In order to promote resilience in the eighteen-county region, the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network (THCCN), a group of more than 150 NGOs, businesses, universities, and government agencies are collaborating to scale up the impact of conservation focused initiatives to protect the natural resources and rural heritage and quality of life in the Texas Hill Country.
David Baker, Executive Director of the WVWA, commissioned a report “Hill Country Conservation: Identifying a Narrative and Network for Large-scale Collaborative Conservation,” the Network Steering Committee continues to assemble a regional conservation community to confront the problems stemming from the wide scope of unmanaged growth in this sensitive region. While the breadth and depth of expertise in the partner organizations involved holds great value, the THCCN is as much about cultivating relationships to exchange ideas, build trust, share resources, and increase our power to solve problems.
In partnership with the Hill Country Alliance, WVWA successfully convened an expanded core group of organizations to fund and actively participate in the development of the Texas Hill Country Network Strategic Plan. The plan is now near completion; WVWA will assist in the implementation of the plan with the Hill Country Alliance and the other THCCN steering committee members, including The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.
Growing the Network will allow us to work across boundaries and agencies to harness the necessary professional diversity to meet key economic, social, and environmental objectives at a regional scale. Even though this regional initiative may seem like an ambitious departure form our local focus, the rapid pace of population growth and development in our region dictates that we expand our efforts to align with regional partners to meet the challenges that threaten the environmental and economic health of the Texas Hill Country.