San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance

07/23/2026

Pak Mail on Wonderworld, San Marcos, is generously donating 100% of profits from their fax, scan, and shredding services to SMGA during the week of July 27 as part of their reopening celebration. Make a point to stop by and thank them! This kind of support means a lot to us, not just financially but also in terms of community awareness.

07/22/2026

We gathered at Middleton Brewing on Tuesday night to honor Cameron Herber and to wish him well as he moves on to graduate school in Philadelphia. He's been a great leader on Trail Crew, and our work has benefitted greatly from his expertise. Thanks for all you've done for SMGA, Cameron!

07/05/2026

THURSDAY CREW UPDATE: Back at Hun- Dun. The trail building is moving a bit faster as we fine- tune our assembly line tasks. City moved a small front loader to the site and now gravel is moving faster and less hands needed shoveling gravel into the wheelbarrows, Red’s trailer, and other wheeled vehicles. Team Flora was working on removing invasives and spreading native plant seeds.
(Photos : Brandon S, Lance, Monique)

06/27/2026

Big update alert!

06/19/2026

2026.06.18 KERMIT GETS A NEW HOME PT. 2

06/18/2026

2026.06.18 KERMIT HAS A NEW HOME AND WORK CONTINUES ON THE NEW HUNTER TO DUNBAR TRAIL
Approximately 25 crew members worked the new trail at Hun-Dun this morning. The trail is slated to go from near Dunbar to Hunter Road and connect with Lower Purgatory.
Because the trail parallels Purgatory Creek, new trail-building methods are being used. The ground is being shaved with a skid-steer and a biodegradeable material is being used to anchor the trail. Crushed limestone is used to fill-in the circles which are inter-locked to hold in place. Additional rebar anchors insure the trail weathers the worst flooding conditions.
Progress is moving at a great clip with the crew turnout and use of the skidsteer and 'Red' our mobile gravel mover.
It was also one of the first really, really humid days to be working on trails.
Several of the crew worked sting-trimming trails in Spring Lake including Centipede and Blue Stem.
AND, Kermit got a new home at Limestone Link. Thanks to a generous contribution we were able to construct a metal building to house the truck and other equipment.
CORRECTION: The truegrid is not biodegradable. It is made from 100% post-consumer recycled HDPE. Its a permeable geocell grid that holds the natural tread material in place to minimize trail erosion in wet and flooding conditions.

06/12/2026

Yesterday’s Trail Crew met at HunDun to continue tread building. An assembly line was formed to keep the material and labor moving forward.Starting with 1st crew prepping the tread with fine grooming: removing rock and leveling the dirt to hold the TruGrid flat. Then 2nd crew laying down the TruGrid and anchoring it solid with nice sweeping curves. And then 3rd crew filling in the TruGrid with gravel and spreading and tamping and leveling and last ( but most important!) was 4th crew filling Red’s trailer with gravel to bring down to the trail. All went smoothly and with the heat and humidity yesterday, it was kind of nice to have the SkidSteerer and Utility Vehicle for moving the large amounts of heavy gravel!

06/10/2026

Group gathered this morning to honor Mark Taylor

06/10/2026

05/01/2026

Rainy Day Stories:

Photo 1 is Jo holding handfuls of young invasive ligustrums pulled out of HunDun. The rains have helped make it easier to pull the plants out by the roots!

Photos 2-5 Springlake : First attempt by Team Flora to remove invasive Cat Claw Vine ( but it’s spelled all as 1 word!) The tips of its tendrils are actually hooked which makes it a winner at climbing high up into trees and taking over. Plus it spreads out into thick mats on the soil ground and smothers native vegetation.

PHOTOS 6&7 : Upper Purgatory. Todd and Kyle film short How-To video for SMGA training. This one focused on drain cleaning which is removing debris build-up on trails to keep water free flowing off the trails. We will be using this one after the rains! Crew then hit Dante and Parasio with maintenance and drain cleaning.

Photos 8&9: SMGA HQ.
Widening gate. Mark and Scott using old post as roller to smooth fill material over cattle guard. Alan setting new T-Post for new gate location.

No pics but City Crew and SMGA also did trail maintenance at River Recharge. Kudos to City Crew (Crystal, Jake, and Payden)for doing major drain cleaning at RR earlier in week.

( Photos and text from Jo Ellen Korthal , Jon Cradit , and Monique )