Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text
  • Article Image Alt Text

Mayor’s Corner

Preserve History

The Cypress Creek Nature Preserve, located along the creek in the heart of Wimberley, was established in December, 2001, as a way to safeguard a unique tract of riparian wilderness rarely found in an urban environment. The Preserve is protected by a very strict deeded Conservation Easement that allows for its “use only as a nature preserve and for the education and edification of the public as to its character.” At its formation, the Preserve constituted “a true remnant wilderness tract that has never been subjected to any substantial level of agricultural, recreational, chemical pollutants or other human traffic of any kind, excepting only the occasional visitor or passer-by who have come to appreciate its extraordinary natural state.” As Wimberley’s population of both residents and visitors has grown, the Preserve welcomes visitors no longer occasionally but continually.

Responding to increased recreational and off-trail activity, as well as to instances of unapproved cutting and removal of native species, a group of volunteers along with representatives from the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association who holds the Conservation Easement organized to form the Cypress Creek Nature Preservers. On March, 16, 2017, the Wimberley City Council voted to task this volunteer group with the mission to assist the City with the maintenance and restoration of the Preserve. Councilman Gary Barchfeld serves as representative to the group. Working with WVWA, the Preservers formed a steering committee as well as an advisory board drawing from community groups such as the Wimberley Birding Society, Keep Wimberley Beautiful, Wimberley Outdoor Educators, Hays County Master Naturalists, and representatives from the parks board, city staff, and the constable’s office. These groups provided valuable input for a long-term restoration and stewardship plan to ensure the vitality of the Preserve for years to come.

Increased human presence along heavily-used trails in sensitive portions of the Preserve along the creek have lead to damage to root zones of the Cypress trees, bank erosion and loss of plant and animal habitat. The recent creekside trail closure at the northern end of the Preserve is part of a habitat and creek bank restoration plan designed to allow for the regrowth of ample native vegetation along the bank. During the restoration phase, limited access to portions of the closed areas will still be granted for guided educational groups.

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054