[Joyce Moore] South Llano is their life blood...it's one
of the purest rivers, unspoiled rivers, left in Texas.
[Gary Garrett] (releasing bass fingerlings) You can't catch these in an ugly place. They
live in some of the most beautiful places in the world, certainly in Texas.
[Znobia Wootan - President, South Llano Watershed Alliance]
The river can help this little town and it's a beautiful little town.
[Tom Vandivier - Director, South Llano Watershed Alliance]
I think there is more and more recognition in this state that water is becoming a scarce
resource.
[Znobia Wootan - President, South Llano Watershed Alliance]
The people are coming to the Llano. The word is out. So you need to be able to educate
people on the right way to take care of it so that we can all enjoy it.
[Narration] The ongoing drought has taken a toll on this
spring.
[TomVandivier] This dry wash you see here is the site of
Llano Spring and where it used to flow into the blue hole in the Llano.
((dog splashes in water))
[Tom] Still enough water for the dog anyway.
[Narration] But on the east bank of the river, the springs
are still flowing. And the Vandiviers take that as a good sign of the land management
practices they've instilled over the years.
[Tom] Extensive cedar clearing, prescribed burns,
130 or so header dams, grazing practices... Even with the severity of the drought that
we're working with, I'm absolutely sure we're in better condition than we would have been
if we hadn't done these stewardship practices.
((computer clicks))
[Narration] And that's the message behind the South Llano
Watershed Alliance. Comprised of landowners, like the Vandiviers, and stakeholders from
numerous organizations, the alliance is dedicated to preserving and enhancing the river and
adjoining watersheds by encouraging land and water stewardship through collaboration, education
and community participation.
[Tom Arsuffi - Director, Texas Tech University Llano River Field Station]
It's a heck of a lot cheaper to keep a watershed and a river flowing before it goes bad than
to try and fix it after it deteriorates.
[Narration] Holding workshops for landowners along the
Llano and opening a new paddling trail are two of the major educational tools for the
Alliance.
[Marvin Ivy - Junction Police Chief and SLWA Member]
The paddling trail seemed to be a good way to publicize how long the trip was going to
take, and what type of equipment was needed. And also guard the property rights of the
landowners along the river. Property that's for sale along the river is
now advertised in the paper as being "on the paddling trails" like that's a benefit and
a plus!
((kayakers))
[Narration] Today, a group of experts float the river
to take note of where the river needs help.
[Gary Garrett - Director of Conservation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
What holds these banks together is a network of roots that acts like a basket to hold this
structure together. And there's just no riparian forest here. So we need more grasses, more
trees, more root structure.
[Narration] And to marvel at the wonders the river has
to offer.
((group standing over river plant))
[Jason Singhurst - Botanist, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department]
This is Spring Run Whitehead. This plant is relatively rare and only known from four counties
in Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. It's basically the only submerged aquatic plant that looks
like red leaf lettuce under water.
[Dr. Emily Seldomridge - Research Associate, Texas Tech University and SLWA Member]
We're about to go through our studies area. You'll see little flags up on the banks.
I hope the alliance can have a strong grass roots initiative in the community. I think
that they have a great partnership and a great network with a lot of locals.
I think one of their proudest moments is with the Oasis Wildfire that we had.
((ominous music - over burned landscape))
[Narration] In April 2011, a lightning strike burned nearly
10,000 acres of riparian and upland habitat along the Llano River.
[Scott Richardson - Former Director and President of South Llano Watershed Alliance]
The concern from this fire was what was going to happen to this land after it, if it could
recover.
[Narration] The answer was a demonstration workshop put
on by the Alliance to more than 80 landowners affected by the wildfire. They were shown
man-made exclosures and natural exclosures to protect new growth from browsing; cedar
slashed terracing and fiber rows to stop erosion; even fiber blankets laid down in rows from
special seed mix developed for scorched land.
[Scott Richardson] We've lost a lot of soil up here, up to two
to three inches on these slopes. But what we are seeing is vegetation coming back from
the roots and from the seeds. So the good news of all this is that the land is starting
to recover.
[Marvin Ivy] We realized that part of our tourism dollars
here is not just hunting anymore. It's all of the other things that you can do in a beautiful
country like this. Paddling and fishing. The fishing in this river is great. And a lot
of people come here to catch the Guadalupe bass.
This is one of the only rivers in Texas where you can actually see all four species of the
Kingfisher that are native.
[Znobia Wootan - President, South Llano Watershed Alliance]]
The boundary of the land where it meets the river, so much life goes on there. You have
your nesting birds, you have you're tadpoles, your baby fish. You also have your big grasses
filtering runoff from the land.
[TomVandivier] Good stewardship equals good habitat, which
equals good water resources. And water resources are good not only for a piece of land like
ours, but they're good for everybody in the state of Texas.
[Znobia Wootan - President, South Llano Watershed Alliance]]
Getting one neighbor to talk to another neighbor on how to have a healthy riparian is going
to be the greatest chance of success because you're not ever going to be able to reach
every single person in one workshop.
[Joyce Moore - Technical Guidance Biologist, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department]
They're very unique in that they are the only one, alliance, of this sort to my knowledge.
[Narration] And with cooperation, comes hope.
[TomVandivier] I do believe it will run again. It was a beautiful,
pristine hill country spring, and was the pride of this ranch. And we can't help but
believe that it will come back.