Workday at Bartholomew Park

Thanks to Cherie Simpson for these photos and leading this workday at Bartholomew Park, as well as volunteers from College Forward (great Americorps program!) for painting and planting. Another workday is scheduled for this Sat (10/30) as well.

Barton Creek Greenbelt – 4 pm Tue

A few great shots of the New Wall area (a hiking only portion of the trail) on a sunny afternoon in late October…

A portion of the hiking only trail that is being rebuilt (raised) from a muddy pit to a nice walkable section. Thanks to the Central Texas Mountaineers for tackling this project.

Thanks to Pearson, Dell employees

Over 70 volunteers from Pearson and Dell joined Kyle and Charlie from the Austin Parks Foundation, along with Parks staff John and Matt (wielding chainsaws and cutting up lots of big stuff) out at Zilker Access on Barton Creek Greenbelt on Friday to build better more compact windrows as well as haul out big logs for chipping.

Despite the rumble of thunder, there was no rain and we worked for 2.5 hours, moving one windrow completely and building another. We greatly appreciate everyone’s help, the first portion of the greenbelt is looking much better! This area, right at the trailhead at Zilker, should see a dramatic resprouting of native plants, grasses and trees very soon.

Example of what ligustrum stumps look like after they have been cut flush with the ground and treated. The herbicide is dyed to show that the stump has been treated.

Downtown Living Tour This Sunday 11 am to 4 pm

The Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association’s (DANA) Downtown Living Tour benefits the Austin Parks Foundation.  We hope to use the proceeds to purchase additional park furnishings (ok, chairs for the deck at Republic Square) so please come on out and enjoy the tour!  Tickets are $15 in advance, $25 on the day of the tour.

Photo Round-up: New & Pending Park Projects

On my way to and from various meetings today, I saw several projects in parks and wanted to share a few photos of them.  First, the Festival Beach Gardens, which we helped fund through a parks grant, working with the Sustainable Food Center, the Parks department and neighborhood / community gardening groups.

What was just grass and a few trees on Waller next to the Austin / Travis Health Center is now filling with gardening plots!

Next, a view of the currently under construction Pfluger Bridge Extension which will extend the span over Cesar Chavez and linking to the Lance Armstrong Bikeway (due to be completed in January 2011)  Can’t wait!

Finally, the completed Pfluger Circle Landscape Project funded by the Trail Foundation.  It looks great!

Trinity Trails – Part 2

Finally, I’m posting part two of my bike ride on the Trinity Trails during the International Downtown Association conference in Ft Worth.  Day two took me southwest, with some cool improvements happening.  This was a Sunday afternoon and a very popular stretch of the trail with lots of people on it.  The new portions of the trail were quite impressive.

Get Austin Moving Campaign Looking for Volunteers

From our friends at the Get Austin Moving (Proposition 1) Bond Election Campaign

(The Austin Parks Foundation is one of many supporters of Proposition 1)

Get Austin Moving is a group of citizens working to pass this important bond package.  We are very excited to have an opportunity to approve $90 million in bonds for transportation projects that will include completing the Trail at Lady Bird Lake!  Approving this bond package will help ensure that the city redirects transportation resources in a multimodal direction that will enhance the Austin way of life.    But,
winning won’t be easy.  Those who still think of transportation only in terms of vehicles and roads have begun working aggressively to defeat Proposition 1.   You can make the difference though!  We need volunteers to help us reach more voters and I am writing to ask for your help.

What we need:
Blockwalking voting precincts to distribute campaign flyers.  We don’t need people to talk with voters, but simply to leave flyers on people’s doors. It’s easy, great  exercise and especially fun if you have a partner to walk with.

When:
We have plenty of opportunities to fit your availability, whether you can volunteer once or multiple times between now and election day.  Below are the times we will be blockwalking:

Saturday Oct 16 & Sunday October 17 from 12-3
Saturday October 23 & Sunday October 24 from 12-3
Saturday October 30 & Sunday October 31 from 12-3

To sign up for a time slot, please contact Bill Blome at 5612-433-9132 or bill@getaustinmoving.  Volunteers will meet at the Get Austin Moving
Campaign office at 605 W. 13th St to pick up flyers, precinct maps, and get
instructions. *If you are only available during the week, please contact Bill and he will work around your schedule to find a time for you to help.

Any amount of time you can volunteer is greatly appreciated and will help us pass Proposition 1.  Let’s get Austin moving together!

Zilker Tree Rescue Project Nearly Complete

We want to thank the fine people of the Parks Department’s Forestry Division – specifically, Walter, along with Foresters Angela, Keith and Emily and forestry crews for their amazing work in organizing and managing the Zilker Tree Rescue Project, now nearly completed.  The Austin Parks Foundation and the Austin Heritage Tree Foundation assisted by applying for funding for arborist services and compost for 91 of the biggest trees as well as organizing over 400 volunteers to come out for five separate workdays to spread mulch under nearly 500 trees.

The Parks Forestry Division did much of the heavy lifting, writing the specifications for work, bringing hundreds of cubic yards of mulch, purchasing water cisterns and fencing and working side by side with volunteers to mulch and spread compost.   Having experienced equipment operators filling motorized carts and up to four wheelbarrows at a time made a huge project go a lot faster in the hot August and September days when we were working.

There’s more to do and we want to return annually to mulch these trees again, but our tremendous thanks to the parks department’s forestry group and our many volunteers for making this project happen.

ACL – View from Above

I got the chance on Friday to take a quick trip above ACL in a helicopter that C3 Presents was using to do ariel footage.  Victor Ovalle of the City Parks Dept had his great camera and took a number of shots including this one.  It was amazingly beautiful up there.

Enter a Team for the Austin Oyster October 16th

We know it’s ACL Music Festival week, but we want to remind you of another great event that benefits our work in parks each year – the Austin Oyster Adventure Race.  This will take place on Sat, October 16th starting and finishing from RunTex at Riverside and S. First Sts.  Teams of 3 will bike and run to various destinations and perform various feats and in the end will raise funds for the Foundation’s work in parks across Austin.  As of right now, we have 50 teams registered and we’re hoping to get to last year’s 71 teams that participated.  So, check out the Austin Oyster website and register a team today.