Headwaters at the Comal

Nestled at the bottom of the Balcones Escarpment and edge of the Coastal Plains, just outside of downtown New Braunfels, and in the heart of a growing urban center, this newly established community site is quickly establishing itself as a priceless Hill Country asset. Since the completion of Phase I build out in November of 2017, and despite only one-third of the site being developed, the Headwaters has engaged over 1,500 Central Texas youth and 3,550 business leaders and community members in programs that stretch across our four organizational pillars: education and demonstration, research, conservation, and community place-making.

Education and Demonstration: We offer extensive programs that educate students and adults on the importance of protection and conservation of land and water resources and demonstrates best practices in cultural and environmental resource use and management.

Conservation & Protection: We protect and conserve the headwaters of the Comal, the river and aquifer systems it sustains, and precious Hill Country land resources.

Research: We conduct and facilitate research that deepens our understanding of the impacts of human activity on our resources and human benefits from experiences in nature and informs decision making on best practices.

Community Place-making: We provide a unique space for the community to gather, learn and explore immersed in the natural environment.

We have a focus on fundraising right now to match funds in order to re-purpose the old warehouse buildings on site to community space, education classrooms and an interpretive, unique, engaging Environmental Education Center representing the Edwards Aquifer Ecosystem. The remaining concrete and asphalt impervious pavement will be removed and replaced with green infrastructure, demonstration gardens and innovative water saving technologies.

We are leading an Education Taskforce to develop TEKS based curriculum to implement during field trips and in classroom discussions and projects.

The Technical Advisory Committee, made up of leading local and regional scientists and other non--profit leaders are providing input and direction on using the site for regional science and guiding our understanding and exploration of how the restoration of the site.

We continue to maintain and improve the changes that were made to the property in 2016 -2017 including monitoring water quality and prairie restoration.

Our capabilities are stretched right now, like most non-profits, however having the support of the municipal utility provider as our sponsor we are able to leverage a number of different partner organizations and businesses to add capacity. We also have a number of organizations and businesses who have donated in-king services and have a growing volunteer database who provide invaluable services to our organization.

We will need to continue to expand and grow our revenue streams to support our organization's vision moving forward. The response from the community has been overwhelmingly supportive with the understanding that the work we are doing to protect our Comal Springs and improve and restore habitat that is being lost at a tremendous rate due to development is vital to the well-being of our community and our region.

We raised approximately $1,750,000 from the community
Restored an important riparian habitat (host to 4 endangered and numerous threatened species endemic to the area)
Installed 4 acres of savanna prairie habitat
Hosted over 5,000 visitors
55 active volunteers
2 Earth Day Celebrations, with over 400 visitors at each event
Active Archaeological excavation which reached over 1,000 people
Hosted Boy Scout archaeology badge event, 2 Eagle Scout projects
Partnered with high school Ag Science department for native grass identification learning
Participated in great backyard bird count
Hosted numerous community non-profit tours, picnics, presentations