve vowed for generations to protect. Daniel Alexander was enslaved when he secured a promise in 1847...
To save water in Texas, these nonprofits are paying farmers to leave it in reservoirs
As Texas faces an increasingly fraught environmental future from climate change, a new approach to conservation is growing. Drought conditions have created a two-pronged problem for Texas aquifers, natural bodies of water that move through porous rock underneath the...
‘The Olympics of astronomy’: Travis County gears up for 2024 solar eclipse
Travis County officials are gearing up for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in 2024, as a total solar eclipse is expected to pass over the Central Texas region. A total solar eclipse will pass over the Hill Country region on April 8, 2024, from 1:32-1:41 p.m. The...
Dry riverbeds, dead fish, tapped-out wells: Drought takes toll in Hill Country
Kathleen Tobin Krueger stood on a low cliff last week, looking down on her family’s ranchland. Below her lay an expansive field laden with smooth white rocks, trees with exposed roots growing between them. There should be a full, flowing river here — there usually is...
National Park Service releases video series on Texas White House
On Sunday, August 21st, Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park will launch Texas White House: Past, Present, and Future, a series of short educational videos on the history and importance of the Texas White House and LBJ Ranch. Videos will be released daily via...
Drought Stage 3 declared by Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District
With at least two months of a hot Texas summer left, the Blanco County water situation is becoming a serious concern. Water levels continue to decline in District Monitor Wells. Some well owners have had to lower pumps. Blanco County rainfall for 2022 is currently...
USDA investing $197 million in partner-driven, locally led conservation
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it is awarding $197 million for 41 locally led conservation projects through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). RCPP is a partner-driven program that leverages partner resources to advance...
Commentary: Drought, growth and the future of the Hill Country
On Thursday, June 9, the North Llano River stopped flowing. On August 4, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed 80 percent of the Texas Hill Country in exceptional drought. The Pedernales, Guadalupe and Frio Rivers are dry, and many other Texas rivers are heading toward zero...
U.S. spares Western states from Colorado River water cuts – for now
The U.S. government spared seven Western states from mandatory Colorado River water cutbacks for now but warned on Tuesday that drastic conservation was needed to protect dwindling reservoirs from overuse and severe drought exacerbated by climate change. Read more...
Spring Branch wastewater plant seeks permit to deposit up to 260,000 gallons of treated domestic wastewater into Cypress Creek daily
On Thursday, Spring Branch residents will get the chance to ask questions and voice their concerns over a permit that would allow up to 260,000 gallons of treated domestic wastewater to be deposited daily into Cypress Creek and then into the Guadalupe River, according...
Artificial light masks natural light cycles, affects both human and animal behavior
Natural light cycles have been obscured for years by artificial light used at night. According to experts, this has an impact on both human and animal behavior. Numerous nocturnal animal behaviors and many others like them have evolved to benefit from the night's...
380 acres of scenic open space protected forever
Texas Land Conservancy has completed the permanent protection of 380 acres in San Antonio, known as the Espada Tract. This new conservation easement protects the scenic open space views along 2.2 miles of the Howard W. Peak Greenway Trail System. This includes 1.6...
Hill Country natives are smarter than you think
“Texas is a land of perennial drought, broken by the occasional devastating flood.” —Unnamed Texas Meteorologist, 1927 The first part of this 1927 quote from an unnamed Texas meteorologist certainly describes 2022 so far. The first half of this year was the fifth...
Texas Water Development Board weighing how to spend portion of nearly $3 billion in federal funding
The Texas Water Development Board is currently taking comment on part of the $2.9 billion coming to Texas’ water infrastructure through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding. That will be spread over the next 5 years. The comment period is for $750...
EPA launches investigation into Texas environment agency’s permitting process for concrete batch plants
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is the subject of an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency following complaints that the state agency violated civil rights laws in its permitting of concrete batch plants. The Harris County Attorney and...
What’s being done to protect one of the longest caves in Texas? KSAT Explains
In this episode of KSAT Explains, Meteorologists Sarah Spivey and Justin Horne take us inside Honey Creek Cave for a swim and to highlight how it now coexists with the fast-growing Comal County. Watch the video from KSAT here.
Is Texas preparing for the right drought?
Texas’ strategy of planning for a repeat of the 1950s drought is no longer enough. While historic evidence identifies droughts that were longer and more severe than the Drought of Record, contemporary data points to a likely future of increasing drought severity....
A vanishing way of life?
Laurel Porter knows her corner of Northwest Bexar County so well she could draw a map of it with her eyes closed. Just south of Boerne, sloping valleys and chalky canyons line twisting roads that pass by the cities of Grey Forest, Helotes and Fair Oaks Ranch. Since...
Texas river flows approach record lows, but Hill Country outfitters still afloat
A Texas river expert says river flows across the state this summer are headed into the record books for being among the lowest ever, especially if rain does not fall soon. Still, businesses that rely on the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers have managed to float past serious...
Flood resilience means thinking upstream, Texas A&M professor tells US Senate committee
Texas A&M University at Galveston Professor Sam Brody testified in a recent U.S. Senate hearing on reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), urging the committee to not only reauthorize the program, but expand it using existing sources,...
Water and power need to look forward, not backward
As I sipped coffee and poked through the news early Monday morning, I saw the warning from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT): prepare for rolling blackouts. It wasn’t unexpected. Temperatures have been breaking records left and right across Texas, with...
Travis County commissioners taking a closer look at water supply
Leaders around Central Texas say we need to take water conservation more seriously before it's too late. Now Travis County commissioners are taking a closer look at the area's water supplies. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is responsible for providing a...
Families worry about health, water if proposed rock-crushing operation becomes neighbor
The air was thick as the sun was setting. The temperature had dropped just a little by Monday evening, but it didn’t do much to help with the sweltering heat. It didn’t faze the more than 70 homeowners, who live along or near County Road 284 in Williamson County, and...
Texas is drying up. We better protect our groundwater.
It is obvious to any Texan that we are in a horrific drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 80% of Texas has been facing drought conditions most of the year. Extreme or worse drought now covers 51% of the state. The drought is hurting water...
Don’t go with the flow
Do areas on your property look like this—sparse vegetation and very little topsoil? Hill County soils are notoriously thin. At one time, this spot likely had lots more soil and vegetation. What happened? Hard to tell exactly, but it’s likely due to a combination of...