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At
Issue
Hardly a summer goes by when
Texans in some part of the
state aren't worrying about
water-we either have too much or too
little, usually the later. This year is no
exception.
The Edwards Aquifer in Central Texas
is dipping to dangerously low levels,
low enough for city officials in the
community of Sari Marcos to ration
water. Up in the Panhandle, where
water is a precious commodity in the
best of years, the shallow playa lakes are
rapidly shrinking. These playas are
valuable nesting and wintering sites for
waterfowl and upland game birds. We
will have a story on their importance in
the October issue.
But the people who live along the
Trinity River probably don't want to
hear about the water shortages faced by
most other Texans. Spring floods from
Fort Worth to WVallisville have left
both humans and wildlife homeless.
Houses were washed away, ground-
nesting birds such as quail and turkey
had to move to higher ground and start
their spring nesting all over.
Appropriately, many of our
stories this month deal with
water, mostly how to enjoy
it. But the story about
Wimberley's Cypress Creek
carries some ominous over-
tones. Cypress Creek starts
at Jacob's Well, an artesian
wellspring near whit is now
the Woodcreek Resort. My
grandfather used to own
property that ran down to
Jacob's Well. Some time
backitwas proposed to block
Access to Jacob's Well is restricted
these days, just as its warerflow is
restricted from years past. Owners
of property adjacent to the well
control access to the popular spring.
Jacob's Well is the main source of
water for Cypress Creek.
off or restrict access to Jacob's W
keep any more divers from going
never to return. Nothing came
but a barbed wire fence does rest
cess to the surrounding property
I suppose it's fitting that the mc
Jacob's Well is restricted these da
waterflow certainly is restricted
the great gush of cold Hill C
water that I remember from year
Grandfather Baxter work
Houston's Gulf Building and
retreat to Wimberley's cedar-co
hills and the cool waters ofJacob'
and Cypress Creek.
Some 40 years later, thousand
harried Texans from Houston,
and San Antonio have come to
themselves in the waters of C
Creek, and some have made the
their first or second home. Then
the problem.
Heavy spring rains notwithsta
we are pumping out more watt
percolates into the state's aquifer
Edwards of Central Texas, Oga
the High Plains, Trinity of Dalla
Well toWorth, Mesilla and Hueco of El Paso,
down Carrizo-Wilcox of the Rio Grande
ofthat Valley and the Gulf Coast Aquifer. To
ict ac- some degree all of the state's major
aquifers are in trouble. Such aquifers
)uth of underlie more than half the state. They
ays. Its have long been the principal source of
d from municipal and agricultural water.
zuntry The declining water table is forcing
s past. planners to look for more surface water
ed in in the form of impoundments. This
would agency and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife
zwered Service have just published a book called
sWell "Texas Water and Wildlife." In it are
listed 44 reservoirs previously identi-
smore fled for construction in Texas between
Austin now and the year 2030. Size of these
refresh lakes will range from no more than 118
presss acres to a mammoth 99,500. They will
region flood or directly affect more than
em lies 851,000 acres of wildlife habitat, a third
of which includes valuable bottomland
nding, hardwood forests and swamps. This
er than riparian land is especially important to
's-the wildlife. Such forested river and creek
llala of floodplains have declined from an esti-
as-Fort mated 16 million acres historically to
5.9 million acres today, a loss of 63
percent of the state's prime habitat.
Proposed reservoirs on the books could
further cut into the remaining habitat.
How in the world can a state as large
and diverse as Texas run low on pro-
ductive wildlife habitat? Just as we are
running low on water. The people in
the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
demand water for their homes and
industry, and the people along the
Trinity River demand protection from
any more spring floods, the likes of the
ones they endured this year.
Who will help us speak up for the
needs of wildlife? I hope you will.
Next month: Franklin Mountains
State Park , a visit to the marshes of Sea
Rim State Park and Murphree Wild-
life Management Area, squirrel hunt-
ing at the new Keechi Creek Manage-
mentArea and more, to include photos
of an interesting encounter between an
indigo snake and a rattler.
-David Baxter
2 August 1990
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