FLWR meeting: April 3

We had our first meeting last night for the newly invigorated FLWR. Girard Kinney, Priscilla and Dave Boston, Dolly and Dave and John Stott were in attendance. First and foremost we added the 'L' for 'Lovers' to the old name, Friends of Willowbrook Reach. As an acronym, FLWR has super fun potential.

Here are a few other things we talked about:

• Erosion control - this is going to be an ongoing issue in an urban creek system confined to a small space by houses and roads. Creeks and rivers are born to meander--to change their paths by miles at a time. It’s a natural process, but if we let it happen in the city, the creeks and rivers would gulp houses and roads up into its gullet. So, we need to prepare.
• More native plants - We’d like to plant more native trees, shrubs and wildflowers to attract butterflies and birds. This will also help with erosion
• Mowing - we need to work with the city to come up with a good maintenance schedule. Mowing is important, as it helps keep back some of the nasties like poison ivy and Johnson grass.
• Monarch Waystation - Dolly threw out the idea of a monarch waystation, which I think is a fabulous idea. Once we get some more flowering native plants in the ground, I think we can easily apply to become a waystation.
• Martin house - the Reach is ripe for purple martin houses
• Bridge - a longer term goal is to get a bridge mid-Reach.
• More garbage cans and doggie bags - Enough said.
• Master plan - We desperately need a master plan to guide everything we do on the Reach. It will not only help us develop, maintain and foster the Reach in a cohesive and appropriate way, but it will help our communications with the City of Austin and other stakeholders.

In the end, we quickly applied for an Keep Austin Beautiful grant to get us started.