With rain failing from the sky on this Friday evening, I’m hoping that the volunteer workday out at Turkey Creek Trail @ Emma Long Park doesn’t get rained out, but if it does, at least we’re getting some of the wet stuff. We need it. While I’ve been working out at Gus Fruh Trail @ Barton Creek Greenbelt the last two Saturdays, I can’t help but notice that a general lack of rain in the past few months isn’t a good thing. My fingers are crossed.

In the meantime, I want to recognize all of the volunteers and especially the Central Texas Trail Tamers, who have come out to help us with our Park of the Month workdays beginning in October. We’ve had successful workdays at Pease Park, Brush Square, Country Club Creek Trail, Red Bud Isle, Copperfield Nature Trail and Gus Fruh and Homedale Access Trails on Barton Creek Greenbelt. My thanks to Patrick, Jerry, Kevin, Derly, and Richard!

And of course, a special thanks to all those volunteers hauling rocks, cutting brush, pulling out invasive species and much more. One more Park of the Month Project is coming on March 1st at Norwood Estate and then its the run up to It’s My Park Day on April 12!.

Thanks to Austin Energy, we’re getting some trees planted in two parks as mitigation for Austin Energy projects that resulted in removal of trees close-by. One is Shipe Park, the other is Pease Park. The trees at Shipe have all been planted and here’s a picture of the crew, plus volunteer Jack Nokes and dog Petey.

Our thanks to APF board member and volunteer Jill Nokes as well as Judy Fowler for Austin Energy for making this happen. The project includes irrigation for the trees as well.

Ok, surfacing doesn’t mean going for a winter swim at Gus Fruh pool, since the creek there is dry, it refers to the big effort to resurface much of the access trail from Barton Hills Drive down to the trail and pool area at Gus Fruh. On Saturday, 2/2, we were joined by over 40 volunteers from the Austin Ridge Riders, Hash House Harriers, Hill County Outdoors, Central Texas Trail Tamers and the hosting Greenbelt Guardians to haul, spread and pack down six cubic yards of road base as step one to re-surface the trail. In addition, we had volunteers with saws cutting down and treating the ever present ligustrum along the creek’s main trail and a smaller subset of folks hauling big rocks out of the rock to use for several rock retaining wall projects at Gus Fruh Pool. As the photo shows, wheelbarrows full of roadbase (and breaks for those pushing them) were in force on Saturday.

Next Saturday (2/9/08) we have part two of the effort - granite gravel mixed with a binding polymer will be hauled spread and packed down, along with more invasive species removal, rock work and other tasks. Please join us!

Mayfield Park and Preserve is one of those (out of 206) parks I’ve meaning to explore. I’ve been to events at Mayfield Cottage, but not explored the surrounding preserve. Mayfield is one of the eastern and central preserves are managed by Rene Barrera in the Parks department, a one-man army (if there ever was a one-man army) and a host of volunteers. One of our Friends of Red Bud Isle leaders, Nadene Morning, was telling me of her volunteering out there of late (and the need for footbridge replacements) so I slipped out of the office early on Friday to to check it out.

Mayfield is a wonderful little place, just off West 35th Street and across from a city water treatment plant, it has the cottage, the ponds and gardens (maintained by Friend s of the Parks) and a preserve thick with native trees and lots of non-native ligustrum. Sigh. Another area to work on. Still I was impressed with the sign about natives and invasives at the trail head (see the picture) as well as the beautiful nature of the trails (most in very good shape) and the bridge wash outs looked challenging as well (other picture shows my view from the high side of the trail - its a good 20 feet down.)

I enjoyed my short tour of the trails (I hiked all of the trails in about an hour) and left knowing a little more about another oasis of park land in the heart of Austin

The Central Texas Trail Tamers is hosting free crew leader training sessions - if you regularly lead volunteer workdays or would like to, please consider signing up at trailtamers.org!

Many of you have gone on numerous long-distance projects over the years and have helped on perhaps as many local projects, but have you ever noticed how these crews seem to be led by the same people over and over again? We have about half-a-dozen people, including me, who continually lead crew after crew. We really enjoy doing this, but we’d love to share this exciting part of trail taming with more of you!

Leading a volunteer crew can be fun and rewarding! Come learn more about the details and exciting opportunities by attending one of the following classes that are scheduled on these dates:

1. The first 2-day class session will be held on FEB. 4th & 5th from 6-9pm at Wild Basin Preserve. Snacks & beverages provided. FREE to CTTT members and Austin Parks Foundation members.

2. The second 2-day session will be held on MAR. 4th & 5th at the same location & time period. Snacks & beverages provided. The class is FREE to CTTT & APF members.

Everyone who attends will receive a handy Crew Leader Manual and a Certificate of Completion.

To register online, go to www.trailtamers.org and click on the link for either class session. Class size is limited so register soon!

Happy trails!

Lynda DeGroot
Vice President & Planning Director
Central Texas Trail Tamers

We’re half way into our second of three weeks of tree work on Country Club Creek Trail. Carl and Jose of Natural Texas have removed lots of invasive trees, including Chinaberry trees and old hackberries that were so rotten that they were held up by green briar vines alone! I’m spending a few hours every few days picking up trash - lots of old dumps and homeless camps. I’ve found the most extensive collection of bottles and cans and plastic bags ever! Work will be continuing through next week, but the area is looking great so far. More photos on our flickr page

On Saturday, Jan 12, 2008, volunteers from the Friends of Turkey Creek assembled to continue their work to improve portions of this popular off-leash dog friendly hiking trail. Led by Glenn Gadbois and Emma Long Park Manager Alberto Perez, we built the second half of a natural rock retaining wall at the firt crossing, improved the walk down to the crossing on the other side, as well as installing stepping stones at the Y portion of the trail (where it splits into a loop) and hardened several sections of the trail. I helped with the rock wall retaining wall. A great group of volunteers worked hard and many friendly thanks and wagging of tails from trail users on that day. Pictures show (in order) the new section of the wall installed on 1/12, the previous section of wall (with improvements) installed on 12/1, and the revamped path down to the crossing on the other side of the creek.

Austin Parks Foundation is funding tree work along the Country Club Creek Trail, running from Kreig Fields at Guerrero-Colorado River Park south to the trailhead at S. Lakeshore and Pleasant Valley Road. We’ve hired Carl Brockman of Natural Texas to use his forestry mower to remove invasive (non-native) trees - especially Chinaberry - as well as some bamboo and a great deal of fallen trees, brush and more. The Forestry Mower cuts down trees and grinds them up into mulch on the spot, greatly reducing the amount of work it would to take to the same job with volunteers working with Parks dept staff to cut, haul, stack, chip and mulch areas. Work began on Monday, Jan 7 and will continue for up to three weeks. We beleive that this effort will reduce the amount of illegal dumping at the park, open up areas for native plants and grasses to regenerate and give some of the amazingly big cottonwood trees that we’ve uncovered room to grow.

Ok, 2008 is here and it’s time to volunteer and we have 8 projects this month. So, pull out your hiking boots, water bottle and gloves and come on out and pitch in at one of these events.

Jan 5: Bull Creek Greenbelt Trail (Bull Creek Foundation)
Jan 6: Walnut Creek Metro Park (Austin Ridge Riders)
Jan 12: Turkey Creek Trail @ Emma Long Park (Friends of Turkey Creek)
Jan 12: Mayfield Park and Preserve (Friends of the Parks)
Jan 12: Shoal Creek Clean-up with REI Downtown.
Jan
Jan 19: PARK OF THE MONTH PROJECT - Copperfield Nature Trails (Central Texas Trail Tamers and Austin Parks Foundation)
Jan 19: Cliffside Clean-up on Mt. Bonnell
Jan 19: Williamson Creek Greenbelt at Emerald Wood.
Jan 26: Ecological Literacy Day at Hornsby Bend (trail work and training)

More info and more volunteer opportunities are posted on our volunteer page

On the twelve days of Copperfield, our greenbelt gave to thee…

Twelve Trail Markers
Eleven Group Meetings
Ten Shropshire cleanups
Nine Trail Workdays
Eight rolls of landscape cloth
Seven bottles of Ivy Block
Six illegal pot plants
Five steroid shots! (for the ivy rash)
Four tons of litter
Three trail tours
Two car doors
And a pile of clothing under a cedar tree!

Happy Holidays!
From the Copperfield Nature Trails Group

Join the Austin Parks Foundation, the Copperfield Nature Trails group and the Central Texas Trail Tamers on Jan 19 from 9 am for 1 pm the Copperfields Nature Trail Park of the Month workday.

Please sign up here