Hispanic Heritage Month starts today and Pease Park Conservancy is honored to have cultivated a team with such rich and diverse backgrounds!
Representation matters and thanks to these incredible individuals, we have been able to broaden our community offerings and how we serve Spanish speakers through bilingual communications, programming, and our Ecologist School Field Trips. Join us in celebrating the value and leadership they bring to the organization and its mission by getting to know them!
As Latino Conservation Week comes to an end, we want to reflect on the many different ways in which Latinos are playing a role in conservation. From organizing events for groups to spend time in nature like Latino Outdoors’ initiative does, to working in land management, parks departments, and leading research across various topics concerning conservation - the work doesn’t end here! We hope you’ll stay connected with this initiative led by the Hispanic Access Foundation!
Thank you for your feedback and concerns regarding the splash pad at Pease Park.
At this time, public safety remains our top priority. We cannot reopen the water feature until we are absolutely certain it is safe to do so. The sophisticated controller equipment that continuously monitors water quality, dispenses the chemicals, and automatically shuts off the splash pad when water quality is out of balance must be operating properly to ensure that it is safe for play. Unhealthy water quality can cause illness and death.We want to assure you that we are working diligently to diagnose the problem and make the necessary repairs. We are working with GPSI, the firm that designed and built the splash pad, as well as IPS, the manufacturer of the controller equipment.
For the past 10 years, the week of July 15 through July 23rd has been recognized as Latino Conservation Week - An initiative led by the Hispanic Access Foundation to further amplify the presence of Latinos in the outdoors. During this time organizations and community groups across the country have gathered and participated in various events to promote conservation efforts in their local environments.
In honor of Latino Conservation Week, we spoke to Josie (San Antonio Regional Coordinator) and Bianca (Program Coordinator) of Latino Outdoors about the history of Latino Outdoors, the work that they do and why it’s important to build an inclusive outdoors:
One of February’s long celebrated moments of remembrance. Since 1976 we have made it an American practice to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” — Pease Park Conservancy is working to center narratives, prioritize experiences, and most importantly to restructuralize how public land is cultivated and shared.
City of Austin representatives and Pease Park Conservancy CEO, Heath Riddles-Sanchez, signed the Park Operations and Maintenance Agreement (POMA) for Pease Park on Friday, January 13, formalizing shared responsibilities for Operations, Maintenance, and Programming of Pease Park’s Kingsbury Commons (the southernmost 7 acres of the park).
Fall was primetime at Pease Park for conservation projects! We saw so many familiar and new faces at our recurring volunteer events and were able to host large groups to implement some new projects throughout the 84-acres. After tackling this Summer’s historic drought we were able to turn our attention to mitigating erosion and removing some pesky invasive plants.
By now we are well aware of the significance of trees in our lives.
Which is why we are excited to announce that Pease Park Conservancy recently acquired a grant as part of the APACHE Corporation Tree Grant Program in the form of… trees!
Read on to find out how we have used these trees will help the forest in Pease Park!
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.
The Pease Park Treehouse was voted Best of Austin in the Kids & Family Wild Card category in the Austin Chronicle Best Of awards for 2022! Thank you Austin for voting for us.
One of February’s long celebrated moments of remembrance. Since 1976 we have made it an American practice to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” — Pease Park Conservancy is working to center narratives, prioritize experiences, and most importantly to restructuralize how public land is cultivated and shared.
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.
