Travis County teases ‘transformative’ future for parks system

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Less than a year after Travis County voters approved a $276 million parks bond, the Travis County Parks Foundation painted the picture of “exciting and transformative” changes to come through park development and community programming.

Joanna Wolaver, executive director of the Travis County Parks Foundation, spoke before Travis County Commissioners Court Tuesday about the work the nonprofit has done within the past year to cultivate community awareness and access to parks. Part of that effort has included launching For The Love of Parks, an annual fundraising event that attracted 1,500 attendees to Richard Moya Park this past May.

Other opportunities are free soccer clinics head in collaboration with 4ATX Foundation and Austin FC. About 150 families attended the last soccer clinic at Northeast Metro Park, with an upcoming one planned in the fall at Southeast Metro Park.

As part of its ongoing community efforts, the foundation has held veteran hiking excursions at Reimers Ranch, a free eclipse viewing event back in April and is working to build out a more robust night skies program, utilizing a portable telescope to travel to different county parks in the fall.

Signature foundation focuses include building toward a 70-mile regional greenway network, linking Pflugerville to San Antonio. The foundation is also working to build up its park stewards program to have nature learning ambassadors at county parks.

Aside from foundation-led initiatives, Wolaver said the nonprofit has also backed Travis County’s $276 million parks bond package, approved by county voters in November 2023. That bond package included $200 million for land conservation work as well as $76 million for park and trail improvements at the following sites:

• Onion Creek Greenway: trail construction
• Gilleland Creek Greenway: trail construction
• Arkansas Bend Park: group building, additional features
• Bee Creek Sports Complex: sports fields, additional features
• Southeast Metro Park: synthetic sports fields

“We were big champions for the bond package and I want to just say a thank you again to you all for putting that in front of the voters and thank you to our voters for passing that,” Wolaver said. “It’s really exciting and transformative for our parks system.”

More details on the foundation and its work are available online .

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