We are getting geared up for our annual National Trails Day celebration by hosting a work day on Saturday, June 6, at the Homedale Trail section of the Barton Creek Greenbelt – assuming that we have a break in this long spell of rain! We are all anxious to get outside and do some physical labor on behalf of this gift of public land.

We will start sign-in and a breakfast tacos boost at 8:45 am, and organize into project teams at 9:00 am. Our work will include trail repairs and drainage improvements, invasives removal, graffiti treatment, and gathering trash and debris. We provide the necessary tools and supplies and team leaders.

Be sure to bring a water bottle and wear protective clothing (long sleeves and pants, socks and sturdy shoes). We provide tools and supplies and team leaders for the work tasks.

Register through the Austin Parks Foundation website:
http://austinparks.org/multi-project-list.html?eventid=936&pid=b7bdfdc31d8bbf90&action=selectproject

We look forward to working with you!

Glee Ingram
Greenbelt Guardians Coordinator
(512) 441-3278
gleeful@earthlink.net
http://greenbeltguardians.org

The Greenbelt Guardians began our 13th year of service last Saturday by participating once again in the Austin Park Foundation’s annual citywide It’s My Park Day event. We worked at the Barton Creek Greenbelt Gus Fruh access, had 65 participants, and contributed a total of 189 hours of volunteer labor. Major accomplishments included:

• cleanup and weeding of the trailhead area and entry trail
• re-grading sections of the entry and switchback trails for better water management
• repairs to the granite surface of the entry and switchback trails
• removal of invasive ligustrum and nandina plants and berries
• trash pickup

Photos from Saturday (as well as most of our other past workdays) are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/greenbeltguardians/20150307WorkdayGusFruhIMPD

Thanks to all of our great volunteers (including groups from Amy’s Ice Cream and HDR Engineering), our GG team leaders, and our CoA partners from Parks & Rec and Park Rangers. We had a good workday and got a lot done!

Our next scheduled workday is on Saturday June 6, 2015 – National Trails Day, so please get than on your calendar and plan on joining us!

Thanks,

Stan

On March 7, the Greenbelt Guardians are leading a work day at the Gus Fruh entry of the Barton Creek Greenbelt, at 2642 Barton Hills Drive. We will be working on the trail from 9 am to noon. We are excited to get the trail back in shape and manage the weeds and invasives that are proliferating after the torrential rains of the winter season.

On our planning walk we identified four priorities:

1. Entry area weeding, pruning of overgrowth into trail, and stone edging repair;
2. Packed Granite mix repairs on switchback trail areas eroded by heavy rains;
3. Repairs of drainage dips and native stone catch basins,
4. Removal of invasive Nandina and Ligustrum plants using weed wrenches and shovels.

We will be working with our longtime partner John Cook, who is volunteering after his formal retirement from COA-PARD, and our new COA staff partners from the PARD-Park Rangers Department. We will have the tools and team leaders and welcoming breakfast tacos ready for our volunteers. We look forward to another great work day.

Please go to www.austinparks.org to register. Our group is listed as: Gus Fruh entrance, Barton Creek Greenbelt | Greenbelt Guardians.

We will be among 90 other park improvement activities on this It’s My Park Day, organized by the Austin Parks Foundation. It’s a citywide celebration of our parks! Come and enjoy some good exertion in a beautiful setting with like-minded nature lovers.

Glee Ingram
Greenbelt Guardians Coordinator
(512) 441-3278
gleeful@earthlink.net
http://greenbeltguardians.org