Behind Barton Springs Pool – 6 Months Later

About six months ago, we were working with a number of great volunteers and an arborist to grind up all of the thousands of non-native ligustrums we had cut in a series of volunteer workdays outside of the fence on the south side of  Barton Springs Pool.  It was hot and dry.

The area looked like this:

Our piles of cut ligustrum looked like this:

We cut and treated all of the stumps and ground up all of the brush. And once everything was ground up, it looked like this.

Thanks to the rains and to the bare root sapling plantings coordinated by the Austin Parks & Recreation Dept’s forestry division and Treefolks, the area is greening up.  It now looks like this.

Grasses growing through the mat of mulch.

Public Comment Meetings – New City of Austin Invasive Species Management Plan

A working group, consisting of the City of Austin, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and representatives from Keep Austin Beautiful, Austin Parks Foundation, and the Austin Invasive Species Coalition has put together an Invasive Plant Management Plan for the city of Austin. When enacted this plan will be the first municipal plan in Texas and the second nationwide, after Portland, Oregon.

The Plan, currently in draft form and open for public review, aims to identify and quantify the ecological and economic impact of invasive species create and to identify solutions that the City of Austin can implement for effective invasive species management on a city-wide basis.

The plan, field resources book, and associated documents and appendices can be viewed here: www.wildflower.org/docs_coa/

Your input is welcome and encouraged! Public comments will be solicited online and at two public meetings on Tuesday, Nov. 1 and Thursday, Nov. 3, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m at the One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Rd. (Room 325), Austin, TX

Barton Creek Greenbelt Update – 9/12/11

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts on our year-long project on the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail, the drought has enabled us to do a lot of stone and rock work.  It’s been very hot, but our Barton Creek Trail Corps have muscled through the hot weather and have completed some amazing projects.  One of the last rock work projects is an drainage crossing on the main trail just several hundred yards down from Spyglass Access.  The corps has hauled out very large stone pavers and armored a 30 feet wide by 40 foot long crossing and they are finishing it up tomorrow.  Here’s a picture of it in the shadows of the trees today.

We also did a few volunteer workdays in the past week, working on continuing cleaning up brush piles (breaking them down and compacting them as well as pulling out any re-sprouted invasives (mostly chinaberry)

One of the areas that we did a huge invasive removal effort at the Zilker Access Trailhead last September as part of the 2010 National Public Lands Day. (This year’s event is Sept 24 and we’re looking for volunteers.)  The area, between the trail and the creek bed, was completely shaded by Ligustrum and chinaberry trees and no grass or other plants were growing underneath. Here are two photos showing the same area as of Sunday.

Despite the drought, we did have a good amount of grasses coming up and with a little more rain, this area will be continuing to look better.  Still, it’s impressive to see all of this improvement in just a year and a very dry at that. Finally, look for these signs appearing at various portions of the Barton Creek Greenbelt where we’ll be doing more invasive species removal and restoration work in the near future.

Invasive Trees Mulched Up South of Barton Springs Pool

We’re nearly done with our invasive removal project south of Barton Springs Pool.  We began the work back in April and thanks to the great work of our amazing volunteers and volunteer leaders, including Jerry, Nadene and Mike, the help of the Parks Department’s Forestry Group (lots of pickup of brush), Bartlett Tree Experts and Natural Texas with Carl Brockman, who gave us a reduced rate for chipping and grinding up all of mulch.

Half of the big brush pile all ground up, with half to go...

Due to the drought and high tempartures, we have spread all of the chips and mulch across the ground evenly, versus piling up the mulch for use later in the fall. This is due, largely to concern from neighbors and the parks department that the mulch piles might smoulder. Teh next steps are to work with the Short-term Barton Springs Grounds Improvements Plan (pending final designs and Parks Department approval) and well as with the Parks Dept. Forestry Group who are contemplating some bare root planting efforts this coming winter. (That sounds nice just thinking about it.)

the Natural Texas Forestry Mower, which ground up alot of the bigger trees and brush

All mulch ground up on the main site.

How We Work to Remove Invasives (non-native) Trees and Plants

We have been working for over a month to remove invasive species from the ravine and surrounding area outside the fence near the south parking lot of Barton Springs Pool.  We have more volunteer workdays coming up on Sat (9-noon) next Tue for several ACC classes and then on Sat, June 4th as part of National Trails Day (sign-up here)  In all cases, meet at the south parking lot off of Robert E. Lee Drive, wear long pants and bring a water bottle.

Additionally, we had help from Bartlett Tree Experts on a particularly difficult hillside section and our great volunteers Jerry and Nadene.  And the City Parks Forestry team has been great at picking up our cut, hauled and piled trees and turning them into mulch.

But we wanted to show you a few pictures as we remove the invasives (mostly ligustrum, chinaberry and nadina)

If we can pull them out roots and all, that is our first and best choice, we do so by using a great tool called a weed wrench. It comes in several sizes, works on trees or shurbs with one inch or less diameter trunks and its better when the soil has some moisture.  Here’s a picture of some of the puled trees – they pile up quite quickly as you can see.

If they are bigger than a inch or two, we will cut them using hand saws.  We usually cut them at knee height – we call this high stumping.  This is so we bring in professionals who can cut them flush to the ground with chainsaws and apply herbicide that prevents them from re-sprouting.  We cut them at knee height so as the native grasses and plants re-sprout, we can find them.  Knee-height stumps are also harder to trip over, which it make it easier when working in and around already cut areas.  A good example of most areas is the picture below which shows a mix of native trees standing with the stumps mixed in.  Note the bare ground with little understory grasses and plants, a great example that the invasives were already shading out any complementary native plants from growing and helping hold the soil in place.

The picture above shows several piles awaiting pickup by the city forestry crews.  We try to pull out all of the cut and wrenched trees out of the wooded areas and into the open.

Where the canopy of invasives – especially – ligustrum is really dense, there are few native trees and little ground cover.  With their removal, light reaches the ground and we see native trees begin to flourish and native grasses re-sprout.  This is true even in a drought.  This critical in areas that are near creeks and streams as grasses and smaller plants hold the soil in place, reducing erosion.  In areas where invasives are dominant, erosion is often worse.  Here’s a good example where it was all invasives with bear soil and some leaves from the cut trees as the only things left.  This area will recover.

This area will recover nicely and with some monitoring over a year or two, we’ll keep any invasive seeds at bay by picking the sprouts quickly.  We’ll be posting more updates as we continue in our efforts.

Announcing Volunteer Workdays for Barton Springs Pool Invasives (outside South Entrance)

Close-up of Ligustrum Leaves (pointed tip) and berries

We are planning to begin a series of workdays outside the fence next to the south entrance of Barton Springs Pool to remove invasive species – primarily, ligustrum, in efforts to restore this section to a more native landscape.  We see this effort taking the better part of a year through a series of volunteer workdays but also at times bringing in professionals and parks staff.  We are pleased to work with parks staff, volunteers as well as the Friends of Barton Springs Pool, TreeFolks, the Austin Heritage Tree Foundation and others and expect to see removal, treatment, monitoring and re-planting phases as part of this effort.  We will continue to update you as we move through the process.  Additionally, we must obtain approval for larger efforts, including removal of the larger invasive trees and planting and irrigation of new trees and plants from the City Parks department.

Using a Weed Wrench to remove Ligustrum

So, far, we have organized volunteer workdays on Sat Apr 9 (Clean Sweep Day with a crew of St. Ed’s students from 10 am to 1:30 pm), Sat Apr 23, for Earth Day for any and all volunteers and on Sat, Apr 30, from 9 am to noon, with volunteers from National Instruments and any volunteers who wish to enjoy us. (Please volunteer!)

The Austin Parks Foundation and experienced volunteers will lead these workdays.  Our goal is to work on the smaller invasives first, using weed wrenches, picks and shovels to remove all smaller ligustrum and nandina, roots and all, and create temporary (and well hidden) windrows to combat any possible erosion from rain runoff in the steeper sections.

We’ll then work on the bigger trees, cutting them at knee height and organizing them into temporary windrows, again to combat any possible erosion from rain runoff.

Example of a stand of ligustrum. Note little or no grasses or plants at ground level.

We will work carefully to preserve all native trees and shrubs and will work with Parks staff (or professionals) to remove excess cut trees, branches, etc and make sure that we are not posing any undue risks (safety, fire, etc.). We will post our APF signs with our website and phone number and we have an informative page on our website -http://www.austinparks.org/restoration.html - that we can direct people to.  We will use funds from our Barton Springs Tree Fund to take care of trimmings, stump cutting and treatment as well as planning and planting efforts for new grasses, shrubs and trees when the cooler weather returns.

We should note that we work with parks staff and volunteers on similar efforts in over 50 volunteer events per year in parks and greenbelts across Austin and we will do our best to keep our efforts and work areas as neat and orderly as possible.  Again, volunteers use only hand tools working with us.

Great example of a windrow

Please let us know if you have any questions.  Again, for more information on how we specifically approach our work, read our six steps to invasive species management.

Charlie McCabe
Austin Parks Foundation

Ligustrum Vs. Mexican Silktassel

Ok, at recent volunteer workdays, some of our new volunteers have gotten a bit confused between Ligustrum (it must die) and Mexican Silktassel (nice native shrub)  For the record, Ligustrum has a pointed leaf while Silktassel is rounded on the end.  Here’s a few photos:

Ligustrum - pointed leaves (bad!)

Silktassel (rounded leaves) - good!

Hope that clears it up for you.  If in doubt, come volunteer with us at Barton Creek – Spyglass Access on Sat, Feb 12th from 9 am to noon.  Register here.

Great Informational Signs about Non-native tree/plant removal

These signs are starting to appear where the Parks Dept and volunteers are doing invasive species removal and restoration projects.  We are working on getting more of these produced with our phone number and website and placed in active areas where we are doing projects. Thanks to Rene B for all of his great work.

 

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.

Thanks to our volunteers and sponsors

It was hot, it was sweaty, it was tough work, but we’re grateful to our 300 plus volunteers for coming out and helping us get rid of a few thousand invasive trees of the ligustrum, chinaberry and nandina variety!

A heartfelt thanks to our partners Hill Country Conservancy, EarthShare of Texas, REI, American Youthworks E-Corps, Greenbelt Guardians, Austin Ridge Riders, Central Texas Trail Tamers, Central Texas Montaineers and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Dept.  Thanks to our sponsors REI (again), H-E-B, Austin Java, Thundercloud Subs, Clif Bar, Texas Gas Service, Honest Tea, and Miller Lite.

We’ll get more photos soon, we had just a few brief moments to shoot a few here and there during the 3 hours of work.