Land clearing in New Braunfels

Limestone on one side, sand and clay on the other

Comal County is Eastern Edwards Plateau. That ground is stony and shallow to limestone, covered by juniper and oak woodland or live oak and mesquite savannah. Ashe juniper, honey mesquite, Texas red oak, and yaupon are on the plant list. Guadalupe County is Post Oak Savannah: gently rolling country, about 300 to 800 feet in elevation, 28 to 40 inches of rain, oak woodland broken by grassland. Upland soils there are acidic sandy loam or sand. Bottomland soils run from sandy loam to clay. Cattle ranching is the agricultural use Texas Parks and Wildlife names on that side.

A New Braunfels address can sit on either description. One tract is cedar and brush on limestone. The next is oak woodland on sand or clay. The walk shows which one you have.

Two soil surveys

The Comal side is in the Comal and Hays Counties survey. The leading soils there are Comfort, Brackett, and Rumple complexes with rock outcrop, the same shallow stony ground described for Bulverde. Houston Black clay is a small share of that survey.

The Guadalupe County survey is a different book. Patilo is a fine sand. Branyon is a dark clay. Houston Black is a very-fine clay that shrinks and swells, the kind of dark clay called black gumbo where the Blackland Prairies are described. Those clays are in the Guadalupe County survey even though the county is mapped as Post Oak Savannah. Sand ruts when it is wet. Black clay holds water and smears. The machine plan follows the tract, not the city name.

Floodplain permits and oak wilt

The city says any development in a special flood hazard area needs a floodplain development permit, and that development in the floodplain without a permit is illegal. The building department is the desk inside the city. People in unincorporated areas are told to contact the county engineer. The city notes that Guadalupe County's digital flood files were still separate from Comal's when the page was written.

Wherever oaks will be cut or wounded, avoid February through June and paint wounds immediately. Texas A&M Forest Service names land clearing and cedar clearing among the ways those wounds happen.

Edwards maps near the city

The Edwards Aquifer Authority map index includes New Braunfels East and New Braunfels West. TCEQ's 2005 notes record boundary changes near the city, including shifts among recharge, transition, and contributing zone. The San Antonio office covers Comal County for those questions. A Guadalupe County tract is not on that office's county list. Check the Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer for the parcel before you assume a permit applies.