Some of our amazing volunteers
We had another great crew of 75 volunteers out at Zilker Park today and we made good progress using up three big piles – with volunteers working on two of them and 4 city forestry staff using the brush truck and carts to spread another big pile.
We’re about half way done and we’ll be organizing more workdays in September, so please stay tuned. But our tremendous thanks to amazing volunteers and city staff today and yesterday. We’re making good progress.
Thanks to 65+ Parks staff and volunteers, we were able to spread three of the four big piles of dillo dirt around several hundred trees and started working on one of the four big mulch piles, shaving off about 1/3 of it. There’s still plenty of work to do and we’re looking forward to help from the over 100 volunteers signed up for Saturday’s (8/28) workday from 9 am to noon. (We have about 3 times the amount of mulch compared to Sat, 8/21 and we’re hoping we can get it all spread in 3 hours.)
Boy, was that dillo dirt hot in the center of the pile with a very dillo dirty aroma! But it was lighter than the mulch. Come on out to the parking lot just east of Polo Fields Picnic area, bring a wheelbarrow and help us mulch several hundred more trees tomorrow!
One of the four piles awaiting spreading on Saturday!
We got a good start on our efforts to mulch over 550 trees in the Polo Grounds area of Zilker Park this past Saturday, but there’s a lot left to do. Please join us – if you can – on Friday, 8/27 or Saturday, 8/28 – both days from 9 am to noon. We’ll supply tools, water, and gloves, please bring a hat, sunscreen and a water bottle. On Friday, we’ll be joined by City Parks staff as well!
Sign up for Friday, August 27th
Sign up for Saturday, August 28th
Thank you!
Parks Forestry Staff show us an easier way to load a wheelbarrow!
Wow – over 60 volunteers and four parks forestry staff spread 100 cubic yards of mulch under 75+ trees in an hour and a half at Zilker Park today. Thanks to our great volunteers and staff for their help. But we still have over 450 trees left to do!
We’ll be out spreading more mulch with Parks Dept staff next Friday, Aug 27th from 9 am to noon. We have 100 volunteers signed up for next Sat, Aug 28th from 9 am to noon too. Please join us for either workday – we’ll meet in the middle parking lot near the polo fields picnic grove on both days.
We’re thrilled to announce the return of free Movies to Republic Square. Thanks the City of Austin Parks and Recreation, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the Downtown Austin Alliance and Mellow Johnny’s, we’re presenting a series of five free movies. Shows begin at dusk, bring lawn chairs, picnics and pets on leash. If you haven’t visited Republic Square since January, please come and check out the new deck and releveled site.
Please help us keep the park clean by packing out whatever you pack in.
Schedule:
Sept 1: Raiders of the Lost Ark – sponsored by the Downtown Austin Alliance
Sept 8: The Wizard, sponsored by Fantastic Fest
Sept 15: Last Starflighter, sponsored by Fantastic Fest
Sept 29: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, sponsored by Mellow Johnny’s
Oct 14: Poltergeist – sponsorship available (apf@austinparks.org or 512.477.1566 ext 2)
Alcoholic beverages, glass and styrofoam are not permitted in the park. Please help keep Republic Square clean by packing out what you bring.
Our thanks to Austin Parks and Recreation for co-sponsoring the movie series.
We have 53 people signed up for mulching at Zilker this Saturday, from 9 am to noon. We’ll meeting at the first parking lot on the right (enter the road where you go to park for the pool, but bear right (and up) and look for us (lots of tools and wheelbarrows) We need more volunteers and more wheelbarrows too – sign up here
We’re also gearing up for our big National Public Lands Day on Sept 25th and we’re looking for over 350 volunteers. (sign up here) This may be an incentive – we just received our shipment of 30 new weed wrenches thanks to a generous REI grant and we’re working on unpacking and assembling them. We’re so excited.
Today at the 5th annual Council Cleans the Pool Day, Senator Kirk Watson, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Robin Cravey, president of the Friends of Barton Springs Pool, announced the donation of $300,000 to the City of Austin for the forthcoming Barton Springs Pool Bypass Tunnel project. The project, one of the short term projects announced as part of the Barton Springs Master Plan a few years ago, is going through an engineering re-assessment process in the Watershed Protection and Development Review Dept.
The Funds come from the Supplemental Environmental Program of TCEQ and part of a broader settlement with Travis County and the State Attorney General’s office for clean-up following from development near Travis County’s Hamilton Pool Park.
Our thanks to Senator Watson, TCEQ, and Travis County for their assistance. The funds will be held by the Austin Parks Foundation in the Friends of Barton Springs Pool account until the plans for the bypass tunnel are finalized. The Friends of Barton Springs Pool is one of 60 community groups who have adopted parks and raise funds for improvements on the Austin Parks Foundation umbrella.
After the announcement, city council members, city staff and volunteers jumped into the pool and started scrubbing the pool bottom and walls with brooms. The water felt good this very humid morning.
Here’s some photos from the progress on the Art In Public Places courtyard project from Tuesday evening….
Before Sod
Congrats to the Saturday volunteers working out at Wooten (School) Playground laying down grass sod over the new berm that will help a portion of the trail and playground drain a bit better. The Austin Parks Foundation helped partially fund the 1st phase of the trail and playground in 2009.
Work in Progress
Work Completed!
The long awaited BMX / Skate Park at the site of the Old Austin Recreation Center and tennis court is being prepared for construction activity. (ACC Rio Grande parking garage is on one side, Shoal Creek Trail across the street, and House Park and the Austin Recreation Center on the north side.) Here’s a few photos of signage and fencing in place. We’ll keep you updated with photos as work progresses.
|
Austin Parks Foundation Events City Parks Alliance City Park Blog
