News
HCA Director’s Notes – August 2017
How often in Texas can we say that August began on a refreshing note? Well, it’s thankfully true for the Hill Country as rain brought relief to the dry land and cracked creek beds that naturally accompanies summers in the Lone Star State. Although the temperatures are...
Neighborhood in Travis County designated a “Dark Sky Friendly Development of Distinction”
River Hills Neighborhood Association (RHNA) has been formally designated a Dark Sky Friendly Development of Distinction by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). River Hills is a small Travis County neighborhood in the foothills of the Hill Country. In...
Chronic wasting disease continues to spread
An always-fatal neurologic disease is contributing to declines in Western deer and elk herds and raising the possibility of local extinctions. Bryan Richards, chronic wasting disease project leader within the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center,...
Groundwater Ownership in Texas
Groundwater is an integral part of the land, and private landowners have a vested ownership interest in the groundwater below the surface of their land. The Texas Constitution and more than 100 years of case law support this position. Secure, protectable property...
Branch Towers and T-Mobile Curtail Plans to Build Cell Tower
Thanks to some quick community organizing and excellent volunteer leadership from residents of Vanderpool, plans to build a new cell tower on the banks of the Sabinal River have been shifted to instead utilize an existing cell tower. With the help of HCA, Vanderpool...
HCA board member Kathleen Tobin Krueger to take over Edwards Aquifer Authority board seat
Dalondo Moultrie | Herald-Zeitung | New Braunfels resident Kathleen Tobin Krueger, a former mayor pro tem, was scheduled yesterday to be appointed to a vacated seat on the Edwards Aquifer Authority board of directors. Krueger is taking over for Craig Massouh, who was...
Abbott signs bill limiting annexation powers of cities
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed into law Senate Bill 6, which requires cities in large counties to receive voter approval before annexing new areas, one of his top 20 priorities for the special legislative session. “I’m proud to sign legislation ending forced...
In South Texas, Threat of Border Wall Unites Naturalists and Politicians
Last month, Marianna Wright, the executive director of the privately owned National Butterfly Center here, discovered survey stakes on the property marking out a 150-foot-wide swath of land. Ms. Wright later encountered a work crew cutting down trees and brush along a...
Infill Development Could Make or Break San Antonio
San Antonio is changing. Just a few years ago the city saw the odd infill project here and there among the rehabs of historic homes in King William or Monte Vista. These days, infill projects are everywhere in the collar neighborhoods – the ring of historic streetcar...
Volunteers clean up South Llano River
On Friday, August 4th intrepid volunteers from the Texas Master Naturalist Program met with the Llano River Watershed Alliance, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and Hill Country Alliance to clean up a portion of the South Llano River south of Junction,...
150K gallons of wastewater spills in Llano due to flash flooding
Around 150,000 gallons of wastewater spilled into Oatman Creek, about 150 yards from the Llano River. The wastewater spilled from the city’s wastewater collection system starting around 7 a.m. Monday. At around 4 p.m. Tuesday, crews diverted the wastewater into a...
Invasive cane continues to plague land on creeks
Two years have passed since the attempt to eradicate Arundo donax began and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) continues to try to get landowners involved. Arundo, also known as giant river cane, is an invasive plant that can grow up to 30 feet tall, take...
Groundwater withdrawals may be the cause of disappearing streams in the mid-west (and here!)
Keith Gido, professor of biology, and Josh Perkin, a Kansas State University alumnus, recently published "Groundwater declines are linked to changes in Great Plains stream fish assemblages" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research maps the...
Volunteers improve creek-side habitat at Fort Mason City Park
If you have walked along the nature trail at Fort Mason City Park recently, you may have noticed something new. Something pink. Last week, volunteers from the Texas Master Naturalist Program joined staff from Fort Mason City Park and the Hill Country Alliance to...
Is Susan Combs caught in a Washington-style power play?
Former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs all but had her bags packed last week for a new top post in the U.S. Interior Department. Then, her path to Washington hit a speed bump. Combs, nominated to be an assistant secretary at the Interior Department, was up for a vote by...
Board approves proposal to use aquifer to supply hydraulic fracturing operations
A West Texas board unanimously approved a contentious project to drill into a desert aquifer near Van Horn, build a 60-mile pipeline and ship 5.4 million gallons of water a day from the Apache Mountains to the heart of the nation's most prolific oil field, the Permian...
Can the Monarch Highway Help Save a Butterfly Under Siege?
To stanch the losses and safeguard the migration’s future, in 2015 and 2016 a pollinator task force formed at President Obama’s request released reports that detail a major new strategy to rebuild the butterfly’s wintering population, mostly through aggressive habitat...
TESPA Granted Standing
The SOAH administrative law judge recently granted the Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association standing to contest Needmore Water, LLC's proposed permit before the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. Many landowner members of TESPA near...
New National Poll Shows That Hunter and Angler Support for Conservation Crosses Party Lines
“In today’s polarized political climate, conservation has become a partisan issue with decision makers, but hunters and anglers strongly support conservation policies across the board, whether they’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent,” says Whit Fosburgh,...
Boerne workshop will provide landowners with information on conservation easements
The Cibolo Conservancy Land Trust, in partnership with the Hill Country Alliance, is hosting a landowner workshop from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, August 25, 2017, at the Cibolo Nature Center Auditorium, 140 City Park Road, Boerne, TX 78006. This workshop will focus on...
Safeguards for night skies contemplated in Bandera
The beauty of the region’s nighttime skies was the featured attraction of a presentation sponsored by Bandera City Councilwoman Rebeca Gibson last week in preparation for the development of controls designed to keep light pollution from possibly taking that celestial...
CEMEX to partner in county wildlife conservation plan
Will Wright | Herald-Zeitung | Comal County Commissioners recently approved steps to formalize an agreement between the county’s Regional Habitat Conservation Plan and CEMEX Construction Materials South, which will establish wildlife protection for endangered species...
Best rivers in Texas: Llano River
Checking into our Junction motel, we asked the desk clerk about fun things to do in town. She quipped, “When you find out, let me know.”True, for a student at Texas Tech University-Junction like her, this old Edwards Plateau ranching town offers little social life....
Why Some Western Water Agencies Are Writing 100-Year Water Plans
Climate change is causing water managers to think long term about their resources. Several western agencies are planning a century in advance, but that’s not without its headaches. IN FEBRUARY OF this year, the largest water district in a state with little water...
The Most Overvalued Housing Markets In America Are In Texas
In a city with rising incomes and declining unemployment, it stands to reason that home prices would go up as well. Such is the case in San Antonio. Incomes in the Texas city grew 4.5% between the first quarters of 2016 and 2017, nearly a percentage point more than...
The Wall (of Reeds) that the Border Patrol Would Like to Tear Down
Someone wandering along the banks of the Rio Grande, on the American side, in the summer of 2009 might have been startled by a small cardboard box plummeting to the ground. Neatly sealed with blue packing tape, its paper wrapping crisp and clean, the box would have...
Collapse Feature on Cypress Creek in the Wimberley Valley Causes Water Quality Concerns in Immediate Area
Read an update from hydrologists at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment about a collapse feature that has developed along Cypress Creek in the Woodcreek Subdivision. A dye test conducted by the Meadows Center shows the extent of the connectivity between...
Volunteers Work to Protect Native Trees Along South Llano River
On Sunday, July 9th, volunteers from the Texas Master Naturalist Program joined staff from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Llano River Watershed Alliance, Hill Country Alliance, and Texas Tech University Field Station at the South Llano River State Park in...
Gregg Ranch First Corporate Supporter of Hill Country Beautification Project
The Gregg Ranch development leads the way as the first major corporate sponsor of the Gateway to the Hill Country Beautification Project. Located at US Highway 281 and Texas Highway 71, the Project will feature native Texas wildflowers on 56 acres of grassy median,...
Johnson City Library Program Teaches Residents How They Can Protect Rivers and Streams
Residents can do their part to protect local rivers and streams with simple tasks, even if they don’t live near water. That’s the message Daniel Oppenheimer, land manager of the Hill Country Alliance, will be presenting during his talk “Restoring Creekside Habitat by...