Let’s Be Careful Out There…

Fires are still burning all around Austin and despite the cooler overnight lows in the 60s, we’re still very dry and the days are getting back into the upper 90s.  As the events and activities around Austin increase with another UT game this weekend and ACL Music Festival next weekend, we’ll have more visitors to our city and to our parks and trails.  We ask for everyone’s help in letting everyone know that a no smoking ban remains in effect for all parks, including Zilker.

While the Great Lawn and other portions of our parks are irrigated, the great majority is not, including the Trail around Lady Bird Lake, the rest of Zilker, and the Barton Creek Greenbelt.  It is very dry and very warm and we ask for your help.

Below is a graphic showing in purple the extent of the Bastrop Fire, including much of one of our favorite Texas State Parks – Bastrop State Park.  This fire has jumped the Colorado River twice.  Over 1400 homes so far have been lost.  And we’re not even counting the fires in Spicewood, at Steiner Ranch and elsewhere across central Texas.

Please, let’s be careful out there and don’t smoke in our parks and along our trails. Thank you!

Turkey Creek Trail Reroute Underway

 

A long planned (and delayed) project is a new section of the 2.5 mile Turkey Creek Nature Trail at Emma Long Park.  The Friends of Turkey Creek raised funds, including a grant from the Austin Parks Foundation, and at logn last, construction began in late January and we’re hoping to complete the re-route in early March.  We took a field trip today to check with the American Youthworks Environmental Corps Crew, led by Field Coordinator Seth Van Horn.  The re-reouted trial is about 1,000 feet long and will replace a dangerous and severely eroded “fall-line” trail that goes straight up and down the hill.

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.

21 Acres to be Donated to the City in Montopolis

For Immediate Release September 21, 2010

Montopolis Tributary Trail Association

Media Contact: Stefan Wray stefan@iconmedia.org

512-983-5852

21 ACRES TO BE DONATED TO CITY IN MONTOPOLIS Austin, Texas – The Montopolis Tributary Trail Association and Montopolis neighbors very much thank the McElhenney Family for their generous donation of 21.3 acres of their property to the City of Austin that will be preserved as open green space.

City staff confirmed today that the City will accept the land from Amy Barbee, John McElhenney, and Jennifer McElhenney Bertino that makes up nearly half the property they own in the Montopolis neighborhood adjacent to State Highway 183.

The donated property is rich with flora and fauna. An abundance of heritage trees provide home and cover to a diversity of animal species, including horny toads, jackrabbits, hawks, and deer. The sisters and brother inherited the property more than 20 years ago from their father and it has remained as undeveloped land. The deal with the City was made possible with support from attorney Stephen Drenner. The Montopolis Tributary, a main branch of the Carson Creek watershed, bisects the McElhenney property. 17.4 acres of this portion is entirely within the 100-year floodplain. This part will become under the management of the City’s Watershed Protection Department. Another 3.87 acre parcel adjacent to the Montopolis Practice Field, located at Felix Ave. and Vasquez St., will be under the management of the City’s Parks Department.

This donated land adds to an existing 13 acres of Watershed property and 6 acres of Park land bringing to a 40 acre total the amount of contiguous public land, by far the largest acreage within the Montopolis neighborhood.

The Montopolis Tributary Trail Association, which has received a grant from the Austin Parks Foundation to build a multimodal hike and bike trail in this area, welcomes the opportunity to work with the City and others on the best use of this property. The association also keenly awaits word from the National Park Service, to which it has applied for support from its Rivers Trails & Conservation Assistance Program. If it is a grant recipient, the association looks forward to bringing in other partners such as the Texas Riparian Association to help with tributary restoration.  - end -

Advocate for Completing the Lady Bird Lake Trail!

There is some good news for Trail (@ Lady Bird Lake) users: Completing the Trail with the Riverside Boardwalk is now on the project list for the planned November 2010 bond election.

Please email the Task Force members now at ctf@austinstrategicmobility.com and let them know: It is time to Complete the Trail.

The transportation bond package as a whole will reduce congestion, provide more transportation options, improve safety, and protect the environment.  Using a system of key measurable criteria, the City staff placed this Trail project very high on the priority list.

Your help is needed.  Please take a minute now to email the Task Force and let them know it is important to Complete the Trail and close this large gap in our transportation  system.  The Trail benefits all of Austin and is worth the needed investment.

The Trail Foundation has more information here about the project.

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.

New Trailhead at Pease Park

New ramp and trail connection at Pease Park / Shoal Creek

The Austin Parks and Recreation Dept’s Construction Crew is working on a new trail head and access point for the Shoal Creek Trail at Pease Park on Kingsbury St..  On Friday they constructed a ramp to provide easy accessible access to the trail from Kingsbury St. and also allow deliveries of mulch, trees and dillo dirt that the Trees for Pease folks ask for all of the time.  This replaces the old “route” which went up the middle of the park and is now populated with newly planted trees and in ground irrigation.

new trail looking south to new ramp at Kingsbury

Our thanks to James Young and his construction crew as well as Tony Arnold and Marty Stump of the Parks Department’s planning, construction and design team.  The crew has another day or so of work, packing down the granite gravel, refinishing the edge of the ramp and along the trail and installing another small section of trail deeper in the park to allow vehicles to turn around.

South Walnut Creek Trail – Public Input Meetings

Two public meetings for the South Walnut Creek Trail, currently under design.

So. Walnut Creek Trail – Public Input Meeting: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 6:30 PM
Please join City Staff and Trail Consultants for a very important meeting regarding the development of the South Walnut Creek Trail. Tue, Oct 27 at Eastside Memorial High School Cafeteria, 1012 Arthur Stiles Road, Austin TX 78721

So. Walnut Creek Trail – Public Input Meeting: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 6:30 PM
Please join City Staff and Trail Consultants for a very important meeting regarding the development of the South Walnut Creek Trail. Wed, Oct 28 at One Texas Center, 3rd Floor Conference Room, 505 Barton Springs Rd, Austin TX 78704

Here’s some additional information about the Walnut Creek Trail project:

Description: Walnut Creek Trail will ultimately be a 16-mile concrete trail from Balcones District Park in NW Austin to Govalle Park in East Austin.

1) North Walnut Trail Phase 1 is 3.2 miles of trail from Balcones District Park to Walnut Creek Metro Park with a total cost of $3.3M. TXDOT Review of the completed plans is underway, city bids are expected soon.

2) North Walnut Trail Phase 2 is 1.7 miles of trail from Walnut Creek Metro Park running under Lamar Blvd to the TCEQ and Girl Scout buildings at 1-35. Total cost is $1.9M. Funding was approved by City Council on June 18, 2008 for construction design.

3) South Walnut Trail is 7.2 miles of trail and runs from Govalle Park in SE Austin to the new tennis complex at Walnut Creek Greenbelt/Sports Complex on Johnny Morris Rd just south of US 290. Total cost is $10.1 M. Design Consultants are on board and the first public meetings will be held on Oct 27 and 28 (see events).

The total trail to be constructed is 12.25 mile with these three projects at a total cost of $15,332,102. The trail is a 10 foot wide concrete trail with trailheads in Phase 1 at major intersections and facilities including Balcones District Park, Mopac Access, North Austin Medical Center, Austin Community College and Walnut Creek Metro Park.

Visit to Museum Reach, Riverwalk, San Antonio

To celebrate my spouse’s successful completion of graduate school this week, we took an overnight trip to San Antonio to check out museums and  the several mile new extension of the San Antonio Riverwalk, part of a multi-year effort to extend the river walk to 13 miles from Brackenridge Park to the north and Mission Espada to the south.  After a welcome thunderstorm, we ventured out to walk a section north of downtown and take in the art hanging from bridges crossing the river.  The dual 8 foot wide paths on both sides of the river, along with locks (for rio taxis), connections for the VFW hall, San Antonio Museum and the currently being redeveloped Pearl Brewery are very impressive.  Here’s a few photos from the area at the (currently being redeveloped) Pearl Brewery before our digital camera told us that it had a low battery charge.

In short, this is not like the two mile stretch of the riverwalk in downtown San Antonio!  Check it out.

This last picture is of a recreated wetland in the Pearl Brewery area.  A few notes, much of the area between downtown (the AT&T Locks area) and the park is underdeveloped.  There were many old car dealerships and other industrial uses that have moved on, making this an area – I believe – primed for redevelopment when the economy turns around.  The San Antonio Museum of Art – hosed in the old Lone Star Brewery, has a spectacular connection to the new riverwalk.