The Austin Entrepreneurs Foundation and Applied Materials have expressed interest in sponsoring a workday at Patterson Park that might involve building a stroller/wheelchair accessible path from Wilshire Blvd to the playground or site preparation for a new playscape. This would probably occur some Saturday in the fall. September 13 is one date being considered. They are interested in knowing how many members of the community would show up to participate, either in doing the labor, giving out drinks, etc. If you or a family member could join in this effort, would you please let me know?
 (Isabel Headrick) pattpark@pop.texas.net

Thanks to all who showed up for the park workday at 34th and Cherrywood, it was a great success.

Our accomplishments included
mowing the entire lot
Cleaning up the creek, removing about 10 bags of garbage
Creating a temporary sign annoucing the project "New Park Coming    Get Involved!    Info  708-9407"

Attending
Katharine Beisner
Joe Ahlquist
Brent Hay
Mike Damel
Eva Riquelme
Christopher Buitron
Micheal McClendon
Paul Andrews
Dave Westenburger
Amanda Braziel
Jason Howell
Rebecca and her mother (sorry I didn't get your names)

It was a beautiful day and we got a lot done.  Highlights included finding cash register drawers and calling in the police to investigate!!  The lot already looks better.  We're off to a great start.

Coming soon, a week night meeting to finalize the site plan and determine next steps.

Thanks again, it was really fun working with you.

Katharine

    The following announcement comes from the Austin Parks Foundation
      < http://www.austin360.com/community/groups/APF/index.html >
via the Austin Neighborhoods Council.  Of the projects they supported last 
year (their inaugural grant cycle), the closest to us is Bartholomew Park 
(details on their Web site under [Portfolio])....   /g

o - - - - - - - - - - - - APF Grants info - - - - - - - - - - - - o

   Jonathan Neumann
   477-1566
   < mailto:jneumann@texas.net >
   DEADLINE June 15

O - - - - - - - - - - - - APF Grants info- - - - - - - - - - - - O

>Austin Parks Foundation Announces Neighborhood Park Grants Program
>
>With the belief that inviting, safe, and active parks play a vital role in
>community life, the Austin Parks Foundation (APF) announces the second cycle
>of its Neighborhood Park Grants Program.  APF will provide matching grants
>to neighborhood and community groups in Austin who are interested in
>enhancing and revitalizing their public park or green space.  The grants
>offered will range from $300 to $2,500 and are available for park
>beautification projects, new and enhanced programs, and community events
>that bring neighborhood parks to life.
>
>Through the Neighborhood Park Grants Program, APF promotes creative projects
>and programs that build community support for parks while enabling
>neighborhood residents to make positive changes in their community.
>
>Deadline for applications is June 15, 2001 with award notification in early
>August.  For more information including guidelines and an application,
>please contact Jonathan Neumann at 477-1566 or by email at jneumann@
>texas.net.

 The Austin Parks Foundation will provide matching grants to neighborhood and community groups interested in enhancing and revitalizing public parks and green space. The grants offered range from $300 to $2,500 and are available for park beautification projects, new and enhanced programs, and community events that bring neighborhood parks to life.The deadline for applications is June 15. For more information, call Jonathan Neumann at 477-1566. Jim & Scheleen Walker <jwalk@greenbuilder.com> 

Girard <girard@girard@kinneyarchitects.comarchitects.com> writes: We were well represented today at the Parks Series of the Neighborhood Academy at ACC, Eastview Campus.  One Sponsor/presenter/facilitator was Jonathan Neumann, Outreach Coordinator for the Austin Parks Foundation (Jonathan lives on Breeze Terrace).  Also present were Gail Greenleaf, Jules Vieau and me. 

Councilmember Beverly Griffith, who talked about Traditional Neighborhoods and the Parkland Dedication Ordinance (which she says is currently "under siege" and needs not only protecting but strengthening), was a spokesperson at the morning session).  She urges activism in the areas of: 

Fight to get the best National Parks purchased (I may have this wrong- she didn't speak much about it) 

Get a Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee started now. 

Parks Operations and Maintenance needs a LOT more money.  Since O&M are not covered in bond programs, this is simply a budget issue, and sexier stuff like transportation and human services have noisier advocates.  Neighborhoods need to lobby for better operation services and better maintenance of their parks. 

Save and Strengthen the Parkland Dedication Ordinance.  Not only can we not let it be repealed as some would try to do, we need to have it expanded to include, at the minimum, new apartment projects.  It should be triggered not only by the Subdivision process, but also by any significant Land-use change or expansion of any residential project. 

Ex-Councilmember Bill Spellman spoke at Lesson 2 (afternoon session) about the process of getting things throughout the City processes (focusing on parks and parks projects)- he did an excellent job of demystifying the process. 

Overall, it was a good experience.  Jules and I are planning to attend next Saturday, but I have a conflict the following Saturday (10 March) and I am trying to find someone to go in my place. 

~~~~ Claudia writes ~~~~
   It sounds good but again a dose of reality.  Few if any folks are going to pull up weeds by hand and certainly I am not going to get anywhere near poison ivy most folks are very allergic to it.  Most people don't have the time or energy after putting in a long days at work to go out and pull up weeds.  I know it is all i can do to muster enough energy to mow my own grass.  I do what I can by picking up trash and sometimes mowing areas by my house when I can't take the overgrowth any more. I still believe the vast majority of folks just want it mowed before it gets knee high.

    ~~~~ Girard writes ~~~~ 
   Gale, thanks very much for following up and providing so much useful information.  I personally agree with all the advice that Mr. Leyday has provided, and with your suggestion about the users each doing a little over a period of time to deal with the unwanted plants.  It is important, of course that everyone know for sure what they are pulling up, but perhaps you know most of the folks well enough that a tutorial isn't necessary.  Just let me know if you think the Parks Committee can do something officially, or if I personally can do anything to help.  I would be glad, for instance, to participate in a follow up treatment of the remaining poisen ivy as it comes back out if Mr. Leyday and his crew can't get to it at the right point. 
   ...I realize it is easy for someone who does not regularly walk there to suggest this, and I really am willing to participate in a planned respraying of the ivy and then, after it is pretty well under control, I would be glad to participate (and to encourage the entire Parks committee to join us) in a planned weed pull.  I thought that Gale's idea was good, because it certainly doesn't hurt anything to pull a few weeds on one's daily stroll, and with everyone that wants to doing that regularly, over a year or so I'll bet the unwanted grass would be at least significantly diminished.  The point of this is that the mowing of the johnson grass also gets the good stuff, unless and until we can get them to mow it up at 10 inches or so, so that the desired plants can go to seed.  I think that Claudia is right to remind us that our solutions have to be realistic, but in the long run the solutions also have to be sustainable, and relying solely on mowing will encourage only a  monoculture of grass and very specialized plants (such as poison ivy) that can propagate under the 4" ceiling that the current mowers provide.  Sustainablility in a park requires plant diversity unless we are willing to spend an awfully lot of resources continually maintaining the grounds.
   My thought is that pulling the grass, either with gloves or at times and places where there is no poison ivy, by people who want to do it should be encouraged.  But we should regard that as one small part of a larger strategy that includes mowing short where we want to play croquet or put out a blanket to sun or have a picnic, and along the shoulders of defined paths, taller mowing where we want wild flowers, and continual pruning of unwanted species and addition of desired ones.  There are plenty of folks using that greenway who, with carefully timed and closely monitored mowing and large debris removal by City or City contracted services, can make that green space be just about everything that everyone wants it to be.

~~~~ Katy writes ~~~~ 
Claudia, (and all):   You are probably right that many people will not bother to pull weeds as they walk along, but many of us are actually avid zerascapers and know that the only way to manage wildflower meadows is to pull up weeds, because mowing pretty much throws out the baby with the bathwater. 
   I am dreadfully allergic to poison ivy, and each time I get a case of it, it is worse than the last.  So you won't see me pulling that stuff up.  But I wouldn't mind pulling the other weeds, if that'll help you guys that live by the creek feel okay about what the Parks Committee is trying to do there! 
   By the way, Gale tells me that during the summer, it is better not to even try to pull up the johnson grass, even if it does rain (fat chance!) but that if we want to help control the johnson grass, we could "top" it, take off the seed pod before the seeds mature and propagate.  I bet you can't easily break them off, so this task may fall to those who think to carry a tool with them on their walks, or those who are the "pocket knife types."  Anyway, with a tool, this little task is a very easy way to be a part of the project...that darn stuff is so high, you don't even have to bend over to cut the tops! 

~~~~ Gale Greenleaf <greenleaf@mail.utexas.edu> writes ~~~~
   Mike Leyday is Watershed's plant expert and an enthusiastic supporter of native plants, flowers, and less mowing - he says mowing only encourages poison ivy and mowing when the johnson grass has gone to seed only helps disseminate the seeds. He called me today to let us know that he and a crew went out yesterday to do what they could with the poison ivy on Willowbrook greenbelt.

   They used herbicide on the ivy that is on the ground, and they cut back the vines growing on the trees at the east end of the 'belt. However, he was afraid to use too much herbicide there, because it might harm the trees. He did use some. So if you are walking there in the next couple of days try to avoid going near any of it so you and your dogs won't come in contact with the poison.

   It's up to us now, folks. When and if we notice the vines starting to encroach on the trees, we ought to contact the CNA parks committee and maybe have a work day to cut the vines back or even dig them up. That is really the best way to control it. I say control because in such a big space it is next to impossible to eradicate it. Try walking on Barton Creek greenbelt - poison ivy is everywhere!

   Mike also thought we could get a significant reduction in beggar's ticks and johnson grass if each of us every time we walk pulls up a few plants in the late winter or early spring, when the ground is wet and they are easy to pull up. He had to the same thing with that nasty sticker grass some horses introduced onto his property. It sounds silly to weed a whole greenbelt, but with the volume of people who walk there every day, I'm sure we could have an impact more significant than mowing. (Both of those plants are only temporarily discouraged by mowing.) Maybe if I'm not bugging everybody too much I'll send out a reminder in January and we can give it a try! 

Saturday morning, May 13, the Parks and Greenspace Committee revived and:

   -Came close to finishing its vision, goals, and objectives for all Cherrywood greenspaces – Patterson Park, the Willowbrook greenway, Reed Park (at 34th & Cherrywood), the Little Boggy creek bed, and roadside and street-side easements...

   -Discussed how to best manage relations with the various City entities that have a hand in greenspace maintenance – Parks & Rec, Watershed Protection, Forestry, etc.

   -Discussed the value of discovering the histories of our flagship greenspaces – hope was expressed that O.N.C.E. would continue the interesting work it has done for Reed...

   -Clarified different interests people have in the Willowbrook greenway, and how best to accommodate them all – having that area be safe, walkable, and aesthetic – controlling Johnson grass and ragweed overgrowth – protecting wildflower and various wild critters’ habitat – and thinking about some Parks Committee initiatives that could further improve it...

~~~~ Girard adds ~~~~
I think that it is very, very unlikely that these are Cotton Mouths. I have handled these snakes all my life, and almost always when someone refers to "Moccasins", they are the harmless water snakes that look very much like the poisonous ones, but aren't. If, indeed they are poisonous, I personally would be for capturing them and relocating them, because cotton mouth water moccasins are really not compatible with urban areas. 

Mother cottonmouths are almost always aggressive, and they are very poisonous- I have seen them swim across a creek to bite if they think their young are in danger. But I have never in my life seen a cottonmouth in an urban creek, while I have seen hundreds of the harmless look-alikes. Cotton mouth water moccasins are almost never in the water. They hang out mainly in low hanging branches and around the roots of water trees, and are often seen sunning themselves covered with mud. They are usually, but not always very thick [in the body] in comparison with the impostors, and they have more of the recognizable diamond head of the pit viper. They are also usually blacker than their copycat water snakes.; Except for the example of the mother protecting young, cotton mouths are usually not aggressive at all- unlike their copiers which are pretty aggressive, and their bites hurt even though they aren't poisonous.

~~~~ Gale adds ~~~~
Girard suggested Charles Tischler might be able to identify them, so I talked to him tonight. He also thought it highly unlikely that they are cottonmouths and says he has seen only three in Austin in his whole life. He says they are very fat in the middle, not long and skinny, and have a noticeably rattler-looking head. He suggested that we have a park ranger come to a meeting to talk to us about snakes and other critters. In the meantime, the strong likelihood is that these are harmless and even beneficial water snakes that eat rats and such.

A few summers ago I and an 11 year old neighborhood boy walked the creek twice a day with my dog for the whole summer. When I say walked it, I mean IN it - bare feet and all. We only rarely saw a snake, and they made themselves scarce. (Broken glass and other mad-made hazards were of more concern to us.)  So whatever they are, I think they are far more scared of humans than we need to be of them.

Also, when it's really hot, you might try a creek walk yourself: it is fed not just by runoff but by wonderfully cool underground springs. There are dozens of places where you can feel the cold water coming up under your feet. (Do wash well after.)

~~~~ Gale Greenleaf writes ~~~~ The water moccasins are attracted to the water, and probably the rocks that the city put in for them, not the grass. They have been in the creek for at least the 16 years I've lived near it. I have never heard of anyone being bitten by one. It's true the grass gives them some cover, but they can hide in six-inch-tall grass just as easily.    Snakes are one of the things people always bring up when they want the city to mow. (One of the others is rats.) Yes, they are poisonous snakes, but as everybody knows, even poisonous snakes are beneficial and have a place in the ecosystem. If you had a choice between the city cutting the banks of the creek to four inches, thereby greatly increasing the rate of erosion of the banks because of lack of vegetation to hold them, and just being observant when you walk the inner path, which would you choose? If you had children, couldn't you use the snakes to explain nature to them, to tell them that they do need to be observant and careful when in wild or semi-wild places? Beyond the issue of whether the snakes are good or bad, the city has told us repeatedly - and I do mean repeatedly - that they will not mow more than four or five times a year, even if it means violationg their own ordinance or rule about grass being 18" high. (I think that rule actually may only apply to "weed lots" or vacant property.) That in turn means that in the spring the grass is going to get tall, period.  The immediate issue probably is, when they are going to finish mowing the area: it'll be on or about May 11. They stopped because they were apparently unable to follow their own map of what was to be cut in mid April and what was to be left alone. The creek banks were to have been cut to 12",  and the debris cleared out of the creek, but they didn't even touch the creek. But they will soon.

~~~~ Girard girard@kinneyarchitects.com writes ~~~~
Before everyone goes after these snakes, someone who can identify them needs to do so.  There are many snakes that are extremely similar to Cotton Mouth Water Moccasins but which are not poisonous and are beneficial to the environment.  I can identify them, but I won't be immediately available.  Naturalist Charles Tischler would probably do it, and I know a herpetologist named Bill Montgomery who would also probably be glad to help.

~~~~ Jim Sander writes ~~~~ It's refreshing to hear that there exists at least some semblance of wildlife anymore.  I remember  seeing turtles in the creek as recent as a couple of years ago.  Alas, he's gone, about the only  thing that survives in the brown runoff-runthrough are mosquitoes. 

~~~~ Gale writes again ~~~~ The turtle lives! S/he is huge. I most recently saw it just a week or so ago. Also, the great blue heron is around, and so are the night herons - with the klunky-looking yellow legs - and their prehistoric-sounding squawks. In the morning there are raccoon tracks in the mud. The toad tadpoles will appear soon. The mulberries are about finished.    My hope is that people can use what's wild about this area to learn/teach about nature, and can use nearby Patterson Park to run, swing, play tennis, have picnics, play ball, swim, etc. 

~~~~ from Claudia Chaffin, 3808 Sycamore (memo of phone call) ~~~~>
   People walking near the creek in the greenway between Sycamore and E.40th/Willowbrook need to be aware of water moccasins (our only poisonous water snake) in the vicinity of the big rocks and deep water near the swings...

   The tall grass around there attracts them – it really should be mowed more often – the wildflowers are nice – but I hope the grass can be kept under control – doesn’t City ordinance forbid more than 18" high?