
The mission of the Hill Country Alliance is to bring together a diverse coalition of partners to preserve the open spaces, starry night skies, clean and abundant waters, and unique character of the Texas Hill Country.
Our Work
Land
The Texas Hill Country region covers over 11 million acres in 17 counties of mostly privately held land.
Water
Thirteen Texas rivers begin in the Hill Country and provide water for millions of downstream neighbors.
Night Sky
The Hill Country sits on the edge of night and as development pushes westward, we are losing our view of the night sky.
Community
90% of Hill Country lands are in unincorporated areas where there is little authority to plan for growth.
Latest News

Van Gogh’s Starry Night reimagined as Amsterdam Light Festival installation
Serbian artists Ivana Jelić and Pavle Petrović have reimagined Van Gogh's famous painting The Starry Night as an LED installation over the canals of Amsterdam, to highlight the issue of light pollution in urban areas. A series of 1,400 acrylic rods illuminated by...

$250 million residential, golf course project planned for Driftwood
Amid continued growth in the Texas Hill Country, construction is poised to start on a $250 million luxury residential community and private club that would bring more than 300 houses, a golf course and other development to 800 acres near the popular Salt Lick BBQ...

Research underway to help track pollutants in the Edwards aquifer
Jessica Quintanilla, a hydrologist for the Edwards Aquifer Authority, sloshes back onto shore in her black waterproof boots from the middle of this creek just off Scenic Loop Road, south of Grey Forest. “Next, we have to set up the peristaltic pump,” she said, as she...

Barton Springs Pool to reopen after drilling clouds water
Barton Springs Pool will reopen Saturday. The City of Austin closed the pool Wednesday due to cloudy water. They now know that cloudiness was caused by drilling. City officials say sediment was discharging into the pool due to a well being drilled in the Barton...

America’s holiday lights can be seen from space
Forget going out to view your neighborhood's Christmas lights this year: You can do it the 21st-century way, bathed in the pallid glow of a monitor. That's because NASA has just released a wonderful bunch of satellite images of American cities, gleaming like nebulae...

Worries grow after quarry cited for discharge violations
Violations stemming from two separate discharges of sedimentary debris into Onion Creek in 2016 and 2017 led to citations for the Hays Quarry Rock Crushing Plant, according to a Barton Publications investigation. The investigation came after video and photo evidence...

San Antonio getting first sanctioned outdoor rock climbing area in 2020
Medicine Wall, a roughly 80-foot limestone bluff in northern San Antonio, will become the city’s first officially sanctioned outdoor rock climbing area when access to the site opens in 2020. After roughly two years of negotiations with landowners and developers, the...










