Hill Country Conservancy is now accepting pre-applications for financing of stewardship projects through the Hill Country Headwaters Conservation Initiative

October 12, 2020
Cedar/Brush Management

The Hill Country Headwaters Conservation Initiative (HCHCI), a program of Hill Country Conservancy, the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network and 18 partner organizations, is now accepting pre-applications from landowners located within specified critical river basins, for stewardship projects aimed at enhancing soil cover, water quality, and native biodiversity. The Hill Country Headwaters Conservation Initiative is accepting pre-applications now through October 30, 2020. To be considered for financial assistance, landowners must take this first step in the application process by the…

Manager of the SA River Authority to step down, lead The Nature Conservancy in Texas

September 8, 2020
Conservation Easements

Suzanne Scott, the longtime general manager of the San Antonio River Authority, is planning to step down at the end of October to take over as the The Nature Conservancy’s state director in Texas, according to news releases. Scott worked for the river authority for more than two decades, of which 13 years she spent running the agency as general manager, according to a news release from the agency. Read more from Marina Starleaf Riker with San Antonio Express-News here.

San Antonio aquifer, trail advocates lament sales tax vote

August 27, 2020
Conservation Easements

Environmental advocates were dismayed Thursday after City Council set up a shift of sales tax funding away from the Edwards Aquifer and San Antonio’s trail network, with some saying they plan to focus on ensuring replacement funding. San Antonio City Council voted 9-2 Thursday to put a measure on the November ballot to devote a one-eight-cent sales tax to workforce development for four years before shifting to VIA Metropolitan Transit. The tax currently funds the City’s trails and aquifer protection…

Springs that form Headwaters of San Antonio River protected forever

August 3, 2020
Conservation Easements

The springs that form the headwaters of the San Antonio river will be forever protected from development, thanks to an agreement involving the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and Green Spaces Alliance. On Friday, leaders of the Headwaters Preserve at Incarnate Word told the Rivard Report they had placed the 53-acre preserve north of downtown under a conservation easement. A conservation easement is a restrictive covenant that permanently bars construction, paving over natural surfaces, mining, or drilling on…

The Hill Country Alliance is preserving our beautiful land in Central Texas

July 13, 2020
Conservation Easements

The non-profit environmental organization, The Hill Country Alliance plays a vital role in preserving the beauty of the hill country of Texas. Their mission is: “The mission of the Hill Country Alliance is to bring together an ever-expanding alliance of groups throughout a multi- county region of Central Texas with the long-term objective of preserving open spaces, water supply, water quality and the unique character of the Texas Hill Country.” Our guest on Shades of Green is Daniel Oppenheimer, Land…

Great Springs Project envisions a network of trails from Austin to San Antonio

June 29, 2020
Conservation Easements

Twenty-seven years ago, Deborah Morin watched as the hills, streams, caves, and springs of the Hill Country outside of Austin were being gobbled up by construction… Almost three decades later, Morin, a San Antonio native, is at the head of a nonprofit working to do just that, but on a much larger scale. She’s president of the board of the Great Springs Project, an initiative to preserve land and stitch together a network of hike and bike trails that will…

What’s at stake when we pave over, fragment and otherwise fail to protect Texas farmland from the disruptions of development?

June 22, 2020
Conservation Easements

Millions of acres of America’s agricultural land were developed or converted to uses that threaten farming between 2001 and 2016, according to “Farms Under Threat: The State of the States,” a new report by American Farmland Trust. The report’s Agricultural Land Protection Scorecard is the first-ever state-by-state analysis of policies that respond to the development threats to farmland and ranchland, showing that every state can, and must, do more to protect their irreplaceable agricultural resources… The report found that Texas was the most threatened state in the nation due to…

Hays County Parks & Open Space Advisory Commission call for projects

May 27, 2020
Conservation Easements

The Hays County Parks and Open Space Advisory Commission (POSAC) is now accepting project ideas for parks, open space and natural areas from cities, nonprofit organizations, homeowner associations, and other groups or individuals who see specific needs for their communities and for the county as a whole. In February 2020 the Hays County Commissioners Court recognized the need for additional public park lands and conservation spaces in Hays County and established the POSAC to provide a democratic, public process to…

SOS reaches agreement with Stratus Properties over new project, protecting land in the Barton Springs Zone

May 27, 2020
Conservation Easements

Stratus Properties (“Stratus”) owns some of the largest areas of land within the Barton Springs Zone. They own land all throughout Southwest Austin, including the site of the notorious 4,000-acre Barton Creek PUD, which was the catalyst of the SOS movement 30 years ago, when more than 800 Austin residents rallied to protect Barton Springs from overdevelopment. Oftentimes, the inherent conflict between developer profits and our mission to protect the water quality of Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer puts…

Fort Worth is moving forward to buy land despite the coronavirus budget crunch

May 13, 2020
Conservation Easements

The city expects to close this month on a $610,000 deal to buy the 53-acre Broadcast Hill property adjacent to the Tandy Hill Natural Area in east Fort Worth. It is the first step in a broad plan to buy open space ahead of urban sprawl, with the goal of preserving the Texas landscape while helping to mitigate flooding. Before the coronavirus outbreak, the city’s robust growth consumed 2,800 acres of Texas prairie a year for housing divisions, strip malls…