Wednesday, July 30, 2025, 9:30 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee
The Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee met July 30, 2025, chaired by Council Member Alter. After public comment from six residents, the committee approved minutes and received a briefing from Austin Water on its Wildland Conservation Division, covering the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve and Water Quality Protection Lands programs, land management practices including prescribed fire, and permit renewal efforts. Members asked about prescribed burns, land acquisition costs, east-side habitat preservation, and potential stacked uses like farming and solar. The committee then received Austin Water's first quarterly Water Forward implementation report on conservation, water loss, reclaimed water, and supply strategies, with questions on service line replacement funding, multifamily leak detection, conservation education, and rate design. Finally, Parks and Recreation Department staff and consultants summarized a report on additional park funding sources, including utility fees, a potential parks district, and event fees. The meeting adjourned without votes other than minute approval.
0:04 I am Ryan al Alter chair of the climate, water environment and parks committee.
0:09 Thank you all for being here.
0:11 It is 9 31 on Wednesday, July 30th.
0:16 We are at City Hall and the board's and commissions room, and I believe we will begin with
0:24 some public testimony. So, um, good morning.
0:28 We'll have roy whaley first, and then elizabeth mcgreevy will be second.
0:37 Good morning, mr. Whaley.
0:39 I, how do y'all and good morning.
0:46 91%. Yes. And I wasn't going to mention that because even though it's fantastic, we still have to
0:55 watch our water. And guess why I decided to come this morning?
0:59 This is a broad, uh, canvas y'all are painting out.
1:04 I'm very glad to see Austin water is here.
1:07 I'm also on the state, uh, sierra club water, uh, committee, and we talk about these things.
1:13 I'm going to be asking that we have shay uh, do a presentation sometimes this fall to that
1:19 committee because I talk about our reuse program frequently, always, um, because we've got the water and we
1:30 need to keep it and reuse it.
1:33 You know, I'm, I don't know if you remember, but I have said this many times, if we
1:37 have a dollar and then we can spend it and get 80 cents of it back and use it
1:44 again, we would all do that.
1:47 We can do that with our water.
1:49 It May mean that we have to talk to some of our developer friends and their representatives to
1:56 make that more possible, because I know that's been the pushback.
2:01 Is it slightly more expensive perhaps?
2:05 Is it the right thing to do?
2:07 Definitely. We have the resource, let's reuse it so that we don't have our lake get down to
2:15 43% of capacity. Again, when I say lake like travis, that's not our only water supply is combined
2:22 with, uh, buchanan. Both are full right now.
2:26 But look at the damage.
2:28 And I don't wanna lean on this too hard because I have a lot of sympathy for the
2:32 people. Look at the damage that it took for us to get the water.
2:38 We don't want to take that damage and use it to keep rose bushes alive.
2:47 And I like roses.
2:48 I like all the plants, but that's not what we need to be doing.
2:52 We need to use our water wisely, just the same way that in this economic environment, we all
2:59 have to use our dollars wisely.
3:02 And y'all have been tasked with a very tough one on this city budget.
3:08 This is something you can do.
3:11 Of course, we've got parks people here and, and what can be more important than parks?
3:15 Just talking with a, a young person, a young lady about, um, decker lake and that area.
3:24 Roy guerrero is my favorite part.
3:26 The only thing that keeps it from rivaling zilker is it doesn't have barton springs, but we have
3:33 to keep funding without selling out.
3:39 If we have to find a way to support our park system without selling it to the highest
3:45 bidder. And I'll quit now because there,
3:52 thank you. Hi, my name is elizabeth mcgreevy.
3:58 I'm in Paige e's district.
4:00 Um, and my comments are directed at the Austin water Austin, uh, wildlands management plan.
4:07 I am the author of wanted mountain cedars dead and alive then, and the program director of project
4:13 bedrock. Our multidisciplinary team is developing a holistic decision making tool to help texas cars, country landowners manage
4:22 their lands more effectively.
4:24 Our team includes experts from a and m, the meadow center, bamberger ranch, native american ecologist, soil biologists,
4:31 regenerative ranchers, foresters, hydrologists, and cariology specialist.
4:36 The Austin wildlands management plan focuses on reducing wildfire risk.
4:42 This single goal focus is problematic because our city not only faces wildfires, it also we must also
4:50 contend with droughts and flash floods.
4:53 The plan is more so problematic because their primary strategy relies on frequent prescribed burns to reduce woody
5:00 vegetation cover. While this strategy May temporarily lower fire risk, it's simultaneously increases vulnerability, vulnerability to droughts and
5:11 floods. More so for the hill country side of Austin, due to its shallow soils and steeper terrain
5:18 attempting to justify reducing vege, uh, woody vegetation.
5:22 The plan suggests that this region was, uh, meaning the hill country was historically mostly grass.
5:28 It was not, although the blackland prairie was reported to be more open, the hill country side of
5:33 Austin was very well wooded as reported throughout the nine 18 hundreds.
5:38 Austin wild's wildland stance is not surprising, seen as the plan was written by fire bosses who prefer
5:45 grass cover over tree cover.
5:47 Regardless of context, the plan goes on to claim that reducing woody vegetation from the hill country's, um,
5:56 side of Austin enhances spring qua quantity and quality.
6:01 This is pure propaganda that is based on thoroughly debunked 1990s rhetoric.
6:09 For instance, rain interception by hill country.
6:12 Junipers was determined to have been grossly miscalculated.
6:16 Uh, texas a and n discovered actual spring flows did not come close to hydrologic models.
6:23 And the water infiltration and movement under juniper's and oaks is significantly greater than under nearby grass.
6:30 And this is again, on top of the ce country, not the black blackline prairie.
6:34 I'm speaking of a holistic land management plan would incorporate strategies to manage for wildfires, droughts, and flash
6:42 floods. More effective methods would include improving soil quality, managing storm water, uh, opening sink holes and caves.
6:51 I mean, that's, that's a huge thing there.
6:53 And yet, uh, Austin water's been fighting that and always keeping the ground covered.
6:59 Thank you. Perfect timing.
7:01 Okay, <laugh>. Next we'll have craig nazer and kayla reese.
7:16 Hello, craig naser, um, sierra club and conservation chair of the state chapter.
7:22 And I spent a lot of time this spring going down to the state capitol and we were
7:30 able to defeat a bill proposed by a former City Council Member that would prevent the protection of
7:38 any ash, juniper, anywhere in the hill country of any size.
7:45 Uh, that, and elizabeth mcgreevy just talked about that the ash juniper is a keystone species of the
7:51 hill country. And as part of what's supposed to be in most areas, I agree with everything she
7:58 said. In fact, she was a big help on that, um, ability to defeat that bill.
8:04 Uh, what's really troubling me is climate change.
8:09 Uh, we're not doing enough.
8:10 I just driving down here heard how, you know, our president is undoing epas any ability to control
8:17 co2, um, we have to do something.
8:22 The the, we're not gonna get help from anywhere else.
8:25 And what we do have that the city has, so we need to increase that, is we have
8:29 land and we have to make this, use this land efficiently as possible.
8:34 There are many problems I have with a management plan.
8:37 You'll hear about too many to speak about in my three minutes, but we need a bigger discussion
8:43 on that. We need to curtail a lot of the mowing and weed eating.
8:47 We, we see in, in a lot of that land.
8:50 Not all of it, but a lot of it.
8:51 One of the things is that's all done with two cycle gas engines that they can't replace with
8:56 batteries because they can't recharge them quick enough to efficiently do it.
9:00 I mean, there are problems also.
9:03 The thing about opening up caves for water, um, infiltration, uh, I was on for a while.
9:11 I was in the working group of the joint sustainability committee and I tried to put something through
9:16 to that. But you know, we're told, well there's, we can hardly get anything done.
9:19 Now how are we gonna do it?
9:21 The way to do this is for the city to spend some money to hire some ftes about
9:26 people who know what this is and can fight for it within the city structure.
9:31 Because someone like me really struggles to get through sometimes to part or to some of these, um,
9:38 uh, city organizations that sort.
9:40 They don't really have to listen to me, it's me to you to them.
9:43 You see what I'm talking about?
9:45 Um, so I really think, uh, we have to look at this.
9:50 I think we need more money for climate change.
9:52 I know you got a tough budget, I understand that.
9:55 But we really have to do something and we have to up our game now.
9:59 So anyway, thank you.
10:00 That's all I really have to say without going a lot of detail, so thank you very much.
10:05 Find out. They should be heard.
10:07 Oh, one other thing.
10:08 Yeah, there are other speakers who wanted to speak, who didn't get to stand up to be heard
10:13 because this, this venue is limited.
10:17 So we, we have a lot of input we wanna give to you, let's put it that way.
10:21 And we're struggling a little bit and we want something done.
10:23 So I'm just here to tell you that.
10:25 Thanks for listening to me.
10:32 Good morning. Um, I'm kayla reese.
10:34 I'm the advocacy manager with Austin parks foundation.
10:36 And I'm just, uh, here to speak about item four, which is the update on additional park funding
10:41 sources. Um, we know that this memo was a result of a resolution to look at the growing
10:47 shortfall for adequate, adequate funding for our parks.
10:51 We all know that the parks department and especially parks maintenance is chronically underfunded.
10:56 And we also know that we can't just keep doing what we've been doing 'cause that's how we
11:00 got here. Um, there's a deficit in the parks department from what they can provide and what park
11:08 users expect and the best practice levels of maintenance.
11:12 We need to find new ways of funding to close the gap.
11:14 And this memo is a great start.
11:16 I wanna highlight that there are very few short-term options, including a park fee on utility bills that
11:21 should be explored. Um, I also know that we're looking at a tre that could be explored.
11:27 Um, there isn't one single magic bullet in this resolution of like, this is the fix.
11:33 We need to look at more than one source and we need to look at short term and
11:36 long term at the same time.
11:38 Um, we need to think long term and put real effort into those long-term solutions.
11:44 There is no funding support.
11:46 I also just wanna highlight that there is no funding to support this resolution.
11:50 So all of the continued need for research does not come with any funding.
11:54 So that will be put on top of the already full plates of our parks department staff.
11:59 Um, so when we're looking at how do we really get more funding for parks, we need to
12:06 look at it holistically, long-term short-term, explore all the options.
12:10 And this memo is a really great place to start.
12:13 There's a lot of research that supports a lot of options in there.
12:17 Um, it just really highlights the need for more funding, um, which we all know and have known.
12:22 That's not new information.
12:24 But this gives us some really good, um, basis of information to go from.
12:30 Um, we should look at a fee a tre with a robust parks aspect, significant bond funding, a
12:37 parks district or lgc and utilizing partners like the Austin parks foundation and all the other nonprofits that exist
12:43 in the city that want to just support our parks.
12:45 Um, we really appreciate all the work that went into this memo.
12:49 Um, and we really appreciate y'all looking at these needed funding sources.
12:55 Thank you.
13:00 And we have one more, nico howard, and we do have one more individual who would like to
13:05 speak, if that's okay.
13:06 Yeah. So, uh, committee members.
13:08 We have normally our rule state five.
13:11 Uh, we did have a sixth person sign up today.
13:14 Our agenda is pretty light, so if there's no objection, I was gonna say let's have that sixth
13:20 person join us. Alright.
13:21 No objection. Let's do it.
13:22 Okay. And ted eubank, you'll be the sixth person.
13:28 Thank you. I'm, uh, nico howard, and I've been studying since the early 19 hundreds with since studying
13:34 scientific studies of water cycles, studying local caves, supporting land preservation, uh, and much, much of the local
13:41 climate effects we see are directly the result of land management practices.
13:45 So we very much should be collecting data to evaluate how effective they are and what adaptive management
13:51 is necessary to ensure that citizens funds are well spent and future generations won't have to clean up
13:56 the messes we make.
13:58 Um, pioneers and ranchers since the 18 hundreds conducted massive deforestation of the area and made tremendous land
14:06 modifications to keep water at the surface.
14:09 They plugged very large cinco basins, and I know about many of them, about 10% of the rechart
14:14 zone. Um, some hundreds of acres in drainage area that are like huge bathtubs to make stock ponds
14:21 for livestock. Later, developments build over many of the known caves and the city filled in caves on
14:29 nearly all the parks on the western side.