Please join the Greenbelt Guardians for our spring workday on Saturday February 25th, 2023, from 9:00 until 12:00 at the Homedale entrance behind Barton Hills Elementary.

Once again, we’re working a week before the Austin Parks Foundation’s spring It’s My Park Day event on March 4th in order to do invasives removal before the March 01 deadline that marks the start of golden-cheeked warbler nesting season. (We aren’t allowed to disturb vegetation on the greenbelt between March 01 and September 01.)

Our focus will be on removing invasive plants, primarily ligustrum and nandina. We’ll be working in the same area that we worked last November – along the main greenbelt trail across the creek and downstream by Campbell’s Hole. We’ll also pick up any trash in the area. There will be tasks for all ages and abilities. Breakfast tacos will be provided, courtesy of the Barton Hills Neighborhood Association.

Please send me an email to sign up to volunteer. We look forward to seeing you!

Thanks,

Stan Ostrum
Greenbelt Guardians Coordinator
www.greenbeltguardians.org

Neighbors, 

Due to the cold and wet weather that is forecast to continue through Saturday, we’ve decided to move our workday to Sunday February from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM at the Gus Fruh entrance.

Once again, we’re working a week before APF’s spring It’s My Park Day event on March 05 in order to do invasives removal before the March 01 cutoff date that marks the start of golden-cheeked warbler nesting season.

Our focus will be on removing invasive plants, primarily ligustrum and nandina. We’ll also pick up trash in the area and probably do a little trail maintenance. There will be tasks for all ages and abilities. As always, breakfast tacos will be provided by the Barton Hills Neighborhood Association.

Please send an email to sign up to volunteer. It’s a great way to get some exercise, meet your neighbors, spend some time on the beautiful Barton Creek Greenbelt, and contribute to the greater good.

We look forward to seeing you!

Thanks,
Stan Ostrum
Greenbelt Guardians coordinator
512.431.4501
www.greenbeltguardians.org

Dear neighbors and friends of the Barton Creek Greenbelt,

Due to COVID restrictions, we haven’t been able to hold a workday since February of last year. Now that things have eased up a little, we’re coming out of hibernation with a double-header for the Austin Parks Foundation’s It’s My Park Day – Fall event on Saturday November 06, 2021.

We’ll be working at both the Gus Fruh AND Homedale entrances from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Collins Van Nort will lead the Homedale project and focus on invasive plant removal. I’ll be leading the project at Gus Fruh focusing on trail maintenance.

Please note that these are 2 separate projects, each with a limit of 25 participants. Sign up soon to reserve your spot. Since space is limited though, please don’t register until you’re certain you’re coming and be sure to let us know if you need to cancel.

Registration is open now!

For more information and to register for the Gus Fruh project, please go here.

For more information and to register for the Homedale project, please go here

Thanks in advance to those of you who volunteer, we look forward to seeing you soon!

In other news:

Glee Ingram, who started the Greenbelt Guardians in 2003 and has been overseeing our activities ever since, recently let me know that she’s now officially retired from active duty. It’s been my privilege and pleasure to be her assistant for all these years, so I’ll be carrying on as coordinator, Glee will become founder and coordinator emeritus, and we’ll be looking for one or more new assistants to take on a formal role in keeping the Greenbelt Guardians going. Please let me know if you’re interested.

Our website at www.greenbeltguardians.org has been updated for the first time in a while. I still need to upload the photos from a couple of previous workdays, but everything else should be up to date now including information on the upcoming projects.

The Austin Parks Foundation notified me last week that contract invasive species removal work with the Texas Conservation Corps would be resuming on the Barton Creek Greenbelt in January. We have almost $40K in our TCEQ SEP account that is dedicated to this work, so we’ll coordinate with APF and TXCC to schedule and fund another project as soon as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years in one way or another, we wouldn’t still be here without you!

Stan Ostrum
Greenbelt Guardians

Dear Guardians of the Greenbelt,

Our first workday of the new year is coming up in 2 1/2 weeks and we hope that you’ll be able to join us!

On Saturday February 29th, we’ll be working at the Gus Fruh access from 9:00 until noon. The focus will be on the removal of invasive plants, primarily ligustrum and nandina.

We won’t be working on It’s My Park Day (March 7th) this year. We usually participate in the Austin Parks Foundation’s spring It’s My Park Day, but because we can’t disturb any vegetation on the greenbelt between March 01 and Sept 01 (due to Balcones Canyonlands Preserve restrictions designed to protect endangered birds), we’ve decided to work a week earlier and hit the invasives.

Please let us know as soon as you can if you’re able to help us that day by sending an email to stan@greenbeltguardians.org.

We’ll send out another message before the workday to everyone who registers with more details and any last minute updates.

Thanks,
Stan and Glee
www.greenbeltguardians.org

Registration is open now for our next Greenbelt Guardians workday on Saturday November 02, the Austin Parks Foundation’s fall “It’s My Park Day” event. Please go here to sign up.

We’ll be working at the Homedale Access from 9:00 – 12:00 and we plan to focus on the removal of invasive plants in the area, primarily ligustrum and nandina. We’ll also do some trail repairs, patch a small section of rock wall that got damaged in the floods near the footbridge by the flats, pickup trash, and cleanup graffiti in the area.

The weather has finally cooled off some and hopefully we’ll get some real rain in the next few weeks. We’re looking forward to another good workday and hope that you can join us!

Thanks,

Stan and Glee
Greenbelt Guardians
www.greenbeltguardians.org

The first day of fall is just around the corner (Monday September 23rd is the autumnal equinox), but it sure doesn’t feel like summer is almost gone.  We have two workdays coming up soon, Saturday September 28th is National Public Lands Day and Saturday November 2nd is the Austin Parks Foundation’s fall It’s My Park Day.  Hopefully we’ll have some rain and cooler temperatures before then, if not by the end of September then certainly by the time November rolls around.

On Saturday Sept 28, we’ll be working at the Gus Fruh access from 9:00 until 12:00, doing some repairs and cleanup that are still leftover from the big flood we had this spring. The main task will be to rebuild and refurbish the steps on the far side of the creek that were rearranged by the flood.  We’ll be moving big rocks, small rocks, and buckets of gravel, so expect a good workout. There’s also a lot of trimming that needs to be done and a few trail repairs on this side of the creek.  We also plan to do some removal of invasive plants, clear some flood debris, and pickup any trash in the area. 

Please send an email to stan@greenbeltguardians.org if you’re able to join us to work at Gus Fruh on Saturday Sept 28th.

On Saturday Nov 02, we’ll be working at the Homedale Access and we plan to focus on the removal of invasive plants in the area, primarily ligustrum and nandina.  We’ll also do some trail repairs, patch a small section of rock wall that got damaged in the floods near the footbridge by the flats, pickup trash, and cleanup graffiti in the area.

Registration for It’s My Park Day will be via the APF’s GivePulse system later this month.  We’ll send out a reminder when registration is open, but please go ahead and save the date on your calendar.

Thank you all for your ongoing support!

Stan and Glee
Greenbelt Guardians
www.greenbeltguardians.org

National Trails Day is on Saturday, June 1 this year, and we’re planning to celebrate by finishing up the trail resurfacing project at the Gus Fruh access that we started back in March.

We’ll begin at 8:00 AM and work until we’re done, hopefully by 10:30 or 11:00. There’s water in the creek now and the crowds will be arriving, so the sooner we can finish up and get out of the way, the better. It’s also likely to be hot. So we’ll start early and only do the trail work this time instead of the variety of tasks that we usually take on.

We only need about 25 volunteers to complete the trail work but due to the rainy weather and concerns about getting the materials that we need, we’re slow getting organized again. June 1 is only 2 weeks away now! Please let us know as soon as you can if you’re able to work with us that day by sending us an email.

We’re looking forward to getting this job finished and hope that you’ll be able to join us. Breakfast tacos will be provided!

Thanks,
Stan and Glee
www.greenbeltguardians.org

Hi neighbors,

The Austin Parks Foundation’s spring It’s My Park Day is coming up fast – Saturday, March 2.  We’ll be working at the Barton Creek Greenbelt – Gus Fruh access (2642 Barton Hills Drive) from 9:00 until 1:00.  We’ll be resurfacing the entire switchback entry trail with decomposed granite and StaLok.  We’d planned to do this work last fall, but unfortunately our supplier didn’t deliver the materials as promised and we had to reschedule the work.  It’s a big job and we’ll need all the help we can get!  We’ll have some other tasks available (invasives removal, trash pickup, etc.) for those who can’t do trail repair, but our focus will be on getting the trail work done.

Registration is already open – please go to APF’s website here to sign up for our project as soon as you can. You can also email stan@sostrum.com if you have any questions or problems with online registration.

As usual, we’ll have breakfast tacos for everyone and water to refill your bottles. Kids are welcome, but younger ones will need to bring a parent along with them, and anyone under 18 will need a parent or guardian to sign the waiver.  We’ll provide the team leaders and tools needed for all of the work.  Please bring a water bottle, a pair of work gloves (if you have them), and wear closed-toe shoes.  Long pants and long sleeves will also help to protect against poison ivy.

We’re looking forward to beautiful weather and another good workday and we hope that lots of you can join us!

Thanks,
Stan Ostrum and Glee Ingram
www.greenbeltguardians.org

Friends and neighbors,

The Greenbelt Guardians have two upcoming workdays this fall that we’d love for you to come out and help us with:

On Saturday September 29th, National Public Lands Day, we’ll be working at the Gus Fruh access from 8:00 AM until noon. The plan, assuming it quits raining before then, is to repave the entire switchback entry trail with decomposed granite and StaLok binder. It needed work before the recent rains and needs it worse now afterwards. We’ve done repair work on various sections over the years, but we haven’t repaved the entire trail since 2005. It’s a big job and we’ll need all the help we can get!

Those of you who’ve helped us do this kind of work before know that we usually mix the DG and StaLok resin on site. Now we can buy it already mixed! That will speed things up considerably, but we’ll still need lots of folks to help get a small mountain of material down the trail, spread, and pack it.

We’re late getting organized – Sept 29th is less than 2 weeks away now! Please let us know as soon as you can if you’re able to volunteer with us that day by sending an email to Stan Ostrum at stan@sostrum.com.

We’ll have some other tasks available (invasives removal, trash pickup, etc.) for those who can’t do trail repair, but our focus will be on getting the trail work completed. Breakfast tacos will be provided!

On Saturday November 3rd from 9:00 until noon, we’ll be working at the Homedale access. That will be the Austin Parks Foundation’s Fall It’s My Park Day, and our focus will be on invasive plant removal. Sign up will be online via APF’s GivePulse system in early October. We’ll send out a reminder with more details then, but please go ahead and put it on your calendar now!

If it sounds like a lot of hard work, well it is, but we have fun too. You’ll get a good workout, meet cool people, spend time in a beautiful setting, and have something to show for your efforts that makes the greenbelt experience better for everyone. We’re looking forward to getting out again and giving back and we hope that a lot of you can join us!

Thanks,
Stan and Glee
www.greenbeltguardians.org

Guardians of the Greenbelt,

Our next workday is on Saturday March 03, the Austin Parks Foundation’s spring “It’s My Park Day”. We’ll be working from 9:00 – 12:00 at the Barton Creek Greenbelt Homedale access, 2010 Homedale Drive. Along with our partners from Austin Parks and Rec, we’ll be doing lots of invasive plant removal, some runoff management and trail repairs, and the usual trimming, weeding, graffiti removal, and trash pick up in the area.

Registration has been open for a while, but we can still use more volunteers. Please go to APF’s website here to sign up for our project. You can also reply to Stan or Glee using the email links below if you have any questions or problems with online registration.

As usual, we’ll have breakfast tacos for everyone and water to refill your bottles. We have tasks that are appropriate for a wide range of ages and skill sets. Kids are welcome, but younger ones will need to bring a parent along with them, and anyone under 18 will need a parent or guardian to sign the waiver. We’ll provide the team leaders and tools needed for all of the tasks. Please bring a water bottle, a pair of work gloves (if you have them), and wear closed-toe shoes. Long pants and long sleeves will also help to protect against poison ivy.

We’re looking forward to another good workday and hoping that a lot of you can join us!

Thanks,
Stan Ostrum
stan@greenbeltguardians.org

Glee Ingram
gleeful@earthlink.net