Kurtis has been a constant in Pease Park for two years now and if you have not had the privilege of meeting him in person, we’d like to introduce you to him here. And, we hope you will join us in celebrating him as our Richard F. Craig Volunteer of the Year award recipient (named after our inaugural honoree in 2021 and Pease Park Conservancy Founder, Richard F. Craig)!

Kurtis has been unhoused for some time now, but if this is all you know about him, there is much more to learn about his impact on the park and our Pease Park Conservancy team.

Hello and Happy Fall to all of my Pease Park friends!

Pax here—your favorite Pease Park squirrel and now secret agent squirrel!

Just because summer is ending doesn’t mean the fun has to stop! As the sun sets on the beloved splashpad on September 18th, it rises with new interactive programming at the park.

We are excited to embark on our newest adventure with Agents of Discovery and we want you to tag along with us!

We have all been feeling the heat and so have our trees! The intense temperatures and water scarcity has slowed down tree growth and is leaving many trees stressed and in vulnerable states. We are ensuring that these wonders are being watered through volunteer events and we could use a helping hand. Read on to learn more about the value of trees, how we are helping to protect them, and how you can help alongside us!

We’re deep in the heart (and heat) of summer and with consistently record high temperatures, Texas has been dryer than usual. One thing we can take away from this moment is the need for collective support. While native species are acclimated to their natural environments, they still require care during extreme climate conditions. That’s where our park staff and volunteers come in.

In partnership with Future Front Texas and Equality Texas, our first Pride Picnic in Pease Park was glorious! We plan to make this an annual event on the 4th Sunday of June so we can celebrate Pride & Love with our community time and time again.

Banned Camp is a partnership between Austin Public Library and BookPeople. Pease Park Conservancy is excited to participate in this program to help our littlest readers engage with the conversation around intellectual freedom at these early literacy building storytimes in Pease Park.

Learn more about when readings will be occurring and what books will be presented.

Have you seen the cutest little Snow Box vendor in town? It’s in Pease Park right across the trail from the Treehouse! You can now book a SnoRide for your next party in Pease Park.

Picnic table + Splashpad + SnoRide = the perfect summer birthday bash!

Learn more about The Blue Trees by Konstantin Dimoupolos, the temporary art installation in Pease Park.

We all awoke to colder temperatures outside and ice on the ground this week! We hope you are able to stay warm and safe today under these conditions. We’ll see you outside after the sun does its thing in the next few days and we look forward to safely gathering in the park with you very soon.

On MLK Day each year, we typically join the community March organized by the Austin Area Heritage Council to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. The March has been cancelled this year in light of current COVID circumstances, but we still want to follow Dr. King’s leadership and celebrate his teachings. We will host a food drive at Pease Park in recognition of MLK Day that will support Central Texas Food Bank on Monday, January 17th.

Austin is home to people from all walks of life and each individual comes with a different story. In People of Pease Park, we highlight people that make Austin’s green space the dynamically vibrant place we know and love. Marshall May has a passion for creating homes for Eastern Screech Owls and he installed 30 of his hand-made Screech Owl boxes in Pease Park. We are thrilled for Pease Park to be a sanctuary for these beautiful creatures and we are grateful to Marshall for his expertise.

Mary Tipps made this Owl House project possible and we are so grateful to her for her generous support of this project and of Pease Park Conservancy.

We are bombarded each day with news, responsibilities, and stressors, making it more important than ever to put time and energy into caring for ourselves. As we at Pease Park Conservancy care for and maintain this urban green space, we are awed by all of the incredible ways that you are finding your “pease”, joy, and comfort in the outdoors. Take a look at some of the ways people are connecting with one another, with nature, and with the arts.

Jo Sue and her daughter Josie, both citizens of the Cherokee Nation who live in Austin and regularly spend time in Pease Park, are helping us at Pease Park Conservancy think through how to honor and recognize the storied history of this land. We want Indigenous People to feel acknowledged and included and the entire Austin community to learn and reflect on the past, present, and future of Indigenous Cultures. We want to center Native voices and Jo Sue and Josie agreed to share their insights with us here as a part of Native American Heritage Month.

Kingsbury Commons has just received its designation as a Monarch Waystation by monarchwatch.org, which means that it has officially become a VRBO for these beauties.