Government Canyon......VERY COOL.

[To be named later]

This is awesome. 10 times bigger than Central Park. It's good for the aquifer, and someday down the line when San Antonio extends all the way up to Bandera to the NW and and Austin to the North, there will be some preserved Texas Hill country in the middle of our suburban sprawl.







Sept. 19, 2005
Government Canyon State Natural Area Opens Oct. 15

SAN ANTONIO — The much-anticipated opening of the newest member of the Texas State Parks family — Government Canyon State Natural Area — will take place Saturday, Oct. 15, on the northwestern fringes of the state’s third most populous city.

Government Canyon SNA, which sits only 16 miles from downtown San Antonio, has been 12 years in the making. The 8,622-acre state natural area at the edge of the Edwards Plateau represents one of Texas’ most significant conservation stories resulting from a public-private partnership involving municipal, state and federal government agencies, as well as a host of community and environmental organizations. Up until now, it has been accessible on a limited basis for volunteers and special guided tours.

What started out in 1993 as 4,717 acres of ecologically critical habitat overlaying San Antonio’s sole source of drinking water has almost doubled since then as adjacent ranch lands were acquired. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which manages the state natural area, has spent about $5.7 million for archeological surveys, design, construction, signs and other infrastructure to get the natural area open for day use.

Initially, visitors will be able to picnic, bird watch, shop for souvenirs, view exhibits explaining the natural area’s unique geology and natural and cultural resources, and explore roughly 40 miles of trails available to hikers and cyclists. For now, Governmen

t Canyon will be open for day use only, but Superintendent Deirdre Hisler expects to be ready to accommodate overnight guests at primitive tent camping sites sometime next year.

“The community has been waiting — and waiting patiently — for a long time for Government Canyon to open,” Hisler said. “We are a work in progress. Our primary concern as a state natural area is protecting valuable cultural and natural resources in the sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.”

Government Canyon SNA sits at the confluence of three distinctly different eco-regions, where the blackland prairie and the mostly flat, mesquite-dominated savanna south of the Balcones Escarpment meets the rugged oak- and ashe juniper-covered hills and rugged canyonlands of the uplifted Edwards Plateau along the Balcones Fault Zone. Along this fault zone lies the primary recharge zone where water enters the Edward Aquifer that serves as the source of drinking water for millions of central Texas residents.

For the purpose of natural area management, Hisler explained, Government Canyon SNA has been divided into two sections: the “backcountry” and “frontcountry.” The much larger environmentally sensitive “backcountry” is accessible to the public only by foot or bicycle. Multiuse trails for hikers, cyclists and equestrians are located off the recharge zone in the relatively flat “frontcountry” where natural area facilities for the visiting public are located.

Some 7,500 acres of the state natural area’s backcountry make up one of the nation’s largest and most unusual karst preserves where water “recharges,” or enters the Edwards Aquifer through sinkholes, caves and fractures in the porous limestone surface that predominates in the more rugged part of Government Canyon. The Tim and Karen Hixon Visitor Center, which includes offices, a gift shop, interpretive exhibit hall, restrooms and two classrooms, is located in the minimally developed southern portion of the natural area where ranching operations once took place under prior ownership. Here too, is a group picnic pavilion with fireplace, 20 picnic sites, a maintenance facility and composting toilets.

The state natural area derives its name from the canyon used as the Joe Johnston Route, a westward route up and across the Edwards Plateau blazed in the 1850s by a U.S. military survey crew stationed at Fort Government Hill, known today as Fort Sam Houston. It is via this historic route that hikers and cyclists can readily access backcountry trails leading to scenic vistas and other points of interest.

Government Canyon SNA’s diverse habitats harbor seven creatures which are on the federal endangered species list, including the six of Bexar County’s nine protected karst invertebrates — cave spiders and beetles — as well as the golden-cheeked warbler. The warbler’s critical habitat in the backcountry will be off limits to visitors during the breeding and nesting season from March 1 to Sept. 1.

The October opening of Government Canyon fulfills several major goals of TPWD’s strategic 10-year initiative set forth in its Land and Water Resources Conservation and Recreation Plan in that it: 1) protects significant water and wildlife resources, 2) establishes a recreation area easily accessible by an urban population, and 3) embodies a partnership of state agencies, city government and other public entities, and the private sector.

Because 88 percent of the state natural area sits atop the Edward Aquifer recharge zone, the City of San Antonio, San Antonio Water System and Edwards Aquifer Authority are ensured that a crucial watershed remains undeveloped. Government Canyon also conserves a large parcel of the rapidly disappearing wild and scenic Texas Hill Country for recreational and educational pursuits.

Government Canyon serves, too, as a model for future public land acquisition. The purchase and preservation of the various tracts comprising the natural area resulted from a unique collaboration of dozens of community organizations, government agencies, corporations and individuals. Their efforts preserved thousands of acres once slated for residential development, thus protecting the Edwards Aquifer from environmental degradation, conserving habitat for endangered songbirds and cave invertebrates, and preserving precious pieces of Texas’ prehistoric and historic past.

Equally significant is Government Canyon’s role as an outdoor classroom. Interpretive programs will help educate school groups and others about the importance of land conservation and stewardship, biodiversity, endangered species, sustainable building practices, alternative energy and the vulnerability of local aquifers to contamination in the face of Texas’ unprecedented growth and resulting pressures on its natural resources.

Visitors also will be able to learn about the area’s ranching heritage and prehistoric and historic importance. They will discover, for example, that Government Canyon SNA has 100-plus recorded archeological sites. Furthermore, history records that from 1860 to 1967, the ranch land that makes up the core of the state natural area belonged to only two families — the Hoffmans and Lytles. It was during the Hoffman’s tenure that Government Canyon’s iconic Zizelmann House, dating from 1882, was built. It still stands in the backcountry.

In the 1970s, a development company bought the property with the intent of turning the former ranch into a mixed-use community for 80,000 people. But the property was foreclosed on during the Texas real estate bust and was acquired by the Resolution Trust Corporation, which put it up for auction. In a move to protect the important watershed, a grassroots community organization called the Government Canyon Coalition, now known as the Friends of Government Canyon, joined forces with the Trust for Public Land, SAWS and the Edwards Underground Water District (today, the Edwards Aquifer Authority), to facilitate the purchase of 4,717 acres by TPWD.

In the coming months, Hisler said, Government Canyon and its partners will be employing brush removal and prescribed fire to restore the front country to pre-agricultural conditions and emphasizing the “Leave No Trace” ethic that teaches visitors how to minimize their impact on the outdoors.

Government Canyon SNA is located 3.5 miles northwest of Loop 1604 on Culebra Road (also known as FM 471), then 1.6 miles north on Galm Road. The entry fee for persons age 13 and older is $6.

For more information about Government Canyon, call the park at (210) 688-9055.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedi...?req=20050919a



Wilderness area's priority is protecting nature
Web Posted: 10/09/2005 05:42 PM CDT
Anton Caputo
Express-News Staff Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/env...n.3936c65.html

The ghostly ruins of a wildcatter's dream can be spotted about a mile's hike into Government Canyon: a broken windmill, some rusted metal tanks, the remains of a few old shacks slowly being devoured by the live oaks and *****ly pears.

No one knows exactly when the wildcatters arrived. Drilling failed to make them rich. But what they found instead made them stay and settle — producing beef instead of black gold.

"They came here for oil," explains John Koepke, the chief interpreter of Government Canyon, "and found water."

Water is the key to understanding Government Canyon State Natural Area, one of the largest natural holdings within the boundaries of any American city. It opens to the public next Saturday.

Water first attracted humans here 10,000 years ago. It later persuaded them to stay when the landscape was an untamed and harsh backwoods, miles from the civilization of San Antonio.

And the water that seeps through porous limestone that covers much of the 8,622-acre natural area to refill the Edwards Aquifer below prompted a 12-year, $16 million effort to preserve the land from development — even as neighborhoods pressed closer and closer to its barbed-wire boundaries.

Preserving the land

Government Canyon sits just outside Loop 1604 near Culebra Road, 16 miles from downtown. Visitors will find 40 miles of dirt trails to explore, many of them physically challenging. They offer the perfect setting for hiking and mountain biking. High heels and baby strollers should stay at home.

Seventeen trails zigzag the canyon. All have been cut into the rough terrain by volunteers who have worked tirelessly to prepare the park for Saturday's opening.

Camping, and perhaps horseback riding, could be permitted next year. But the overnight accommodations won't be fancy. A fire pit, tent and composting toilet will be the only touches of civilization allowed. No RVs. No showers. No electricity.

All of this is by design, to limit the impact of humans on the swath of wild land that's 10 times bigger than New York City's Central Park and eight times bigger than Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Overall, Government Canyon ranks fifth in the country for park or natural land within city limits, according to a list compiled by Trust for Public Land. The largest is Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso, which measures a whopping 24,000 acres.

But unlike Franklin Mountains, Central Park or Golden Gate Park, Government Canyon isn't a park. It's a state natural area. The differences are large. Simply defined: The well-being of the land is the top priority, easily trumping recreation. Any activity judged to harm the environment will be eliminated — period.

"This is all about how rainwater gets into the aquifer," said Koepke, a lanky Ohioan who also serves as the top law enforcement officer. "And we take our role as stewards of the environment very seriously."

That seriousness is evident even in the way the 8,600 acres are divvied up. Leashed pets — and possibly horses later on — are allowed, but only on 700 of the 1,000 or so acres that are not part of the aquifer recharge zone.

An endangered bird

People are similarly banned from the northeast 1,100 acres of the park for half the year — March 1 to Sept. 1. The area is prime golden-cheeked warbler habitat, and rangers want to ensure humans don't disturb the endangered songbirds during mating and nesting season.

During the six months the area is open, the warbler habitat will be worth a visit. A determined hiker can make it to the Black Hill Loop in about two hours at a good clip. And although the route has some of the roughest inclines in the canyon, it also offers some of the best views.

From the perch, Government Canyon stretches off into the distance, a sea of emerald treetops and waving grasses amid the rooftops and asphalt strips of the Alamo City.

"This is what's it's all about," Koepke said, surveying the scene below. "This is the big picture."

Despite all you can't do in Government Canyon, what's left offers plenty of opportunity for stunning scenery and solitude year round. What you won't likely find, though, are swimming holes or fast-running streams.

Several creeks crisscross the canyon, but like many in South and Central Texas, they run dry most of the year and then quickly swell during a heavy rain.

The real opportunities lie in hiking, biking and natural sightseeing.

An hour-and-a-half hike on the Joe Johnston Route — named for the Fort Sam Houston cavalry officer who surveyed the route for the government (which also gave the canyon its name) more than 150 years ago — takes you past the 80-foot wall that makes Government Canyon a canyon.

The massive limestone formation was hewn into the earth over the past 12 million years by a combination of a substantial shift in the Haby Crossing fault and the slow, steady cutting power of Government Canyon Creek.

The wall, even to the uneducated eye, is a monument to the geological forces that formed the South Texas we know today.

It's composed of distinct layer after layer of limestone, each the remnant of a soft, muddy prehistoric seafloor.

The rock probably first emerged from the retreating sea slightly more than 100 million years ago.

A long-ago sea

"We're at what was once the bottom of a shallow sea," San Antonio hydrogeologist George Veni explained. "In this case, we had sediments that were carbonate rich. We had lots of shelled organisms living in the sea, and many were made of calcium carbonate. With time it all gets buried and squeezed. Pressure and chemistry literally cements it into a hard rock."

Among the long list of creatures that call Government Canyon home are a number of poisonous snakes, including the black-tailed rattlesnake, coral snake and, occasionally, a copperhead. These offer a good incentive to stay on the trail.

That point was underscored as Koepke escorted visitors through the canyon. A 4-foot-long Western diamondback rattlesnake materialized almost underfoot. The reptile halted Koepke's long, easy stride and sends him backpedaling.

"Whoa! That's a sizable one. Beautiful," Koepke said after catching his breath. "As we get into the heat of the day, you won't see them."

The canyon also is sprinkled with rare and endangered species. In addition to the warbler, they include the plains spotted skunk, the Texas tortoise, the Texas salamander and six species of endangered cave insects and arachnids.

The presence of these species, and countless more living in the canyon, is not speculation. One of the benefits of the many delays in opening the natural area is that they have given researchers years to study the land and catalog its species.

"We are in a unique position that we have all the data before the park is open, so we'll be able to gauge the impact," said Cary Guffey, biology professor at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Guffey's specialty is snakes, lizards, frogs, salamanders and turtles. He's documented about 50 species in Government Canyon. His tools are of the low-tech sort: plastic buckets and wooden boards that act as traps, or in some cases just inviting shelter, for insects, snakes and other critters.

Guffey sets the traps about one week a month, and then makes daily trips to count what he's got in the buckets and under the boards.

There are five of his stations in the natural area. One is a little bit off the beaten path in what may be the most eerily beautiful spot in the canyon: a stand of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, like a walkway to an antebellum plantation.

Mysterious moss

Seemingly out of place in the scrub forests of South Texas, the scene sneaks up on hikers pounding down the path and soon engulfs them in a canopy of hanging moss. But it ends almost as soon as it begins, lasting maybe 100 yards.

Neither Koepke nor Guffey can do more than guess at the forces, natural or otherwise, behind the surreal setting. Guffey, though, sees the hand of man.

"Apparently, when Spanish moss is brought in and has good habitat, it establishes well. That's as good as I can come up with," he said. "I've heard some say it's because of the higher humidity in that spot. But that has always troubled me because there are always spots of high humidity."

This type of out-of-the-ordinary scene seems to typify Government Canyon, which has been a favorite stopover for humans for 10,000 years. Archaeologists have surveyed the land around the trails and found the area littered with artifacts. More than 100 archaeological sites have been documented.

The allure throughout the eons is similar to the allure to modern-day naturalists: water and a convergence of natural landscapes.

Government Canyon is divided between the rugged limestone terrain, called karst, of the Balcones Escarpment to the north and the flatter grasslands of the Blackland Prairie and mesquite-dominated savannah to the south.

The varied landscapes offer a good setting for a natural classroom. It's an opportunity that various agencies — Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Edwards Aquifer Authority, the San Antonio Water System and others — plan to use to their advantage. All are partners in the natural area, along with the city of San Antonio.

The distinct environments offered something much more important than education to the prehistoric bands of hunters and gatherers that made the area a regular stop on their nomadic journey through Texas. The convergence of landscapes translated into an abundance of bison, deer, acorns, pecans and flint for tool making.

"It's a very enviable combination of resources," said Steve Tomka, director of the Center for Archaeological Resources at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Scarcity of water

About 6,000 years ago, the canyon's creek and springs became even more critically important for indigenous tribes. That's when a 2,000-year drought swept through South Texas, making most of the region uninhabitable.

"That's about the time we start seeing the remains of villages, where people would stop and stay at the springs for several weeks or months at a time," Tomka said.

Signs of prehistoric people may still abound in the canyon in the form of dart points and the fragments of tools and others implements, but the average hiker is more likely to come across newer and more obvious signs of historical significance.

These stem from the canyon's more modern ranching tradition. They include the Zizelmann House, an 1880s-era L-shaped home constructed with hundreds of blocks of hand-hewn limestone, and the remnants of the Wildcat Canyon Historic Ranch. Another is water, which turned conservationists' eyes to the canyon after plans to build a subdivision for 80,000 people sank in the wake of the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s.

The first conservation purchase, $2 million for 4,717 acres, occurred in 1994. That was after a citizens group urged Trust for Public Land to help raise money to protect the aquifer. From there, a combination of state and local governments and private groups worked through the years to finish the job.

Former City Councilwoman Bonnie Conner was part of the coalition. Reflecting on the dozen years of struggle to get to Saturday's opening, she envisages San Antonio's sprawling future when much of the wild land we know today will be nothing but a memory.

"I think when we look back on this 25 to 50 years from now, the public will say, 'Gosh, the citizens really had a lot of foresight to save this and make it a place that we can all go to,'" she said. "When you get out there after driving in a traffic jam on 1604 and retreat to the natural environment, it just takes your breath away."

[Drachen]

Its pretty sad when the very first sentence of your article has a factual error in it.

Oh, other than that, this is awesome, because I was just thinking I need a little hiking time, and, well this is perfect seeing as its only like 15 or so minutes away and looks like its 90.

[Spurs|ATX|]

that is awesome!! really good to hear..

Originally Posted by Drachen

Its pretty sad when the very first sentence of your article has a factual error in it.

whats the error?

[To be named later]

What factual error?

[Pizbo]

the much anticipated part?

[Drachen]

We are the 2nd largest city in Texas.

[boo_radley]

This is cool and all, but what kind of name is Government Canyon? Its about original as Town Lake, maybe the people that come up with the Spurs slogans should have provided the name for this place?

[PHANTOM21]

that place looks sweet. it looks like the perfect place to spend some quiet time alone with mother nature, myself and a bong.

[Blake]

yeah, the name 'Government Canyon' sounds really sterile. What's next? IRS Lake? Politicians Park?

woo hooooo road trip!

[ladyspur]

TBNL............

Were you looking for buried treasure or something?

[PHANTOM21]

Originally Posted by Blake

yeah, the name 'Government Canyon' sounds really sterile. What's next? IRS Lake? Politicians Park?

Congress hiking trail?

or Cabinet fishing pond?

[Blake]

Interns Bush?

[FamousJames]

You people would find a way to b1tch about winning the lottery.

[21MVP]

Originally Posted by boo_radley

This is cool and all, but what kind of name is Government Canyon? Its about original as Town Lake, maybe the people that come up with the Spurs slogans should have provided the name for this place?

from article:

"The state natural area derives its name from the canyon used as the Joe Johnston Route, a westward route up and across the Edwards Plateau blazed in the 1850s by a U.S. military survey crew stationed at Fort Government Hill, known today as Fort Sam Houston."

[boo_radley]

So call it Hill Canyon -- oh, wait that's for the oxymoron thread.

[Drachen]

Originally Posted by FamousJames

You people would find a way to b1tch about winning the lottery.

You mean I have to drive to austin to pick up my $3,000,000. Forget it!