News

Nature Notes with SBCA

It’s plain and simple, nature is healing for the soul. We have always known the importance of connecting to the great outdoors, and during this time of quarantine, it feels even more so. We here at SBCA want to help bring the beauty of nature to you. Join SBCA for videos that refresh, inspire, and uplift!

Take a moment out of your day to watch this video from Twin Falls. Enjoy a peaceful moment in nature with us! You deserve it.
Nature Notes will be posted via our social media channels, but you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for recent uploads.

Actions for Earth

In honor of the 50th year of Earth Day (April 22), we are launching the “Actions for Earth” social media campaign! 

Let’s celebrate Earth Day all Spring and Summer! Join our movement of individual conservation actions everyone can take that make a collective difference. Let’s make the world better and more beautiful together, every day!

We hope you feel inspired to explore ways that you can also make a difference while maintaining social distancing. Anything as simple as picking up a piece of trash along your path, pulling up an invasive species, planting a tree in your yard, utilizing Earth friendly gardening and lawn care practices, or even choosing native plants in your landscaping can make a difference. Tag @savebartoncreek and #actionsforearth on Facebook and Instagram for a chance to be featured! Or, if you are not on social media, email sarah@savebartoncreek.org and she can share your story for you!

TAKE ACTION TODAY- Less Highways, more trails!

Friends, Want to do something positive for the world right now? Send a message to tell officials that you DO NOT SUPPORT MORE HIGHWAYS/pavement over the EDWARDS AQUIFER recharge zone and DO SUPPORT ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION TRAILS!

The public comment period on the draft CAMPO 2045 draft plan is set to close on Monday, April 27. The draft plan is a nightmare for Barton Springs — over $3 billion in new and expanded roads over the Barton Springs Edwards watershed, including a 10 mile extension of Escarpment Boulevard from Circle C down across city of Austin water quality protection lands and the heart of the recharge zone. 

At the same time, CAMPO is talking about de-funding walking and biking trails across the region! Please encourage them to shift priorities from destructive highways over sensitive environmental features, to trail networks. Trails are much less costly. Recent events have shown us how valuable these outdoor recreation and transportation trails can be!

Save Our Springs Alliance has a form that will automatically send to all CAMPO board members, here. Feel free to edit the example email. 

THANK YOU!!

Land Development Code Update

Save Barton Creek Association’s persistent advocacy throughout the multi-year land development code process is paying off. With every draft of the land development code, we accomplish more of our water and environmental goals. Some of the improvements in the latest draft that came out on Friday, were items that we were previously told were not possible. This gives us hope that the few remaining items that we continue to ask for may also be incorporated.  

Some highlights from the latest draft include:
The City has finally taken actions to prevent lot-to-lot flooding! These include requiring developments greater than 50% or 5,000 sq feet of impervious cover (including transition areas) to submit a drainage plan by a licensed professional that shows that neighboring lots will not be flooded. The development permitting process will also now include a provision that says that the development can not flood neighboring properties and is responsible for any lot-to-lot flooding that should occur. This seems like common sense but took a LOT of advocacy to get included!  

Approximately 300 lots were removed from upzoning/transition areas after an analysis done on localized flood problem areas. We had been asking that flood prone areas be exempted from upzoning for several rounds of code. Once again, common sense prevails! If you are in a flood-prone area and are upzoned in the current map, you might consider reaching out to your local council member and also calling 311 to report your lot as one that has experienced flooding. 

While imperfect, things are looking better for trees. Penalties for illegally removing trees are included in the code for the first time. Also, the administrative variance that was proposed along corridors to remove heritage trees has at least been limited in a couple of ways: to properties that are 50% residential and 10% affordable and only along core transit corridors, not all corridors. To be clear, we believe in a public process, not administrative process for any heritage tree removal.  

Thank you to the City Council members that were very responsive to our latest group letter and advocacy on the code. They passed direction to City staff that led to the above improvements. They also passed direction on issues that have not yet been incorporated but that we will continue to ask for– These include on-site water retention/infiltration, green streets, and a new conservation subdivision code. We also of course continue to keep an eye on Save Our Springs Ordinance language to prevent any changes/ threats to the SOS ordinance and zoning issues over the aquifer. 

City Council offices are currently working on their amendments to the latest draft and will be meeting on the code again next Tuesday through Thursday (11th-13th). Citizens may come speak at those meetings. Feel free to come speak about making sure our new code brings us into our sustainable and resilient future. 

SBCA will continue to work with allied organizations to protect our water quality, prevent flooding, and improve our City’s ecological performance until this code process is over.

Save Barton Creek Association 2019 Award Recipients 

Congratulations to our award recipients! Read about the work of these incredibly dedicated environmental heroes below.

Jackie Vay received our Rising Star Award. A St.Edward’s University Alumni, who interned at SBCA during her undergrad, today she works full time for the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer District as Outreach Specialist, working on their education programs. She worked for the Texas River School as a River Guide. She was involved in SBCA’s Explorer’s Guide to the Hill Country Oasis. She also finds time to volunteer at the Becker Elementary student garden, and as a leader in SBCA’s young professional’s group, Creek Crew. She credits Save Our Springs, SBCA, Karen Kocher and Living Springs, and The Texas River School for getting her way she is today.

Brigid Shea received our Environmental Policy Leadership Award. Commissioner Shea serves on the Travis County Commissioners Court, and is currently serving on the board of Texas Campaign for the Environment, the national Clean Water Action board and the national board of ICLEI, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.Brigid’s prior environmental record is extensive and includes coordinating a successful national strategy to get cities across the US, leading the Save Our Springs Ordinance movement, pushing passage of the first wind energy project in Texas in partnership, and much more!

The award for Outstanding Organization was accepted by Jessica Karlsruher, the Executive Director of the Texas Real Estate Advocacy and Defense Coalition (TREAD).  They are relatively new on the scene but are already making a big difference organizing communities against polluter interests. They are fighting the Permian Highway pipeline, and are also raising concerns over direct discharge of wastewater into local creeks.

Joe Riddell received our Lifetime Achievement Award. Joe is an avid inner tuber, first floating down Barton Creek in 1973 and consequently falling in love with it. He was an active member of the Zilker Park Posse, Save Barton Creek Association, and the council-appointed task forces that drafted proposed development rules for Williamson Creek and the lower watersheds. He had a 20 year career as a lawyer in the Environmental Protection Division at the Texas Attorney General’s office. He also helped word-smith the SOS citizen initiative ordinance. His latest project is to get the city to improve safety for inner tubers and kayakers just above Barton Springs pool. 

Steve Beers received our Relentless Organizer Award. He is an active board member on SBCA, and has been involved in activism against highways over the aquifer. He has spearheaded SBCA’s work against the totally nonsensical and non-context sensitive “solution” to traffic issues at the Y, the Oak Hill Parkway, and has been a central figure in the group FIX290. He had strong leadership against the Dripping Springs Sewage Treatment Plant, and now the proposed Long Branch treatment plant, which led to SBCA organizing the No Dumping Sewage campaign with allied organizations. He has also led opposition to several other developments and highway projects over the years.