Blanco River Restoration

Following the Memorial Day and Halloween floods of 2015, Center restoration ecologists provided landscape guidance to Hays County residents whose properties were flooded along the Blanco River. Guidance took the form of an instructional workshop and a reference booklet.

Held in March of 2016, the free daylong workshop (which was hosted by multiple organizations) featured talks by two of the Center’s restoration experts and its invasive species program coordinator; all provided tips on how to restore landscapes where thousands of trees and other vegetation had been destroyed. Many landowners had a desire to actively help the river and surrounding lands heal but weren’t sure exactly how to do so; to make things more complicated, contractors inundated the area offering services to clean the river of debris with heavy equipment which only would exacerbate future flood events and erosion.

Looking to the future, the accompanying Blanco River Design Guildelines booklet (developed by Wildflower Center staff with Texas Parks and Wildlife funding) describes how to take advantage of native plantings so landowners can create beautiful landscape designs that support wildlife, prevent erosion, retain stormwater runoff and mitigate future flooding.

The booklet continues to serve as a manual for Blanco River residents. It received an award in 2016 from the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies for an individual item that improves water quality.

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