SAN MARCOS, Texas — 'Tis the season for tubing, splashing and soaking in the hot Texas sun. But there is something noticeably different about the water at the San Marcos River this year compared to the past.
"I've noticed it's kind of lower than maybe previous years a little bit. I know we were out there on the falls at the end, and it felt like maybe a little rockier than usual," visitor Jonathan Baker said.
He's right. Virginia Parker, the executive director for the San Marcos River Foundation, said the water levels are less than half of what the average typically is.
"It's a lot shallower, which affects not only people but the endangered species in the river, like the Texas wild rice, the salamanders, the fountain darters," Parker said.
Parker said the lower levels make the water more wadable, where people are walking rather than swimming in the river.
"You wouldn't think that that would be an issue except for the aquatic vegetation in the river. When you step on it, it actually can damage the root," Parker said.
While Parker wants people by the river, she also wants to keep preservation top of mind. She asks visitors to be careful and avoid stepping on any aquatic vegetation that could kill an endangered species. Also, be aware of any habits that could hurt endangered species like fountain darters, which are small fish that only live in certain Texas rivers.
"The other thing we see a lot of is, obviously, trash. So we ask people to take out more than they bring in. But also people like to move the rocks around, and that's especially impactful to the fountain darters, and so we would ask that people leave the rocks where they are," Parker said.
While Parker said we are at a normal level for rainfall this year, we are still catching up from the past couple of years, so the river needs more rain to get the water up to what is considered "normal."
"We have such a beautiful thing with the San Marcos River and, really, rivers in the Hill Country in general. And so in order to care for them, we can't love them to death, right? We've got to treat them with respect," Parker said.