It never gets dark anymore. Not REALLY dark, anyway. Not like it used to. Light pollution is not only making it more difficult to see the night sky, but it's also affecting our health. For the past century and a half, since the dawn of electric light, we’ve been losing our connection to the night. We need artificial light for modern society, of course. The problem is, we need darkness for our health, and for the health of wildlife and…
by Richard Bigelow, New Braunfels ETJ Resident Letter to the Editor of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung July 14, 2019 Citizens of New Braunfels and Comal County, help save our area’s natural beauty! I began looking for a place to move in 2007 and the beauty, parks, open spaces, and friendliness of Comal County and New Braunfels put this area at the top of the list. At the time, there were about 52,000 people in New Braunfels and 106,000 in Comal…
By David Baker, Executive Director of the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association Op-ed for the San Antonio Express-News July 15, 2019 It’s more than ironic that Allen Fore, Kinder Morgan’s vice president of public affairs, began a recent op-ed (“Pipeline safest way to move gas,” Friday, July 5) about the Permian Highway Pipeline with a reference to fake news. Given the fact that Kinder Morgan is less than forthcoming with the public about the specifics of the Permian Highway Pipeline, it’s…
From Texas Standard: Wimberley Independent School District in Central Texas is moving forward with the construction of a new environmentally friendly school. The project focuses on the conservation of water. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday, most of Texas is completely drought-free. That's a stark change from where the state was this time last year, let alone the extreme drought conditions of years past. But even as drought pressure has abated, water remains both a valuable and…
If you have a favorite brewery, you also have a favorite watershed. A new effort from conservation groups and local breweries aims to connect those two ideas, that good craft beer must start with good, clean water. “That water flows through, and it picks up minerals and nutrients, but it can also pick up pollutants. All of these things affect the quality of downstream beer,” said Thomas Waymouth, director of the new Texas Brewshed Alliance. Waymouth and his wife brought…
As the total solar eclipse crosses South America on Tuesday, it won’t just be people oohing and ahhing as the sun is blotted out. Other living things will have their own responses, too — some of which we are just beginning to understand. As some scientists used the Great American Eclipse in August 2017 to watch how bees and birds dealt with sudden midday darkness, researchers in Wyoming investigated big sagebrush, a shaggy, aromatic desert shrub that grows throughout the…
The city of New Braunfels and the National Park Service are hosting the final community meeting associated with revisions to the Dry Comal Creek Greenway Master Plan from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, July 10 at Columbus Club, 111 Landa Street in New Braunfels. All property owners on or near the Dry Comal Creek are encouraged to attend the session, which will feature presentations by the Texas Hill Country Alliance and San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance on available land conservation tools in Texas…
After hearing from outside consultants, the San Antonio Water System’s board approved a raise and $100,000 bonus for the water and sewer utility’s top official. At its July meeting on Tuesday, the SAWS board of trustees approved a 5 percent pay increase for President and CEO Robert Puente. The increase takes Puente’s annual salary from $468,194 to $496,520, effective July 3. For his work in 2018, the board also recommended a $100,000 performance bonus for Puente, a former state representative…
The hotly-contested Trans-Pecos Pipeline went into service in West Texas one year ago this month, amid protest from local opponents over private property disputes and environmental impacts. The aim of the Mexican-backed project was to export natural gas from the Permian Basin across the border. But one year in, Mexico is still not using any of the gas. And residents of the Big Bend have been feeling some of the pipeline’s impacts lately. Mae Ridgway lives in a pink adobe…
Every March, birders spill into the canyonlands outside of Austin, Texas, to search for Golden-cheeked Warblers. The tiny black-and-white songbird, with vibrant yellow splashed across its face, is the state’s sole endemic bird, and a federally protected species with an estimated population of 27,000. In early spring the birds migrate up from Central America to nest in the Hill Country, a region of limestone hills, caves, clear creeks, and swimming holes in Central Texas. There they construct deep cup nests, weaving strands of ash-juniper…