One of our amazing volunteers, jerry Levenson who has cut down or yanked out tens of thousands of non-native ligustrum, chinaberry and nandina in the past two years, is also a skilled woodworker, so he had some extra ligustrum and brought it into his shop and presto!
We’re pretty darned impressed!
(Opening sequence for the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour (Sun, Apr 11 @ 6 pm)
Just a reminder that the Banff Mountain Film Festival will be in Austin on Sat, Apr 10 (8 pm) and Sun Apr 11 (6 pm) with proceeds benefitting the Austin Parks Foundation. In addition, we’ll be tabling before the show and during intermission, so please stop by and see us – we’re usually in the balcony lobby. Tickets for one night are $20 and both nights $35 – Sat, Apr 10 at 8 pm is Radical Reels – featuring more thrilling sports oriented action. Sunday, Apr 11 @ 6 pm is the Festival World Tour featuring a mix of movies on mountain culture, adventure and the outdoors.
Radical Reels, Sat, Apr 10 @ 8 pm
Busy day in Austin’s parks – in the morning, I went to help out with another volunteer day at West Bouldin Creek Greenbelt. Ingrid, Matt and the rest of Bouldin volunteers were out removing invasives and stacking them into winrows, other volunteers were mulching the trees in and around the BMX area. We tackled the area between the creek and the BMX area, stripping it clean of primarily ligustrum with a few chinaberries and nandina plants thrown in.
I left West Bouldin around 11:30 am to get some different tools and wheelbarrows for the afternoon’s activity of hauling and spreading 8 cubic yards of good quality mulch in our planting beds under the auction oaks. Thanks to our 7 volunteers (we expected a lot more based on RSVPs) we got the jog done, but we’re tried as the tempature climbed above 80 and we were working mostly in the sun. Before the workday started I took some photos of the Famer’s market at Republic Square.
It’s going to be a really nice weekend – why not get a workout and help some of Austin’s parks at the same time?
Among the volunteer events scheduled are:
West Bouldin Creek – invasive removal – 8:30 am to 1 pm – Sat
Republic Square – weeding, watering and mulching – 1 to 4 pm – Sat
and more check our volunteer page for a complete list.
This 8 cubic yard pile awaits spreading at Republic Square
New ramp and trail connection at Pease Park / Shoal Creek
The Austin Parks and Recreation Dept’s Construction Crew is working on a new trail head and access point for the Shoal Creek Trail at Pease Park on Kingsbury St.. On Friday they constructed a ramp to provide easy accessible access to the trail from Kingsbury St. and also allow deliveries of mulch, trees and dillo dirt that the Trees for Pease folks ask for all of the time. This replaces the old “route” which went up the middle of the park and is now populated with newly planted trees and in ground irrigation.
new trail looking south to new ramp at Kingsbury
Our thanks to James Young and his construction crew as well as Tony Arnold and Marty Stump of the Parks Department’s planning, construction and design team. The crew has another day or so of work, packing down the granite gravel, refinishing the edge of the ramp and along the trail and installing another small section of trail deeper in the park to allow vehicles to turn around.
Saturday, 3/20 @ noon update: West Bouldin Creek Workday is postponed to Sat, 3/27 @ 8:30-1 pm. Republic Square workday scheduled for Sun 3/21 is postponed until Sat, 3/27 @ 1 pm. Sorry folks, it’s just too wet out there.
Yup, we know its SXSW Music Festival Weekend, but it’s also prime park volunteering season. We have several volunteer opportunities – so please consider helping us out for a few hours this weekend:
(Note: This is now postponed until Sat, 3/27 @ 8:30 am to 1 pm) On Saturday morning, we’ll be removing invasive Trees and plants from West Bouldin Creek greenbelt. We use hand saws as well as the bright orange weed wrenches to remove ligustrum, chinaberry and nandina. We’ll work from about 8:30 am to 1 pm and drinks and snacks are provided. Meet at the 6th Sixth St entrance to the greenbelt, we’ll be working right across the creek.
On Sunday afternoon between 1 and 3 pm, we’ll be doing some weeding, watering and mulching around the 1640 plants that we planted on It’s My Park Day at Republic Square in downtown Austin and again we could use some help. We’ll be cleaning up the site by gathering extra dirt and doing some watering and mulching, the first of many work days.
In both cases, we’ll provide tools and gloves, but we ask that you bring a water bottle and wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Wow, an amazing day for the annual kite festival. The postponed event really benefited from the one week delay – the weather was great and the crowds tremendous. We rode our bikes down and snapped a few photos in the middle of the afternoon.
Here are some of the comments we got on Facebook! Look for more IMPD updates here, on our Flickr site, and on our main website It’s My Park Day page.
We had a downtown squares double-header for It’s My Park Day – we spent the morning at Wooldridge (officially 100 years old!) spreading 46 cubic yards of mulch around all of the big trees, as well as bare spots and also began the process of scraping and sanding down the railings on the gazebo for a big paint job to begin later this spring. Mayor Lee Leffingwell thanked our 80 volunteers for helping out and then grabbed a shovel and started piling mulch into a wheelbarrow. We had over an hour of music too from the Inside Out Steel Band which made our task a little easier! Our thanks to Mark Holzbach and Michael McGill who sheparded our efforts there.
At Republic Square in the afternoon, we planted over 1600 plants – mostly native grasses, low mounding flowering plants and some yuccas. Lots of digging and the ground was really hard in spots (owing to the Square’s previous life as a parking lot!) But we got them all in – our tremendous thanks to Kim Mizner and Jacob Walker, along with Daniel Woodroffe, who coordinated the planting.
Looks like we’re going to have a good morning on this annual It’s My Park Day. We’re going to be at two events – Wooldridge Square in the morning – mulching and sanding the gazebo and at Republic Square in the afternoon – planting 1600 plants in the Auction Oaks area from 1:30-3:30 pm. Please tell us what you did, send pictures, stories, etc. to us at apf@austinparks.org, leave a comment here or on our facebook page. Thanks for all of your help!
Awaiting Planting at Republic Square
|
Austin Parks Foundation Events City Parks Alliance City Park Blog
