"Trails to Swales" Watershed Regeneration Launches @ Sovereignty Ranch

After several years of conversations, planning, and shared visioning around what a holistic Hill Country watershed regeneration effort could look like, a new collaboration has taken shape on the ground at Sovereignty Ranch.

This month, Terra Advocati's Jess Mayes joined forces with Bryan Hummel of Water Ranching, Pete Van Dyck of Drought Proof Texas, and Mollie and Ryland Engelhart of Sovereignty Ranch to launch the first phase of a Trails to Swales demonstration project.

At its core, this collaboration is about applying simple, time tested land stewardship practices in a way that is visible, accessible, and scalable. Together, the team has donated time, expertise, and resources to design and install a series of on contour swales, also known as conservation terraces, in strategic locations above the ranch’s irrigation and recreation lake. These systems are designed to slow, spread, sink, soak, and store rainwater across the upper watershed, allowing it to move through the soil profile where it can be naturally filtered and contribute to groundwater recharge.

While the work itself is technical, the intention is straightforward. Shift water from a destructive force during heavy rain events into a long term ecological and hydrological asset. Reduce erosion and flash flooding risk. Build healthier soils. Support more resilient vegetation. Create abundance.

This collaboration comes at the right time. For years, members of this team have worked on watershed restoration and regenerative land practices in regions far beyond Texas. Now, that experience is being brought home to the Texas Hill Country, where water scarcity, land degradation, and extreme weather cycles are becoming more pronounced. The need for practical, nature based solutions is immediate.

Sovereignty Ranch offers an ideal setting for this work. As a working ranch, gathering place, and destination for people across the region, it provides both the landscape and the audience needed to demonstrate what is possible. The Trails to Swales initiative began by connecting two of the ranch’s most active areas, the tiny home village and the farm to table restaurant, with a functional trail system that also serves as a water management feature. What might otherwise be a simple path becomes a living system that holds water, builds soil, and tells a story.

Implementation on the ground has been led by Bryan Hummel and Pete Van Dyck, with support from Chad Johnson of Kingdom Come.

Their work has already begun to reshape portions of the landscape, turning degraded or underutilized areas into functioning hydrological features that will harvest more than 300,000 gallons of rainwater runoff per inch of rain from a roughly 13 acre area. A sincere thank you goes out to both Bryan and Pete for the time and care they have invested in bringing this to life.

Looking ahead, this site will continue to evolve. Terra Advocati will install interpretive signage along the trail to help visitors understand how these systems function and why they matter. Plans are also in place to restore surrounding areas with diverse native grasses and plant species, creating a more complete ecological system while softening and healing the landscape. Over time, the trail will include places to pause, reflect, and experience the land more deeply.

Sovereignty Ranch is uniquely positioned to serve as a demonstration site for this work. Visitors can walk the trails, see these systems in action, and experience firsthand how water can be managed in a regenerative way. From there, the pathway opens. Landowners, partners, and communities can connect with Terra Advocati and our collaborators to explore how similar strategies might be designed, funded, and implemented on their own land. Whether through conservation grants, partnerships, or long term planning, the goal is to make this work accessible and actionable.

We have already had the opportunity to share this project with Nate Sheets during a recent visit to the ranch, even as the work continues to unfold. It is an encouraging sign of the broader interest in solutions like this.

This is just the beginning. Additional areas on the ranch have been identified for future phases, and as this model develops, it will help inform a larger Hill Country watershed strategy focused on scaling these practices across the region.

Stay tuned for more updates as this work continues. Terra Advocati will also be releasing a series of free resources to support landowners, communities, and partners interested in bringing Trails to Swales and similar approaches to life.