Photo from the October 29 Halloween workday, sporting our leadership headbands as “bone heads” and “bolt heads” (click image for larger view). Top row, left to right: Robin McKeever, Nancy Koch, Stan Ostrum; Bottom row left to right: John Cook (COA-PARD), Glee Ingram, Yates Barreda, Robbin Trusty.

The Leadership Team of the Greenbelt Guardians extends a hardy “Ho Ho and Thanks” to all who have supported the Program during the past year ? through your donations of physical effort, food, funds, and fun!

It was a great year, with high participation from neighborhood volunteers, an ever-strengthening partnership with the Travis County Juvenile Probation, and a new relationship with a couple of University of Texas volunteer groups. We completed a major renovation of the Gus Fruh entry trail and drainage system, and were invited by the Austin Parks Foundation to show the results of our work at an exclusive tour offered to their Park Pal members.

We also did a presentation at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at their Invasive Species Conference, to promote public awareness of the threat that some invasive plant species present to our creek and greenbelt systems. We are now a part of a collaborative network of local trail maintenance groups (the Austin Parks Foundation, the Bull Creek Foundation and the Town Lake Trail Foundation) that will be sharing strategies and resources for addressing the invasive species problem via an interactive web page set up by the Austin Parks Foundation.

There are also new plans in the making with a Barton Hills Science teacher, to create needed trail maintenance tasks and projects that his students can do on an ongoing basis as a part of their curriculum, and to also create opportunities for the students and their parents to join us on some of our work days. This is very exciting, as it has long been a goal to establish a strong link with our neighborhood school.

We are looking forward to beginning a fourth year as Greenbelt Guardians in 2006, starting with a planned work day on Saturday, February 11.

2005 Team Leaders at the March 5 workday (click image for larger view):

Glee Ingram, Stan Ostrum, Robbin Trusty, Robin McKeever, Nancy Koch, Tim Steckler, Kevin Lewis, Yates Barreda, Scott Byers, Ken and Rosalie Russell, Kay Kennedy, plus our City of Austin Parks Partner, John Cook.

We?re really looking forward to a day of tending the greenbelt in this wonderful autumn weather! For those of you who support the project, but can?t come, please send “beautiful weather vibes.”

We will be working this Saturday, October 29, at the Gus Fruh Trail Entry, 2642 Barton Hills Dr., from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. If any of you can, bring your wheelbarrow, we need three more than we now have available. Also, be sure to wear long sleeves, long pants, work gloves and work shoes, and bring your own water bottle. We will provide water and energy drinks, poison ivy preventative lotion, some treats, and a good lunch. We also provide the tools and trash bags we will need.

We will also have our usual broad range of tasks to choose from. We will be maintaining the entry trail edging; pruning back overgrowth into the trail; doing some small repairs on our recently constructed drain swales and catch basins along the switchback trail; reducing the invasive species population of ligustrum and nandina; collecting seeds and planting them in appropriate bare spots; and doing trash pick-up. We are also starting phase one of another major project: repairing a retaining wall by the large swimming hole that was swept away by major flooding episodes.

We?re looking forward to a great work day and fun in the Halloween spirit. I am still taking RSVPs, so let me know if you can come, so I can be sure to have plenty of treats and lunches on hand!

Glee Ingram
Greenbelt Guardian Coordinator