How Permaculturists are molding the Hill Country to turn it into a lush paradise.
Alexander Von Humboldt, a name you will hear me quote often, said in 1799:
‘By felling the trees which cover the tops and sides of mountains, men in all climates seem to bring upon future generations two calamities at once; want of fuel and a scarcity of water.’
In 1799, Texas was still a fledgling, remote, and mostly untamed expanse under the implied rule of the Spanish. Meanwhile, deep in the other Spanish claims in South Americas, Humboldt was starting a new wave of science that would soon become known as ecology.
He observed that overgrazing and unchecked farming destroyed water tables and made the land desolate and dead. He began to legitimize and lay the groundwork for the ideas that humans had a direct and noticeable impact on the land around them for better, or for worse.
Fast forward 225 years to modern day Texas and we find a Hill Country that is sick. Despite its status and fame as a crown jewel of the modern Texas geographical tapestry, its once famous water features run dry. Its formerly carpeted rolling limestone savannahs sit ravaged by decades of thoughtless grazing and abuse. The blight and pox of unchecked and unlimited development has slowly crept over the land like an invasive ivy swallowing whatever is near
Organizations like Symbiosis TX are on the frontlines of this battle.
The Symbiosis team invited me out to one of their larger properties, roughly 200 acres, to show me around and share the extensive and expansive work they are doing to repair and heal overgrazed and neglected land.
Learn more about Symbiosis Texas here:
www.symbiosistx.com
We have a Patreon now! These videos take a long time and we can't do this full time (yet!) so if you want to help us not only continue to make these videos but also want to see more videos uploaded more frequently, than this is the best way to help!
Want physical prints of photos from each river/landscape/video? Want to have more input on where and what we shoot next?
/ dylanbures