This season, we want to thank you for loving and caring for our city’s natural spaces and community gathering places. As you celebrate the holidays, we invite you to pause and spend some time in nature.

It has been known that spending time outdoors has profound mental and physical health benefits. After all, we are a part of nature, not outside of it. Whether you lay under the tall sycamores, pull weeds during Pease Corps volunteer events, catalog fall blooms with iNaturalist, or sip your morning coffee in the Treehouse - a little bit of time outside goes a long way in improving your wellbeing.

Join us at a volunteer event, register for one of the last programming opportunities of the season, visit our Pease Rx webpage to learn about outdoor wellness offerings at Pease Park, or read on for other ways to get involved.

Cheerfully,

Pease Park Conservancy

We serve the park so the park can serve you

This statement expresses our commitment at Pease Park Conservancy to protect, operate, and steward this beloved park for everyone. It’s a guiding principle that we think about every single day in the work that we do. Here is how you can help!

Impact. Many of us want to have a positive impact on the world, on other people, on the environment, and on future generations. At times we feel powerless, discouraged, or that our ability to control the way things are moving is limited.  So, it helps to stop and take stock of how you have and how you will impact the world around you, in ways that are unique to you, with your specific set of talents, passions, and influence. As Sharon McMahon (aka America’s Government Teacher) points out in her book, The Small and Mighty, everyday people who are not in the history books have helped shape the course of history and they can serve as inspiration to us all.

At Pease Park Conservancy, our sphere of influence as a team is on a beautiful 84-acre urban green space. It’s easy to imagine the amount of development that would be in Pease Park’s place if it weren’t protected and cared for. We want to share the recent impacts that our team of 12 has had on this park and the community around it, by using our unique talents, knowledge, and drive.

The cycle of life is now evident in Pease Park, as we have recently learned that five Cedar Elms in Kingsbury Commons have reached a point where they need to come down. Each of these trees has experienced loss of major limbs and canopy repair, and while some parts of the trees are still alive, they pose a danger to park visitors and must be removed. They have provided parkgoers with shade and beauty, and birds, squirrels, and bugs with shelter and nourishment. We are sad to see them go.

Fall is officially here and Halloween is just around the corner!

We know all too well how difficult it can be to find a costume that expresses your wit, interests, and unique individuality. As a cherished Pease Park Conservancy volunteer we want to ease your worries and give you some park-inspired Halloween costume ideas!

The catch? Well we would love to see you at the park volunteering in your park-personified costumes - just make sure you can still move around and volunteer in your look!

Read on for upcoming volunteer events, news and blogposts from the 84 acres, and featured programming events.

The Shoal Creek Trail through Pease park has been blocked by debris from two major landslides that occurred in 2018 and 2019. After years of advocacy with the City of Austin from Shoal Creek Conservancy (SCC) and Pease Park Conservancy (PPC), the debris and trail closure remain. Though this is a complex issue, PPC, SCC, and Pemberton Heights Neighborhood Association (PHNA) agree that it remains an important priority to work with the City to provide a safe, accessible restoration of this area of the park and the trail that serves it.

Learn about the youth fitness classes that will take place at Fall Fitness Festival on Saturday, October 26th. Pick your classes and get registered and we will see you in the park for a day full of fitness!

This month we invite you to celebrate Latino Conservation Week and Hispanic Heritage Month at Pease Park - Austin’s first and oldest greenspace! Spending time outdoors is linked to improved mental, physical, and cognitive wellness.

Pease Park Conservancy works to make Pease Park an equitable and sustainable greenspace for all of Austin to enjoy.

Read on for upcoming opportunities and ways to build community.

Learn about the adult fitness classes that will take place at Fall Fitness Festival on Saturday, October 26th. Pick your classes and get registered and we will see you in the park for a day full of fitness!

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Pease Park Conservancy. Although I mostly interacted with adults, the most memorable conversations were with the kids.

I’ve chosen my final project to focus on interviewing children on their thoughts about spending time outdoors and in the park. Listening to them was a delightful experience, and I hope you enjoy it too.

The Peasecology School Field Trip program grew exponentially during its second school year! If you would like your class to join us on a field trip, learn more here.

We have enjoyed three months with Malin’s Fountain in Pease Park. Read about the delight she has brought to our magical park and to the City of Austin.

What draws you to a park? What might prevent you from going to a park? Pease Park Conservancy is reaching out to the Austin community for input on Pease Park and our local green spaces. Your feedback will play a crucial role in shaping our efforts to preserve and enhance Pease Park for everyone’s enjoyment, including your own!

Please complete our short survey for a chance to win a free reservation at the Tudor Cottage and Terrace! In late September, we will randomly select a survey respondent who completed the survey in full for this prize.

Many Austinites walk, run, or bike under the big branches of this tree day in and day out. You may have recently noticed cones placed along the sidewalk just under this tree and wondered what they are there for.

Read on to see what they mean and how you can help!

Pease Park Conservancy continues to care for, conserve, and program Austin’s first and oldest greenspace.

As we approach the third anniversary of the reopening of Kingsbury Commons we are excited to share all of the things we have been able to accomplish in 2023. Check out our impact report below to learn more!

The month of June offers us the opportunity to celebrate, pause and reflect. For students, it is a chance to contemplate the successes of the school year. For several communities it is a time to honor change and champion continued progress.

As we enter the summer season Pease Park Conservancy continues to praise the shade trees offer us among their many other benefits. After last week’s storms, Pease Park has lost much-needed shade, but the Conservancy’s Park Operations Team has been working diligently to collect debris and assess damaged structures.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. After celebrating Earth and all of its wonder, we are left thinking about the way our planet’s health and our individual wellbeing are intrinsically connected.

No matter your motivation, we invite you to join one of our recurring Pease Corps Volunteer Events this Mental Health Awareness month as we steward wellness through our natural spaces.

For many of us, May is one of the most hectic months of the year. It brings finals, deadlines, gatherings, and transitions. Taking care of your mental health can fall by the wayside when you have a lot going on; but without some intentional self-care, our health, relationships, and productivity can suffer.

Dr. Curtis Eckerman, Department Chair of Biology at Austin Community College, is a friend of Pease Park and an expert in moths. Each semester he leads his students in moth studies in Kingsbury Commons and wishes to share this passion with others.

As our featured April blogpost in our series (Conversations in Conservation), he has given us a sneak peek into the magic of mothing.

This spring Dr. Eckerman has graciously extended the invitation for all Austinites to join him and his students in a moth expedition. Click here to join!

The Thomas Dambo team and Pease Park Conservancy volunteers have been hard at work, and our Austin troll is complete! We invite you to come take the Troll Trek and here is how…

Curious about the materials used to build the Pease Park troll?

More than 80% of Malin’s Fountain is made from recycled, repurposed, or found materials. A local sawmill with the mission of giving new life to Austin’s fallen trees, Harvest Lumber Co. recovered materials from a research test tank at The University of Texas JJ Pickle Research Center and custom-milled it to be used for Malin’s Fountain’s exterior cladding. Here are some more specifics.

As National Bird Feeding Month comes to a close, let us reflect – to feed or not to feed?

We are excited to announce that a Thomas Dambo Troll installation will soon be underway in Pease Park! After overwhelming support from the community during community engagement in the fall and an extensive review process with the City of Austin, this project is a go!

Thomas Dambo Troll Frequently Asked Questions

Please read through the Frequently Asked Questions about the Thomas Dambo Troll being installed in Pease Park. If you still have questions that remain unanswered, please reach out to us at info@peasepark.org.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pease Park Conservancy is thrilled to host its 3rd annual MLK Day Food Drive, a dedicated day of service aimed at alleviating local communities' food insecurity.

We invite you to join this initiative by bringing donations to the Tudor Cottage in Kingsbury Commons on Monday, January 15th between 12 pm and 2 pm! Large heavy-weight boxes to help transport donations are appreciated too.

Have you seen the really big dragonflies?

Like their giant ancestors from a prehistoric era, these brightly colored Odonates will glide along Shoal Creek in Pease Park through April of 2024. Enter the Dragonfly, previously exhibited in Waller Creek as a part of Waterloo Greenway’s Creek Show in 2022, draws our attention to some of the creatures that need the complex riparian ecosystem that the creek provides. Scaled down, you might have even seen a Flame Skimmer or Blue Dasher in similar bright colors along the creek on a summer day.

We value the importance of being mindful with gift-giving, especially during the holiday season. By supporting local businesses, creating handmade gifts, or donating to causes that hold a special place in our hearts we can make a positive impact in our community. To make things easier for you, we've put together a gift guide that features a variety of local businesses and organizations that you can support. We hope that this guide will help make your gift-giving experience more meaningful and enjoyable!