Special to the View

This year’s spring creek cleanup at the Cibolo Nature Center (CNC) will have new meaning, as the organization marks its 20th anniversary of promoting conservation of natural resources through education and stewardship.

On April 12 from 9 a.m. to noon, a large group of volunteers will descend on picturesque Cibolo Creek and begin another year’s ritual—picking up garbage. Yet this year’s cleanup will signify not only the anniversary of the nature center, but also Earth Day, the day the nature center was originally founded. On the same day, CNC will host its Outdoor Family Fair, an outdoor event featuring fun, educational activities for the whole family. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

During the last 20 years, the Friends of the Cibolo Wilderness have created a nationally renowned nature center that attracts tourists and naturalists from all over the world. Locally, the nature center has been an exceptional steward of Boerne City Park, restoring and managing a native tall grass prairie, of which only 1 percent still exists in Texas.

The group has also recreated a marsh and boardwalk that was recognized as one of the best boardwalks in Texas by Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. And its protection of native bird habitat has placed the Cibolo Nature Center/Boerne on The Texas Birding Trail by Texas Parks and Wildlife.

The nature center’s award-winning educational programs impact local students and inner city youths. The adult education programs teach residents how to manage land to be good stewards of the Hill Country. The center also works to protect the Cibolo Creek and works with many partners and state agencies to assure the future quality of the creek.

It was more than 40 years ago when founder and Executive Director Carolyn Chipman Evans grew up around and played on what would be the grounds of the nature center, which was part of her family’s ranch until the 1960s.

But when she returned to Boerne as a young adult, she found the pristine creek she played in as a young girl had turned into a garbage dump. The site motivated her to create “Friends of the Cibolo Wilderness,” a grassroots organization dedicated to cleaning up the creek. That small group of dedicated individuals has grown into the Cibolo Nature Center with a staff of 11 and hundreds of volunteers. It has won numerous state awards and is recognized nationally for its citizen-based science programs.

“A paradigm shift has occurred over the last 20 years where conservation is important and sustainability mainstream,” said Chipman Evans. “We are embracing this shift by creating yet another important component to conservation—a local, community farm that can be a real experience and example to residents on how to care for and nurture nature,” she said. “The next 20 years holds real challenges related to encroachment and rapidly vanishing local landscape and we believe the new farm will be an incredible resource for the citizens of Kendall County,” she continued.