SAN ANTONIO – When you think about Stone Oak, beautiful homes, rolling hills and increased traffic may come to mind. Medians probably don’t.
They are, however, top of mind for many residents who call the sprawling neighborhood home. KSAT found 83 — yes, 83 — medians or islands in Stone Oak.
In all, the medians and islands make up the length of 44 football fields.
Could the medians make a difference in setting Stone Oak apart from other neighborhoods?
“My guess is yes,” said John Kiser, a long-time resident and member of the Stone Oak Property Owners Association’s board. “You see a lot of people wanting to move here.“
The medians certainly stand out for anyone driving through Stone Oak’s winding roads. Often green, they boast beautiful trees and create aesthetically pleasing visuals.
A professional landscaping team tends to the medians, but they’re also a labor of love by the residents themselves.
Kiser, who is a certified master naturalist, jumped at the chance to improve the medians decades ago. He has put in plenty of his blood, sweat and tears to make them what they are today.
Kiser recalled when one median had to be replaced by the City of San Antonio.
“In the middle of August, we had to move 37 trees,” Kiser said, pointing to a crop of crape myrtles. “All of them survived.”
When asked how much work he and his fellow landscaping-enthusiast neighbors have put into the median project, Kiser had a simple response.
“A boatload,” Kiser said.
In a sea of development, the landscaping islands are also a great example of conservation.
“We wasted a lot of water,” Joe Silman said when referring to the original medians that were installed when the neighborhood began. “We had water running down the streets.“
Silman, who serves on both the Stone Oak board and the Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District board, helped convert spray irrigation to more conservation-friendly drip irrigation on all medians years ago.
“There’s other communities that want to understand how we are able to keep things green in the summertime,” said Silman.
As it turns out, according to Kiser and Silman, it is done with minimal water use.
Kiser believes their green success has to do with organics. They employ organic mulch and fertilizer while maintaining drought-tolerant plants.
The conservation of water is two-fold with the idea that runoff can also result in damage to the aquifer.
Stone Oak sits on the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.
“There are people who say why don’t just pave the medians and traffic will get better,” Silman said. “That’s one alternative, but that’s not what our homeowners want.“
This story is part of KSAT’s Know My Neighborhood series.