Final Barton Creek Trail Corps Report: 10,936 hours

On Friday, we turned in our final report on the Barton Creek Trail Corps Report to our primary funder, Impact Austin.  We’re grateful to them, as well as our funders Hill Country Conservancy, Bicycle Sport Shop, REI, as well as our own Austin City Limits Music Festival Grant Fund.

Between September 2010 and December, we put in a total of 10,936 hours of work on 61 separate projects.  Our Barton Creek Trail Corps crew (from American Youthworks Environmental Corps), working from Jan through December of 2011, put in 6,393 hours, with our 1,841 volunteers putting in 4,543 hours on twenty seven separate workdays.

Here’s a short (no, really) list of what we accomplished on Barton Creek Greenbelt from September 2010 through December 2011:

Our Barton Creek Trail Corps crew hours total 6,393 and can be divided this way:

• trail bushing and corridor clearing – 751 hours
• invasives cutting, removal, chipping and treating – 1,250.75 hours
• building / replacing rock steps – 686.25 hours
• building armored drains / crossings – 850.75 hours
• building retaining walls / creek banks – 1,385.75 hours
• Trail tread work including drainage, de-berming, resurfacing – 584.25 hours
• signage work and installation – 213.75 hours
• Managing volunteers during workdays – 149.75 hours
• The remaining time included rock gathering, post hole digging and fencing installation, removing old silt fencing, barbed wire and other hazards, helping re-surfacing the trail and decomposed granite parking lot at Loop 360 access, as well as GPSing, documenting and other tasks –541.25 hours.

Our  27 volunteer workdays with 1,841 volunteers working a total of 4,543 hours.  3,110 hours were spent cutting, yanking, stacking and dragging invasive species.  The remaining 1,433 hours were spent on trail tread and drainage projects including de-berming, rock popping, rock collections, gravel hauling, filling, packing holes and erosion and flood damage along the trail, cutting drainage channels, brushing along the trail and trash pick-up.

We’ll be posting our final report and recommendations at the end of this week, after we present on Friday at a session of the Texas Trails & Active Transportation Conference in San Antonio.

Thanks to our many partners, including Greenbelt Guardians, Central Texas Mountaineers, Central Texas Trail Tamers and the Austin Ridge Riders.

There’s more work to do, we have another American Youthworks E-Corps working this month on more invasive species removal and treatment and we will be sure to have a number of projects on It’s My Park Day on March 3, 2012.  We need more help to keep the greenbelt in shape. Please join us!

Executive Director leaving Austin Parks Foundation After Six Years of Mud, Sweat & Cheers

For Immediate Release:  January 25, 2012      

Media Contacts:

Sara Beechner, Austin Parks Foundation

(Austin, TX)— The Austin Parks Foundation Executive Director Charlie McCabe is turning in his weed wrench and pruning saw and saying thank you and goodbye to thousands of volunteers who have made improvements to Austin’s 200+ parks and trails. McCabe is headed to Boston, Massachusetts where he will serve as Director of Public Programs for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy (www.rosekennedygreenway.org).

“Charlie has an amazing gift in what seems to be an unlimited capacity to assist people. He’s become a master at how to get things done and lift up the parks to their fullest potential. He’s a true park hero and the city of Austin is a better place because of him,” said Ralph Webster, current Austin Parks Foundation Board President.

During his six years as Executive Director, McCabe made significant strides including:

• Growing the annual It’s My Park Day from 940 volunteers doing 23 projects to 2,000+ volunteers working on 68 projects in 2011.

• Increasing the Austin Parks Foundation grants program from $8,000 in 2005 to over $300,000 in grants in 2011, thanks to the support of the Austin City Limits Music Festival.  An additional $200,000 in matching funds was raised by park grantees, resulting in $500,000 in park improvements in 2011.

• Leading the effort to design, fund and construct Phase 1 of improvements at Republic Square, including historic Auction Oak tree treatments, a carefully constructed deck and planting area surrounding the historic oaks, as well as new trees and grass on a re-leveled park site that hosts weekly Farmers’ Markets as well as events ranging from Yoga to outdoor movies.

• Creating, funding and completing the Barton Creek Trail Corps project in 2011, resulting in nearly 11,000 hours in trail and restoration work along the 8.5 miles of the main Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail.  A crew of five worked full-time from Jan to Dec 2011, while over 1841 volunteers donated 4,543 hours at 27 separate volunteer workdays.  The project was done in collaboration with the City of Austin, Hill Country Conservancy and American Youthworks and many other volunteer groups. The major funder was Impact Austin.

The Austin Parks Foundation has engaged Greenlights for Nonprofit Success <http://www.greenlights.org/> to provide leadership transition support until a new, permanent Executive Director can be hired. Gretchen Flatau will serve as interim executive director. Flatau has extensive prior experience as an executive director, with posts at the Women’s Advocacy Project, Recording for the Blind, the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin and College for All Texans.

About Austin Parks Foundation

Austin Parks Foundation has been protecting and preserving Austin’s parks by connecting people and resources to park improvements since 1992. In 2002, Austin Parks Foundation created It’s My Park Day to inspire community-wide public service focused on park improvement.  For more information, visit www.AustinParks.org.

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1/28: First-Timer Meeting for It’s My Park Day Potential Project Leaders

Hey there:

Well, it’s that time of year again: time to begin planning for It’s My Park Day! This year, the event proper is held on March 3rd. If you are interested in leading a work day at your favorite park and have never done so, please join us for our First-Timer Meeting on January 28, 2012. We are scheduled to meet at the Austin Recreation Center at 2p.

This meeting is also great to attend if you’ve led an It’s My Park Day project, but it’s been awhile since your last event. If you plan to attend, please RSVP via email to Becky@austinparks.org, with “First-Timer Meeting” in the subject line.

Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting!

For First-Timers and Veterans alike: our Project Leader Meeting will be on February 7 at 7:00p. More on that later…

Warm wishes,

Becky

WHO: Us
WHAT: First-Timer Meeting for It’s My Park Day
WHEN: January 28, 2012, 2:00p – 3:30p
WHERE: Austin Recreation Center, 1301 Shoal Creek Boulevard, Austin, TX 78701
WHY: Because Austin’s parks rock — and so do you!
HOW: Walk, ride your bike, take the bus, drive — the options are endless…

Our office is moving!

For the past three years, we’ve sub-leased office space from another non-profit, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) at 816 Congress Avenue.  The view from our 16th floor office is awesome, but the lease is up and our friends at TPL are moving to a much smaller office south of Lady Bird Lake.

So, thanks to help from our friends at the City Parks and Recreation Dept, we are moving to an office at the Austin Recreation Center at 1301 Shoal Creek Blvd effective Tuesday, January 17th. This is right next door to House Field as well as the new Skate/BMX Park.  The center has parking so if you need to visit us, that will be easier than coming to our current offices downtown.  We’re finalizing documents and plans to move and have re-painted the space this week and have new carpet coming next week.  We’re paying for these improvements as part of the agreement with the city.

Our new mailing address is:

Austin Parks Foundation

P.O. Box 300369

Austin, TX 78703-0007

Moving will most likely take place next Thursday Jan 12th at night and it will be a few days before we have everything put back together. So, count on us being up and running in our new location on Tuesday, Jan 17th.