TO ALL WHO VOLUNTEERED TO WORK AT GUS FRUH TRAIL ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR OUR REVISED WORK DATE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26.

John Cook (our COA Parks Liason person) and I walked the trail yesterday and it is extremely soggy, plus more rains are predicted for the week-end. The Greenbelt trails are closed to the public under these conditions, in order not to cause undue compaction and erosion.

We decided that we would do more harm than good if we had 58 people (the number of volunteers who were signed up!) with wheelbarrows and tools working on the trails under these conditions. Hopefully, our volunteers will be able to accommodate the date change and work with us on Saturday, February 26, on the Gus Fruh trail at 2642 Barton Hills Drive, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Please RSVP so we can adequately plan ahead.

We have an ambitious agenda to fill in eroded trail areas on the steep switchback trail and repair all of the cross trail drainage swales with more effective placement and more permanent materials. We also envision a dramatically diminished population of ligustrum and nandina along the creek bed trails, due to enthusiastic use of our weed wrenches. Rock wall and edge repair, native seed planting, short cut barriers, and trash clean-up are also on our list of tasks. The creek is up and running again, so we will probably have to hold off on repairing the creekside retaining wall, which was totally obliterated in the last big flood.

Thanks to all who have signed up to work. We hope to see you February 26, on a cool, sunny, dry day!

Glee Ingram

Greenbelt Guardian Coordinator

443-7522

On Saturday, February 12, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we will hold our 8th trail repair work day, celebrating two full years as Greenbelt Guardians. We are getting to know our adopted greenbelt more intimately as we move through the seasons and the cycles of flood and drought.

This upcoming work day we will be focusing our attention on the Gus Fruh trail, at 2642 Barton Hills Drive, repairing damage caused by the recent flood and tending to one of the commitments we made for our Austin Parks Foundation Grant (“God willing and the creek don?t rise”… again). Our tasks will include: filling in eroded sections of the trail with granite; repairing fallen sections of stone retaining walls on the steep switchback trail; recycling downed tree limbs to use as barriers on illegal “rabbit trails”; creating improved cross trail drainage swales to decrease future trail erosion; and collecting river boulders to rebuild the creek overlook retaining wall. We will also continue our program of invasive species removal, whittling away at the growing ligustrum and nandina population. We’ll also have a native seed planting team and a trash collection team.

There are plenty of tasks with varying levels of stamina and skill required. We hope to have another great neighborhood turn out. If you haven’t yet joined us for one of these workdays, please come join us. We work hard, have a great time, and go home satisfied that we have given back to this beautiful place that gives so generously to us.

Please RSVP via email or phone so that we can properly prepare for the work day.

Glee Ingram

Greenbelt Guardian Coordinator

443-7522

Read and feel proud of our accomplishments! Stan Ostrum coordinated the October work day and wrote up the following report. The great news is that some of the work that we have done over the past year and a half helped hold the integrity of the trails through these past two floods. Our sidebars on the trailsides , footbridge, and large boulder steps onto the stone flats passed the test of 18 foot high raging water. We’re asking trail users to send us suggestions for trail repair to put on a master list for future work day projects.

OCT 16 2004 GREENBELT GUARDIAN WORKDAY SUMMARY REPORT

Stan Ostrum, substitute coordinator

The 7th quarterly BHNA Greenbelt Guardian workday, held on Saturday October 16, was yet another big success. Nice weather and a great turnout helped to make the day both productive and pleasant, especially in comparison to the oppressive heat and humidity that we suffered through during the last workday in July. And despite the absence of our founder and coordinator Glee Ingram, things went smoothly and a lot got accomplished. With 6 successful workdays already under our belts, a solid infrastructure in place, and a lot of experienced volunteers, it took very little in the way of coordination from me to make things happen.

We had 28 neighborhood volunteers (including a few from outside Barton Hills), 14 community service volunteers from Travis Co. Juvenile Probation, 3 Travis Co. supervisors, and John Cook and Crystal from the City Parks and Recreation Dept. for a total of almost 50 participants! 138 trail work hours were logged and over 20 hours of volunteer effort went into advance planning and preparation for the workday.

The workday focused on the area around the Homedale Access to the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Major accomplishments included:

– Cleanup of the upper Homedale access trail (between the street and the kiosks). Grass was removed along the trail edges, displaced rocks were replaced along the trail border, the entire area was mowed with a weedeater and raked, weeds and invasive species were removed, and the trail surface was raked smooth and blown clean of debris.

– Invasive species removal. MANY specimens of invasive plants, trees, and shrubs were removed by hand, with weed wrenches, or with a chainsaw. Work was performed all along the trail – from the street down to the creek and along the trail and creek bed going towards the bridge. Large ligustrums were the major victims, but hackberries that were too close to the trail, as well as some nandinas and chinaberries were also removed.

– Ragweed removal. In response to a last minute request from PARD, volunteers pulled several large pickup truck loads of ragweed plants from around the Spyglass access trail on the other side of the creek and loaded them into a city truck for disposal. Those of us who helped load the truck in the afternoon paid for it for several hours afterwards. It took a long, hot shower and a lot of hydrocortisone to get the itching to stop and the welts to go down. I don’t know how they managed to do it, but a team of volunteers spent the whole morning pulling the stuff and stacking it in huge piles along the trail. It was a nasty job, but the trail in that area looks a lot better now.

– Stonework. Construction was started on a rock retaining wall along the bank next to the steps leading from the trail down onto the rock flats above Campbell’s Hole.

– Refurbishment of the kiosks. Old cork was removed, the glass was cleaned, the interiors were painted, and new maps and informational flyers were installed.

– Seed gathering. Seeds from native species were gathered, bagged, and

labeled for use in future greenbelt revegetation projects.

– Trash pickup. As always, a disgusting amount of trash all along the trail

was collected and disposed of.

There were several things that we had planned to do but weren’t able to get to due to time and /or resource constraints. These included:

– Repair of the stone retaining walls at the bridge.

– Repair and refinement of the upper woodlands trail edging.

All in all, it was another great Greenbelt Guardian workday but, as always, there’s still plenty of stuff left for us to do the next time.

I’d like to thank all the great volunteers who showed up to contribute their time and energy, Robin McKeever, whose experience and organizational skills were invaluable in making the day go smoothly (she also wields a mean weedeater), John Cook and the CoA PARD for taking care of our beloved greenbelt 365 days a year, and last but not least, Glee Ingram, whose hard work and vision have built our Greenbelt Guardian program into the award-winning success that it is today. YOU GUYS ROCK!