Riverside Nature Center rebuilt after 2025. Town Creek destroyed it again. A shipping container saved the rainwater tank.
Long-term, Etzler’s strategic vision includes expanding the visitor center, building out the Nature Lab, and — as a “pie in the sky” goal — launching a dedicated outdoor nature school.
Becky Etzler did not expect Town Creek.
The 2025 flood at the Riverside Nature Center came from Guadalupe River backflow — devastating, but familiar in its mechanics. The 2026 flood came from Town Creek behaving, as Etzler put it, like a “rampaging monster.” The main building survived. Everything rebuilt inside the historic Lawson Store after the 2025 flood did not.
“All of the new renovations from 2025 were damaged,” Etzler said Tuesday on Lead Live. “We had to virtually start again in the Lawson Store.”
The center at 150 Francisco Lemos St. was founded in 1994 by Wisconsin-born freelance photographer Susan Sander, who marshaled volunteers and raised private capital to purchase three historic homesteads and convert them into a regional natural resource hub. Staff cleared acres of invasive species — bamboo, China berry, Japanese honeysuckle — and planted a native arboretum through a Texas Forest Service grant. Today, staff naturalist China Rubiano conducts bird, butterfly, and plant surveys; tracks native phenology; and cares for Shucks, the center’s captive-bred corn snake and unofficial mascot.
The flood produced one moment that captured the chaos and the luck of disaster simultaneously. A large shipping container used for post-flood storage floated off its foundation and drifted across the parking lot during the surge. It wedged directly into the outdoor instruments in the children’s music garden, bending several. In doing so, it also stopped — becoming an unintentional barrier between the floodwaters and the center’s brand-new 20,000-gallon rainwater harvesting tank, which survived undamaged.
“Did I ever think that Town Creek was going to be an integral part of two floods?” Etzler said. “No… water is just such an extreme force.”
The center has been rebuilding its programming alongside its physical structure. The Sprouts preschool nature classes have grown from five families to more than 30 children. The Riverside Rangers junior naturalist group and the Wildflower Bunch seed-collection walks continue. A new membership and marketing coordinator, Bryley Torres — a former Schreiner University intern — recently joined the team.
On Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 1 p.m., the center is hosting a free public talk with Sam Womble, Kerr County’s AgriLife Extension Agent, on the New World Screwworm — an emerging threat to local livestock, ranching, and domestic pets that warrants community attention.
Long-term, Etzler’s strategic vision includes expanding the visitor center, building out the Nature Lab, and — as a “pie in the sky” goal — launching a dedicated outdoor nature school.
Wednesday’s free screwworm talk: 1 p.m. at Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos St. More at riversidenaturecenter.org.
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