SPRING BRANCH - There is an adage that states, "We get too soon old and too late smart." There is truth to that saying and it applies to all Texans, especially when it concerns our dependence on the natural resources that sustain us.
Charles J. "Chuck" Knibbe, along with his wife Sharon and their children, is a fifth generation owner and operator of the Knibbe Ranch located approximately 28 miles north of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country in Comal County. In fact, because the ranch was founded in 1852, the Knibbe Ranch is one of the Texas Century Ranches owned and continuously operated for more than 100 years by the same family, certified through the Texas Family Land Heritage Program.
The ranch is characteristic of the area with its rolling hills, picturesque meadows, the Guadalupe River as its southern boundary, and Spring Branch Creek, a tributary to the Guadalupe River, with its many springs flowing through the middle of the ranch. Canyon Lake is only five miles downstream. Hundreds of sprawling live oak trees cover the hills. Cypress, sycamore, and pecan trees line the creek and river bottoms. The focal point, however, is Shannon’s Spring located on the ranch.
Named after Chuck and Sharon’s daughter, the spring was long active on the ranch until a heavy overgrowth of "thirsty" Ashe juniper (cedar) invaded the landscape and, according to Chuck, "was the culprit for the spring to go dormant." Deciding to do something about the problem, Chuck heard about the Water Supply Enhancement Program through the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board.
Brush has invaded millions of acres of rangeland and riparian areas in Texas, reducing or eliminating stream flow and aquifer recharge through interception of rainfall and increased evapotranspiration. Brush control has the potential to enhance water yield, conserve water lost to evapotranspiration, recharge groundwater and aquifers, enhance spring and stream flows, restore native wildlife habitat by improving rangeland, and improve livestock grazing distribution.
The purpose of the Water Supply Enhancement Program is to increase available surface and ground water supplies through the targeted control of water-depleting brush in areas in need of water conservation. The State Conservation Board allocates program cost-share funding to landowners giving priority to projects that balance the most critical water conservation need of municipal water user groups with the highest projected water yield from brush control.
Entering into a cost-share contract with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Knibbe treated 120 acres of cedar brush. He plans to do more. What has been the result? According to Chuck, the program has made a difference. "Today, Shannon’s Spring pumps life-giving water after rainfall events, and water once guzzled by juniper now recharges the underlying Edwards-Trinity Plateau Aquifer." In due course, the water captured in the highly visible sinkholes on the ranch ultimately feeds Canyon Lake which helps supply communities downstream.
Working through the Comal-Guadalupe Soil and Water Conservation District, a 10-year resource management plan was developed for the Knibbe Ranch which described the brush control activities to be implemented, follow‐up treatment requirements, brush density to be maintained after treatment, and supporting practices to be implemented.
"When private landowners ably manage our natural resources, we enhance and sustain the availability of water for everyone in the state, including those living in urban areas," said Russell K. Bading, Chairman of the Comal-Guadalupe Soil and Water Conservation District. "Effective land stewardship increases the ability of open land to absorb rainfall, replenish aquifers, and ensure that water drains slowly and steadily into springs, streams, rivers, and lakes."
After removing approximately 60 percent of regrowth juniper on the Knibbe Ranch, another notable effect on land once considered useless for livestock and wildlife is that it now supports a diversity of plant and animal life.
"Deer, dove, and a myriad other types of wildlife have always been at home on this ranch, but the particular thing that I have noticed since dealing with the juniper issue has been an increase in Rio Grande turkey on the place," said Chuck, a member of the Texas Wildlife Association.
"Knibbe’s story is unique and more can be told, but his is just one example of 74 other ranchers in the area treating over 10,048 acres of brush in the Upper Guadalupe River watershed through the agency’s Water Supply Enhancement Program to achieve similar objectives," said Melissa Grote, of Johnson City and Program Specialist for the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board.
According to a brush control feasibility study published by the United States Geological Survey (Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5051; available on the agency’s website), it is projected that public water supplies in Canyon Lake could be enhanced by over 20,700 acre-feet of water annually through the targeted control of nearly 198,000 acres of water-depleting Ashe juniper across the Upper Guadalupe River watershed.
"Voluntary land stewardship, on a grand scale, is a cornerstone solution for water supply issues in Texas. The efforts of private landowners to control water-depleting brush are vitally important to the ecological health of our productive rangelands across the state," said Rex Isom, Executive Director of the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board. "Many Texans today, especially those in urban areas, enjoy the public benefits, such as clean plentiful drinking water, they derive from the voluntary land stewardship provided by private landowners and agricultural producers throughout the state."
For more information about the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board’s efforts to enhance public water supplies through the targeted control of water-depleting brush, please contact Johnny Oswald at (325) 481-0335 or joswald [at] tsswcb [dot] texas [dot] gov. Additional information on the agency’s Water Supply Enhancement Program is available at http://www.tsswcb.texas.gov/brushcontrol.