Imagine a 100-mile network of trails for hiking and biking that runs from the Texas Capitol in Austin to the Alamo in San Antonio, connecting along the way to Barton, San Marcos, Comal, and San Antonio springs. This is the vision of the Great Springs Project, launched in 2018 and currently working on a master plan to make it a reality.
The route will create a corridor of protected lands over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, which feeds all four of these significant springs.
“Our board president and co-founder, Deborah Morin, had the idea and vision 25 years ago,” says Emma Lindrose-Siegel, the organization’s chief development officer. “Around 2017, she realized that with the area growing so fast and things getting so much more expensive, we needed to act now.”
The new trail would connect Austin to San Antonio via major parts of the Edwards Aquifer. RoschetzkyIstockPhoto/Getty Images
The overall mission is to protect and connect the springs, says CEO Garry Merritt. “People come to the Hill Country to connect with nature. We have a mission to use market-based transactions to protect the four major springs between San Antonio and Austin and connect those springs with a network of trails.”
Reprinted with permission from Melissa Gaskill, CultureMap