News
Astronomers Encourage Cities to Shield Outdoor Lighting
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way -- that iconic stream of stars coursing across the night sky -- cannot be seen by one-third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans. As the artificial glow from towns and cities increases every year, and starry nights become unfamiliar...
Chronic wasting disease found for first time in wild Texas white-tail deer
State wildlife officials are restricting the transport of live and dead white-tailed deer and requiring sampling of carcasses after the discovery of a fatal disease in a free-ranging deer this week. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on Tuesday identified chronic...
TWDB approves $1,961,821 to City Of San Marcos for flood mitigation project
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) today approved by resolution financial assistance in the amount of $1,961,821 consisting of a $1,000,000 loan and $961,821 in loan forgiveness, from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to the City of San Marcos (Hays County)....
Texas Water Symposium planned for February 23 in San Marcos: Watershed Protection Plans: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Waterways at a Community Scale
The third Texas Water Symposium of the 2016-2017 season has been set for 7pm on Thursday, February 23rd at Texas State University Student Center LBJ Teaching Theater in San Marcos, Texas. The Texas Water Symposium is free and open to the public. With the population of...
Citing water conference fee, group claims state open meeting violation
The Texas Water Development Board, a state agency that plays a key role in financing reservoirs, pipelines and conservation projects, wants anyone with an interest in water planning to attend its Water for Texas conference in Austin this week. The registration fee for...
In West Texas, abandoned well sinks land, sucks tax dollars
Land around a West Texas roadway used to be flat. Now, it’s fissured, sinking and has cost taxpayers more than a million dollars — all because of a water well that was left unplugged. The rusty pipe poking up from desert scrubland just south of Imperial would be easy...
Commentary: No One Gets Everything They Want in A Good City Bond
Leave it to former Mayor Phil Hardberger to summon a passage from the Book of Proverbs in support of the $850 million 2017 Municipal Bond and, in particular, the $13 million in public funding for the proposed $23 million Hardberger Land Bridge. We will see if voters...
Landowners, Aquifer Alliance win battle over TCEQ permit
Landowners in Comal County took a victory Tuesday in a long-running case against a state agency’s permit allowing a subdivision next door to release treated wastewater onto area land. The plaintiffs, including landowners and the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, have...
Protecting the drops we drink: Who owns Texas water?
This post from The Eagle, a Bryan-College Station paper, covers some of the fundamentals of water management and ownership in the state of Texas. As you can see, it gets complicated, fast. Even more complicated when you consider that all three types of water...
Charles Butt Invests $100 Million in New Education Leadership Institute
A group of education leaders that includes Ruth Simmons, the first African- American president of an Ivy League university, gathered in Austin Tuesday morning to announce the establishment of the Holdsworth Center for Excellence in Education Leadership. The public...
Record Breaking Attendance at Texas State Parks’ Annual First Day Hikes
This past New Year’s Day, nearly 4,000 park visitors statewide walked, biked, swam and paddled their way into 2017 as part of Texas State Parks’ annual First Day Hikes events. First Day Hikes events are a national initiative to get park visitors to start their year on...
Western Travis County PUA fined for treated wastewater spill
As a consequence for discharging millions of gallons of treated effluent water toward the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality charged the Western Travis County Public Utility Agency $8,001. The TCEQ investigation into the...
Exciting new leadership within HCA board to start 2017
The Hill Country Alliance (HCA) announced the appointment of a new member to its board of directors, Dr. Francine S. Romero. HCA also announced the appointment of Judge Garry Merritt of Real County as board president, taking over for Dr. Leo Tynan of Fredericksburg...
Hill Country workshop provides landowners with information on conservation easements
The Hill Country Alliance (HCA) is hosting a landowner workshop from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, February 10, 2017, at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area, Bass Conference Facility, 138 Kerr WMA Rd W, Hunt, TX 78024. This workshop will focus on conservation easements—a...
The stars at night… Commissioners approve night skies resolution
Jennifer Reiley | The Kerrville Daily Times | Kerr County commissioners are in support of protecting the night skies of the Hill Country from light pollution. Local Realtor Jim Wills and his wife, Kadi, came back to commissioners court Monday with a revised resolution...
Steve Nelle: What is Land Stewardship?
The subject of land stewardship has gained a great deal of positive attention in the last decade, but although the term is commonly used, it has seldom been clearly defined. When a phrase comes into such popular use, there is a danger of it becoming merely an overused...
Elected officials share their thoughts on upcoming Legislature
Jennifer Reiley | Kerrville Daily Times | A new Texas legislative session launches Tuesday, and Kerr County will have new and returning representation in the 85th Legislature. Dawn Buckingham, an opthamologist from Lakeway, is the newly elected senator representing...
Stuck Behind The Wheel: Amtrak Studying San Antonio-Austin Commuter Service
When the Lone Star Rail project fell apart last year, communities along I-35 were left looking for a new plan that would reduce travel time between San Antonio and Austin. Now, they think they’ve found one. It’s still about rail, but the vision is bigger than San...
For Millennials, Hays County Is One of the Priciest Places to Rent
You've probably heard many reports on how expensive it is to live in Austin, but a new report finds that Hays County is one of the country's least affordable rental markets for millennials. Hays County follows the trend playing out in most major U.S. markets – it’s...
Stargazing under Texas’ Dark Skies
In fall 2015, Hill Country Alliance asked the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture to conduct a study and offer recommendations to keep the stars in the Lone Star sky truly big and bright. At the time, the population of the Hill Country was 3.4...
Texas Winegrowers Fear New Herbicides Will Wipe Out Industry
As Paul Bonarrigo watched his grapevines dwindle, he was confident that heavy-duty herbicides, probably sprayed on crops by a nearby farmer, were drifting into his vineyards. For the past two years, his 44 acres in Hale County – once sprawling vineyards providing...
Director’s Notes: December 2016
Warm Wishes for the Holiday Season! As 2016 winds to a close, I have found myself both reflecting on the significant milestones that HCA achieved in the past 12 months as well as looking ahead to the promise of all that 2017 holds. Sitting in the audience at a Rural...
It’s not just Corpus Christi – Water infrastructure is a problem across Texas
Officials lifted the three-and-a-half day ban on the use of tap water in Corpus Christi on Sunday. Residents can now use the water for drinking, showering and washing clothes and dishes. The source of the contamination has been linked to a nearby asphalt plant, but...
Hill Country Land Trust Video: Reading the Land
The Hill Country Land Trust has released their fourth video in a series of videos on land management topics. Reading the Land explains the importance of knowing how to interpret the condition of your land by acquiring an intimate, knowledge of plants, soils, animals...
Arctic cold front sweeps across Texas
"When the arctic cold front blew through Austin area Saturday evening, the temperature at Camp Mabry dropped from 68 degrees at 7:00 pm to 42 degrees by 9:00 pm. That was a drop of 26 degrees in 2 hours! By midnight the temperature had dropped all the way to 34...
Opinion: San Antonio needs strong stormwater policies
How long will San Antonio residents be required to subsidize the city’s developers at the cost of our own safety, health and pocketbooks? Except for a few visionaries, our city representatives and staff continue to be appallingly shortsighted and reactionary,...
Effort to fight Arundo ramps up along Hill Country rivers
A coalition of government and nonprofit conservation groups is expanding the war on Arundo (Arundo donax), an invasive plant that threatens to take over scenic Hill Country rivers. It’s one aspect of a broader statewide effort made possible by a record $6.3 million to...
Hill Country Science Mill Bridges the Urban/Rural Divide
With the holidays upon us, many families will be staring at blank calendar days, wondering what to do with restless kids. A trip to the Hill Country Science Mill is a welcome alternative to the sugar-fueled, gift-obsessed holiday vortex. In addition to a day of family...
Black-capped vireo no longer considered endangered
In the latest turn in the divisive saga involving rare Central Texas species, the population of a songbird has recovered enough for it to move off the endangered species list, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced Wednesday. The lifting of habitat protections for...
EPA Raises Questions About Dripping Springs Wastewater
Onion Creek may yet dodge the bullet – more precisely, the treated wastewater discharge requested by the city of Dripping Springs as an alternative to the current practice of spraying the effluent on land, where it is less likely to pollute nearby creeks. The U.S....