Colorado River Fundraiser was held April 17, 2025
It was a fun celebration of our beloved Colorado River and we had a great response in donations!
But it’s not too late to
Winning Photo by Liam Douglass liamdouglassphotography.com
Updated April 28, 2025
SUMMARY
The Yard at Neighbor’s. Environmental Stewardship’s mobile laboratory and booth.
Neighbor’s Kitchen and Yard was a fantastic venue and the music was entertaining. Through this event Environmental Stewardship was able to connect with a lot of new people by showing and telling about our programs. We were also able to add new donors and members to our outreach list for newsletters. All of these will help build our presence and capabilities in the Austin-Bastrop-Smithville segment of the Colorado River and the communities it serves.
Though we are still receiving donations it appears there was over $11,000 donations including several major donations still in process. This is very important to Environmental Stewardship programs because it allow us to leverage public
Dani and Heidi showing the professional equipment used for water monitoring.
individual and business donation with matching funds from private foundations. For every $3 in tax exempt public donations the Internal Revenue Service allows us to raise $7 in private donations while maintaining our 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax exempt status. Year-to-date — including 9 monthly sustaining members, 5 major donors, and 14 new donors — we have raised enough funds to allow for a total of $45,000 in operating expenses.
BACKGROUND
For nearly 20 years Environmental Stewardship has been a leader in protecting the Lower Colorado River. As rapid development downstream of Austin has reached a fevered pitch, its water quality has steadily degraded. Making it healthy again will take broad community support.
Colorado River at Wilbarger Bend near Utley, TX.
Four decades ago, Bastrop leaders and landowners organized to force Austin’s wastewater facilities to clean up their act. The Texas Legislature responded in kind by giving the section of the river between Austin and Smithville “exceptional” status. This designation was made to assure we would enjoy the swimming, paddling and fishing that makes the river so valuable. As more algae, silt, and wastewater are added to the river, one thing is clear — we no longer enjoy that status and the state has failed to protect the water quality and aquatic life we once enjoyed.
Environmental Stewardship, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is having success challenging how wastewater permits are evaluated. We are forcing increased transparency and rigor in the permitting process. Recent successes include:
Environmental Stewardship water monitoring crew at work.
• Encouraging an industrial user to hook up to the city’s wastewater system rather than build its own wastewater operations that would discharge into the river.
• Increasing scrutiny of the impact of sand and gravel mining operations along the river on aquatic life and pushing for increased setbacks.
• Performing supplemental water quality testing above state minimums.
Administrative Law Judges Ross Henderson (Left) and Rebecca Smith (Right) hearing evidence at the LCRA Contested Case Hearing.
These challenges are mostly won in government hearings that require Environmental Stewardship to hire lawyers and environmental experts to prove our case. We rely heavily on grants and tax-deductible gifts to continue this work. Your donation is essential if Environmental Stewardship is to continue its efforts to protect, monitor, and improve our most vital shared resource. We live here. We swim here. We fish here. We are the river stewards of today.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I want to personally than the team that organized the fundraiser event and pulled it off! While I was not able to attend or participate much in the planning due to personal health considerations, it was clear that they did a bang-up job putting the event together and pulling it off. They picked a great venue — thank you to Neigbor’s Yard and Bar!
Environmental Stewardship, the Colorado River, and our communities that benefit from a healthy and beautiful river, all owe a great deal of gratitude to Kerry Fossler, Richard Martin, Andrew Weir, Linda Curtis, Skip Connett, Chap Ambrose, Dannielle Pele, Claire Wunderlin, and anyone I’ve missed …
THANK YOU for a JOB WELL DONE!