Last Updated on August 13, 2025
After a rainy start to summer, the River Authority’s River Warriors had their hands full. From trash cleanups to invasive species removal, we have been loving our river all summer long. With warmer weather we also see a spike in invasive Apple Snail populations; luckily our volunteers are up for the challenge!
Shell No! Get Apple Snails Out of the San Antonio River
Invasive Giant Apple Snail (Pomacea maculata) populations are at their peak during the warm summer months. Native to South America, apple snails are a popular aquarium pet, but they are highly invasive and reproduce quickly in the wild. They ravage native vegetation, limiting habitat and food sources for other native critters. First spotted in the San Antonio River in 2019, they have been wreaking havoc on our local aquatic and riparian ecosystems. Luckily, we have a dedicated team of aquatic biologists who have been fighting the uphill battle of removing them from our river. The tennis ball-sized snails lay egg clutches that look like big wads of chewed-up bubble gum. Each snail can lay 10,000 to 14,000 eggs in its life- that is a lot to manage! Thankfully, we have a wonderful group of resolute River Warrior volunteers that work hard to remove these invasive snails.
After being trained by our aquatic biologists, volunteers head to the river to round up apple snails and their egg casings. On June 24th, we hosted our first annual Apple Snail Sweep—Stop the Spread event. Thirty-five incredible River Warriors attended, and we collected 345 snails and 218 casings along three stretches of the downtown San Antonio River. In June and July, our volunteers rounded up over 1,700 snails and1,900 egg casings! Most of the snails are collected by River Warriors on their own time and we are grateful to have such a passionate team of volunteers.
We had the pleasure of hosting a group of nine teachers from across San Antonio who were interested in implementing invasive species curriculum in their classrooms. In our workshop That’s One Bad Apple! Apple Snails and Other Invaders of the SA River, teachers learned about non-native species and their impacts, and they were trained in apple snail removal. They braved the late July heat and collected 33 Apple Snails and 34 egg casings, preventing an estimated 17,000 snails from hatching, a skill they hope to share with their students (after being trained by our aquatic biologists, of course). Thanks to our wonderful teachers for their dedication inspiring land and water stewardship in the next generation!
Let’s Talk Trash!
After multiple major storm events this summer our river was left in rough shape. Rainstorms cause an influx of pollutants in our rivers as wind and rain sweep litter from all over the city into our waterways. Fortunately, our River Warriors came out in full force and helped keep our river clean! We had a busy summer with two cleanups in June and two in July. Following the heavy rains in early June, our volunteers picked up over 1,200 pounds of trash in a single clean up. In the past two months, River Warriors have picked up a whopping 2,600 total pounds of litter from the San Antonio River! That includes three mattresses, a tire, and a shopping cart. The bulk of the weight, however, was single-use plastics; a good reminder that the trash we produce does not disappear when we put it in the trash can. Thanks to the hard work of our River Warriors and the Watershed Park Operations Staff, our watershed is in good shape.
Join Us and Volunteer!
If you feel inspired to protect our watershed through invasive species removal or litter pickup volunteer events, sign-up to become a River Warrior! Email our engagement team at volunteer@sariverauthority.org or sign up through our volunteer portal. There, you will find all our upcoming volunteer events, announcements, and opportunities. Stay tuned for details about our upcoming apple snail training on August 14th, removal on August 19th, and group cleanup event on August 29th.
