Karst of the Urban Corridor: Bell, Bexar, Comal, Hays, Travis, and
Williamson Counties, Texas. Kevin W. Stafford with Katherine Arens.
Texas Speleological Survey Karst Awareness and Education Series 1,
Austin; 2014. ISBN 978-0-9906938-0-2. 8.5 by 11 inches, 110 pages,
softbound. $20; see www.texasspeleologicalsurvey.org/PDF/TSSprices.pdf.
The counties of the urban corridor are strung out along I-35 from
north of Austin to San Antonio. Here the limestone hills meet the
coastal plain. San Antonio, with a population of about 1.5 million,
relies on the karst Edwards Aquifer for its water supply. Between
there and Austin, the towns of New Braunfels and San Marcus grew up
around large karst springs that today, along with Barton Springs in
Austin, are mainly seen as recreational resources, although biologists
find much of interest in them. The population in the area is growing
rapidly; Austin has more than doubled in population since I moved here
in 1981. This leads to the usual problems of development on karst,
with risks of excessive withdrawals from the aquifer and pollution of
it. Caves in the area include Honey Creek Cave, Texas's longest, and
some show caves, including Natural Bridge Caverns, good on a national
scale. Numerous mostly small caves harbor a lot of rare species.
Most of the publications of the Texas Speleological Survey have been
typical "caves of" books covering counties or other areas. Karst of
the Urban Corridor is meant to educate the public about the value of
and risks to the caves and the various segments of the Edwards Aquifer
along the escarpment. It explains the geology of the area and how the
aquifer works. The biology of aquifer and caves is described. There
are blind catfish known only from deep wells in San Antonio; they have
never been seen in their natural habitat. And of course environmental
issues are pretty thoroughly discussed. After general coverage of the
area, the counties are briefly covered one by one, with a few typical
caves described. An effort has obviously been made to make the more
technical parts accessible. Unfortunately much of that was crude,
consisting of inserting distracting parenthetical comments. Appendixes
include a list of cave- and karst-related clubs and agencies in the
area, a large bibliography, a glossary, and an index. The book is
nicely produced, with color photos on almost every page and clear
diagrams.—Bill Mixon
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