by CYNDY SLOVAK-BARTON
Simon Ogen snaps his hand back quickly when it comes to dealing with crawfish. The loose crustacean was escaping from the thousands ready for the boiling pot at the Dahlstrom Ranch conservation easement dedication Saturday. (Photos by Cyndy Slovak-Barton)
Saturday, the environment of Hays County got a little richer.
Two ceremonies marked the preservation of thousands of acres of land in north Hays County, set aside for conservation in perpetuity.
Kate and Bill Johnson welcomed a large group to their home on the Blanco River east of Kyle for a picnic lunch last week. Working with the Texas Nature Conservancy, the 2,193 acres sitting on more than two miles on both sides of the Blanco River, have been placed in conservation. There will be no real estate development on that property. Ever.
For the Johnson family, the deal was a culmination of years of work.
And that means a great deal to the birds, the plants and the animals that live on that property.
Nature Conservancy botanist and staff member Bill Carr talks to hikers before taking off on a mile-long walk along the Blanco River on more than 2,000 acres being set aside for conservation by Bill and Kate Johnson of Kyle.
The sweeping view of the river shows off the nesting grounds for many birds, including the black-capped vireo, now on the endangered species list.
Those attending the picnic took a mile-long hike along the Blanco, led by Nature Conservancy staff member Bill Carr, who talked about the various plants in the area.
Later in the afternoon, 2,275 acres of the Dahlstrom Ranch were officially set aside by members of that family. Gay Dahlstrom, the matriarch, spoke about the meaning of the open land to her family, and how she felt like the luckiest person in the world to have lived there.
County Commissioner Jeff Barton, who worked with Jack Dahlstrom Jr. and his mother, Gay, to bring the conservation easement to fruition, said he was glad to not only have thousands of acres set aside to protect water quality, but also to have several hundred acres where future Hays County residents could come to see what the ranch was like.
The Dahlstrom Ranch has aquifer recharge features on the property that funnel directly into the Barton Springs portion of the Edwards Aquifer. This portion of the aquifer feeds Barton Springs in Austin.
A small portion of the conservation easement property is planned for a nature park, with trails to be open to the public. The remainder of the property, almost 2,000 acres, will still be run as a ranch by the Dahlstrom family, but the development rights have been purchased and the property cannot be developed in the future.
Hays County committed $5 million to the purchase of the development rights of the Dahlstrom Ranch in October 2008 from the $30 million parks and open-space bonds that voters approved in May 2007. The county took its monies, a contribution by the City of Austin and the Hill Country Conservancy, to get a matching grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
