It's My Park! Day - April 2005

Our neighborhood association hosted one of 30 cleanup projects around Austin on April 23rd for the Second Annual It's My Park! Day event sponsored by the Austin Parks Foundation. A couple of dozen neighborhood volunteers including Jene Ebest’s Brownie Troop and some UT students (see photos) helped clean up a stretch of Shoal Creek from Allandale/Northland down to Hancock Drive.

Beautiful weather and low water in the creek allowed for a lot of trash to be collected.

Our goal in participating was to show there is interest in maintaining the creek and surrounding greenbelt. The good showing from our neighborhood may lead (but not guaranteed) to getting some funding for professional tree trimming in the greenbelt. There are many dead limbs and extensive ball moss and other growth that threatens the entire stand of trees just south of Allandale/Northland. Real help for those trees is needed and this was a start to getting it.

Stay tuned next spring for another opportunity to help maintain OUR Shoal Creek. With more volunteers, we can expand the project area for the betterment of the environment and our neighborhood.

Submitted by Paul Nagy, It's My Park! Day Host