Media Contacts:

Sara Beechner, Austin Parks Foundation

(512) 762-5686

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

(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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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…

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.

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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

Didn’t get our Fall 2011 print newsletter? wanted a digital copy to share with friends?

Download the PDF version here!

Inside:

“New views at Mount Bonnell”

“How to keep your trees alive”

Another installment of Tugs and Jesse’s Corner

And much more…

First, I rode north to Meadow Road which provided an easy crossing under Central Expressway, then left onto Greenville Road for a short but trafficiky ride (without sidewalks despite a major park / ballfield complex – grr!) over the the eastside of White Rock Creek.  There I actually headed north to check out the recently constructed Cottonwood Trail primarily so I could check out the under Central Expressway / 635 interchange trail crossing.  It’s pretty amazing how they threaded about 1/3 of a mile of trail under the interchange and while quite noisy, it was very impressive, as it provides a connection to the trail system north in Richardson.  Here’s a few photos showing the route and some of the artwork along the interchange walls.

View to the south on the TxDot Interchange trail

The Interchange trail flows right into the Cottonwood Trail – an spur of off the White Rock Creek Trail, with a number of links into existing parks as well as a light rail station connection (very nice)  So, the photos are showing the progression of the trail as I headed south on my bike.

Trailhead at Central Expressway

Light Rail Station / Parking Lot / Native Landscaping Next to Trail

Soon enough, I was back on the main (and older) section of the trail along White Rock Creek.  Yellow and red leaves were fluttering down as I continued south along the trail, which is subject to flooding.  Here and there I saw portions of the creek banks, which showed telltale signs of urbanizing.

At Northwest Highway, they are rebuilding a portion of the street, so I had to use a detour, riding east a short way to the light rail station entrance, using the traffic signals to cross Northwest Highway and then make my way on the street heading south to the park to hook up with the trail around White Rock Lake.

Once on the trail, I headed east to use the trail along the eastern shore. The wind was blowing from the south at about 10-15 miles per hour, so it was at times, a bit slow going.

I eventually passed the Arborteum and made it to the “falls” at the southern end of White Rock Lake, where I stopped to pause at the reworked plaza, then headed across the bridge, and then a bit north, before taking a left onto the new Santa Fe Trail heading south.

White Rock Lake Plaza at the falls

This is a new trail on an old railroad bed built just this past year and takes you through southeast Dallas to the edge of Deep Ellum somewhat abruptly.  There, I made my way a few blocks north to Elm where I headed west through the heart of Deep Ellum to Downtown Dallas.

For those of you worried about riding in traffic, it was Black Friday, but just after lunchtime and the traffic wasn’t too great in the downtown area. Once downtown, I stayed in the bus lane (always a good choice) along Elm and then headed north to see the progress on the forthcoming Woodall Rogers Park (aka the Park)

The park is showing some great progress with the work on the tunnel completed and the pipes for irrigation, structures for structures and improvements and everything going in.  There are even custom built holes for the trees to be planted (very cool).

Museum Tower Condos rises above the Park

One of many holes for trees to be planted.

After looking around a bit, I threaded my way over the American Airlines arena, then onto the Katy Trail and back up through Highland Park to the dreaded intersection at NorthPark mall again waiting to cross Northwest Highway.

A great ride overall – about 35 miles.  Looking good, Dallas.

Example of a partially completed improvement for drainage. It needs to be built up more and packed with soil

We’re hosting a workday with our friends from Bicycle Sport Shop on Saturday, November 19th from 9 am to noon with lunch and a raffle thanks to Bicycle Sport Shop immediately following the workday. We need another 50 or so volunteers to come out and help us gather and pack rock and dirt into berms, clean out drainage channels.  We have about 15 places along the 1/3 mile of hilly trail and we’ll divide into teams to get it done.  There’s a ton of soil and rock within arms reach (or a very short walk).

Please SIGN UP HERE so we can bring enough tools and lunch.

Please wear long pants and sturdy shoes, bring a water bottle and if you have a wheelbarrow or rock bar, bring that too.  We’ll provide gloves, more tools and jugs of water.

in many cases, these water bars (something no longer used in trails) were improperly installed. We just need to extend them with rock and soil packed into place to drain water off of the trail

Think of all of the good food you’ll be able to enjoy guilt free on Thanksgiving after 3 good hours of hard work.  And think of how much you’ll be helping the trail.

Thank you.

There's still a bit of water in the creek near the bottom of the Hill of Life.

Last week, I had a bit of time while on my way to a speaking engagement, so I stopped for a visit at Bull Creek District Park.  This is at the southern end of Bull Creek Greenbelt, is now the site of an 0n-leash dog park, and was the site of tremendous flooding in August 2010 where major amounts of rock and gravel changed the very nature of the falls and swimming hole.

That said, much of the restoration work started by the Bull Creek Foundation and Bull Creek Off-leash group and continued by American Youthworks E-Corps working under contract to the City’s Watershed Protection has remained and in most cases, is thriving despite the long hot summer and continuing drought.

I took some photos showing various areas, especially along the previously barren (dirt and rock) creek banks looking better than they have in years.  I also pulled out about 10 ligustrums that had sprouted up near one of the big oak trees.

The park is special to me as a longtime volunteer along Bull Creek and we dedicated the trail and an area to Inga Van Nynatten, a wonderful graduate student and then National Parks Service staffer who helped us get the Bull Creek Greenbelt Trail effort going back in mid-1990s and who died far too young in 2000.

We want to tackle that last question.

The Austin Parks Foundation organizes about 25-30 workdays a year and helps our 94 community groups who have adopted parks organize over a 100 more.  We provide tool lending, technical assistance, getting in touch with city staff for a specific request, try to arrange donations of mulch, get a water connection turned on and so forth.

Our volunteers do amazing work and while we have a lot of big volunteer events like It’s My Park Day (coming March 3, 2012!), a lot of them are smaller and on weekdays, working with 15-40 people from a company like Dell, AMD, CA Technologies, Pearson, Whole Foods, BMC Software and many others.  These companies give their employees time off to spend a few hours with a foundation staff person to remove invasives, gather rocks, plant trees, spread mulch or some other task.

We then report the number of volunteers and the number of hours that they worked back to the City of Austin Parks & Recreation Dept, who track the overall numbers for the year.  Generally, if the city wants to put a dollar amount on that volunteer labor donated, it’s $10.65 per hour.

The Austin Parks Foundation also provides grants for park projects to any group who has adopted a park.  These grants come from a percentage of ticket sales from the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival each year.  By contract, we spent those funds on park improvement projects on City of Austin parkland, subject to a grant approval process and approval from the City Parks and Recreation Department.

Any group that has adopted a park can apply for a grant anywhere from $500 to $50,000.  We generally fund about $300,000 in grants and projects every year.  Further, the grantees must match our funding with a combination of cash, in-kind contributions, including materials, professional services (like a backhoe operator or structural engineer who approves a kiosk) and volunteer labor.

Volunteer labor donated as part of a grant project is valued at – your guessed it – $10.65 per hour per the city guidelines.

We’ve felt this is far too low and wanted to see it raised.  With the Draft invasive species management plan, we’ve proposed raising the value of a volunteer hour to $21.36, the national average as determined by a national non-profit foundation called Independent Sector.  This is simply to put a dollar amount on the total number of hours that volunteers already contribute by working on city parklands removing invasive species.

A few people have asked whether we, as a non-profit, are paid by the city to organize and manage volunteer events.  The answer is no, we raise funds from our members, sponsors and grants to pay for staff time to organize and run volunteer workdays and in fact our entire operation of 2 full time and 2 part time staff.  Another question is do we get paid that $10.65 or $21.36 per hour for each volunteer by the city for running these workdays.  Again, the answer is no, we do not.  The city does not have such funds and if they did, they’d hire employees or contractors to do the work, something that they desparately need.  We work to bring volunteers out to help the city parks staff do the work that needs to be done and as a non-profit, it’s one of services we offer for free and fund through donations from members, sponsors and from grants.

So, what is the value of a parks volunteer to us? They are invaluable, really.  It’s not about the numbers of people, the hours put in or a number per hour that they volunteer for.  Our goal is offer opportunities that allow people to make a difference, get to know their fellow volunteers and have a positive experience so they’ll want to come back and volunteer again with us or other park group.

Our thanks to all of the thousands of volunteers who have helped us in parks through out this warm and dry year.  We really appreciate your help.  You are the Austin Parks Foundation.