News
Pretty and powerful: six wildflowers that benefit Texas ecosystems
April showers bring May flowers, which may be the better part of spring for Texans-a charismatic display to distract us from the inevitable heat ahead. Alas, they are more than their displays: with over 2,500 species, native Texas wildflowers provide critical habitats...
Marble Falls rock crushing plant canceled; lawsuit settled
A lawsuit between Marble Falls-area plaintiffs and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Asphalt Inc. (now doing business as Lone Star Paving) was put to rest May 23 once all involved parties signed off on a settlement agreement. The lawsuit, filed in 2017...
Director’s Notes – June 2021: Introducing the newest additions to the HCA team
Dear Hill Country Neighbors, Our people make our work possible. From paid staff to local volunteers, board members, and partners across the region, it is the people of the Hill Country that inspire our most creative solutions. In that vein, it is with great pride and...
Texas could give landowners more say in eminent domain negotiations under bill sent to Greg Abbott’s desk
The Texas Legislature approved a bill early Thursday that will revise eminent domain negotiations between landowners and companies — such as railroads, pipeline and utility companies — that are seeking to condemn land, requiring that landowners be given the terms of...
After the storm: Legislative solutions to Texas’ water infrastructure emergency
My Austin apartment has always been drafty, hard to heat when it's cold out, and hard to cool in the summer. But on February 17th, our third day without power, when I ventured into the kitchen for some bread my roommate and I could eat for breakfast, I found ice in...
San Pedro Ranch receives Texas Leopold Conservation Award
San Pedro Ranch, located near Carrizo Springs, will be awarded the state’s highest honor for private land conservation, and a $10,000 award, at the Lone Star Steward Virtual Awards Banquet on May 27. Anyone can join the livestreamed banquet and can find more...
Expanding opportunities for natural resource conservation in Texas
Texas is home to a variety of unique, productive, and biologically thriving landscapes from the Piney Woods in the east to the arid mountain vistas in the west. Each year, these lands are the root of hundreds of thousands of jobs that help generate billions of dollars...
Hays County POSAC seeking new project submissions
The Hays County Parks and Open Space Advisory Commission (POSAC), which was created in 2020 and recently restarted, is seeking additional project submissions that would be funded by Proposition A, a Parks & Open Space Bond, approved by voters in the November...
No swimming at Hamilton Pool this summer due to falling rocks from winter storm
Hamilton Pool, one of the most beautiful watering holes in Central Texas, will not allow swimmers this summer or for the foreseeable future due to falling rocks. Travis County Parks has also closed the section of the trail that runs underneath the overhanging cliff....
Outdoors for all: Access to nature is a human right
A FEW YEARS AGO, pediatrician and clinical scientist Nooshin Razani treated a four-year-old girl whose family had recently fled Yemen and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. The family had received news the night before that members of the father’s family had been...
Texas groundwater supplies are shrinking, and that’s a threat to us all
My great-grandfather founded our family’s Hill Country ranch in 1887. For nearly 100 years, spring water flowed through the seeps and creeks of our land, year-round, and almost without exception. The water began to dry up a little more than 30 years ago as more people...
An epic monarch migration faces new threats
One of nature’s most extraordinary spectacles unfolds in the 10,000-foot-high conifer forests of Michoacán, Mexico. In mid-November, swirling orange-and-black clouds appear in the skies above the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a 139,019-acre sanctuary carved out...
How to poison feral hogs (and only feral hogs)
Early one winter morning in 2020, Kurt VerCauteren discovered a cluster of dead birds in a barren field in northwest Texas. They were small birds, mostly dark-eyed juncos, but also a smattering of white-crowned sparrows. VerCauteren’s team had poisoned them,...
lege+water: mid-May 2021 Update
Every month during the 87th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, Dr. Todd Votteler and Dr. Robert Mace provide an update on water-related legislation. The key water committees are Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs in the Senate, chaired by Senator Charles...
Folks in the field: Katherine Romans
Starting as the Landowner Outreach Manager at Hill Country Alliance, Katherine Romans love for the region combined with her non-profit and policy expertise made her a natural fit to become the Executive Director for the regional non-profit organization. Romans lives...
Pristine streams in Texas need protection. It’s up to the state Senate to act.
The first time I paddled the Nueces River I was blown away by the water — crystal clear, aqua colored, almost tropical. I could easily see the bottom of the river many feet below me and fish as they darted under my kayak. Fed by springs that percolate up from...
Many Texas trees still suffering from February’s winter storm won’t make it, arborists say
If you haven’t noticed, some of Central Texas’ trees aren’t looking so good. Live oaks with leaves sprouting from the branches and trunk. Ash trees with a sporadic green on only half of the canopy. Loquat, fig and citrus trees with growth at the base of the tree and...
Rebecca Creek salamanders could warrant Federal protection
Lizard-like amphibians with elongated bodies and tails, short limbs and external gills are the focus of scientists keeping tabs on groundwater health in Rebecca Creek. In April, Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) staff headed out to the area with U.S. Fish and...
Sun City residents concerned with proposal for nearby concrete batch plant
Sun City residents say they’re concerned about a proposed concrete batch plant that would be built about half a mile from homes. Plans for the plant show it would be located off Ronald Reagan near 195. Read more from Melanie Barden with CBS Austin here.
Solar-powered suds
Craft breweries, having already surged in popularity in recent decades, are enjoying a second renaissance during the COVID-19 pandemic as social life has moved outside. "I think back in the day before Bud, Miller, and Coors, you know, took over the American beer...
Boost protection for Texas’ pristine waters
There are only a few truly pristine rivers left in Texas. SB 1747 and HB 4146 (passed on 5/11/21) would help protect them. Help by voicing support for this bill. Only about 40 streams out of over 2,000 streams in all of Texas are considered pristine because they...
q&a+water: Suzanne Scott
In this issue’s Q&A, Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Todd Votteler, interviews Suzanne Scott, State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Texas. As State Director for The Nature Conservancy in Texas, Scott establishes conservation strategy and public policy...
Opportunity to comment on the Draft 2022 State Water Plan
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is now receiving public comments on the Draft 2022 State Water Plan. Updated and adopted every five years, the state water plan serves as a roadmap for addressing the water needs of our state and ensures that Texas will have...
Update: Wild pigs negatively impact ground-nesting birds
Wild pigs are an invasive species that can cause damages to private land, water quality and other wildlife populations. For ground-nesting birds, wild pigs pose a real threat to nest success and population numbers. Recent research documented that wild pigs readily...
lege+water: April 2021 Update
Every month during the 87th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, Dr. Todd Votteler and Dr. Robert Mace provide an update on water-related legislation. The key water committees are Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs in the Senate, chaired by Senator Charles...
Blanco County students paint for the stars
The Blanco County Friends of the Night Sky (BCFNS) last week concluded its 2021 Night Sky Art Contest for students at the high schools and middle schools in both Blanco and Johnson City. The contest, whose theme was “Discover the Night – Deep in the Dark of...
New poll shows 78% of voters support Federal investment in water infrastructure
A new poll by the Value of Water Campaign released today shows that American voters’ support for increasing federal water infrastructure investment (78 percent) remains high, is bipartisan, and is on par with eliminating COVID-19 and strengthening the American economy...
Meet a scientist: Robert Mace
Robert Mace, Ph.D., is the Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environmentand a professor in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. Mace has worked as a water researcher for over 30 years, and his...
Texas to make environmental proceedings more accessible to non-English speakers, following civil rights complaint
A new proposal from the state’s environmental agency would make it easier for community members who don't speak English to participate in the public permitting process for refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities. The proposed rule follows a civil...
Where there’s a waterway-there’s a will
Gaylord Nelson, the former Wisconsin Governor and founder of Earth Day, had a particularly salient quote that interestingly enough didn’t reference the environment. He said, “The ultimate test of a person's conscience may be the willingness to sacrifice something...