The Rise, Fall, and Repair of the Texas Hill Country
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- How Permaculturists are molding the Hill Country to turn it into a lush paradise.
Alexander Von Humboldt, a name you will hear me quote often, said in 1799:
‘By felling the trees which cover the tops and sides of mountains, men in all climates seem to bring upon future generations two calamities at once; want of fuel and a scarcity of water.’
In 1799, Texas was still a fledgling, remote, and mostly untamed expanse under the implied rule of the Spanish. Meanwhile, deep in the other Spanish claims in South Americas, Humboldt was starting a new wave of science that would soon become known as ecology.
He observed that overgrazing and unchecked farming destroyed water tables and made the land desolate and dead. He began to legitimize and lay the groundwork for the ideas that humans had a direct and noticeable impact on the land around them for better, or for worse.
Fast forward 225 years to modern day Texas and we find a Hill Country that is sick. Despite its status and fame as a crown jewel of the modern Texas geographical tapestry, its once famous water features run dry. Its formerly carpeted rolling limestone savannahs sit ravaged by decades of thoughtless grazing and abuse. The blight and pox of unchecked and unlimited development has slowly crept over the land like an invasive ivy swallowing whatever is near
Organizations like Symbiosis TX are on the frontlines of this battle.
The Symbiosis team invited me out to one of their larger properties, roughly 200 acres, to show me around and share the extensive and expansive work they are doing to repair and heal overgrazed and neglected land.
Learn more about Symbiosis Texas here:
www.symbiosistx.com
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I live in Central Texas, in the suburbs. Every day, for years, I pass through this absolutely lovely parcel of undeveloped land that stretches about 4 miles. Surrounded by gorgeous, massive live oaks. Cacti blooming with flowers and prickly bears, bordered by abundant wildflowers in spring, peppered by yucca. In the sunset it's particularly serene; the prairie grasses glow golden, the tree trunks turn black, the crown of the trees a deep emerald, all framed by our stunning skies of lavender and pink hues. The cicadas and birds sing. No amount of therapy, no purchase, can touch the feeling of contentment and peace this place instills in me.
A few months ago it was sold to a developer. In 2 days, they razed half of it to the ground, sparing nothing in the name of saving money. Everything is gone, in its place imported dirt piled high like keloids on a scar.
The Hill Country is a very beautiful place. It's not flashy or majestic like Sedona, Yosemite, or the Redwood forests.
But it's beautiful all the same. Subdued, subtle, and absolutely brimming with life.
That made my blood boil a bit
It's so sad to see the development companies seemingly purely incentivized by profit bulldoze whole sites and put up houses with giant lawns. We're actively working on providing an alternative to this model.
I started fly fishing in the hill country..I see this give and take with the land. I will say that standing in the water with nobody around at peace...its kind of unreal. It's a beautiful place!
@@profpigeon5441 I'm sure it is! Ever since living here I've wanted to experience exactly that but sadly all of the state parks are always busy and I don't have any land of my own to visit. Everywhere I've tried going you can still see and hear the traffic, parking lot, etc.
You're very lucky. Be sure to enjoy every moment.
I live in Texas, and I do permaculture gardening. I'm glad to see that there is work being done in the Texas hill country.
My mother was an amateur botanist/gardener in the Hill Country. For their retirement my parents bought a 250 acre ranch outside Kerrville. One of the first things they did was to have all the junipers cleared off the property. The property has spring fed creeks on it. After the clearing, the springs increased their flows by 300-400%. A mature juniper uses something like 30-40 gallons of water a day, and they cleared thousands. There are three ponds on the property, two of them downstream of the springhead creek, and one upstream on a bigger tributary that comes in from the neighbors property that has never cleared his. The two downstream ponds are always full. The upstream can run dry sometimes in drought years.
And, 30 years on, the property is now full of native grasses (big and little bluestem,, and native plants she cultivated, like madrones, mexican buckeye, wild flowers, etc.
If the state encouraged clearing junipers, it would do wonders for the Edwards Aquifer
@@franciscodanconia4324 Are the junipers invasive or are they a native species that grew out of balance due to human activity?
@@CattyMcMeow They are native, but mostly grew in draws. The overgrazing starting with the Spanish decimated the native grasses,giving the junipers purchase to spread. A lot of the native grasses like big bluestem are tall ( up to 9 ft tall with 6+ foot deep root systems). so it choked out saplings.
My parents basically cut their land back to what it would have been pre-Spain. They left some junipers around the creeks.
@@CattyMcMeow yes! Nuance is the key here.
@@franciscodanconia4324 this is such a great topic. I highly recommend reading the book Cedar: Wanted Dead and Alive by Elizabeth McGreevy for a deep dive on the topic. I've seen some pretty horrible results when people bulldoze and burn all of the Ashe Junipers and then all of the topsoil gets washed away and the land becomes a moonscape. I'm not refuting the results that your parents achieved and I'm super happy to hear about them being able to balance the water cycle for themselves. I just think it depends on a lot of factors and nuanced specifics whether this approach works or not. So much depends on the condition of the land your working with, the ongoing land management practices and the follow up work that is done after clearing.
@@symbiosistx they didn’t just bulldoze the junipers. Their property is mostly hills with a valley in the middle where the spring fed creek was. Everything was hand cut for fence posts and the remainder burned.
However my mother was an avid amateur botanist/gardener. She actually ended up running a native plant nursery on the ranch after retiring. So we replanted a lot of natives (madrone, buckeye, bald cypress along the ponds, and various flowering plants and bushes and native grasses).
And the ground was already a moonscape underneath the junipers. They were extremely dense so there was little to no grass and undergrowth, so most topsoil was washed off the hills decades or centuries ago. The tops of the hills were basically bare limestone.
I would agree that if you’re doing this on more level pasture ground you’d need to do work like these guys do with swales and such to preserve any existing top soil.
Dylan, this is so great my man. You're first drone shot of homes is literally right down the street from me, so we must live right next to each other. Thank you so much fo making these super cool and imformative videos of my home area.
This is one of the highest quality agro-forestry videos I've ever watched and I've watched A TON of agro-forestry videos. Honestly I'm just in awe after watching this. I feel so inspired right now 😂😂😂
Thank you!
this video is absurdly high quality for only having 368 subs, youtube algorithm, what are you doing?
Haha thank you!
Its a pretty new channel and we only have 4 *real* videos out including this one so I don't think we are super valuable in UA-cam's eyes... yet!
Hopefully that changes soon though!
RIGHT?!?
Absolutely beautiful and inspiring video. I hope to have a slice of Hill Country one day, so seeing what people can do to be true stewards of the land is wonderful. We don't truly own land, we just are taking care of it for the next generation.
Another well presented video Dylan. I respect the fact that you are willing to research topics that most would not. As the son of a 9th generation ranch family here in North Texas I feel qualified to speak on this subject. The Texas Hill County unlike here in the Prairie region of our great state, is not at all suited for grazing any live stock. We still have top soil here that measures in the feet. Part of the reason most ranches were in the hundreds of acres was do to the need for rotating live stock and crops. In the 70's my father told me that the state government giving tax breaks for having live stock on your property would lead to over grazing and erosion of land where it was not suited to graze any live stock. If he knew it and had never finished tenth grade but could manage and work a Ranch that was over a section in size. You would have to think that those in government knew it was well. That aside, it is heart warming to see that there are people that are not only protecting the land but are also helping it rebuild its self. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next video.
Thanks for your kind words as always!
The Symbiosis team will be the first to tell you that every piece of land requires different treatment and assistance! Overgrazing is probably the most common issue they run into in their part of the hill country (Pedernales river basin) as often people would buy ranches, place cattle on said land, and never really move that cattle around for various reasons. On the eastern fringes of the hill country theres a lot less 'commercial' usage of the acreage which I think exacerbates these issues.
All that being said, I unfortunately can't fit every case and situation into a video otherwise id be hours long 😮💨
My hope with this short film (and some coming films in loose connection) is to show the average person that you CAN have a positive impact on the rivers and water conservation and that there are a multitude of solutions to some of the challenges central Texas faces going forward. We just need to be informed and knowledgeable of those things and make sure that ourselves and our community are aware as well.
Everyone should have a vested interest in water conservation and land regeneration here, not just because we need it to survive, but also it makes a nicer, more beautiful place for ourselves, our children, and our grand children to enjoy!
Thank you for your input! I've learned so much from people like yourself and your father.
This is a phenomenal video. Glad to see the Symbiosis team starting to get some recognition for what they're doing.
I applied to work at Symbiosis almost a year ago. I was about to move to Austin to join their team, but school and life had other plans. One thing I recognized from talking to them was that I want to devote my life to land regeneration. In July of 2025 I will be starting a masters program in Landscape Architecture. Once I graduate I am going to become a licensed landscape architect, but I am going to focus my efforts in the realm of permaculture and regeneration.
It is truly inspiring to see the level of work Symbiosis is doing in Texas, and who knows, maybe after I'm finished with school I might end up down in Austin working with them after all is said and done.
LFG Joel!
I truly love seeing this. The Texas Hill Country has been my home most my life, but it's been my family's home since the mid 1800s. It makes me happy to see you protecting and improving it.
The Symbiosis guys are amazing humans doing amazing work!
Thank you for this!! I grew up in and around Fredericksburg, San Antonio, and Kerrville. Some of the most breathtakingly beautiful land I have ever been blessed to witness.
There doesn't need to be more government. There needs to be more focus on local governments.
What works in east tx or north tx doesnt work here. The state continues to allow development of extremely sensitive areas. And if water isnt sufficient they will now just make a municipal utility district and pump water from one county to another.
Now their are a few counties smart enough to have a water conservation in place but the state doesnt give these conservation groups any true authority to knock it off. Seeing local rivers and swimming holes being pumped dry to fill pools then water grass. Only to then go to treated wastewater plants and pump the affluent right back into streams. More recently jacobs well.
Think locally, Act locally
"But me needs a giant green lawn in a drought in August.
Even as the entire ecosystem collapses around me and my green lawn, I shall not be stopped!"
Some of these people don't even think the Earth will keep spinning once they're dead.
Perhaps we need re-education camps😂
So interesting! I have been spreading old straw from some bales I used to stop my horse barn from flooding, around on top of the silty slippery bare spots. I was doing it to create some grip so my horses didn’t wipe out. The by product is that grasses began sprouting under it. It breaks down and I layer the manure and uneaten Timothy hay. I think of my horses as an extension of my garden and hope I am putting back something good by layer composting on my property. Thanks for this informative video! Looking forward to more!
Great video packed with facts and information. We built a house 14 years ago on the upper Guadalupe River. We attended a seminar in Boerne about rain water caused systems. We included a system in the construction. Our well works, but we depend on the rain water for our home use. We only cleared the trees necessary to build our house. We planted native grasses and native plants. We’ve no lawn. Our neighbor gets on her riding mower regularly mowing dirt. I gave her seeds from native side oats grama. Thanks
A tag on my previous comment:
I was at Cyprus Ceek yesterday. Blue hole. I wondered what it was like in the days of the Comanche and how we could get back to that.
Your post offers some answers.
Wimberley is super sick...we need water BAD!!
I truly believe we can return to the original glory of the Texas Hill Country over the next 100 years if we all work together and stay focused on implementing the solutions at scale!
@symbiosistx Thank you for the application of science and common sense. I'm 70 yrs old now, so I won't see it. But all of my children participate
in earth friendly endeavors. There is a chance for their children. I'm happy for that.
I think this is our actual functional purpose as a species on this and any planet. As in our living part in the ecosystem. Eating, sleeping, excreting are the only requirements to stay alive. Everything else is just entertainment, except this. Land restoration and conservation is what we do as a species that increases the quality of life for the planet that gives us food. Not to say entertainment is bad. It adds to the quality of life, but it has to be on a solid foundation of earth and water.
This is great! Thank you. There is so much here I'll need to listen again.
Thank you, as always!
Yes, its A LOT of information (I cut another 10-15 minutes of information out of the final edit, too) but its all very valuable and insightful. The Symbiosis crew are a talented bunch and they know their stuff.
They are out there everyday and get to see the perpetual cause and effect of practically everything that happens in the hill country.
@@DylanBures I love your work. I've been studying permaculture and soil science for a while now and am in San Antonio. Are you open to new team members? I checked the website and didn't see any links to careers, but reversing desertification is the life project I want to be a part of. I wanted to buy hundreds of acres in the desert, but it would be way faster and more impactful to work with current landowners, so I could just focus on putting in these long term systems. I have a very broad work background, also including military, mechanical, PR and marketing, even sales. I'd love to help both the sales team and the construction crew when projects are being done.
@@trinsit Hey there! I am not actually directly affiliated with the permaculture projects and the team featured (Adam and Michael).
I am just an independent filmmaker who loves what they do and wanted to highlight and bring more awareness to that work!
If you haven't already, I would reach out to the Symbiosis team. I have their website link in the bio!
Best of luck!
Terrific and encouraging video!! Please share more videos focusing on ecology conservation and preservation of Texas! With the continuing expansion of our population, we need a lot of education about how to restore the land.
I'm geeking out on this. Thanks for the video!
Thank you for watching and supporting! Glad you are enjoying it :)
Thank you I'm from Colo and starting to learn central Texas ecosystems
Great video. I am a big fan of voluntary restorative and regenerative land management practices. As the practices demonstrate their value I believe they will become the mainstream of land management practices.
If I could offer one bit of constructive criticism of the scripting of the video(which is shot beautifully and excellent use of bgm at a reasonable volume), it would be to caution you against the idea that we (or any other prior culture) truly knew better.
Thank you for the good work y'all are doing.
You all need to introduce bobwhite quail. They controlled overpopulation of grasshoppers that overeat some plants.
Love it! I've heard that fire ants are the main reason for quail decline but that is probably an oversimplification... We need healthy ecosystems to support the wildlife that once flourished here and the water cycle is the foundation for those ecosystems.
I could watch this stuff all day, thanks y’all!
Thank you so much for watching! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you, great video! Farmers and permaculture land stewards need a voice, too.
Amazing projectttt!
Great work! I'm trying alot of this stuff in suburbia. VERY fulfilling so far! Keep it up!
Love this video. These stories and principles are needed to move us forward
Great video. I’m buying a property in Garden Ridge with 5 and would love to establish rain barrels and gardens.
Best of luck! Thanks for watching!
Fantastic work guys from us at Dirt Candy Farm!
Dude this film is insane. Killer work as usual
i am subscribed to your channel. Keep communication lines open with the community and they will support your efforts.
Thank you for the sub!
I do my best to keep connected with everyone here, never hesitate to ask or request for certain topics or ideas!
Awesome video, thanks for yalls work.
Thanks for watching!
Awesome video. The symbiosis guy is a wealth of knowledge. Great presenter
Couldn't agree more! The Symbiosis team are so knowledgeable and do amazing work!
Most inspirational video ever
Thank you!
So cool to see something to make me optimistic about the hill country
Great video! Very inspirational to my own central Texas permaculture project.
Thanks!
I hope this continues to inspire you to make a difference :)
Our ecosystems thank you!
Incredible video. Thanks Dylan
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it 😀
Loved this video so much!
Really amazing video!
An acquaintance has just liquidated his assets and is selling out of the property for a riverside campground in South Texas since the riverbed is dry. No one is interested in coming if there is no water. 😢
This is rad. Good work fellas!
Thank you!
AMAZING VIDEO!
Glad you enjoyed it
great video!!
Thank you!!
Absolutely stellar.
Thank you!
32:21 Good ideas don't require force. Gov't= force.
And using force (gov't) turns good ideas into bad ones.
I like your optimism, but we're working against the forces of capitalism. Private land owners need incentives to improve their land, very few will spend their own money on it.
You need to study up on how Kansas manages its Flint Hills. And severely curtail the overabundant cedar/juniper. It's native to Texas but has become so invasive, Texas lists it as a noxious weed.
Fascinating project on the soil health initiative. I think this is a bigger issue than climate change or even microplastic pollution. Great video. Subscribed
Thank you!
I think soil conservation and the cascading issues that come with it are often unknown to the average person but we all have a vested interest into these topics whether we realize it or not. Hopefully this film can bring just a little more awareness to the issue as well as awesome groups like Symbiosis who are out there everyday doing their part to make things better!
It's all connected but our water cycles need to be a top priority and the good news is we can all help with this one in meaningful ways.
We're fucked...i dont think the Hill Country is repairable with how many people are coming an the lack of water
I understand why you feel this way! I hope you can find your way to a solutions oriented mindset in time. It IS possible to create water abundance in Central Texas, its just going to be a TON of work but we're here for it =)
This is brilliant, Great work fellas and God bless Texas.
Thank you so much!
Nice video. It's good to hear the echoes of Regrarians, PA Yoemans and even Brad Lancaster in the plan. We're in central TX and hoping to get a small ranch to start regenerating, maybe this winter.
Ceder is vilified all over Hill Country. What's the positive aspect of it?
The Symbiosis guys may chime in here with other but this is actually my next video topic. What is the cedar tree, what's its function and history, and why is it so controversial!
@@DylanBures I'll watch for the video. Thank you.
Just leaving one thing out. Unsustainable human habitation cannot be mitigated, regardless of the number of bandaids they apply to the wounds they create by existing.
Another banger
Thank you!
I knew we had to follow up the San Gabriel video with an even bigger project so we just went for it. I've got some more awesome stuff in the pipeline!
Man, there used to be no wineries in the hill country.
Are these native mulberries? Where can i find some?
I can't help but think of this Bible verse when I see this video. Perhaps it's a return to the beginning where "man" is responsible, is a steward to all. Which would be a good thing:
Genesis 1:26-28 (NRSV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Interesting viewpoint. The now occurring Excursion will have its effects regardless of any and all concerns being verbalised nowadays. It won't matter.
No offense intended, but it seems to me that until the unchecked demand for development in the Hill Country starts to slow down, there will be little chance of any significant repair. As a lifelong resident of multiple different communities in and around Texas, it appears to me that the entire state is becoming a victim of its own economic success. For the past 50 years, communities up and down the interstates, especially I-35, but also I-45, I-10, etc., have literally exploded with development. Hill Country, towns like Gruene, Fredericksburg, Bee Cave, Jonestown, Wimberly... the list goes on, have gone from sleepy little towns surrounded by ranches/farms that hadn't seen significant change in the previous century, to now seeing huge housing developments and large scale roadway infrastructure projects. And many of those recent "immigrants" have enough wealth to not only afford a huge primary house, but also deeper vacation ranches deeper in the Hill Country. I dont see this changing unless something dramatic were to happen to reverse the trend.
What we need is an alternative to the unsustainable, destructive development that is prevalent. Regenerative Development may be a total oxymoron right now but we hope to provide an alternative in the near future.
Very informative video. Pardon my ignorance but what kind of degree do you need to do what you’re doing?
No one disagrees with this much? I never heard the word evaporation mentioned when the thesis was initially introduced. If you're going to introduce a number and state it's cause, we deserve to hear the numbers you arrived at that number with. Like, how much do those cows drink?
Landscape Dreamers, Landscape Engineers.
My biggest concern about Texas Hill Country, and really Texas land in general, is how much of it is privately owned. It's a lot harder to generate public interest in voting in the people needed to do good things with Texas land when they will never be able to enjoy any of that land. You mention the sprawling development, and that is going to continue because capitalists are going to capitalism and make as much money off their privately owned land as possible. We have to rely on the generosity of billionaires like Jack and Cammy Garey to give us wonderful parks like Garey Park.
Also, the developers have infinite check books to pay for lobbyists actively working against environmentalism.
I agree for the most part!
Despite being the largest of the main 48, Texas has one of the lowest amounts of public vs private land. There's numerous reasons for this ,primarily because of how we formed both as a country and then as a state, and this a topic I have wanted to make a video on, I just haven't had the time yet as its a very deep topic.
That being said, the Symbiosis team work on a lot of private land, such as the property featured in this video. I'm sure they may hop in here and chime in with their expertise (they know a lot more than me!) but in my opinion, its just as important that private land owners, no matter the size, make sure they're doing their part to improve the ecosystem and make smart decisions in regards to water conservation and biodiversity friendly landscaping.
Regardless of your political affiliations, we all can agree that creating more and more public land for everyone's enjoyment and the protection of native ecosystems is a monumental and difficult but VERY important task. However, in the meantime, there are smaller scale things that we can all do on a micro level that have a huge impact when done by a lot of people!
@@DylanBures We don't all want more public land. 'Public' is a euphemism for government controlled and they have lost our confidence. Maybe limit the amount that can be owned by a single entity and offer info and help to land owners.
Lfggg biodiversity
LFGGG!
Where in the hill country? I did not hear a town a county. So what area of the hill country are you speaking about?
This particular property is on the Pedernales river just upstream from where it hits the Colorado.
That being said the Symbiosis team operates in large swathes of the Hill Country between Austin and San Antonio.
Thanks for spreading the good word Dylan! Beautifully done, I didn’t know I could be anymore proud to work for Symbiosis 🥲 hope to meet you one of these days ! Cheers! 🤙