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Originally Posted by photoLith
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My moms side of the family were some of the first Germans who immigrated to the Hill Country to Spicewood in the 1860s. I'm always trying to convince my family that we should put a conservation easement onto the family property, which is still about 400 acres in Spicewood. My family never thinks suburban sprawl will come there and destroy it. But I've been warning them ever since the early 2000's that it was coming and it is. They still think it will remain country forever but my great aunt who died recently, her heirs sold her 100 acre property and now a giant tequila brewery thing is on it and they sold the rest to some dude who is most likely going to sell it to a shit Ryan home developer. Even Marble Falls is seeing unprecedented suburban sprawl now, its so gross, it makes me want to gag.
The Edwards Aquifer is one of the most important ecological regions in North America. The limestone carst habitat is extremely rare and so many rare/endangered plants and animals depend upon it and have very limited ranges. Now that there is endless suburban shit sprawl in the Hill Country and Edwards Aquifer, all of the water is running out. I went to Lake Travis yesterday, its 60-70ft low and many historic springs are starting to run low and or have gone dry. Its only going to get way way way way worse as I read that the San Antonio Austin metro region is going to grow by about 40% more in the next twenty years. The ecological and environmental damage from unfettered spawl is going to be immense and utterly devastating.
Part of the reason why I moved away from Texas after growing up here is all of the endless environmental destruction and sprawl. Only 550k acres of the 11 million acres of the Texas Hill Country are protected in conservation easement, state parks, state natural areas, national wildlife refuges (Balcones Canyonlands) and recreation areas; so much more destruction and extinction will happen. /rant.
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I have family with land out that way too (near Spicewood - on the Pedernales).
Land is becoming quite valuable. The Kozmetsky family recently sold their 1500 acres ranch to Travis County for a park. It sold for roughly $60k per acre.
As for growth - remember, Austin alone, has doubled its metro population every 20-25 years since its inception in 1839. It is still on the path to do so in the coming 20 years. And, SA has picked up steam too. The 40% growth for the region is a very low estimate.
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