Sunday, December 19, 2010

Workday Photos

We had a fantastic turnout for the workday on Saturday, and accomplished many of the goals, from mulching trees and trails to removal of invasive species. Special thanks to all of those who came to lend a hand, including the I-CERV youth group and Keep Austin Beautiful (for lending us tools).

Neighbor Dolly snapped some great photos of the event:









Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Snakes Among Us

A really nice video about the harmless water snakes that call Austin's creeks and streams home. Highly recommend watching this video!



Here's the permalink to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdFq5Y6zSV4

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Workday and Coffee Clutch This Saturday!!

There's a Coffee Clutch and Workday this Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Willowbrook Reach! Come meet your neighbors and see what is happening down at our neighborhood green belt.

Coffee and pastries will be on sale courtesy of Elixer Coffee! (And you won't have to walk all the way up to Mueller to get some for this one day only.)

When: Saturday December 18th. 9:00-1:00

Where: The general plan is to meet at Sycamore and Half Penny to sign in and divide up into work teams. If you don't feel like working, just come and visit.

What we're doing: Spreading mulch on newly planted trees and shrubs and on the trail. Removing invasive trees, like ligustrum.

What to Bring: Wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes (especially hard tine rakes), five gallon buckets. Rubber boots are recommended for those doing invasive plant removal and creek clean up. Everyone one else dress for a cool mourning warming later in the day.

Details: There will be two to four piles of mulch and two groups of loaders and wheel borrowers. Once enough piles of mulch are dumped, teams for raking will go where needed. Smaller plants will be mulched by hand with five gallon buckets. With enough people the Butterfly Garden will be mulched as well.

The number of volunteers will determine how much of the trail is mulched. If we have a really good turn out then some creek clean up will be done as well.

Staryn Wagner and Mark Smolen will head up the invasive plant removal. Ligustrum and Japanese Privet will be the main targets as they are still in leaf. Some additional plants were marked with green paint to be removed as well. Weed wrenches will be used wherever practical as they can remove the roots on smaller shrubs and trees. Weed wrenching will be followed up with loppers and hand saws.

There will be some seed to be spread towards the end of the day, a perfect exercise for kids!

We will have some extra tools so come anyway even if you do not have any tools. If you bring tools please mark them.

If someone has a medium sized grill that they could bring then David Boston has said he'll provide the fixings for making sausage wraps for the noon to one phases of the workday. Also it would be nice to take the chill off in the mourning.

We hope to see you there, and many thanks to David Boston for organizing this huge effort.