Austin Business Journal - October 6, 2006
by Jenny Robertson, ABJ Staff
A nonprofit that works to conserve natural landscapes has turned its attention to the Pedernales River, a 106-mile stretch of water that winds through the Hill Country and empties into Lake Travis.
The Nature Conservancy is working on a plan to protect the river's wildlife, strengthen its watershed and weaken invasive species that have drowned out the area's native vegetation. It opened an office this summer in Johnson City.
This fall, the program's director, Dan Snodgrass, is meeting with landowners, local officials, and parks and wildlife experts to see how it can serve each group. After those meetings, the conservancy will draft an action plan for the next several years. The river's watershed covers hundreds of thousands of acres, and the program is modeled after a three-year-old project in Wimberley designed to protect the Blanco River.
Snodgrass and several landowners say the Pedernales area is still relatively undeveloped and wild, but residents in Austin and San Antonio are increasingly looking there for vacation or recreational property, Snodgrass says. And because the river empties into the Lower Colorado River -- the main source of Austin's drinking water -- conservationists worry about what the future holds for water quality.
"This country out in this river valley, as it develops, is going to have a large impact on the river system itself," Snodgrass says.
Don Casey's cattle ranch on the Pedernales has belonged to his family for at least six generations. Though he declines to say how large the property is, he does add that about a mile of the river flows through his land. And while outside buyers have approached him and others about purchasing property, he says thus far, most Pedernales-bordering landowners aren't yet interested in selling.
He points to the deluge of tubers who float down the Comal River or the proliferation of houses along the shores of Lake Travis.
"The Pedernales River is still extensively undeveloped, as it's been for eons and eons ... It's basically undisturbed, and I would think that most of us would like to keep it that way," Casey says.
Snodgrass says the conservation plan could include everything from prescribed burning, which helps keep brush in check and allows grassland to flourish, to hog traps. Improving the surrounding land will help control the flash flooding for which the Pedernales is famous. The Nature Conservancy is partnering with the River Systems Institute at Texas State University-San Marcos to study the river's flow and biology.
The conservancy has budgeted about $400,000 for the project's first year. Much of that funding comes from Mike and Pam Reese, Austinites who have worked to accumulate Pedernales land during the last decade.
The Reeses own three ranches encompassing more than 4,000 acres and spanning about 4.5 miles of the river.
Aside from wanting to protect water quality and the open land of the Pedernales, Pam Reese says conservation makes economic sense, as well, because a beautiful, clean river bodes well for tourism.
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