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Explore Browning Ranch at lalh.org


Explore Browning Ranch at lalh.org

C. L. Browning Ranch
Honeycut Creek is fed by a spring that flows at 15 to 20 gallons per minute and has never gone dry. Photo by Scott Gardner.

“This is one of my favorite places,” says Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, bending to dip her hand in a spring welling up from an unseen limestone cavern beneath the parched soil of Texas’s Hill Country. “I used to come here when I was a little girl and sit for hours.” In that moment, the landscape historian, author, and founder of the Central Park Conservancy and the Foundation for Landscape Studies reveals a connection to the land as clear as the spring water.

Though she has lived much of her adult life in New York City, Rogers, who serves on the LALH board of directors, spent years of her childhood at the C. L. Browning Ranch in Blanco County, Texas. Observing that the seeps and springs on her land are increasingly precious in the face of residential development, climate change, and wildfires, Rogers and her husband, Ted, placed the 977-acre property under conservation management in 2001. The
C. L. Browning Ranch is the subject of the current Place Study at lalh.org. Take a virtual visit to the ranch, discover its history and educational mission, and learn about the innovative stewardship and research led by manager Scott Gardner.

Limestone dam built by Mr. Browning in 1943
Limestone dam built by C. L. Browning in 1943. Maiden-hair ferns grow along the dam and sycamores line the banks. The Hill Country is the headwaters region for many of the major rivers in Texas. Photo by Carol Betsch.

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