More than the lifeblood of our natural world, Texas rivers have nourished the human spirit for as long as people have gathered on their banks. A living bond has flowed between Texas writers and rivers ever since the 1960 publication of John Graves's classic journey along the Brazos, Goodbye to a River.Many of Texas' leading writers have had their hearts captured by a river, and they have created sparkling accounts of the waterways they love. Now, editors Steven L. Davis and Sam L. Pfiester have assembled the best of those works into a revelatory collection of diverse literary voices. Ranging from the desert canyonlands of the Rio Grande to the swampy Big Thicket, from crystal clear Hill Country streams to the Red River's treacherous quicksand, Viva Texas Rivers! showcases many classic writings along with brand new essays written for this volume. The literary nonfiction is complemented by flashes of poetry that brilliantly reflect these curving ribbons of light. Authoritative and expertly edited, Viva Texas Rivers! offers shimmering accounts of hidden paradises, as well as searing exposEs of abuse and despoliation. Yet even in the bleakest times, as these writers have found, Texas rivers can bestow a sacred grace -and unexpected redemption. Viva Texas Rivers! brings you as close to the living nirvana of a Texas River as you can get without launching yourself into a canoe and following a great blue heron as it glides just above the breaking rapids, leading you around the bend as the river flows onward toward the best places in our hearts.

Premiere paddler and Texas Canoe Racing Hall of Famer Bob Spain presents a thorough and personal guide to all aspects of canoeing. He opens with a brief history of canoes and canoe making in North America followed by an illustrated how-to section on proper paddling technique and posture. Instructional photos and drawings by Spain's paddling partner and wife, Joy Emshoff, help make your first-time paddling adventure less intimidating and more enjoyable. Readers will learn how to hold a paddle, perform basic strokes, and improve their technique as well as gain important information on the various types of canoes available. A handy checklist in the back of the book outlines important safety gear and essential equipment to pack in your canoe for day trips and overnight expeditions. Both newcomers to the sport and seasoned paddlers will find Spain's detailed descriptions of his ten favorite inland and coastal Texas paddling trails entertaining and helpful. He provides useful logistical information-such as launch and take-out locations-GPS coordinates, available camping sites, and suggestions for nearby paddling trails. These trails offer paddlers a unique opportunity to explore the state and its varied wildlife while promoting the importance of preserving waterways. Spain concludes with a discussion on pressing conservation issues-water pollution, urban growth, habitat destruction, invasive species, and natural disasters-and the role ordinary people can have in protecting these natural resources for future generations.

When a team of five explorers embarked on a 1,200-mile journey down the Rio Grande, the river that marks the southern boundary of Texas and the US-Mexico border, their goal was to experience and capture on film the rugged landscapes of this vast frontier before the controversial construction of a border wall changed this part of the river forever. The crew-Texas filmmaker Ben Masters, Brazilian immigrant Filipe DeAndrade, Texas conservationist Jay Kleberg, wildlife biologist Heather Mackey, and Guatemalan-American river guide Austin Alvarado-began the trip in El Paso, pedaling mountain bikes through the city's dry river bed. Their path took them on horseback through the Big Bend, down the Wild and Scenic stretch of the river in canoes, and back to bikes from Laredo to Brownsville. They paddled the last ten miles through a forest of river cane to the Gulf of Mexico. As they made their way to the Gulf, they met and talked with the people who know and live on the river-border patrol, wildlife biologists, ranchers, politicians, farmers, social workers, locals, and travelers. They climbed the wall (in twenty seconds). They encountered rare black bears, bighorn sheep, and birds of all kinds. And they sought to understand the complexities of immigration, the efficacy of a wall, and the impact of its construction on water access, wildlife, and the culture of the borderlands. The River and the Wall is both a wild adventure on a spectacular river and a sobering commentary on the realities of walling it off.

While fog does not come easily or frequently to Central Texas, when it does, it inspires moments of quiet and reflection. David K. Langford captures those moments here in stirring images of the comings and goings of fog on Hillingdon Ranch, family land that has benefited from the stewardship of six generations. These photographs in turn inspired an essay by writer Rick Bass that takes him back to his own memories of fog-in the Texas Hill Country and elsewhere. Fog at Hillingdon includes a personal note by Langford on his techniques and camera equipment. Apt historic or contemporary quotations selected by Myrna Langford accompany many of the photographs and reflect the moods and sentiments fog often evokes.

There has never been a greater need for raising the funds necessary to promote the causes that will help build a sustainable future. In "Money for the Cause: A Complete Guide to Event Fundraising," veteran nonprofit executive director Rudolph A. Rosen lays out field-tested approaches that have been among those that helped him and the teams of volunteers and professionals he has worked with raise more than $3 billion for environmental conservation. As Rosen explains, fundraising events can range from elite, black-tie affairs in large cities to basement banquets and backyard barbeques in small-town America. "Money for the Cause "runs the gamut, demonstrating methods adaptable to most situations and illustrating both basic and advanced techniques that can be duplicated by everyone from novice volunteers to experienced event planners.
Each chapter begins with a pertinent, real-life anecdote and focuses on major areas of event fundraising: business plans and budgets, raffles and auctions, tax and liability matters, contract negotiation, games and prizes, site selection, food service, entertainment, publicity, mission promotion, food and drink service, and effective team building and use of volunteers. The author applies each topic to the widest possible range of events, providing practical detail and giving multiple examples to cover the differences in types of organizations and their fundraising activities. Whatever the funding objective may be, "Money for the Cause: A Complete Guide to Event Fundraising "is both a textbook and a practical reference that will be indispensable to anyone involved in mission-driven organizations, whether as a volunteer, a professional, a student, or an educator.

The San Marcos springs have flowed for around ten million years. In this ode to the river they form, Jim Kimmel brings us a picture of a watercourse brimming with life, past and present. Native, non-native, prehistoric, and modern-day plants, animals, and people have inhabited the river and its banks. Kimmel touches on them all with the affectionate and knowledgeable voice of one whose own life has been closely linked to the San Marcos. As readers journey with Kimmel from the river's headwater springs to its junction with the Guadalupe River, ""The San Marcos: A River's Story"" will capture the imagination and provide valuable information about the river and its crucial role in the ecological health of Texas. Original photographs by Jerry Touchstone Kimmel add a sense of the beauty and complexity of the river.

Incorporating seven years of photography and research, Krista Schlyer portrays life along the Anacostia River, a Washington, DC, waterway rich in history and biodiversity that has nonetheless lingered for years in obscurity and neglect in our nation's capital. River of Redemption offers an experience of the river that reveals its eons of natural history, centuries of destruction, and decades of restoration efforts. The story of the Anacostia echoes the story of rivers across America. Inspired by Aldo Leopold's classic book, A Sand County Almanac, Krista Schlyer evokes a consciousness of time and place, taking readers through the seasons in the watershed as well as through the river's complex history and ecology. As with rivers nationwide, the ways we've changed the Anacostia affect the people and wildlife that inhabit its shores, from the headwaters in Maryland, past its confluence with the Potomac River, and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay. Centuries of abuse at the hands of people who have altered the landscape and mistreated the waterway have transformed it into a polluted, toxic soup unfit for swimming or fishing. The forgotten river is both a reminder of the worst humanity can do to the natural landscape and a wellspring of memory that offers a roadmap back to health and well-being for watershed residents, human and non-human alike. Blending stunning photography with informative and poignant text, River of Redemption offers the opportunity to reinvent our role in urban ecology and to redeem our relationship with this national river and watersheds nationwide.

Arguably, no other institution has transformed the heart of Texas like the Lower Colorado River Authority. Born in the Great Depression of the 1930s, LCRA built a chain of dams and brought predictability to the cycles of extreme droughts and floods that had long plagued Austin and other communities. It also brought hydroelectric power-and with that, modern-day civilization-to the hard-scrabble regions of Central and South Texas. With those achievements, and the support of powerful political leaders like Lyndon Johnson, LCRA for years was touted as one of the state's major success stories. But LCRA has never been a stranger to controversy, and while it continues to provide much of the energy and water that fuels the economic engine of Austin and beyond, most people know very little about LCRA. In this book, readers will learn about the forces of nature and politics that combined to create LCRA; the colorful personalities who operated, supported, or fought with the agency; its spectacular successes, periodic blunders, and occasional failures; and its evolution into one of the largest public power organizations in Texas.

In a stunning tribute to one of Texas' most enigmatic waterways, a veteran East Texas historian and a professional photographer have together created an homage to a lake like no other - half Texas, half Louisiana, a swampy labyrinth of bald cypress and water plants filled with mystery, legend, and a staggering amount of biological complexity. Classified as a Category 1 Habitat for wildlife by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and encompassing a state wildlife management area as well as a state park, Caddo Lake and adjacent areas have also been designated as a Ramsar Site under the international convention to preserve world-class wetlands and their waterfowl. In both words and pictures, writer Thad Sitton and photographer Carolyn Brown have captured the human, animal, and plant life of Caddo, as well as the history of the lake itself, better likened to an ever-changing network of cypress woodlands, bayou-like channels, water-plant meadows, and hardwood bottoms covered more or less by water.

Within about seventy-five miles of downtown Houston, some 1,500 miles of rivers, creeks, lakes, bayous, and bays await discovery. "Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways," by longtime paddler Natalie Wiest, is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to experience Houston's well-watered landscape from the seat of a kayak or canoe.

Before introducing readers to the quiet, green world that lies within and around the heart of the city, Wiest gives some pointers on water safety (including swimming and boating); on weather, flood stages, and legal access; and on an often unseen but always present paddling companion--alligators. She also provides a gear checklist for a day trip, a brief guide to boats and paddles, and a "sampler" list of easy places to paddle for true beginners.

Presented in nine chapters, each organized around a river system or coastal basin and comprising a "suite" of paddling trips, the excursions described by Wiest offer a general description of the destination, directions (both driving and paddling), and details about the paddling conditions and access sites, which are all publicly owned or managed. Each chapter lists mileages, USGS gauging station numbers, and GIS locations when applicable. Also including ninety color photos and more than thirty detailed maps, "Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways" offers both novice and experienced paddlers a helpful and enjoyable reference for experiencing nature at water level, in and around Houston.

When George Bristol first saw the mountains surrounding East Glacier, Montana, in the early summer of 1961, he was, in his own words, awed to his depths. Thus began a love affair with nature and public parks that has endured for more than fifty years. This same love affair would lead Bristol to become a crusader for America's national parks and, later, to be largely credited for the rescue of the ailing public park system in his home state.

In "On Politics and Parks," Bristol tells his own story in lively prose that includes many intriguing peeks at behind-the-scenes events in Washington, Austin, and elsewhere. Beginning with his upbringing by a widowed young mother with a passion for music and literature, he narrates the converging of influences that led him to an influential political career, including active involvement in national campaigns for Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Lloyd Bentsen, and Jimmy Carter. After working for the Democratic National Committee and Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, Bristol was asked to join President Clinton's administration.

However, what he really wanted was a place on the board of the National Park Foundation (NPF). With decades-old images of Glacier still burning brightly in his memory, he helped spearhead efforts to elevate the image of the National Park Service and helped establish a highly successful fundraising strategy for the NPF, giving both organizations greater national awareness and stature.

Having acquired a well-earned reputation for fundraising and effective advocacy, Bristol soon began to do for his home state what he had done for the NPF: solidify support and funding for the Texas park system. Over ten years and five legislative sessions, Bristol, through the Texas Coalition for Conservation, the nonprofit organization he founded, fought for the full claim of Texas state parks to the sporting goods tax. Utilizing his many contacts, his well-honed political sense, and his dogged patience, he forged an alliance that would win the day for everyone who loves the state's public lands. In 2007, in the last bill passed on the last day of the session, the Texas legislature nearly doubled the operating budget for parks.

"On Politics and Parks" is at once a lesson in conservation history and a captivating personal memoir that will inform, entertain, and inspire all those who share Bristol's love for the unspoiled beauty of the outdoors and his commitment to preserve that beauty for future generations.

Rainfall, hurricanes, rivers, reservoirs, springs, lakes, aquifers, wetlands, floodplains, water parks, irrigation, wells - the list of water-related topics in Texas is long and critical to the state's economic and political future. ""Texas Water Atlas"" provides the first comprehensive reference for water-related topics in Texas.Geographers Lawrence E. Estaville and Richard A. Earl have compiled a host of data to visually convey vital information on Texas' climate, surface and groundwater, water uses and hazards, water quantity and quality, recreation, future supply projections, and the environmental management of its water resources. In addition to more than 150 color maps, the book includes brief introductions to each chapter and a Texas water timeline that traces the state's water events since European settlement.An excellent resource for teachers, students, and policy makers, the atlas promises also to be an invaluable tool for conservation professionals and the general public.

How many times have you heard the television or radio alert, ""We are now under a flash flood watch""? While the destructive force of flash flooding is a regular occurrence in the state and has caused a tremendous amount of damage and heartache over the years, no one until now has recorded in a single book the history of flash floods in Texas.After combing libraries and archives, grilling county historians, trekking to flood sites, and collecting scores of graphic photographs, Jonathan Burnett chose twenty-eight floods from around the state to create this narrative of a century of disastrous events. Beginning with the famous Austin dam break of 1900 and ending with the historic 2002 flooding in the Hill Country, Burnett chronicles the causes and courses of these catastrophic floods as well as their costs in material damage and human lives.Dramatic photographs of each event enhance the harrowing accounts of danger spawned by nature on a rampage. Together, the stories and the pictures give readers a vivid and lasting image of the power and unpredictability of flash floods in Texas.

In 1969, J. David Bamberger bought what he described as "the sorriest piece of land" in the Texas Hill Country for the specific purpose of restoring the degraded landscape. Today, Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve is one of the largest habitat restoration projects in the state-5,500 acres-and serves as a model for land conservation and environmental education. The ranch has earned numerous awards, including the coveted Leopold Conservation Award, the Texas Environmental Excellence Award in Education, the National Private Lands Fish and Wildlife Stewardship Award, and most recently, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas International Award of Excellence in Conservation, just to name a few. Seasons at Selah: The Legacy of Bamberger Ranch Preserve chronicles Bamberger's dedication to ethical land stewardship and conservation education through stunning photographs of the land, plants, and wildlife he has devoted his time and resources to protect. Photographers Rusty Yates and David K. Langford capture each season at Selah and offer an intimate glimpse into the day-to-day management and operations of the ranch as well as some of the challenges it faces. In the accompanying text, Andrew Sansom shares his own stories from his decades-long friendship with Bamberger. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation for what conservation means for Texas: clean and abundant water, wildlife, healthy land, and an inspiring place to learn about and enjoy nature. Above all, Selah has given Texans a special opportunity to stop, pause, and reflect on the importance of good stewardship of the earth.

The Texas Landscape Project explores conservation and ecologyin Texas through an extensively researched atlas of the vastlandscape. In five major parts-Land, Water, Air, Energy, and the BuiltWorld-readers encounter the changes made by growingpopulations and industrial and agricultural development in thestate. Special wildlife sections highlight the histories of iconicfauna like the American bison and the monarch butterfly. As a follow-up to the Texas Legacy Project, this volume provideshistorical context and contemporary data for the environmentalissues that have affected Texas places: the impact of grazing ondwindling prairie grasses, the increasing reach of light pollution,and the health concerns raised by lead smelting in El Paso. Butthese are also stories of hope, as author David Todd recountsrecent successful efforts to preserve Texas' landscape and naturalresources. Navigate the Neches River valley, the Gulf of Mexico reefs, andthe colonias of the US-Mexico border with Todd's detailed yetreadable text. The more than 280 color maps, specially created bycartographer Jonathan Ogren, and over 100 photographs, supportthe clear, accessible narrative and the book's educational merit. An engaging read for any environmentalist or conscientiouscitizen, The Texas Landscape Project provides a true sense ofthe grand scope of the Lone Star State and its broad array ofenvironments.

While Barton Springs Pool is an iconic landmark of Austin and many people are familiar with the end of Barton Creek and its seven miles of public greenbelt, less is known about the forty-odd miles beyond that tumble and twist across private lands, eventually feeding the Colorado River. Legendary fights saved Barton Springs in the 1980s and 1990s, when the pool repeatedly was closed because of pollutant runoff from streets, nearby construction, and leaking sewer lines. In 1992, a highly publicized campaign resulted in land protections and stricter water standards. But will the creek and its springs become fouled again? That possibility arises upstream where tributaries and other creeks flow across mostly rural acreage, attracting new housing and business developments. Not only would city bathers lose access to the pool, but endangered species of salamanders and birds that depend on the Edwards Aquifer and its unique habitats face an uncertain future. Following the creek from downtown Austin's Barton Springs Pool to its source as a cow-pasture trickle, longtime resident and journalist Ed Crowell explores the creek's contentious political history, its historic and current residents, and the mounting environmental pressures threatening it. Barton Creek highlights the passionate individuals involved in the stream's preservation, from city scientists to local landowners, who want to see the creek running clear and clean for future generations. Striking photography and vivid descriptions will entice readers to fall in love with Barton Creek all over again.

From two veteran ecologists comes a new and sweeping exploration of the natural history of Texas in all its biological diversity and geological variation. Few states, if any, can match Texas for its myriad species, past and present, and its many distinctive landscapes, from prairie grasslands and hardwood forests to coastal lagoons and desert mountains. Beginning with the stories of how biologists and naturalists have over time defined the ecological areas of this very big state, the authors visit each of the eleven regions, including the Texas coast. They describe the dominant flora and fauna of each, explain the defining geologic features, and highlight each region's unique characteristics, such as carnivorous plants in the Piney Woods and returning black bears in the Trans-Pecos. Throughout, the authors remain especially conscious of the conservation and management issues affecting the natural resources of each region, revealing their deep affection for and knowledge about the state. Bolstered by a glossary, further reading suggestions, a description of state symbols, and an appendix of scientific names, this is an educational and essential volume for all Texans.