Help Mulch Zilker Hillside Theatre Trees on 7/6

Zoila of the Austin Heritage Tree Foundation is looking for 2-3 volunteers for Tue morning 7/6 to help apply compost and mulch to trees around the Zilker Hillside Theatre – contact Zoila at zvega@austin.rr.com to volunteer – thank you!

2 Statesman Articles of Note: 6/28/10

Wanted to note in that the Austin American Statesman today (6/28/10) there are two pieces to note:

1) Pam LeBlanc wrote about the challenges of the City Parks Staff to keep up with the trash and maintenance efforts on Barton Creek Greenbelt. (You can help by getting ready for our next big volunteer workday on Barton Creek Greenbelt on September 25th- National Public Lands Day)

2) The Statesman Editorial Board wrote in favor of the proposed boardwalk project, on the city staff list for a proposed bond election in November.

Come and See Us at the Keep Austin Weird Festival & 5K

Look for our tent right at the north end of the South First Street Bridge from 2 to 10 pm today.  And 5k participants, look for our educational fun stop near Austin High School.   Please thank all of the great volunteers who are helping out to make this event a great success!

Inspiration from OKC – Emerging Boathouse Row

Sharing another series of photos of the first of what will soon be two boathouses on the channelized Oklahoma River, right near downtown.  The Chesapeake boathouse is in continuous use and right next to the mouth of the Bricktown canal which offers hike/bike/boat access into the revitalized Bricktown district.  Oklahoma City University is currently building a second boathouse next door that will open in the fall of 2010.

Inspiration from OKC: The Survivor Tree

On a family trip to Oklahoma City this past weekend, we stopped at the Oklahoma City Memorial.  The surivor tree – an American Elm that suffered direct damage from the bombing, having been embedded in a parking lot for years, became the symbol of the memorial and is now surrounded by an amazing deck structure.  This design became the basis for our efforts for the Auction Oaks at Republic Square.  It’s incredibly impressive and only one of many elements of the memorial site.

We Need Volunteers for Keep Austin Weird 5K & Festival

We’re looking for volunteers to help out with the Keep Austin Weird 5K and Festival next weekend.  Shifts are available Thu, Fri and on the event day on Sat June 26th.

Thank you Impact Austin

Representatives from Impact Austin, led by Rebecca Powers, founder and CEO as well as Hill Country Conservancy, American Youthworks Environmental Corps, the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Dept and even a several groups of hikers, joined us to accept our grant for the Barton Creek Trail Corps project.  We’ll officially kick-off the project in January 2011, but planning will start in July and we’re gearing up for another big volunteer workday on Sept 25th, National Public Lands Day.  Thank you to Impact Austin!

Reminder: City Budget Open House – 6-9 pm tonight!

6-9 pm tonight (Tuesday, June 15th 2010) – Austin Convention Center. Wear your 2010 It’s My Park Day t-shirt – if you don’t have one (or its dirty, etc.) Charlie have a stack of extras and will be waiting outside the door of the room that we are meeting in….

Here’s the format:

1 – Short presentation/overview on City Budget
2 – Break-out: Departments will each have tables set up to talk more
about proposals, people can roam around to tables and discuss
(approximately 45 minutes)
3 – Voting: Back in large group, people will vote on proposals with
hand-held voting machines (real-time)
4 – More time to visit with staff and ACMs

Keep Austin Weird (and help your parks too!)

As we announced a month or so back, we feel lucky being able to work with the organizers of the Keep Austin Weird 5K and Festival.  It’s coming up on June 26th and when you register, you can make a donation to the Austin Parks Foundation as well.  We’ll have some great prizes donated by our friends at REI for the top 3 fundraisers as well as APF water bottles for the top 50 fundraisers/donors.  So, if you are thinking of signing up, please do so now and tell your friends too.

It should be a lot of fun and your donations support our work everyday for Austin’s parks. We have a lot of volunteer events planned for this fall in conjunction with our big Barton Creek Trail Corps effort that we announced last week and every dollar helps!

We Won An Impact Austin Grant!

Well, we couldn’t be more excited!

We won an Impact Austin Grant Tuesday Night!  We’ll receive $105,000 toward a project of $215,000 in 2011 for Barton Creek Greenbelt working with Austin Parks Dept, Hill Country Conservancy, American Youthworks E-Corps, Greenbelt Guardians and a host of many volunteer groups. We’re very excited!

We’ll begin the project officially in January 2011 and it will last one year.  But, we’re already at work and our next big volunteer workday will be National Public Lands Day on September 25th!