News
Decline In Hunters Threatens How U.S. Pays For Conservation
Tom Wrasse is at his hunting shack alone. Light pours into the small room from a window framed by antlers, harvested from the surrounding central Wisconsin woods. On the opposite wall is a collage of fading photos, showing how big the hunting parties out here used to...
Census estimates show another year of rapid growth for Texas suburbs
Home to burgeoning suburban communities, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area was behind more than a third of the state's population growth from 2016 to 2017. Picking up 146,000 new residents, the Dallas metro area once again experienced the largest population growth...
US national park rangers look to the stars with skywatching training program
The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has partnered with the McDonald Observatoryto create training programs for park rangers and improve skywatching events. The observatory, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin, will offer two workshops for national...
Comal County resolution on quarry decried as too little, too late
Comal County commissioners’ adoption Thursday of a resolution expressing concerns about a rock quarry proposed by Vulcan Materials west of town was decried as too little, too late by opponents of the project. The measure calls on the Texas Commission on Environmental...
San Antonio Uses Water To Influence How Kendall County Land Is Developed
Behind the white metal gates on Corley Road south of Boerne lie 375 acres of gentle pastures, Texas live oaks, and an old ranch house visible from the fence line. In the near future, this ranch could look a lot more like a suburban neighborhood less than a mile away,...
San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer Protection Program: Overview and Analysis
"The City of San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer Protection Program utilizes land and conservation easement acquisitions to protect the quality and quantity of Edwards Aquifer recharge. Overall, the analysis concludes that the program has been well adapted to the city’s...
Major Texas industrial facilities rank first nationally in illegal water pollution
About half of Texas’ major industrial facilities released illegal levels of pollution into rivers, lakes and other waterways over a 21-month period ending September 2017, according to a new report by Environment Texas and California-based think tank Frontier Group....
Pioneers Taking on “Dark Sky” Project
In Mason, the students of the Pioneers Youth Leadership program have taken on Dark Sky Preservation as a focus for sharpening their leadership skills in their community. Working with their teacher Megan Bierschwale, Hill Country Alliance (HCA) Night Sky Program...
HCA’s 12th annual photo contest has begun
The Texas Hill Country is a unique region of scenic beauty, diverse wildlife, star-filled skies, and historic towns. With a rapidly growing population and increasing development coming to the region, many of these special qualities are at risk of being lost forever....
Boy Scouts selling historic El Rancho Cima
You wouldn’t know it looking at the serene landscape now, but the 2015 Memorial Day weekend flood that devastated Wimberley also dealt a deathblow to the nearby historic Boy Scout camp, El Rancho Cima. Sweeping away entire structures along the banks of the Blanco...
Valley’s first Night Sky Friendly businesses awarded
The Wimberley Valley’s first ever Night Sky Friendly Business Awards have been presented to Byron Eckols - State Farm and to the Leaning Pear Restaurant. The awards are sponsored by the Wimberley Valley Chamber of Commerce, endorsed by the Hill Country Alliance and...
Council firestorm erupts over SAWS appointee
All three of Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s nominees to the San Antonio Water System board of trustees were approved recently by the City Council after a heated exchange over the appointment of water law expert Amy Hardberger. Councilman Greg Brockhouse grilled Hardberger, the...
Do Landowners Have Right to Protest Proposed Water Project?
An interesting legal question has arisen in Bastrop County recently that could have impacts on groundwater law and landowner rights across Texas. Background: In 2013, Recharge Water (formerly End Op) applied for a permit from the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation...
Vulcan faces fight over projects in Comal and Kendall counties
Constructing roads, homes and bridges requires rock and concrete, so it’s understandable that Vulcan Materials wants to set up shop in the fast-growing Hill Country, where rolling ranchlands are quickly being developed into new subdivisions. But Vulcan, the nation’s...
City Council to Consider Outdoor Lighting Ordinance
The Blanco City Council soon will be asked to consider a complete revision of the city’s outdoor lighting ordinance. The revision, still in draft, will address perceived deficiencies in the city’s current ordinance that has been in effect since February 2006, when it...
Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District cancels confirmation and board elections, citing funding concerns
After a month and a half of planning and securing election funding on Tuesday from Travis County Commissioner’s Court,the temporary board for the Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District unexpectedly voted in a unanimous decision Friday afternoon...
How an endangered salamander forced a Texan city to save water
When it comes to water, San Antonio may be the world’s most forward-thinking city. But it learned to conserve a precious resource the hard way – and from an unlikely teacher This weekend in San Antonio, a new park is opening in one of the poorer neighborhoods just...
Community members protest permit for proposed Vulcan Quarry
Annalisa Peace | Greater Edwards Aquifer Authority | Around 500 Comal County citizens recently attended a TCEQ meeting at the New Braunfels Civic Center to protest a permit for a new Vulcan Quarry proposed for the intersection of FM 3009 and Hwy 46. Vulcan Materials...
Dripping Springs dumping permit battle could be headed to state court
Two and a half years into a protracted battle between the city of Austin, environmental groups and the city of Dripping Springs over whether the Hays County city should be allowed to dump treated sewage into Onion Creek, a state commission will likely decide Wednesday...
Young Pioneers set their sights on protecting the night skies
Recently the High School special projects group called the Young Pioneers has added a new direction to their program to support and educate the public regarding some other stars in Mason. In addition to their rainwater catchment project, they have begun to look at...
State permit sought for second concrete plant on Texas 46 east of Boerne
A concrete batch plant proposed on Texas 46 by Vulcan Materials has sparked intense opposition, including from Kendall County, but a similar project taking shape just down the highway has garnered comparatively little attention. Corvara West LLC applied last July for...
What can Nebraska teach the American West about managing water? A lot.
Nebraska is one of the top producers of corn, soybeans and hogs in the country. With 91 percent of the state's total land area dedicated to agricultural production, a lot of water is needed to support all of Nebraska's farms and ranches. Fortunately, the state sits...
Cape Town Pushes Back ‘Day Zero’ as Residents Conserve Water
Cape Town residents have drastically lowered their water use, allowing their drought-plagued city to push back the dreaded “Day Zero,” when the system is expected to run dry, by more than 10 weeks. Just three weeks ago, officials were predicting that Cape Town would...
Director’s Report – February 2018
February is the month of love! Here at the Hill Country Alliance, one of the things we love most is the wide-open lands of the Hill Country. Rolling hills, deep canyons, wooded grottos, and wide river basins are just a few of the things that define our special region....
Commissioners debate the creation and funding of a groundwater conservation district in southwest Travis County
Commissioners recently debated over whether to hold an election to create and fund a conservation district that would regulate, protect and conserve the groundwater supply derived from the Trinity Aquifer, one of nine major aquifers in the state. In January 2017, the...
Emerald Crown Trail: Network of county trails closer to fruition
The San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance (SMGA), in partnership with San Marcos, Kyle, Buda and other park development agencies, is looking for a way to connect the three biggest cities in Hays County with a trail. The Emerald Crown Trail is a proposed transportation trail...
Bandera’s outdoor lighting gets refocused
The Bandera City Council last week endorsed the Dark Skies movement that has swept the Hill Country by modifying its outdoor lighting regulations to get outdoor lights focused downward rather than allowing rays to stray into the night sky. The new outdoor lighting...
Groundwater conservation district up and running
With no funding, no staff and a board of temporary directors, the Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District is up and running. The body was created with the intent of monitoring and protecting the area’s supply of groundwater, but it must receive...
As World Eyes Cape Town Water Crisis, Texas Study Explores New Options
It's a resource so precious that human life can't be sustained without it, yet so common most of us take it for granted. But water is becoming scarce, a growing problem stemming from wasteful usage and exacerbated by climate change. Cape Town, South Africa, is bracing...
Texas Water Challenges film series premiers
The Texas Water Roundtable has premiered the short film series, Texas Water Challenges. Five ten-minute films on contemporary water issues impacting Texas - water pricing and economics, new water, surface/groundwater coordination, water education, and Texas water...