HILL COUNTRY

[Please see a landscape video about the Hill Country]

[Please listen to memories and testimonies about the region]

The Hill Country or Edwards Plateau region is made up of a 20 million acre area of Cretaceous limestone, broken in its center by a 2 million acre intrusion of Precambrian granite known as the Llano Uplift. The region stretches from Glen Rose in the extreme northeast, southwest to Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio, and northwest to San Angelo, with rainfall peaking in the east at 32 inches, and dropping to 16 inches on its western edge. This plateau is cut by rolling hills, canyons, and spring-fed streams, and covered with a mix of ashe juniper, persimmon and mesquite woodlands, oak savannas, and grasslands.

Some of the larger protected areas include the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge and associated city and county preserves (32,600 acres), the Devils River State Natural Area (19,989 acres), the Government Canyon State Natural Area (6643 acres), Kerr State Wildlife Management Area (5370 acres), Lost Maples State Natural Area (2174 acres), Pedernales Falls State Park (5212 acres), and other preserves.

The area has suffered extensive soil loss, bank erosion and invasion of hardy, unpalatable woody species such as juniper, due to hard grazing by sheep and goats. In more recent years, concern has grown over the conversion from such agricultural uses, the related fragmentation of larger rural tracts, and the development of tourist and retirement communities. Given the porous substrate, there is worry that runoff from this more intensive development will pollute area streams and aquifers. The Hill Country's Edwards Aquifer is also threatened by San Antonio's complete reliance on it for its drinking water, which may cause its partial dewatering and contamination by lower saline aquifers.

Hill Country communities represented in the archive include:

Austin	Marjorie Adams
Austin	Susana Almanza
Austin	Mary Arnold
Austin	Ernie Cortes
Austin	Robin Doughty
Austin	Louis Dubose
Austin	Bob Eckhardt
Austin	Victor Emanuel
Austin	Ted Eubanks
Austin	Shudde Fath
Austin	John Henry Faulk
Austin	Pliny Fisk
Austin	Stuart Henry
Austin	Sylvia Herrera
Austin	Jim Hightower
Austin	Clark Hubbs
Austin	Reggie James
Austin	Don Kennard
Austin	Michael King
Austin	Ken Kramer
Austin	Rick Lowerre
Austin	Bill Oliver
Austin	Carol Ann Sayle
Austin	A.R. "Babe" Schwartz
Austin	John Scanlan
Austin	Russel Smith
Austin	Tom "Smitty" Smith
Austin	Jim Stinebaugh
Austin	Genevieve Vaughan
Austin	Gail Vittori
Austin	Ken Zarker
Boerne	Bebe Fenstermaker
Boerne	Martha Fenstermaker
Boerne	Mary Fenstermaker
Comfort	David Langford
Fredericksburg	Clarence Ogle
Fredericksburg	Peggy Sechrist
Fredericksburg	Richard Sechrist
Helotes	Ed Scharf
Helotes	Irene Scharf
Johnson City	David Bamberger
Rio Frio	Susan Lynch
Round Mountain	John Ahrns
San Antonio	Richard Alles
San Antonio	Malcolm Beck
San Antonio	Maria Berriozabal
San Antonio	T.C. Calvert
San Antonio	Larry DeMartino
San Antonio	Helen Dutmer
San Antonio	Tim Hixon
San Antonio	Susan Hughes
San Antonio	Frank Kurzaj
San Antonio	Ruth Lofgren
San Antonio	Pleas McNeel
San Antonio	Susan Mika
San Antonio	Char Miller
San Antonio	Armando Quintanilla
San Antonio	George Rice
San Antonio	Fay Sinkin
San Antonio	George Veni
San Antonio	Fred Wills
San Marcos	Dede Armentrout
San Marcos	Joe Moore, Jr.
Stonewall	Terry Hershey
Stonewall	Andy Sansom

Additional information about the region is available from:

Bamberger Ranch Preserve

Bexar Audubon Society

Bexar Land Trust

Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance

Hill Country Conservancy

Hill Country Alliance

Kerr Wildlife Management Area

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

San Marcos River Foundation

Save Barton Springs Association

Save Our Springs Alliance