SAN MARCOS RIVER FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER VOL. 14, NO. 2
Printed Quarterly -- April 4, 2004

APRIL IS RIVER AWARENESS MONTH IN SAN MARCOS

See inside pages for projects and activities to get involved! '03 Friend of the River Award SMRF President Fairchild presents Alphonso Carmona the award, which is an image of a flowing stream in a clear material mounted on a cypress tree branch from the San Marcos River.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

At our January Annual Membership Meeting, SMRF presented our first annual "Friend of the River" award to Alphonso Carmona. The award recognizes members of the community making significant contributions to preserving the flow, natural beauty, and purity of the San Marcos River for current and future generations.

Alphonso was educated as a chemical engineer from the University of Mexico and worked several years in Mexico City before coming to San Marcos in the mid-80's to manage the San Marcos wastewater plant. He arrived just in time to be embroiled in the battle when SMRF realized the City's discharge permit needed an upgrade. He had three attributes which served him and the river well in his new job. First, he felt a deep allegiance to the citizens of the city to be open and provide all the information they needed to understand water issues. Second he felt that the discharge should not degrade the river, and third, he was very professional and competent in managing the wastewater plant.

These attributes often placed him in an awkward position, particularly when he had to testify in the hearing that SMRF requested in order to upgrade the permit. He never surrendered his principles, and he told the truth in spite of possible ramifications. He always tried to instruct anyone who would take the time to listen about the technical issues of wastewater treatment. Congratulations to Alphonso as our first "Friend of the River."

In other news, the "Bed & Banks" and "Instream Water Rights" cases continue to plod along. We are waiting to hear if the Texas Supreme Court will agree to hear the City of San Marcos appeal of the Bed & Banks decision, which SMRF won in the Third Court of Appeals in August, with a confirmation of that decision in January. See the articles in the March '03 Texas Bar Journal at www.texasbar.com. The Water Rights Permit case finally has a judge appointed in Travis County District Court, so perhaps action will begin soon. SAWS (San Antonio Water System) is now trying to intervene in the case.

A new issue has evolved for SMRF: does protecting the natural beauty and purity of the river include protection from litter, public intoxication, noise, abusive speech and otherwise disturbing and unwelcome conduct? SMRF thinks so and wants to keep the river a family-oriented, peaceful, and safe river by working with various law enforcement agencies. What do you think?

Jack Fairchild, President of the Board

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RIVER AWARENESS MONTH, MEETINGS AND VOLUNTEER PROJECTS

See the SMRF River Awareness display at the public library lobby during the month of April. Get out and walk the riverside park trails, canoe, kayak, tube or swim. The river is beautiful this time of year, with good flows, so be sure to take the time to enjoy it now. There are plenty of wildflowers and birds in the park system. Peak warbler migrations happen in April, plus many other types of birds arrive. Join the local birding email list to report your exciting sightings by emailing fmslaw@centurytel.net. Local birder and graduate student at Texas State, Lisa Korth, is revising the old Top Ten Birding Sites brochure that SMRF published over eight years ago, so that the Convention and Visitors Bureau can print them. They are needed for tourists brought to San Marcos by the new Texas Parks & Wildlife birding trail maps, and to distribute at birding festivals elsewhere.

The SMRF board of directors will meet on the fourth Wednesday, April 28, at 6:30 p.m. The meetings are now held at Logan's Roadhouse but check to see if any last minute changes have happened by calling 393-3787. Another way to be updated regularly about events like meetings, issues, or volunteer opportunities is to join the SMRF weekly email list. Just email wassenich@sanmarcos.net and request to be added to the list. Everyone is welcome to come to the board meetings, and you may choose to eat dinner during the meeting or not.

Another fun way to see other SMRF members is to join them and the dedicated Master Naturalists who work on the fourth Saturday of each month, removing invasive water lettuce and hyacinths from the slough and Spring Lake at Aquarena Center. Meet at 9:00 a.m. at the far end of the parking lot near the chainlink-fenced plant nursery. Wear a hat and sun block, and clothes that can get muddy. Scoop floating plants with a dipnet from a flat-bottomed jon boat, load into plastic bins, then transfer to pickups or a dump truck (if the ancient thing is working). You can also work from the bank or the boardwalk, if you don't care to boat. If you have a canoe or kayak, you can also bring your own and use it instead! Just PLEASE wear a life jacket while you are on the water, as you will be reaching out, so could possibly turn over a canoe. April 24 all will paddle to Joe's Crab Shack by the dam and remove hyacinth near the Joe's parking lot so it won't go over the dam into the river. If anyone needs community service hours this is a useful and fun way to get them. Call 393-3787 for details.

WELCOME TO NEW BOARD MEMBERS, LIST OF 2004 OFFICERS

Two new board members were elected during the annual membership meeting in January, which was a very festive and well attended event at the San Marcos Nature Center (formerly the Greenhouse Interpretive Center): Dr. Tim Bonner and John Hohn. Tom Goynes was re-elected. Officers for 2004 were elected at the first board meeting of the year--- the same officers as 2003: President, Dr. Jack Fairchild, Vice-President John Tolbert, Treasurer Ann Allen, and Secretary Therese Kosary. Phone numbers are listed on the membership form, p.7.

Greenspace Workday in March Amber Conrad and other members of the Texas State's National Association of Environmental Professionals (student chapter of the Geography Dept.) volunteered as part of Bobcat Build, when 1200 students worked in the community. NAEP removed invasive exotic ligustrum trees with grubbing hoes and picks.

Gaylord Bose pounds fenceposts in, while Brenda Sargent jackhammers rock to fence off the new turnaround at the recent workday at Prospect Greenspace, with a grant from Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept. given to San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance.

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RIVER CLEANUP A GREAT SUCCESS

The annual 90 mile San Marcos River cleanup in early March had perfect weather, and a great turnout. Thanks to coordinators Tom and Paula Goynes who rounded up all the canoeing groups from all over Texas, plus the many local groups and individuals who worked the banks and canoed all the way to Gonzales, picking up tires and trash. Thanks to the Record for writing front page articles about it, which interested and alerted many volunteers. Guadalupe County, Eddie Hamlicek of Gonzales, City of Luling, and City of San Marcos were all involved in trash disposal after volunteers piled it up. Troy Swift helped Goynes round it up and load it, and San Marcos Rent-All lent a bobcat to help lift the mountainous piles. Green Guy recycled tons of it.

The out-of-town clubs that worked were Austin Paddling Club, Alamo City Rivermen, Texas Canoe Racing Association, Houston Canoe Club, Bayou City Whitewater Club and Hill Country Paddlers of Kerrville. And lots of locals helped this year! TG Canoes and Spencer Canoes lent free canoes to volunteers for the day, and shuttles. Shady Grove Campground and Pecan Park Retreat donated camping and other facilities.

SMRF fed everyone a thank-you dinner with donations from Hochheim Insurance, Southwest Plumbing, and WalMart, and river friend Allen Redwine barbecued all day. Ann Allen and Paula Goynes cooked 20# of dry pinto beans. Centurytel and Tom Roach provided ice. Betty Watkins and many others assisted with the set up, prep, and serving. Don Purswell provided his huge barbecue pit, needed to feed the hundreds of volunteers. Desserts were donated by Gary Job Corps with assistance from staff person Louise Goldman, along with Kay Moore, Jerry Kimmel, Paula Goynes, Jessie and Betty Watkins, Jane Latham, Marie Fairchild, Sarah Carlisle, Lisa and Sawyer Cradit, Deborah Lane, and probably others who slipped away before we could get their names.

It was a lovely evening gathering by the river with a full moon lighting the blooming redbud trees. Thanks to all who worked so hard and helped out, in any way. The river looks so much better without the tons of trash.

FILL OUT THIS SURVEY ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK IS IMPORTANT, WATER-WISE

Region L, our river basin's water planning board, has a Water Policy Issues Survey for people to fill in and send back to the planners, so they know what is most important to discuss during their planning process. Same survey they had last winter, but the deadline has been extended indefinitely since so few responded from the whole region. Items like bay & estuary flows, water quality, interbasin transfers, desal, brush management and much more are on it, to rate in importance. No opinion? Leave that item blank. It is vital that ordinary citizens, and not those who stand to benefit financially from selling water, express their opinions in this survey. If you cannot look up the survey by computer, call 393-3787 and we will get you a copy by fax or mail. Go to www.watershedexperience.com and then click on Document Library, and Water Policy Issues Survey. Fill it out online and send it in that way, or you can print and send in by fax or mail. Please take the time to do so if you live in Hays, Bexar, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal, Calhoun, Karnes, Gonzales, Kendall, La Salle, Medina, Refugio, Uvalde, Victoria, Wilson, Atascosa, DeWitt, Dimmit, Frio or Zavala Counties.

GAME WARDENS HELPING OUT ON THE RIVER

Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens met other law enforcement agencies and riverside landowners at SMRF's invitation in December and in February at Pecan Park Retreat around a campfire, to discuss problems with underaged drinking and public disturbances on the river that have become a growing problem over the past two years between San Marcos and Martindale. Some internet sites have even advertised tubing while drinking on the San Marcos, and the crowds get larger each year. Many riverside landowners suffered with increasingly aggressive trespassers (some with guns), trash, public nudity and screaming all night long during this past summer, as tubing went on all hours of the day and night. The experience of other recreationists is impaired.

SMRF requested that the game wardens come and help the local law enforcement agencies and landowners make a plan with them to get the laws about underaged drinking and public intoxication enforced. The objective is to keep the river a clean and safe place to enjoy river recreation for all ages. Portaging in a direct route around dams and rapids is perfectly permissible under Texas law, but wandering around and using private land for picnics, fishing or hunting, or leaving human waste and trash, is not. SMRF is also educating landowners that portage is a legal right and landowners cannot interfere with that right, or they could be causing injury if the boater or tuber is not able to get out to go around a dam or rapid.

SMRF is doing all it can to educate the public about the laws in advance of the intense patrolling of the river and banks that will happen this summer, to prevent people being caught unwittingly in the crackdown. Please help spread the word about basic rules. Like life jackets that are required on rubber rafts, canoes, and kayaks. Adults can take them along but children under 13 must wear them. Fishing licenses are also a must on the river, except for children under 17, or if you are born before Sept. 1, 1930--- even on your own property when you are fishing in the public waters of the river. All drinking laws, public intoxication laws, public nuisance and noise laws are enforceable on the river, too. And please always carry ID along on the river, pinned or zipped into a pocket, for safety's sake.

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SMRF RECEIVES GRANT FOR EDUCATION PURPOSES

The Texas Parks and Wildlife grant of $30,000 to SMRF is being put to good use, to bus schoolchildren to Aquarena Center from underserved and economically disadvantaged areas communities for a meaningful educational field day. The funds come from the TPWD Communty Outdoor Outreach Program, and will help the youth have an enjoyable lesson outdoors while they learn important information about their drinking and recreational water supply. Hundreds of children have already participated. They are similar to the 2003 programs that Aquarena Center offered with a similar grant from TPWD. Pictured are children from Killeen and Marion I.S.D.'s.

Left to right, Dr. Norman Johns of National Wildlife Federation, Dr. George Archibald of International Crane Foundation, and Tom Stehn, International Whooping Crane Recovery Team leader and Aransas Wildlife Refuge biologist, in front of a whooping crane mural done by coastal schoolchildren. Also Dianne Wassenich of SMRF and Joan Garland, Education Coordinator of ICF with the new whooper poster at the ICF booth they staffed at the Whooping Crane Festival in Port Aransas in February.

CRANE POSTERS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS, GIVEN AWAY AT WHOOPER FESTIVAL TOO

The International Crane Foundation printed a poster about the fresh water needs of the whooping cranes at their wintering grounds on the Texas coast, especially critical for the life cycle of the crabs which is the main food of the cranes. Many posters, with accompanying brochures, were given away at the Port Aransas Whooping Crane Festival in late February. A supply has been placed at Aquarena Center since so many teachers go there for field trips with classes or for aquatic training, and SMRF has more to be given away to teachers who can use them for their classrooms. (Call 393-3787.) The photo above shows the poster on display at the ICF booth at the Festival.

Dr. Norman Johns of NWF, also pictured above, spoke at the Festival about freshwater inflow needs at the coast, and the expected damage to the crabs and cranes and other inhabitants of the Gulf when currently granted water rights are fully utilized in the near future. The San Marcos River flows to the Guadalupe and then to San Antonio Bay, which is near the Aransas Wildlife Refuge where the whooping cranes winter. The springs of San Marcos are critical to the survival of the cranes, since most of the water that makes it to the bays during dry spells, comes from the San Marcos and Comal Springs. Dr. George Archibald, leader of the ICF, also spoke at the festival about the work done by ICF all over the world on many crane species, in countries like Tibet and Afghanistan and Africa. He is encouraging San Marcos and other Texas cities to have sandhill crane counts, so that a better idea of how this species is doing can be recorded. San Marcos birders are considering doing that as part of a Sandhill Crane Festival next winter. Sandhills are always found east of San Marcos in the fields during the winter. They migrate to points as distant as Siberia and Alaska to spend the summer and nest.

RIVER RANGERS STAY BUSY WITH VOLUNTEER WATER MONITORING

Rachel Sanborn has assumed the volunteer coordinator position for the San Marcos River Rangers. This group of volunteer water monitors goes through extensive training to do regular water testing of the river all the way past Prairie Lea, with test kits and supplies provided by SMRF. Their work is part of the Texas Watch program. Mary Rocamora, long-time and effective former coordinator, will continue to maintain the River Rangers website, www.riverrats.net/smrr/ranger. Carolyn Kelly will continue to handle data management and paperwork sent to Texas Watch, and Kathy Navarette will be the equipment manager. Most of their testing sites are filled with volunteers, but training goes on, and there are steady calls of volunteers who want to be trained. Some of the Rangers are high school students testing with their parents or on their own, so the next generation is getting involved. Rachel continues to work on including Luling as one of the sites. Thanks to these reliable and accurate volunteers for the data base of water quality information they are amassing over the years.

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NOTABLE DONATIONS AND SPECIAL SUPPORT THIS PAST QUARTER

First, the Texas River Protection Association voted to support SMRF in the Bed & Banks case and assist with any legal fees involved in the appeal by the City of San Marcos to the Texas Supreme Court. TRPA was involved in this case, and the hearing that preceded it, from the beginning eight years ago. SMRF appreciates their steady support, and hopes that the effort to get additional water from a river which is already over-appropriated will be over with soon.

The Hobby Foundation gave $2000 to help match the Whooping Crane Conservation Association's gift of $10,000. The Hobby Foundation also paid for the Water Rights Project brochure printed two years ago, designed by Teresa Santerre Hobby, when 20,000 were printed. They have been distributed all over Texas, still bringing in many new members.

The Austin Paddling Club, which donated to SMRF's Water Right Project previously, sent a check for $600 to match the WCCA gift. The deadline for matching WCCA is extended, so keep that in mind. SMRF's board will consider transferring a part of the General Fund to the Water Rights Fund to match that total in April, since many donations that came in were not earmarked. Those went to the General Fund according to the bylaws. Thanks to the Austin Paddlers and the many other members and individuals who donated to help out with the Water Right Project!

SMRF also received donations from some who have been lifetime members for 18 years. President Fairchild started the idea by donating $500 and appealed to these founding members to do the same. Many followed suit, including Jim and Diane Pape and Robert McDonald who matched Jack's check. Many others donated in response to the letter, including $250 from Centurytel. Every bit helps, and so does volunteer time.

WORKPLACE GIVING AND OTHER IDEAS

SMRF received a donation from Kelly and Ilan Levin of Washington, D.C. for the water right project, which was matched by Kelly's employer, the Rockefeller Foundation, totalling $200. That total will be matched by the WCCA donation to bring SMRF $400, which in turn will help get other grants from foundations. Also two Dell employees, Tysha Calhoun and Bradley Vogel, signed up for payroll deductions to donate to SMRF. Tysha's is in honor of the River Rangers and their dedicated volunteer water monitor, Pat Stroka.

SMRF also assisted Earthshare, which is similar to a United Way for environmental groups, in signing up San Marcos businesses this year. SMRF is applying to join Earthshare, and therefore SMRF will need a donated office space that can be open to the public for at least half-days, five days a week---an Earthshare requirement. The University along with any state government office already can handle Earthshare donations, and the City and others will soon join them. These donations can be earmarked for Earthshare to divide up equally among all member groups, or specifically for one group.

Another idea that SMRF has found helpful is the Randall's or Tom Thumb Remarkable Card. It allows the holder of the card to earmark a charity (SMRF is #1808) and use the card to get good discounts at the check-out counter. Then a percentage of the purchases are donated to SMRF. It is not a credit card, just a discount "membership" type of card. Tell friends and relatives who live in other cities with these stores about this idea and get them to sign up for SMRF.

SMRF has received many memorials in the past, but a new idea came up this month. A Florida woman requested that an elegant certificate be prepared to frame for a couple as their wedding gift: a lifetime SMRF membership for the couple. A copy was sent for her approval, with the wedding coming up soon.

AQUARENA PLANT RESTORATION PROJECT

Botanist Minette Marr has set up a thriving aquatic plant nursery at Aquarena, to propagate plants for the restoration of the boardwalk area along the slough. Pictured are the inside of the nursery and a sign along the boardwalk, with plenty of floating water lettuce in the background. Join SMRF and Master Gardeners in boats and on land on the 4th Saturday of each month at 9:30 a.m., removing floating plants from the slough, and from Spring Lake near the dam. Call 393-3787 for details and bring your own boat, use theirs or work from the bank. The boardwalk is a Texas State Biology Dept. project. Elephant ear removal and plant restoration is a National Fish & Wildlife Foundation project with the City of San Marcos, and Texas State. Chef Alan Redwine of New Braunfels barbecued all day for SMRF, to feed the hundreds of volunteers who came from across Texas to clean up the whole San Marcos River in March. Thanks to all the great help from SMRF members, and perfect weather, it was a very productive river cleanup and an even better thank-you dinner. See more information in the article on page 3.

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