Posted by Ryan Ament | Oct 25, 2021 | News, Planning and Development, Regional Planning, Water Conservation, Water Planning, Water Quality, Water Resources
It’s a trend in Texas’ fastest-growing county: growing pains. The population of Dripping Springs, a bedroom community west of Austin in Hays County, boomed over 175 percent in the last six years to nearly 7,500 people, census figures show. Now it needs to upgrade...
Posted by Ryan Ament | Oct 20, 2021 | Land Conservation and Stewardship, Legislature and Regulation, News, Water Conservation, Water Quality, Water Resources, Wildlife
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed placing six Texas freshwater mussels on the endangered species list and designating nearly 2,000 miles of Texas rivers as critical habitat for them. The Guadalupe River Basin — one of four river basins highlighted by the...
Posted by Ryan Ament | Oct 13, 2021 | Aggregate Production Operations, Community, Equity in the Outdoors, Land Conservation and Stewardship, Land Stewardship, Native Landscapes, News, Water Conservation, Water Planning, Water Quality, Water Resources
Growing up in the Texas Hill Country, Mark Friesenhahn often would run barefoot through the countryside with his younger brother — but only if their father, “a 150-pound, mean little banty rooster German, full of the culture and work ethic,” hadn’t assigned them a...
Posted by Ryan Ament | Oct 13, 2021 | Groundwater Resources, Legislature and Regulation, News, Water Conservation, Water Planning, Water Quality, Water Resources
Less than a year ago, at the end of a particularly vicious peak in the pandemic, half of Texas was without drinking water. Some neighborhoods went dry for weeks. COVID-19 in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri was a public health emergency that should never be repeated....
Posted by Ryan Ament | Oct 13, 2021 | Land Conservation and Stewardship, Native Landscapes, Public Lands, Water Catchment Areas (Watershed), Water Conservation, Water Quality, Water Resources
Flat Creek had always been translucent, flowing clear and cold through Kathleen Wilson’s 15-acre spread in the Texas Hill Country. Then something changed. The dust was the first sign. “That was really the first noticeable thing, was the whole surface was covered with...
Posted by Ryan Ament | Oct 11, 2021 | Groundwater Resources, Water Catchment Areas (Watershed), Water Conservation, Water Planning, Water Quality, Water Resources
This summer the Watershed Association teamed up with the Comal Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and visited over 60 private wells in northern Comal County and western Hays County. Many thanks to all...