The city’s Watershed Protection Department is re-engineering Upper Boggy Creek, which concerns some Cherrywood neighborhood residents who recently learned of the project. At issue is whether the erosion and flood-control project, as designed, works against preserving the natural environment on Willowbrook Reach, a greenbelt along the creek from Cherrywood Road to 38½ Street. According to neighborhood resident Lee Clippard: “The reach is beloved by neighbors, herons, turtles, frogs, butterflies and many more. The property is home to over 100 trees, wildflowers (many blooming now), fossils, yellow-crowned night herons, Cooper’s hawks, and myriad other birds, insects, fish, and amphibians. It’s also where we neighbors go to walk our dogs, run for exercise, and generally find relief from our urban environment.”
Cherrywood Neighborhood Association members have expressed concern about the many mature trees to be removed and the detrimental effect on wildlife. Clippard said a city assessment eight or nine years ago identified problems with “steeply eroding banks, exposed water and wastewater lines, and potential flooding dangers, among other issues.” For the past three years, the city conscientiously has been designing a project to regrade the banks and realign the water flow. Design is now 90% complete, and construction is scheduled to begin in March 2011. In the interim, however, conditions have improved along the creek, “largely due to the neighborhood efforts in halting the removal of vegetation along the creek bed,” said resident David Boston. And concerned neighbors – who admit they’ve been slow to get involved – recently organized a group, Friends and Lovers of Willowbrook Reach, to ask the city to reconsider its plans in that light. “As a result of that regrading and realignment, the city will have to remove almost all trees – from large mature pecans to small willows – within the creek bed and an area just surrounding the creek,” said Clippard. While city plans call for replanting with native and noninvasive trees and perennials, he said most wildlife will be displaced by the project, at least temporarily.
Clippard said Watershed Protection Manager Mike Kelly had agreed to place a temporary hold on the project for two weeks to hear their concerns and reassess the improved condition of the reach. For more information, contact city Project Manager George Walker at 974-3376 or george.walker@ci.austin.tx.us, or Friends and Lovers of Willowbrook Reach, flwr78722@gmail.com.
This article appears in April 30 • 2010.