Athletic Brewing Grant Update
Ryan Spates, Owner of S&S Trails, at Mary Moore Searight Park in Austin, Texas.
Next year Austin Ridge Riders will be celebrating four decades of history and working closely with City of Austin on establishing and improving trails in our public parks. As the City’s management has become more centralized in the last 20 years the constant challenge of getting new or existing trail approved is evolving. Additionally, we continue to face obstacles when it comes to the use of power tools or machines by our volunteers.
We have been given an opportunity to clear these hurdles thanks to a generous grant from Athletic Brewing Company, and cooperation from Austin Parks and Recreation to approve our Community Activated Parks Proposal, or “CAPP”.
Ryan Spates, S&S Trails, manages the canopy above the trail with a pole saw.
As you may recall, in 2022 ARR was awarded grant funding via Athletic Brewing’s Two for The Trails initiative. We applied for these funds to improve trails in Mary Moore Searight Park in South Austin, and to that end we’ve hired Ryan Spates - owner of S&S Trails - to perform tasks that we are currently prohibited from doing. While the city does not allow chainsaw use by volunteers, Ryan has permission as a professional contractor. Additionally, while our volunteer Trail Crew typically has to dig all drainage, rollers and berms by hand, Ryan is able to use machines to accomplish this. If you have not been to Mary Moore in the last few weeks, you might be shocked how much work has already been accomplished in a short amount of time.
It may seem basic, but the ability of ARR to manage the scope of a trail project using professional builders with machines on city park land is essential. All around the nation we see local, volunteer-led nonprofit advocacy groups like ours working side-by-side with professional contractors to great success and we are focused on bringing this concept to Central Texas.
Ryan Spates meets with staff from Austin Parks and Recreation at Mary Moore Searight.
Make no mistake, none of this is easy and it doesn’t happen overnight. Things like staff turnover at the city can reset progress made, and scheduling meetings and site visits takes time, as does the work itself. All that said, we have set a precedent for future projects and we are incredibly proud of this win for the local community.
Ryan Spates, S&S Trails, and Greg Stevens, ARR, Mary Moore Trail Steward.
We would like to thank Athletic Brewing Company, The City of Austin and their staff, especially project manager Carolina English. Carolina joined us for a trails training workday last fall which included dirt work, so she has experienced first hand how much effort it takes to have great trails. We also want to thank Ryan Spates and S&S Trails, and our stewards at Mary Moore: Lalo Estrada, Dusty Mills, and Greg Stevens.
ARR hosted two workdays at Mary Moore in 2023, on March 23rd and February 4th, which addressed damage from the ice storm that year. Riders and volunteers should look forward to additional trail workdays coming to Mary Moore in the near future.
If you are interested in seeing the work being completed by our contractor, S&S Trails, hop on the bike and ride out to “Mary’s Oaks”.
Renee Mocha, ARR Secretary, leads Ryan Spates on a ride through Mary Moore Searight.