MARCOS RIVER FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER VOL. 13, NO. 1
Printed Quarterly -- January 3, 2003
SMRF's Annual Party and Membership Meeting
You and
your family are cordially invited to the festive annual SMRF
Membership Meeting on Wednesday evening, January 29, 2003.
It will be at the San Marcos Public Library in the large meeting
room near the entrance. Refreshments will be served at 6 and
the business meeting will begin at 7. An election of several
board members will be held (see article on board nominees
on page 6), and a brief summary of the past year will be given.
As always, members will give suggestions to the board for
the coming year and ask questions. Mark your calendars today
for the party. Visitors who want to learn about SMRF are welcomed
at this annual party/meeting, and they are welcomed to any
meeting of the SMRF board, all year round. So bring friends
and enjoy the buffet. Volunteers can also help with the party
by coming early and setting up tables and chairs, and helping
prepare the refreshments. Call 393-3787 to volunteer or email
wassenich@sanmarcos.net.
PRESIDENT'S
MESSAGE
Happy
New Year to all you SMRF members out there! If you missed
our New Year's Day plunge into the San Marcos, you missed
a big one. If you did, plan to make it next year. It is an
invigorating event to start off the year by enhancing river
awareness.
Last year
our water right application to insure inflow to the San Antonio
Bay snowballed when other conservation groups took similar
action to protect Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, Lavaca and Matagorda
Bays. LCRA even filed an application for Colorado River inflow
for Matagorda Bay. This should convince our detractors that
Texans are serious about protecting our rivers, bays and estuaries.
This coming year will mark the beginning of real action on
these applications by the TCEQ Commissioners and SOAH (State
Office of Administrative Hearings). TCEQ is the agency that
grants water right applications, formerly TNRCC but now called
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Our long
dormant "Bed and Banks" water rights issue is heating
up since both the City of San Marcos and SMRF filed for an
appeal of the Travis County District Court decision of 2002.
So stay tuned to follow action on all these issues. We hope
to see you at our Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at
the San Marcos Public Library. Come meet your fellow members
and hear about what is going on. See you there?
Jack Fairchild,
President of the Board
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SMRF
Receives Grant From The Meadows Foundation
SMRF was
notified in December that a three year grant of $155,000 was
approved for the purpose of hiring full time staff for the
water right project and to acquire water rights to be banked
in the Texas Water Trust. The Meadows grant will also allow
SMRF to pay off the loan borrowed for the filing fee of the
water right application two years ago. Below is a bit of history
about The Meadows Foundation and the generous family who established
it.
The Meadows
Foundation is a private philanthropic institution established
in 1948 by Algur H. and Virginia Meadows to benefit the people
of Texas. The Foundation's mission is to assist the people
and institutions of Texas to improve the quality and circumstances
of life for themselves and future generations.
Algur
Meadows built General American Oil Company of Texas into one
of the nation's most successful independent oil and gas production
companies. Believing that his own life was greatly enriched
by giving, Meadows generously shared his wealth with many
charitable causes benefiting the people of the state that
had been so kind to him. Wishing to share the joy of giving
with their extended family, both living and yet unborn, Algur
and Virginia Meadows established The Meadows Foundation so
that their philanthropy would continue in perpetuity, under
the guidance and direction of family members and trusted advisors.
Since
its inception, the Foundation's assets have grown to a current
value in excess of $800 million, and it has dispersed over
$430 million in grants and direct charitable expenditures
to over 2,000 Texas institutions and agencies. Foundation
grants support work in the field of arts and culture, civic
and public affairs, education, health, and human services.
The Foundation also has a particular philanthropic interest
in three areas: public education (particularly in the areas
of early child development, enhanced reading skills and teacher
preparation), mental health and the environment. It also seeks
to develop a philanthropic spirit among high school and middle
school students and has awarded in excess of $2 million to
over 200 schools in North Texas whose students planned and
carried out community service programs.
The Foundation
looks for programs and services that employ imaginative, innovative
ways to solve community problems through projects leading
to organizational self-sufficiency and in capital plans that
enable agencies to flourish. It supports projects that can
alleviate pain, enhance social skills, and promote better
human relations.
The Meadows
Foundation is among the most recognized private philanthropies
in the country. It has received numerous awards for both its
philanthropy and its management. It was the first recipient
of the Texas Medal of the Arts for sustained support of arts
and culture in Texas, and was named Outstanding Foundation
of the Year by the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.
For additional information, visit The Meadows Foundation website
at http://www.mfi.org.
Texas
River Protection Association (TRPA) Donates to SMRF Water
Right Project
Because
TRPA sees the SMRF water right project (to keep adequate water
in the river to reach the Guadalupe estuary) as vital, they
recently gave $5000 for the project. TRPA has members are
all over Texas. These folks have helped SMRF out before, worked
on key San Marcos River and Guadalupe water quality and quantity
issues many times, and also assisted with river cleanups,
year after year. SMRF especially appreciates this generous
check since some expenses cannot be covered with grants, so
unrestricted donations like this are essential to carry on
the effort to keep the rivers and bays healthy. To learn more
about the water right project, see SMRF's website, www.sanmarcosriver.org
and click on the Instream Flow Water Right on the first page.
To learn about TRPA, see their website: www.txrivers.org.
The eye-catching bumper stickers you see all over Texas that
say "PROTECT TEXAS RIVERS" are theirs.
Cottage
Kitchen on February 7 - Volunteers Needed to Cook, Serve,
OR Come Eat Lunch With Friends
The first
Friday in February is SMRF's traditional day to serve lunch
at the Cottage Kitchen. The menu includes either vegetarian
and Italian turkey sausage tomato sauce served over parmesan
polenta, with a green salad and garlic bread. The desserts
will be home baked and wonderful (chocolate cake and pecan
pies), so come to the little rock house at C. M. Allen and
Hopkins on Friday from 11-1 for lunch, or order takeout by
calling the number listed under "Cottage Kitchen"
in the San Marcos phone book. SMRF will need 8 volunteers
to help serve and another 8 to bake or cook the day before.
Call to volunteer your time for a good cause, 393-3787. The
Heritage Association, which benefits from the Cottage Kitchen
luncheons, was the major donor to the original endowment fund
of SMRF. So SMRF members do this luncheon every year to help
with the Heritage Association's continued good efforts in
preserving the community, and beautifying riverside trails
and parks. Please bring a friend to lunch, and put up a notice
about this today on your office bulletin board.
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Schulle
and Prospect Cleanups and Trail Workdays for the Spring -
Volunteers Needed
The Schulle
Canyon Greenspace will be cleaned up of its considerable trash
near the Joshua Street entrance off Holland Street on March
25. Then April 5 will be the Prospect Street neighborhood
cleanup which will also include a Prospect Greenspace trail
workday, at the dead end of Prospect off Bishop Street. Put
those two dates on your calendar and email chris.smga@grandecom.net
or call 392-3932 for more information. It is especially important
to get these greenspaces cleaned up since the Texas Parks
& Wildlife birding maps for central Texas will be published
this spring and birdwatchers may want to check out these excellent
birding sites, along with many others in San Marcos like the
river walk and the Aquarena boardwalk.
Are
You in Touch? Weekly SMRF Email Updates and How to Get Them
Over 150
SMRF members get a weekly email update to keep informed about
volunteer opportunities, events, and river issues that need
attention. If your address changed recently and you are no
longer getting these updates, please email wassenich@sanmarcos.net
today to get back on the SMRF list. To see what the updates
are like, just email a request to be placed on the list. You
can cancel at any time or get more information by simply replying.
It will be extremely important this coming year to be updated
on issues like the SMRF water right permit in a timely manner,
so please help spread the word. Help get more people signed
up for the free email list who are interested in the San Marcos
River and its watershed, aquifer and estuaries. "Never
doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change
the world: indeed, it's the only thing that ever does,"
said Margaret Mead. Help get a few more individuals on board
and in touch, to preserve the River.
Volunteers
Congratulated on Major Removal of Crypto Plants --More Help
Will Be Needed
SMRF members,
along with members of many other groups like the Master Naturalists
and SWT students, were a great help on the Cryptocornae removal
project in the river below Thompson's Island this fall. Volunteers
helped the many federal and state agencies plus the City and
SWT who worked together to remove this fast-growing exotic
plant from Sri Lanka from the river bottom, using a modified
gold sluice floating on a small barge. While trained staff
"vacuumed" the plant from the bottom of the river,
volunteers monitored the plants and gravel that traveled to
a large straining basket, and scooped the debris into dip
nets that were then carried over to a drying bed, a very short
distance from the river. The City later used front end loaders
to remove the dried plants and gravel from the riverbank.
Please note that since they have refined the operating procedure,
the carrying of the dip nets is not a strenuous job, since
less gravel is coming into the straining basket.
More volunteers
will be needed this month and next, mostly with carrying the
dip nets, though you can wear the warm waders and get into
the river if you really want to. Every volunteer hour is vital
because it can be matched with funding needed to keep the
project going. After the plants are removed, native plants
will be planted in the area, so more volunteers will be needed
for that. Please call or email to get on the volunteer list,
to be notified of possible workdays. Volunteers can schedule
a half day or a day to help out. Call the National Fish Hatchery
at 353-0011 ext.228, and talk to Ben Grod or Paula Power,
or email bgrod@swt.edu.
New
Wetland at Cheatham Street
The formerly
barren parking area across Cheatham Street from Rio Vista
Dam is now a wetland. Both shrubs and aquatic plants have
been planted and a sign declaring the area a "Wildlife
Habitat Park" is in place.
River
Cleanup first Saturday in March -- Count the Ways to Help
Time for
that annual 90 mile Spring San Marcos River Cleanup, March
1st, which is always coordinated by Tom and Paula Goynes of
Pecan Park Retreat. SMRF provides dinner for the volunteers
at the Shady Grove Campground in Martindale after the cleanup.
The TG Canoe Livery and Shady Grove provide canoes for those
who wish to pick up trash in the water, but there is much
trash on the banks and at the road crossings that will need
picking up as well. Call 392-6171 to volunteer if your group
wants to pick or claim a site in advance. If you want to participate
yourself, come to the gathering at City Park near the Lions
Tube Rental at 10 a.m. March 1st, and pick up trash bags and
instructions. The canoe clubs from other parts of Texas will
be covering the river in the downstream stretches that need
more paddling expertise, and free camping will be provided
by both Shady Grove and Pecan Park Retreat for them. Green
Guy Recycling will be removing the recyclables and tires,
appliances, etc. The meal is another way to help. SMRF will
need special donations for the dinner, and help with cooking
and serving it, as well as LOTS of baked goods for dessert.
Call 393-3787 to volunteer to help with the dinner.
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SMRF
Talks, Clubs, and Festivals
The Greenhouse
Interpretive Center, now called the San Marcos Nature Center,
has frequent talks on varied subjects, with a $1 charge at
the door and on January 29 at noon Jan Klein of the City of
San Marcos Water/Wastewater Department will discuss water
conservation, tools, and tips for efficient water use at home.
There will be lots of written materials and freebies handed
out as well. There are new ways to save water being discovered
all the time, so come to learn the latest to save on home
or office water bills. The Nature Center's number is 393-8449
if you wish to join their email list, or email Hulbert_Julie@ci.san-marcos.tx.us
. These are the Brown Bag Lunch Lecture series, so feel free
to bring your lunch along.
On February
12, SMRF Executive Director Dianne Wassenich will speak at
the Nature Center at noon, showing slides and explaining the
vital connection between the San Marcos Springs and the Guadalupe
Bay and Estuary System on the Gulf Coast and how SMRF's water
right project is critical to the survival of wildlife, people,
and the economies of riverside and coastal communities. A
similar talk will be at the evening meeting of the Texas Outdoor
Women's Network (TOWN) in San Marcos on February 13. For information
on TOWN's meeting and that interesting group which has lots
of outdoor adventures together, call Ann Allen at 357-2515.
In February,
SMRF has also been asked to talk to the board of the national
Whooping Crane Conservation Association, which will meet in
Port Aransas during the Whooping Crane Festival, February
20-23. Last year, several San Marcans attended this most interesting
festival, hearing talks on cranes around the world, birds
and butterflies of the Gulf Coast, and more. The booths at
the Civic Center are also great, with very nice artwork, posters,
and birding-oriented items for sale. For a $20 festival registration
fee, attendees receive discounts on birding tours by boat
or bus, even a pre-festival stargazing event at a local ranch.
Check out their Chamber's website, www.portaransas.org , clicking
on Birdwatching, then Whooping Crane Festival, then Schedule,
to see all the tours. Many will fill up with pre-registrants,
so you may want to choose your tours and pre-register now.
SMRF has
also been asked by Calhoun County Shrimpers to talk about
the water right project to the public in Seadrift on January
23 at 6 p.m. at the Community Center, and others groups have
asked but have not yet set up dates for talks.
Board
Nominees for the SMRF Board Elections at Annual Meeting January
29
Elections
are held at the annual membership meeting each year. Terms
of the nine board members are staggered so that three terms
(three years each) are up for election each year. According
to SMRF bylaws, board members may serve two consecutive terms.
This year, John Tolbert's first term is up and he is running
for a second term. Ann Allen is running for her first term,
after serving the past few months as a board-appointed replacement.
Tom Goynes is running for a one year term. Tom was appointed
by the board a few months ago to fill in during 2002 but the
members are asked to confirm such appointments each January
during the annual board election.
And last
but not least, SMRF thanks David Newman for serving as a board
member, since Dave's term is up. To fill that position the
nominating committee presents a new board nominee, Marcus
Rodriguez of San Marcos. Marcus is partners with Johnny Quiroz
in the Guides of Texas, the local fly fishing guide business.
(Marcus and Johnny have many beautiful photos of the San Marcos
and Blanco Rivers, and fish, on their website www.guidesoftexas.com)
. Marcus and his wife Angie have a new baby, and live in San
Marcos. He works for Child Protective Services in Austin when
he is not fishing, and he grew up in Kyle, graduating from
SWT with a Natural Resources Management degree.
These
four nominees are the slate that the nominating committee
has prepared for the annual meeting. Members are eligible
to vote, and also to nominate from the floor, if this slate
is not satisfactory. For information on bylaw requirements
for mailing in nominations or making nominations from the
floor, please contact the Executive Director at 512-393-3787.
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Using
Rivers for Roads and Racetracks?
There
has been considerable press and many meetings held in the
past year devoted to the problem of large groups of all-terrain-vehicles
or 4-wheel-drive vehicles holding rallies in Texas riverbeds,
scarring the landscape and taking much delight in breaking
axles and puncturing radiators or losing wheels in the process.
Websites about their sport have sprung up and resulted in
very large numbers of vehicles converging on rivers and having
destructive extravaganzas in recent years. It turns out this
is possible because rivers are public property that Texans
can use for boating and floating. Those who want to protect
rivers from this kind of vehicular damage, clearly do not
want to interfere with the use of rivers for boating, floating,
and swimming. Susan Combs, Agriculture Commissioner, has gathered
many people with common interest in protecting this natural
resource of Texas rivers. She has prepared a bill with their
help to regulate riverbeds regarding motorized vehicular use,
and Judith Zaffirini introduced the bill in December. SMRF's
board voted to support this bill and many environmental and
canoeing organizations have also. There is much opposition,
of course, from those who wish to drive in rivers, so this
is an issue that must be closely followed in the coming months.
Those who support the bill will be writing letters to newspaper
editors and legislators, as will the opposition. The Lone
Star Sierra Club website will probably be the best place to
follow the issue, www.lonestarsierraclub.org. Scroll down
on their website's first page to sign up for their free Email
Alert List by clicking on that choice.
NWF
Website and Toll Free Phone Number to Protect Texas Rivers,
Bays and Estuaries
The National
Wildlife Federation has a website, www.nwf.org/texaswaterforwildlife
with thoughtful information about the lack of consideration
that is being given to the water needs of Texas rivers, bays
and estuaries. There is also an email action alert that NWF
put out in December that can be forwarded to your email address,
if a request is made to wassenich@sanmarcos.net. SMRF members
on the SMRF weekly email update list will receive it in January.
NWF has also set up a toll free phone number that people can
call to learn how to support water for fish and wildlife,
that NWF is advertising on radio and in full page magazines
ads, in fishermen's publications.
Report
on Superfund Site near Thompson's Islands
The Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) sent out an update
in late 2002 on the San Marcos site just north of Highway
123 and east of IH 35, at which a spring is seeping perchloroethylene
(PCE) into a creek in the woods near Thompson's Islands, which
then flows into the San Marcos River. PCE is used for dry
cleaning and metal degreasing. Field investigations that went
on during 2002 will be summarized in a report that will be
placed in the San Marcos Public Library in January 2003. Based
on the preliminary results, TCEQ will be extending the study
area further south. In 2003 they will be doing additional
soil and groundwater sampling, and they will also continue
to do quarterly sampling of the wells they've already drilled,
and of the springs, and the creek. SMRF members will check
on the report when it makes it to the library, and report
to the SMRF email list promptly.
Another
Great Way to Help SMRF-- A Randall's or Tom Thumb's Remarkable
Card
For those
who shop at Randall's or Tom Thumb grocery stores, OR know
others who do, please consider getting a Randall's Remarkable
Discount Card, which gives you big discounts when you present
it at checkout time. You can pay for your groceries the normal
way you always do, but showing the card gives you discounts,
however you pay. When you ask for the card, or even if you
already have one, you can tell Randall's that you want SMRF
to receive the benefits that come from all your grocery purchases.
Just tell them to key in #1808 and SMRF will automatically
receive 1% percent of all your grocery purchases from then
on, without any cost to you. (They can look up the SMRF number
for you if you forget to take it with you.) If you can ask
others to do this as well, it can add up quickly, and it will
help SMRF with regular quarterly donation checks from Randall's.
Meanwhile, you will be getting discounts to help your own
budget out also. Thanks for helping to spread the word. Even
if you just shop there once in a while, it is worth doing.
Tom Thumbs also have the card. Check it out this week and
tell others to sign on for SMRF - #1808!
Youth
Service Bureau Party
The River
Rats, a YSB program that uses kayaks to patrol the river and
keep it clean, with help from many supporting organizations,
had a Christmas party and the leader Jeff Jackson is pictured
here with his group of graduating students at the party. Thanks
to these folks for their work on the river! Also pictured
below is long time SMRF member Jim Pape who gave an inspiring
talk at the party to these young people and their parents.
Want
to Receive Weekly Birding Reports by Email for the San Marcos
Area?
Just email
fmslaw@centurytel.net and ask to be
placed on the birders list. Pretty simple, and lots of fun.
1-800-919-9151
NWF
Website and Toll Free Phone Number to Protect Texas Rivers,
Bays and Estuaries
The National
Wildlife Federation has a website, www.nwf.org/texaswaterforwildlife
with thoughtful information about the lack of consideration
that is being given to the water needs of Texas rivers, bays
and estuaries. There is also an email action alert that NWF
put out in December that can be forwarded to your email address,
if a request is made to wassenich@sanmarcos.net.
(SMRF members on the SMRF weekly email update list will receive
it in January.) NWF has also set up a toll free phone number
that people can call to learn how to support water for fish
and wildlife, that NWF is advertising on radio and in full
page magazines ads, in fishermen's publications. That number
is 1-800-919-9151, and more information can also be found
on www.texaswatermatters, on the "In the News" section.
Late
Breaking News---SMRF Water Right Permit Scheduled for March
19 TCEQ Commissioner's Meeting
Watch
SMRF email updates for news on this March 19 meeting, which
SMRF learned about as the newsletter was headed to the printer.
SMRF will be gathering support letters from supporting organizations
for the meeting, and it will be a good time to attend and
show support for the permit.
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