A Sand County Almanac: “We come now to another component: the perception of the natural processes by which the land and the living things upon it have achieved their characteristic forms (evolution) and by which they maintain their existence (ecology). That thing called ‘nature study,’ despite the shiver it brings to the spines of the elect, constitutes the first embryonic groping of the mass-mind toward perception.”
Sunday 10/6: Today was a perfect day to visit Zilker because they were already starting to set up for ACL. My project focus is on the impact of pollution in and around Zilker Park. It was the perfect time to walk around and observe how beautiful and clean they keep the park. There wasn’t much trash because the workers that clean the park strive to keep the grounds clean. However, it did rain so I took this time to locate the places where the most run-off occurred. I was unsurprised when these were the hot spots for trash to accumulate. When you walk on the Town Lake path, you can see that the natural vegetation and trees hinder trash from making its way into the lake.
Town Lake Overview
Sunday 10/13: Hundreds of thousands of people made their way to ACL for the 3rd day. It was easy to see that the ecosystem was already getting polluted. I didn’t have tickets, but I took this time to bike through the crowds and around Town Lake. I wasn’t surprised by the amount of litter because trashcans were hard to find and the ones that were there, were filled past their carrying capacity.
Normal Trashcans at ACL
Sunday 10/20: On the second weekend of ACL I was able to score some cheap tickets; I saw Kendrick Lamar, Passion Pit, and Kings of Leon. The thing that surprised me was the amount of people dedicated to actually cleaning up during the concert. They were able to decrease the amount of trash in Zilker, but they weren’t cleaning the outskirts of the park.
Had a Good Time
Sunday 10/27: Zilker Park was still in the clean-up stage, even though ACL had been over for a whole week. Though most of Zilker was gated up, I went to observe the pollution and it had gotten pretty bad in certain places. The places where vegetation didn’t act as a barrier, were filled with more trash than usual.