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Conservation Insider - July 2024
Hello {{Constituent First Name}},
What a difference just a little bit of rain can make... I know we all breathed a collective sigh of relief earlier this week when the skies opened up across the Hill Country. While we always welcome the rain sadly our water woes remain and I want to encourage each of you to continue in your efforts to conserve water. In doing so you will serve as an example to your neighbors. Together with a little help from mother nature we will make it through the worst drought I have experienced in my lifetime.
This edition of the Conservation Insider is packed with lots of wonderful news including volunteer highlights, lots of opportunities to connect and engage with our work. We're also announcing our first annual fundraiser, The Keep It Country Music Jam! Our Resource Development Committee has been hard at work and this is the result. Join us as we celebrate conservation heroes in our community, listen to some incredible local music, and raise money to preserve land, water, and wildlife in Comal County. This event at Old Tavern in the Gruene will take place on October 26th 2024 and you won't want to miss it. Registration is live so get your tickets while you can!
Our work at Comal Conservation has never been more necessary and we need your support now more than ever. You can make a difference by volunteering your time, donating to the cause, speaking up in support of conservation efforts, and exploring the incredible natural areas that make living in Comal County so wonderful. Thank you for everything you do. I appreciate it.
Ryan K Spencer Executive Director
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Help us celebrate during our first annual fundraiser, The Keep It Country Music Jam! Join us as we celebrate conservation heroes in our community, listen to some incredible local music, and raise money to preserve land, water, and wildlife in Comal County. This event at Old Tavern in the Gruene will take place on October 26th, 2024, and you won't want to miss it. Registration is live so get your tickets while you can! Learn about sponsorships Here.
If you have been to any of our Community Programs, chances are that you've met Leslie. For the last several years, Leslie has dutifully prepared refreshments for our attendees. Typically in the form of cookies, water, tea and sometimes lemonade; Leslie is always working hard to make sure our crew has what it needs to function at it's best and we love her for it! When she is not serving Comal Conservation as our official Cookie Queen, she can be found volunteering at more events, and even serves as President for The Friends for the Preservation of Landa Park! She has aspirations to link Comal Conservation's arms with other organizations she is involved in, and we are excited to see her visions become tangible.
Thank you Leslie!!!!! We are so grateful for you.
- Comal Conservation Board and Staff
Looking for a way to help protect Comal County's rivers and springs?
Preserving Comal County's natural beauty and rural character is a job for the whole community. Won't you join the effort? Comal Conservation is looking for volunteers to help advance the conservation work in Comal County in some of the following areas:
Event Planning
Grant Writing
Outreach
Interested candidates should submit their contact information and interests below!
Comal Conservation's Latest Community Program in the News!
Fragmentation of Family Land and its Impacts - Herald Zeitung
The biggest single terrestrial environmental problem that Texas has is the continued fragmentation of family land, according to one of Texas’ leading conservationists, Andrew Sansom.
Texas loses rural and agricultural land faster than any other state, and it is an issue most acute in the Hill Country amid fast county growth.
Sansom spoke about the topic during a Comal Conservation community program at the McKenna Events Center Tuesday, and in a follow-up interview with the Herald-Zeitung. Sansom serves as a Research Professor of geography at Texas State University and founded The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.
He provided an explanation of what it means for land to be fragmented.
“It’s basically subdivided — in other words, when a family sells a piece of property for various reasons it’s going to break up,” Sansom said. “When they die, it’s divided among the kids or when they sell it to the developer, it’s subdivided into residential lots, and so basically what it is is the break up of family land in Texas.”
As Texas working lands change, it has many implications for rural communities and economies, as well as nationally in terms of food security, conservation of water and natural resources, Comal Conservation Executive Director Ryan Spencer said.
Comal Conservation Hosting July 9 Program - Herald Zeitung By Frank Dietz
Whenever the opportunity arises to engage with Dr. Sansom, one experiences a richly informed and experienced eye on what we face and are likely to face in our rapidly growing New Braunfels and Comal County as part of the wondrous Texas Hill Country. Bring your neighbors and friends young and old with an affectionate tie to the natural gifts right here at home.
While I worked ecumenically out of Austin in the 1980’s and early ’90’s, I often had strategy and policy chats for breakfast. South of the former Town Lake, now Lady Bird Lake, on four or five such sessions, I sat with one or two folks at what was known as the Magnolia Café. It was a popular spot and one could notice “movers and shakers” among the patrons. After a time or two, I asked one of my friends about the guy I noticed who was a frequent very engaged patron who smiled and chatted while pointing at printed copies they were examining. My friend said, “Oh, that’s Andy! He gets a lot done at the table here!”
New Braunfels Utilities Diversifies Water Sources with addition of water from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer
NBU's water supply, which is made up of 7 different supply sources, has acquired 8000 acre-feet per year of the Corrizo-Wilcox aquifer which now makes up to 16% of the water sourced at NBU.
The Nature Conservancy Reaches A Million-Acre Milestone of Land Conservation in Texas!
The Nature Conservancy in Texas has just reached a huge a milestone in land conservation for the state. They have just reached 1 million acres of preserved land, an area 3 times the size of San Antonio and larger than the entire state of Rhode Island! In a state that is over 95% privately owned, this is momentous feat so join us as we celebrate The Nature Conservancy's huge win for a sustainable Texas.
More information and registration can be found on their website.
Editorial Correction: In our June Conservation Insider, we made reference to a recent Conservation Easement which was secured in Comal County. In that article we inadvertently and incorrectly implied that the easement was a part of an original land grant received by the owner's great-great grandparents. This was not the case. In fact, that parcel was miles away from the Dischinger-Brehmer Ranch which is now in conservation. We want to apologize for any confusion that this misunderstanding has caused and would like to thank Barbara Dischinger Moore for helping us correct the narrative.
Questions regarding this editorial correction can be sent to Ryan Spencer at ryan@comalconservation.org.
Become a Conservation Champion!
The Hill Country needs you... If you believe like I do, that we need to protect these incredible resources now, then please consider becoming a Comal Conservation Champion! Simply make a recurring donation in support of our efforts to preserve land, water, and wildlife here in Comal County.
If you join our Comal Conservation Champions by making a pledge of at least 25 dollars a month for one year you will receive a Comal Conservation Bandanna, featuring all of our critters, Four unique Comal Comal Conservation Stickers, and your very own Comal Conservation Tote to take it all home in.
Comal Conservation needs you now more than ever. Please consider making a tax deductible gift today!
Thank you for being a FRIEND OF COMAL CONSERVATION!
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Comal County Conservation Alliance PO Box 2804 Canyon Lake, TX 78133
