North San Antonio Edition | March 2023

Aiding wildlife, dark skies Stakeholders also seek to fortify dark-sky pro- grams and policies designed to help communi- ties conserve energy, improve human health, and reduce articial light’s eects on activities at Camp Bullis and in nature, said Britt Coleman, president of the Bexar Audubon Society, a nonprot and area stakeholder that works to protect bird and other wildlife habitats. “If [Camp Bullis gets] too much light pollution, it ruins their night training abilities,” Coleman said. Coleman said he, other local environmentalists and some residents of the north side Cibolo Canyons neighborhood are worried that potential new nearby development could indirectly aect Camp Bullis. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is mulling a request by Starwood Land Residential Development Co., the Florida-based developer of Cibolo Canyons, to swap 63 acres of protected habitat for the endan- gered golden-cheeked warbler with an adjacent 144 acres owned by Starwood Land. Coleman called the 144 acres “suboptimal,” or not ideal warbler habitat, adding displacing birds near Cibolo Canyons could force them to move to Camp Bullis, which would endanger the warbler habitat. “When we think of Camp Bullis, we can’t think of the camp as an island, but rather all communities tied together with the military installation,” he said.

HISTORY OF CAMP BULLIS Since opening in the early 1900s, Camp Bullis has come to serve as a U.S. Army, Air Force and Texas National Guard training facility. Military and community leaders are now using a Sentinel Landscape designation to help with conservation eorts to preserve the military mission. 1906: The U.S. military buys more than 17,000 acres from all or parts of six ranches and calls it the Leon Springs Military Reservation. 1908: The military holds the rst major maneuvers for troops based at Fort Sam Houston, involving Army and National Guard infantry, cavalry and eld artillery units. 1909: The rst ring of artillery is documented. 1911: Troops are mobilized in response to upheavals in Mexico led to large-scale maneuvers at the reservation. 1917: The reservation is designated Camp Bullis, which contains 27,990 acres. Oct. 30, 2015: Local storms produce ash ooding, which is blamed in the death of a person inside Camp Bullis. 2019: The Alamo Area Council of Governments begins consortium eorts to secure the designation. 2022: The federal government awards Camp Bullis the designation on Feb. 1. Some 57 community partners support the eort.

Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape partners meet on March 26, 2022, at Camp Bullis to assess land and drainage issues at the north Bexar County military training post.

update area ood plain maps, which will require Fed- eral Emergency Management Agency approval and will take aect within two years. Donovan said new maps may help to produce ood mitigation methods. Flash ooding has swept away vehicles; inundated roads; and, in at least one case, caused a death at the post, JBSA ocials said. Donovan said new area ood plain maps will be based on a higher frequency of severe rainfalls with “more signicant storm impacts.” “We want Camp Bullis to have a long-term ability to stay a safe training facility,” Donovan said. Oppenheimer said area water organizations may help to further protect and replenish surface and groundwater water sources in concert with other stakeholders and holders of water rights. “Camp Bullis, like the rest of us, relies on ground- water and the Edwards Aquifer beneath our feet for drinking water,” Oppenheimer said.

SOURCES: HILL COUNTRY ALLIANCE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSECOMMUNITY IMPACT

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NORTH SAN ANTONIO EDITION • MARCH 2023