LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

CCCA President Elizabeth Bowerman

​Looking to the Future—A Note from the CCCA President

By Elizabeth Bowerman
​May 14, 2022

Recently, CCCA celebrated its fourth birthday and not only are we looking back at our accomplishments, but we are looking toward the future.

CCCA’s vision for the future is a Comal County that maintains its rural beauty and critical water resources for future generations; a Comal County that has clean rivers and springs for recreation, natural areas to clean our air, and provide habitat for wildlife; a Comal that has starry night skies and maintains the open, rural character that makes Comal . . . Comal. It’s what we call – Keeping Comal Wild!

As we press forward to preserve land, water, and wildlife in Comal County, our goals (our hopes and plans) are to:

1. Spread appreciation in the community for our natural resources, resulting in what you might call a “conservation mindset”—making protection of our natural areas and water resources a priority and getting the whole County behind these efforts.
2. Help create a framework for land protection in the County—a plan, an outline of steps designed to achieve public and private land preservation in Comal. What might that look like? It could be based on the County’s soon-to-be-created parks and natural areas Master Plan; it might include efforts to increase adherence to the County’s Regional Habitat Conservation Plan to protect endangered species habitat; it might also include identification of new funding sources for land preservation.
3. Create partnerships to achieve land protection in the County. This includes partnerships between government and private entities, between businesses and nonprofits, between landowners and land trusts, between state and local agencies, and—between developers and conservationists. Imagine! —partnerships that will bring people together to work to ensure that growth is balanced with protection of the natural resources we need to sustain us.

We will continue our work to:

1. Mitigate flooding by encouraging preservation of open space and critical watershed areas;
2. Help landowners protect and preserve their family land legacies, through the use of Conservation Easements or other methods;
3. Protect recreational opportunities and our tourism economy by keeping our natural areas healthy and accessible; AND
4. Broaden community support for funding land preservation in Comal County.

Some other things on our “To Do” list:

1. Offer a workshop for developers, introducing them to the principles of “Conservation Developments” and “Low Impact Development.”
2. Make presentations to HOAs to encourage them to take steps toward water savings standards, such as using rainwater catchment systems on all homes and community buildings, allowing the use of only rainwater for irrigation, and NOT requiring lawn grasses.
3. Partner with Hill Country Alliance to introduce NBISD and CISD leadership to the One Water principles that encourage the use of alternative water sources and water reuse.
4. Help Comal County explore the use of incentives to coax developers to use “Conservation Development” designs and Low Impact Development techniques for residential developments in the County.
5. Partner with Hill Country Alliance to offer workshops on “Dark Sky Lighting.”
6. Stay informed of innovative opportunities for funding and achieving conservation, such as “Carbon Markets” and “Carbon Exchanges,” and other ways to involve business and industry in the effort.

 
We are very proud of the relationships we’ve made with our elected officials and the steps they have taken toward land conservation in the past year. There are still opportunities there, and we are looking forward to continuing those relationships. The County recently passed two major land-protection initiatives: Investing in the County’s first-ever Parks, Open Space, and Natural Areas Master Plan and taking the first step toward securing $30 million dollars in state funding for protection of land and critical watersheds in the County. These are huge and very impactful steps and—hopefully—are just the beginning of the County’s work to ensure Comal County retains the rural charm that continues to draw people here and also protects the critical natural resources needed to provide a sustainable future for all of us.

Big goals, eh? We may be late getting into the game, but we’re motivated and inspired! We’re all in this together, and I thank each of you for the part you’re playing to support CCCA’s vision and for helping to . . . Keep Comal Wild!