Stewardship

Working with the creek, not against it

Riparian restoration does not prevent floods. It helps create a creek ecosystem better able to withstand them.

We want to be precise about what this work does and does not do. No planting plan would have stopped what happened on July 5, 2025. What restoration can do is slow flood energy, hold banks in place, filter what runs off the land, and give the creek somewhere to put water other than through our homes — while bringing back the habitat the flood scoured away.

Riparian restoration

  • Restore the creek corridor with native trees, shrubs, and grasses.
  • Stabilize eroded banks and reduce future erosion.
  • Improve water quality by slowing runoff and filtering sediment and pollutants naturally.
  • Reconnect the creek to its floodplain where appropriate.
  • Use natural features — logs, boulders, riffles, wetlands, pools, and side channels — to slow flood energy and store floodwater.
  • Remove invasive species where necessary.
A restored stretch of Sandy Creek seen looking upstream: clear water running between banks rebuilt in limestone, with young green plantings taking hold along the near edge and trees closing in beyond.
Sandy Creek, with the banks rebuilt in stone and replanted — slowing the water instead of fighting it

Native habitat and pollinator support

Target pollinator species include monarch, pipevine swallowtail, giant swallowtail, queen, Gulf fritillary, and pearl crescent butterflies, along with native bees, moths, and bats.

  • Establish native and regionally appropriate vegetation for food, shelter, nesting, and seasonal resources.
  • Support native solitary bees and local bumblebees.
  • Provide habitat for nocturnal pollinators, including moths and bats.
  • Select species that carry pollinators through the whole growing season, not just one bloom.
A tiger swallowtail butterfly, yellow with black stripes and blue markings along the lower wing edge, feeding on pink peach blossom in bright spring sunlight.
A swallowtail on peach blossom — one of the pollinator species the planting is designed to support

Tree preservation and reforestation

We are working with TreeFolks through their Carbon+ program, in which participating landowners contribute the associated carbon credits back to TreeFolks to support broader conservation and climate-resilience work.

  • Preserve existing mature trees wherever feasible.
  • Reforest areas damaged by the flood and other disturbance.
  • Establish native species suited to the creek corridor and uplands.
  • Commit to long-term stewardship of restored and reforested areas.

Long-term care

Restoration is not an installation. It is a commitment.

  • Maintain native plantings and restored riparian areas over time.
  • Monitor erosion, vegetation establishment, and any areas affected by future flooding.
  • Replace failed plantings with appropriate native species.
  • Continue managing the property for water quality, habitat, biodiversity, and flood resilience.
Brandy Gerstner standing at the edge of Sandy Creek at dusk, one arm raised to point out across the water and the scoured limestone bed toward the trees on the far bank.
Brandy Gerstner at Sandy Creek — the restoration is measured in years, not seasons
TreeFolks Central Texas Floodplain Reforestation Program planting map for winter 2026. An aerial photograph of the property is overlaid with hatched planting areas: green for wetland, orange for upland, and a table giving the acreage of each — 1.20 acres upland, 0.31 wetland, 0.80 facultative.
Proposed restoration and planting zones — prepared with TreeFolks under the Central Texas Floodplain Reforestation Program

Fund the restoration