Life on Waller Creek, Austin, Texas

Since I arrived in Austin in 1988, I have explored its urban creeks.  Waller Creek has been my main focus since it flows through the University of Texas campus and the Austin Water headquarters is on its banks.  With others, we have mapped its "invasive" "are they really native" palms  http://www.biosci.utexas.edu/prc/DigFlora/00WallerPalmCensus.html and we have worked with the UT Texas Memorial Museum to clean up the creek on campus and monitor its biodiversity  http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_sites/waller/

My own exploration has been focused on Waller Creek as a study site for marginal nature - images here https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/webUpload?uname=110071841493767971267&aid=5603735479554621425

Now they will build a tunnel to take its storm flows away from its low reach so that we can "develop" that area. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/wallercreek/ Some will make lots of money, and some will be out of a home. So it goes.

The dynamic of marginal nature is regular disturbance and unexpected response.  I will continue to monitor for the response to this latest disturbance.

More on Waller Creek in Prof. Joseph Jones great book, Life on Waller Creek http://openlibrary.org/books/OL3215936M/Life_on_Waller_Creek Joe Jones was a wonderful man who I met in 1988 not knowing who he was, just an old guy with a bucket poking around on the creek like me.  At that time, he was busy doing a small part in a movie by one of his students...Richard Linklater's Slacker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacker_(film) in which he appears near the end as an older man talking into his tape recorder as he walks the streets of Austin.

More on Joe Jones here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jay_Jones 

See how urban creeks lead you onwards...