WVWA’s response to Judge Pittman’s ruling on the PHP

February 25, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association has been a part of the fight against the Permian Highway Pipeline since we first heard about the project in October of 2018 (www.SaveTheHillCountry.org). We have been working to rally our communities across the Hill Country and disseminate scientific reports and concerns about the many threats that the Permian Highway Pipeline will pose to our ecologically sensitive region. WVWA is disappointed by Judge Pitman’s ruling to deny the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and does not…

Hill Country pipeline opponents dealt setback

February 25, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

Opponents of a controversial natural gas pipeline through the picturesque Texas Hill Country lost a legal battle but vow to continue their fight against Houston pipeline operator Kinder Morgan. A U.S. district court judge in Austin on Friday rejected a request for a temporary restraining order that would have halted the $2 billion natural gas Permian Highway Pipeline. The pipeline is being built through the habitat of the golden-cheeked warbler, an endangered songbird, and over parts of the Edwards Aquifer,…

Swine country: How feral pigs took over the U.S.

February 18, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

For millions of years, as pigs snorted and snuffed their way across the planet, evolving and learning to dodge gray wolves and tigers and coyotes and alligators, they were almost assuredly safe from any potential threats from the sky. Then they arrived in Texas, where in addition to the rare predatory large mammal, a wild pig today might be forced to evade, for example, a cascade of 5.56-caliber bullets fired from a hundred-odd feet above by an AR‑15 semiautomatic rifle…

Resilience along a river

February 12, 2020
Economics of Sound Planning

It’s a crisp November after-noon and landowner Suzanne Davis is admiring native bald cypress seedlings while cutting back invasive Brazilian verbena along her stretch of the Blanco River. Davis and her husband, Edward, live in Wimberley, where, four years ago, the Blanco River rose more than 20 feet in an hour — over 40 feet at its peak — causing extensive devastation to property and life. “The destruction all around was incomprehensible,” she said. While the couple had to start…

Taking on wildlife disease

February 12, 2020
News

The Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program, a collaboration between the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, will leverage Penn Vet’s expertise to address wildlife health problems. When wildlife biologist Matthew Schnupp began his career, the emphasis was on conserving habitat. “The paradigm of wildlife management for the last 20 years has been habitat management,” he says, aiming to conserve the land and ecosystems animals require to thrive. And while protecting habitat in the face of an expanding human…

Texas Can’t Quit the Aoudad

February 12, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

Allen Smith decided long ago what to do about the aoudads that wander onto his family’s land. “The first four I saw, I shot,” he tells me. From 5,000 feet up, in Smith’s Cessna Skymaster, the choices other Texans have made for their land roll out below—the network of oil and gas wells, the reflective surfaces of solar farms, the sleepaway camps, rodeo arenas, and dried-up, gutter-like creek beds. Smith’s family acreage, once dedicated to cattle, is now a refuge…

NRI publishes Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands 1997-2017

February 12, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

The new Texas Land Trends report Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands 1997–2017, produced by NRI, has now been published. Land-trends reports have informed private and public landowners and decision-makers for more than two decades. “With this report, we are able to examine new patterns and identify trends following the release of the Census of Agriculture datasets by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service,” said Roel Lopez, Ph.D., director of the NRI. This most recent…

Fireflies have a mating problem: The lights are always on

February 5, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

These are tough times for fireflies. Like a lot of other insects, they face increasing threats from habitat loss, pesticides and pollution. But they also have a problem that’s unique to luminous bugs: It’s getting harder for them to reproduce because light pollution is outshining their mating signals. Fireflies, it turns out, use their special glowing powers in courtship: Males light up to signal availability and females respond with patterned flashes to show that they’re in the mood. But bright…

TPW Commission Approves Rule Changes to Assist with Growth of Managed Lands Deer Program

February 4, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has approved changes to the Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP), which provides landowners and land managers with additional flexibility to manage deer populations, improve habitats, and provide greater hunting opportunities under the guidance of department biologists. The approved changes include clarifying existing program provisions and establishing fees for participation in the growing program. “In the last 20 years the MLDP has grown from 800 tracts of land on 3 million acres to more than…

Comal workshop to provide landowners with information on conservation programs that create a family land legacy

January 29, 2020
Conservation Easements

On Friday, February 21, the Comal County Conservation Alliance and partners will host a landowner workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Anhalt Dance Hall, 2390 Anhalt Road, Spring Branch, TX 78070. The one-day workshop will highlight conservation easements and how they can help provide a family land legacy, the role of land trust organizations, wildlife and open space valuation, financial tools/resources available, and a panel discussion with landowners. Many landowners are concerned about conserving those special natural…