Tree Stress Continues…And What You Can Do

Our hot temps, drying winds and no rainfall are taking a tremendous toll on our trees, especially those that are very young and are much older.  We are offering grants for mulching trees in parks through-out Austin and we strongly encourage to you to apply – Info is here.

Bartlett Arborist performing root zone invigoration

Meanwhile, work continues at Wooldridge with our efforts to treat another 8 trees. Our arborists have treated six out of the eight trees as of now and the Parks Forestry Division is helping us with watering duties, which is great.

Mulch being applied after air spade work is completed

And some bad news with a huge tree limb falling off an old post oak at Wooldridge that had been doing very well despite the drought….

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Warm Up This Saturday With These Projects

Yup, it’s cold outside, but we are due for a warming trend this weekend and we have two projects for you consider:

1) Pease Park / Shoal Creek Greenbelt – Taking it the Street (as in Lamar Blvd.)

9:30 am to 5 pm, help is needed for as much time as you can give – anywhere from an hour to all day.  Pizza will be available at 1 pm for all volunteers.  We’ll meet just north of the volleyball courts on the west side of Lamar Blvd on Shoal Creek Greenbelt/Pease Park.  We have a mountain of mulch and dillo dirt to shovel, haul and spread and lots of wildflower seeds to sprinkle into the ground.

Map:

View Larger Map

2) Tree Planting at Houston Elementary School

The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Forestry Program is in need of some helping hands this Saturday, Feb 5. The Forestry Program has 125 trees that need to be planted at Houston Elementary School Park and volunteers are in short supply. No experience necessary. Just bring some gloves if you have them and some clothes you don’t mind getting dirty — as well as a good attitude — and we will take it from there. The planting will begin at 9:00 AM and continue until all the trees are planted, probably around noon. The park address is 5409 Ponciana Dr, off of Stassney Ln. Help us green up your park and make Austin a little bit shadier!

View Larger Map

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.

Republic Square Deck is Open!

We’re pleased to announce that the Republic Square Auction Oaks Phase 1b project is substantially complete and we’ve removed the construction fence.  Still left to do are some touch-up work, installation of the metal tree grate (coming in mid-February) and allowing the sod to root in.  We will be putting out tables and chairs soon and the Farmer’s Market is planning on using the deck on Saturday.

Photo by Michael Knox, City of Austin Economic Development

We also learned that the Austin Parks Foundation as well as TBG Partners, Inc. (our landscape Architects who designed Phases 1a and 1b) were awarded the 2009 Community Forestry Award for “Aboricultural Project: Republic Square Tree Preservation Project”.  We were nominated by Bartlett Tree Experts, who did all of the root zone work for the three Auction Oaks.  We’re thrilled to have received this award.

2009 – Over 220 new trees at Pease Park

Thanks to Richard Craig and Trees for Pease, as well as help from Walter Passmore and PARD Forestry Staff, plus our helpful consultants Jill Nokes and Will Pickens, we have over 200 new trees planted at Pease Park with irrigation to each.  40 more went in this week thanks to PARD Forestry staff.  We still a number left, but a great job by all, we’ve collectively learned a lot.  Here’s a few pictures from earlier today.

Deck work continues

Slowly and steadly, 4.5 foot sections of IPE wood are being installed, along with the remaining substructure (two C channel steel beams and attached together with a IPE wood Nailer between them.  We’re inching closer!

Wooldridge Square – Giving Big Trees a Big Boost

Last week, Bartlett Tree Experts began work to prune one tree and perform their Root RX on ten additional trees at this square which just celebrated its 100 anniversary as a park in June.

One of the treated trees with the completed Root RX work

Root Rx involves using an airspade to break up the soil 6 inches down and ten feet out from the trunk – without hurting the roots, then add compost into the tilled soil and then a 4-6 inch layer of new mulch on top.  The purpose is to de-compact the critical root zone and give each of these heritage trees a chance to promote new root growth.  We did this work at Republic Square on each of the three Auction Oaks there and it has had a tremendous effect.    We also have a similiar project at Brush Square for the big Oak Tree between the O Henry and Susanna Dickinson Houses there.

Close up of a treated Oak

Four more trees need to be done and there’s also some additional soil treatments to be completed.

More Trees for Pease

Over 100 more trees (complete with in ground irrigation) were installed by volunteers today at Pease Park.  Thanks to Richard Craig and Trees for Pease, as well as the City of Austin Parks Forestry Division, TreeFolks and our many volunteers.  We have another 40 or so trees to be planted sometime in the next month or two that we could not get to the park today.

 

Revised Barton Springs Tree Planting Plan

The Forestry Division of the Parks Department has revised the first phase tree planting plan for Barton Springs.  72 Trees, representing 21 different species, plus irrigation will be installed in January 2010.  The Austin Parks Foundation will pay for the cost (approx: $35,000) out of our Barton Springs Tree Fund.  Click here to see the revised tree planting plan.