The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country on Thursday announced $14 million in grants through the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund to restore the Guadalupe River system and rebuild public spaces damaged by the July 4 flood.
Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, said the investments target ecological restoration, public infrastructure recovery and community stewardship.
“The July 4th flood did not just claim lives, damage homes and businesses. It disrupted an entire system — the river, the surrounding landscape, and the public spaces that connect this community to one another,” Dickson said.
More than half of the Guadalupe River’s floodway vegetation was lost on July 4, Dickson said. He said that loss of trees, shrubs and plants carries consequences for property, water quality and future flood risk, which he said is elevated.
Grant breakdown
The largest share of the funding — $9.2 million — will rebuild Louise Hays Park, Guadalupe Park and the Kerrville River Trail, according to Dickson. Of that amount, $8.4 million is dedicated to reconstructing Louise Hays Park, $460,000 will go largely toward replacing the Camp Meeting Creek Bridge on the River Trail, and $375,000 will fund the total reconstruction of Guadalupe Park, he said.
Other grants announced Thursday include:
•$3 million over multiple years to the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s TREES Initiative to plant at least 50,000 trees over four years;
•$1.5 million to the Hill Country Alliance to lead a basin-wide, multi-year restoration strategy and conduct education and outreach;
•$180,000 over three years to the Upper Guadalupe River Authority to remove invasive species and improve watershed health;
•$150,000 to the Kerr County River Foundation to support volunteer-led river restoration and to design a new resilient Lions Park in Center Point;
•$30,000 for a documentary film, “Hope for the Guadalupe,” debuting next month.
“This is not a series of disconnected projects. This is a coordinated effort to rebuild the Guadalupe River as a unified system,” Dickson said.
Tree replanting effort
Katherine Trumble, president and CEO of the San Antonio Botanical Garden, said the garden is leading the TREES Initiative — Texas Recovery for Ecological and Environmental Stability — a five-year effort to restore 50,000 or more trees along the Guadalupe River.
Trumble said every tree begins as a seed collected from the watershed, meaning the plants have already proven they can survive in the local ecosystem. She said the garden has collected more than 850,000 seeds since launching the effort, with help from volunteers in Kerr County and San Antonio.
The first 20,000 trees are expected to be planted starting this Fall and no later than next Spring, Trumble said. She said the project is the largest conservation outreach program in the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s history.
“The trees stabilize the river banks, reduce erosion and improve water quality,” Trumble said. “Healthy river banks filter pollutants, protect our drinking water and help reduce the cost of water treatment with time.”
Basin-wide restoration
Katherine Romans, executive director of the Hill Country Alliance, said her organization will work with partners throughout the Upper Guadalupe River Basin to define what restoration success should look like in 10 years.
Romans said the alliance is already connecting with hundreds of private landowners along the river to restore native vegetation and improve land management. She said the group has distributed more than 6,000 pounds of native seed, given away more than 1,000 native plants, and plans to distribute an additional 15,000 plants this summer and fall.
“What happens upstream affects everything downstream. What happens in the uplands affects the very river itself,” Romans said.
Park reconstruction
Jay Brimhall, director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Kerrville, said the $8.4 million investment in Louise Hays Park will fund a design that prioritizes resilience over simple restoration.
Brimhall said the city is relocating primary elements and infrastructure away from the immediate path of the water and onto higher ground, after community leaders asked the department to reimagine the space shortly after the flood.
“We’re not operating under the illusion that any structure can be flood-proof, as the river eventually tests any physical barrier,” Brimhall said. “By shifting these elements, we are creating a park that is built to endure the environmental realities of the Hill Country.”
Economic case for restoration
Jonathan Letz, a former Kerr County Commissioner who now chairs the River Working Group of the Kerr Together Long-Term Recovery Group and serves on the board of the Kerr County River Foundation, said studies show a single acre of healthy riverbank can generate more than $10,000 a year in benefits through flood protection, water quality and property values.
Letz said partners including the Hill Country Alliance, the San Antonio Botanical Garden, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the City of Kerrville are restoring the river one mile at a time, working with volunteers and property owners to remove invasive species.
“The seeds and grasses and plants will take time to grow. The trees we are planted today will take years to fully restore,” Letz said. “This is how we move from recovery to resilience.”
Closing the news conference, Dickson said the recovery work will require continued partnership and long-term commitment.
“The river is beginning to come back,” Dickson said. “This community is also coming back. We are committed to seeing this work through for the very long term. The work of recovery is not finished, but neither are we.”
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