Brackenridge Park Conservancy is working to build an interactive, nature-based, and inclusive playscape for all of San Antonio to enjoy. Our goals include using sustainable and durable equipment, incorporating thematic features, and providing universally accessible play areas to foster environmental stewardship and a sense of community. 

Designs have been based on community feedback collected through community meetings, nearly 200 digital survey responses, and countless one-on-one conversations at community events.

Brackenridge Park celebrates 125 years with ‘Big Brack Bash’

Brackenridge Park celebrated 125 years with a ‘Big Brack Bash’ to mark the founding of the park.

The family-friendly event, which took place Saturday afternoon, featured live music, delicious local food vendors, and a ‘Los Viejitos’ vintage car show. Interactive programs and activities highlighted the park’s history and significance.

A special donation was announced and presented by the Brackenridge Park Conservancy and H-E-B to help improve the park’s Nature Playscape.

The park was founded in 1899 and the land itself has a 12,000 year long history as a gathering place along the beginnings of the San Antonio River.

Ahead of the fishing day, 650 Channel Catfish are being released into the San Antonio River.

A local San Antonio organization is offering a rare opportunity this weekend…to go fishing at Brackenridge Park. 

The Brackenridge Park Conservancy along with several other local and state organizations are hosting the third annual Friends and Family Fishing Day on Saturday, Nov. 1.

A unique new play area for children is coming to Brackenridge Park and will replace a long-closed playground.

Why it matters: The nature-based playscape — a first for San Antonio — will be the first project to undergo new development guidelines in the park that stemmed from uproar over the 2017 bond project and plans to cut down trees.

It’s also the first major project that Chris Maitre, the new CEO at the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, will oversee.

What they’re saying: The playscape will fill an underused space and be geared toward “a population that we’re really underserving, which is the youth of San Antonio,” Maitre tells Axios.

Brackenridge Park is getting a new set of guidelines for future development amid yearslong community uproar that initially stemmed from a plan to cut down more than 100 trees.

Why it matters: The guidelines — focused on respect for people and nature; history and culture; and compromise — would act as a clear rubric to evaluate any future city-funded and landscape-altering proposals in the park to preemptively address residents’ concerns.

What they’re saying: “What you didn’t have two years ago that you have today is certainty,” Terry Brechtel, interim CEO of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, told residents at a meeting announcing the guidelines. “Because this is a process that’s created certainty of how projects will be evaluated.”

As Brackenridge Park, San Antonio’s beloved 343-acre urban oasis, celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, our community is  coming together to define its  future.

We at the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that fills the gaps of public park agencies, work to raise funds to preserve and enhance the park’s natural, historic, educational and recreational resources.

Here’s something you don’t always see around town, goats grazing in a city park.

Brackenridge Park Conservancy has welcomed 160 goats to mow about 6 acres of the park.

These little snackers are natural climbers, making them ideal for clearing park landscapes and they can easily go where machinery can’t.

Many of the goats in this herd come from animal rescue and private adoptions and are vetted and approved by the city’s animal care services department.

You can even go meet the goats yourself, by visiting Brackenridge Park any time from Wednesday through the weekend.

San Antonio Magazine

Brackenridge Park is San Antonio’s Urban Oasis

The history of Brackenridge Park is deep and complicated. As city officials and advocates look toward the park’s future, the past might just provide the inspiration needed to balance growth and conservation.

When the idea of chronicling the 120-plus-year history of Brackenridge Park first bubbled up among members of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, Lewis F. Fisher knew he would have to clear his schedule. A member of the conservancy board, Fisher is also an author of numerous books about the city, including American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonio’s River and Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage.