What's happening to Lady Bird Lake? (Austin, Spring: neighborhoods, buying, quality of life)

[rogramjet]

I just completed a run around Lady Bird Lake and noticed some kind of mossy stuff choking up big parts of the lake, especially the inlet that goes to Barton Springs. What's worse is garbage is sitting on top of mossy stuff all along the shore. Looks terrible! Is there any plan to get rid of all the mess?

[Gingersnap92]

Bulldoze all the fertilizer pumpimg development upstream of it. Circle C would be a good start.

[owlman]

Originally Posted by Gingersnap92

Bulldoze all the fertilizer pumpimg development upstream of it. Circle C would be a good start.

You might want to look at a (topographic) map. Circle C runoff doesn't just take Mopac north to downtown. Though I do agree that overfertilizing is wasteful and bad for our waterways.

As for the weed, News8 has a recent story on it:
Mysterious plant life in Barton Creek catches city attention - YNN - Your News Now
I don't know when they'll clean up the trash. I guess it's all junk from litterbugs all over the city, washed out in the recent rains.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Gingersnap92

Bulldoze all the fertilizer pumpimg development upstream of it. Circle C would be a good start.

Uhhhh, you do realize that Circle C is in the Slaughter Creek and Bear Creek watersheds? They flow into Onion Creek, which comes nowhere near Town Lake. Guess haters gonna hate, geography be damned.

Now, Waller, Shoal, Bouldin and Bull Creeks all DO flow into Town Lake. So, if you really want to have an effect, then you should advocate bulldozing Hyde Park, Tarrytown, Barton Hills....

[Gingersnap92]

The source of barton springs in the edwards aquifer, it closes when there is storm runoff from barton creek.

[EzPeterson]

Which still means that your "bulldoze Circle C" comment is still totally off-base, false an nothing more than a weak attempt at trolling.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Gingersnap92

Bulldoze all the fertilizer pumpimg development upstream of it. Circle C would be a good start.

Can you elaborate?

Are you saying if Circle was had never been developed, and had remained an undeveloped ranch, that the OP would not have seen the moss and garbage in Town Lake as described?

Where do you live and do you feel your choice of neighborhood is a more environmentally friendly choice than those who live in SW Austin? If so, can you elaborate? Does it make you a better person than someone who bought in Circle C?

Just curious what's underneath the "bulldoze Circle C" comment, and if you're willing to back it up.

Steve

[opalminor]

Yes.. how about the city (or state, or a private group, whoever..) hiring legal American citizens who need work.. to scoop the algae, pull up all the poison ivy & other invasive plants and lean up the garbage...? And putting a stop to all the insane, greed-driven overdevelopment that's destroying the quality of life here, and our beautiful waterways...! (or what's left of them...) and obviously we have to make more laws (sorry folks) to stop over-fertilizing... This is obviously a huge issue that has to do with so much more than what we're seeing in Town Lake... (which is really just a dammed river)...

In the meantime, every person who enjoys & cares about Town Lake should be carrying a bag with them to stop and help pick up garbage. Once people see lots of other doing it, the herd mentality might take affect, as it will be seen as the 'new cool thing' to do. Besides, squatting, bending and reaching down is all an important part of one's fitness routine. Unless of course you want to use a grab-stick tool thingy, which I highly recommend. Also we should all be practicing what we preach by always carrying reusable grocery bags so Austin can finally ban plastic bags (or at least reduce them by 90%). There's no hiding from the fact that these are a huge part of the trash problem.
We also need a MAJOR 'Keep American Beautiful' campaign like we had in the 1970's to teach people not to litter.. and this needs to be in both English and Spanish. (And if anyone can think of a way to stop people from driving through other people's neighborhoods and throwing McDonalds bags, taco wrappers, Budweiser & Big Red cans, and dirty diapers out the window, into the streets... and, onto my lawn... please let me know. God forbid they should dirty the insides of their precious cars/trucks by keeping the trash with them until they get home....)
But anyway... in order to do such a campaign the city would need to invest in placing more public trash cans everywhere, like there used to be. And hire the extra labor force to tend to them. And now to really think outside the box: how about the federal govt impose an epic tax/fine/whatever on all major beverage companies-- namely Coke, Budweiser, whatever company makes Big Red, etc... these are the majority of plastic bottles you see everywhere as garbage... and these funds would go directly into cleaning up the mess they leave behind (& the litter campaign).
This is a perfect example of why we need federal govt & not just states to deal with these types of issues. I don't want to start some kind of political argument but the fact is that whatever happens upstream, goes downstream.. so these things would have to be a joined nationwide effort, not just individual state-to-state. Anyway I don't have all the answers.. just throwing out some ideas. Anything is better than doing nothing. That being said, the city must be doing something already to combat these problems @ Town Lake. Anyone know....? I never see any workers doing anything there, but surely there must be...???
P.S... If we're gonna bulldoze anything, we might as well bulldoze the whole city. Humane want to live near waterways, then we wonder why the waterways are being wrecked...? Basically, we're just parasites.... destroying and sucking the life out of our environment is at the very heart of our ability to survive & thrive, unfortunately.. it's the big paradox of human nature. But at least we can make an effort, to do what we can. What else can you do...?

[opalminor]

By the way... I can only imagine how this new 'lawn-painting' trend is going to impact Town Lake (& all waterways in general) in the future, as if we don't have enough to worry about already. I'm not buying the 'eco-friendly' claim. Anyone want to bite that one?

[Trainwreck20]

Every couple of years that lower Lake Austin, usually trying to coincide with a freeze, so that a lot of the invasive plants get killed. Not sure they do it as often on Town Lake, but I think they still do it occasionally?