Thank you for a great 2011!

Rock Work by Barton Creek Trail Corps

As the APF staff winds down to the final hour of work in the office in 2011, we want to thank all of those who made 2011 a great year for us:

• our hard working board of directors,
• our amazing network of volunteers
• our outstanding partners at the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, the Downtown Austin Alliance, American Youthworks E-Corps, Impact Austin, c3 Presents, SXSW…
• our many other sponsors
• and all of our members and donors.

Allen from the Barton Creek Trail Corps at work on a retaining wall at Twin Falls

Thanks to you, we’ve been able fund over $500,000 in park improvements through grants and projects this past year, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of donated volunteer labor and in-kind donations to Austin’s parks.

AMD volunteers ready for a workday on Barton Creek Greenbelt

2011 was a tough year in many ways for Austin’s parks and the environment in Texas in general with record cold, record heat and record drought.  We’ve been so happy to see the rains return this fall and while we know that we’re still a long way from busting this drought, having flashes of green re-emerge from the ground makes up for those long, seemingly countless 100 degree days.

Super Volunteer Jerry pausing at Mayfield while building this amazing observation deck

And there’s still ways to help us and Austin’s parks.  We funded entirely by donations from individual members, corporate donations and sponsorships and foundation grants.  We don’t receive government funds.  You can become a member starting at $35 a year on our web site: http://www.austinparks.org/member.html or by sending in a check to the address below.

Invasive removal volunteers at Spyglass Access, Barton Creek Greenbelt

Our office will be closed from Friday Dec 23 through Mon, Jan 2nd.  When we return, we’ll be moving as well, so please note our new mailing address:

Austin Parks Foundation

P. O. Box 300369

Austin TX 78703-0007

Short Tribute to An Amazing Volunteer: Jerry

Jerry at rest (temporarily)

Hot enough for ya?  Despite the heat and drought, we’ve had a lot of volunteers during this brutal summer out working with us in parks and preserves across Austin.  We’ve had people cleaning pools, mulching trees and plants, spreading compost and watering, watering and watering.  With 94 different groups of volunteers who have adopted parks, there are a lot of people out there that we can recognize and we’d like to thank them all – as we move into the “third month of August” in 2011 – for doing their best to help the Parks and Recreation Department through out 2011.

But, we’d like to recognize one person in particular – Jerry Levenson.

Jerry retired from IBM a few years ago and embarked on a new career working in the great outdoors.  Jerry regularly volunteers with a lot of different groups, even going on “vacations” with our partners the Central Texas Trail Tamers – doing trail, rock and invasive work in national parks in Colorado, West Texas and New Mexico.

Have we mentioned that we call Jerry the human chainsaw?

Jerry has many partners who work with him – including Nadene Morning, Mike Rogan, on invasive removal.  He has helped us tremendously with many invasive species management efforts in many parks and preserves, including on the south side of Barton Springs Pool in the past few months.  He’s always willing to lead groups of volunteers and there’s a reason we call him the human chainsaw – check out the pictures of cut stumps and you’ll get the idea.

Great looking new observation deck that Jerry built (with help from Nadene and others...)

Jerry isn’t one for pausing and getting thanks for the work he’s done, mostly because he looks at all of the work that has to been done.  But, we want to thank Jerry for all of the help he has given to our parks system this year, in past years and hopefully, for many more years to come.

Thanks Jerry!

Charlie McCabe

Executive Director

Austin Parks Foundation

Thanks to our Saturday Volunteers at Barton Creek!

We had over 40 volunteers yesterday out on Barton Creek Greenbelt helping us gather rocks – small, medium and large, as well as buckets of gravel and soil to help our Barton Creek Trail Corps as they continue work on the retaining wall at the (sometime) swimming hole just east of Mopac on the main greenbelt trail.

Here’s the before and after pictures to give you an idea of what still needs to be done.

From This Past Tuesday…

This is just fill behind the really big rows of boulders that will be placed by the Barton Creek Trail Corps, we moved a number much closer so the Corps can use their winch system to drag the bigger ones into place…

The first row of boulders at the bottom of the picture will be the actual front of the area, everything else will be backfilled.

This is a boulder being hauled into position using a rock cradle.

The amazing i-serve volunteer crew shoveling gravel into buckets.

Time for More Rock work on Barton Creek Greenbelt!

Our Barton Creek Trail Corps Crew from American Youthworks is back on the job after the week of July 4th off for vacation.  They are working to build a retaining wall to shore up another portion of creek bank on Barton Creek Greenbelt.  The area is just east of the Mopac Expressway crossing.

Part of the Trail Corps Crew...

Some of the bigger rocks already gathered.

We also have a volunteer workday planned for this Saturday, July 16th from 9 am to noon to help stockpile big rocks and cobble for use by the crew.  (Please meet at Twin Falls accessTrailhead at 9 am to join us!)  You can also RSVP here.

This is a similiar project to one completed earlier this year at Twin Falls, but not as big or as high. Here’s a picture of the retaining wall at Twin Falls as it currently looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mulching at Wooldridge Square

These are photos from the July 2nd volunteer workday at Wooldridge Square.  We spread 50 cubic yards of mulch on the trees we (Austin Parks Foundation) had treated with a process called root zone invigoration back in November 2009 and all but one have responded really well.

Our thanks to Richard Craig – also of the Pease Park Conservancy (and an APF fiduciary partner) for helping organize this mulching effort. There are two trees (Pecans) that are having some difficulty and those were pruned by Parks Forestry team and mulched, and another eight that need treatments.  The total cost of these treatments will be just under $15,000 and we are looking for donations to help fund this work.  You can donate to the Wooldridge Square fund and 100 percent of all donations will be used to help us pay for this work.

Thanks to all who helped us.  There’s plenty more work to be done!

Volunteers and Park Staff working together at Mary Moore Searight

We wanted to pass on the before and after pictures of the work of Parks Supervisor John Estrada and his crew, plus volunteers from South Austin Disc Association and the Friends of Mary Moore Searight Park to restore to the 15th hole and fairway this past Saturday, and this was on top of a week of work done by John and his crew.  Our thanks to Claire Sorenson for documenting this project!

These two pictures are obviously the before shots….

Next Big Project on the BC Greenbelt

UPDATE: We’ll be hosting a workday on Sat, July 16th from 9 am to noon and we need volunteers to help haul gravel in buckets and larger rocks with rock cradles.  Please sign up here

Our Barton Creek Trail Corps crew is out removing a very old silt fence along the trail near the Mopac crossover this week as well as doing some Spyglass Access drainage improvements off-trail, but we took some time to look at the next big area we need to tackle.

This is a section of creek bank just east of Mopac where the water can be very deep – so it usually grows a rope swing or two.  As a result of many people loving it, the banks have eroded and this amazing Cedar Elm tree is in danger.

This is also one of the recharge areas where water just disappears through the gravel and rock, which is pretty cool.

Our goal is to rebuild this section. Our crew will use their winch systems to pull in some of the bigger rocks, but we’ll need volunteers to help us haul over smaller rocks using our rock cradles as well as lots of buckets of gravel to help backfill the banks once we start putting rocks into position.

We’re currently looking at the dates of July 16 and August 6, but would welcome groups of volunteers (10 minimum) that might be willing to come out on weekday mornings as well.  Email Charlie at cmccabe@austinparks.org if you are interested.

Thanks for a great National Trails Day!

Thanks to our 230 volunteers and our supporters including our partners – City of Austin Parks & Recreation Dept, Hill Country Conservancy, American Youthworks Environmental Corps, our sponsors REI, BMC Software, IESI, Thundercloud Subs and our community partners Greenbelt Guardians, Central Texas Mountaineers, and the Central Texas Trail Tamers.  We had great projects, great volunteer leaders, and despite being pretty hot, a good time.  We hope to see you on Sat, Sept 24th for National Public Lands Day!

Cutting a drain in the trail...

Section of Trail with Downslope berm removed, this will allow water to sheet across the trail rather than pool or gully.

Just a nice stand of Sunflowers...

Looking for a few more Volunteers for this Sat, 6/4

We need your help!

Thanks to the 153 people who have signed up to volunteer with us at one of the 10 projects that we’ll be working for National Trails Day this Saturday from 9 am to noon.  We still need another 50-75 people to help us fill out our groups and we want to remind potential volunteers that lunch at Rock Garden Picnic Area at Zilker, a free swim at Barton Springs Pool and a chance to win prizes from REI are included too.  Yay!

Specifically, we need help for the following projects:

Gus Fruh Access Trail – help us build a retaining wall by the Gus Fruh Pool area.

Loop 360 Access – Access Trail Resurfacing – Shoveling, wheelbarrowing and packing granite gravel on the access trail.

Spyglass Access – Main Trail Drainage Work – help gather rock, clear drainage channels, and cut drains along a section of the main trail.

New Wall (Climbing Wall) Retaining Wall – Help gather rocks for retaining wall/trail work.

You can sign up for any of these projects here! 

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.