The Texas Master Naturalist Program is presenting a webinar that will examine Winter Storm Uri’s impacts on the state’s fish, wildlife and natural ecosystems. According to the announcement from TPWD, “National headlines focused on the work being done in Texas to save and protect wildlife, from rescuing cold-stunned turtles and wintering bat populations to the impacts on coastal fisheries and bee populations.” Michelle Haggerty, state program coordinator for the Texas Master Naturalist Program, said, “We’ll get to answer the questions still lingering from this extreme weather event and learn how our resources adapt and recover from this and possible future events. Our Texas Master Naturalist volunteers are eager to learn about the effects from the polar vortex on natural resource flora and fauna in Texas, but more specifically, what recovery looks like and how they can help.” Natural resource experts from across the state will be presenting during the webinar, which is free and open to the public. Pre-register here. Tuesday, April 13, noon-3 p.m.

As the temperatures rise and Austinites crack open their crusty bottles of sunscreen, Austin’s pools are reopening. Bartholomew Pool at 1800 E. 51st St., where workers are still repairing damage from the winter storm, reopened yesterday on a modified schedule. The restrooms are still without running water but visitors may use the port-a-potties on site. Springwoods Pool at 13320 Lyndhurst St. is also open on a modified schedule. Reservations are not required, but pool capacity is limited and swimmers are asked to limit their time to no more than two hours. You can find the hours of operation for all of Austin’s pools here.

Waterloo Greenway has appointed Kathy Miller as interim CEO following Peter Mullan’s move to the Austin Transit Partnership to serve as its chief of architecture and urban design. Miller, who took on the new role last month, previously served 16 years as executive director of the Texas Freedom Network. Waterloo Greenway is currently conducting a national search for a permanent CEO, with that process expected to last six to 12 months. This summer will mark the reopening of a much-improved Waterloo Park with a new amphitheater operating on the 11-acre downtown park. “While we take the necessary time to thoughtfully identify Waterloo Greenway’s next great trailblazer, the position of interim CEO is an incredibly important one, and we are pleased to welcome Kathy and look forward to benefiting from her wealth of experience working with nonprofits,” said Cotter Cunningham, the organization’s board chair. “With the opening of Waterloo Park right around the corner, we are at an exciting inflection point in our organization’s history, and I believe that she is the right leader to see this project into its next remarkable chapter.”

If you live anywhere near Andrews, Harris, Pecan Springs or Winn elementary schools, Garcia Young Men’s or Sadler Means Young Women’s leadership academies, or Northeast ECHS, you may be visited by AISD volunteers this weekend. Teachers, team members and community volunteers are walking the neighborhoods in the northeast corridor of the school district “to reconnect with Austin families to learn about their education needs and priorities as well as welcome more learners to its family of schools.” The door-to-door campaign – dubbed Operation Reconnect – was designed to reconnect with district families and share information about program offerings such as free prekindergarten, fine arts, before- and after-school enrichment programs, career preparation programs and more. So if you hear a knock on your door this Saturday, April 10, between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., most likely it will be a team of friendly volunteers wearing PPE and smiles on their faces.

The Parks and Recreation Department is hoping community members will share their thoughts and ideas about what updates they’d like to see at Beverly S. Sheffield Northwest District Park. The 31-acre park, located in the Allandale neighborhood, is named after a former director of the parks department. Besides baseball fields and basketball and tennis courts, the park features a pool, duck pond and walking trails along Shoal Creek. PARD will be gathering input through a community survey open now through April 18. The project team will discuss the proposed project at the first community meeting on Tuesday, May 4, at noon or at 5:30 p.m., via Zoom. The virtual meeting will be recorded and posted on the project web page.

Austinites for Equity, a labor-backed political action committee, tells the Austin Monitor its polling indicates that 70 percent of Austin voters can be expected to vote no on Proposition F, which would change Austin’s city government from the current Council-manager system to a strong-mayor system. The group hired Change Research, which surveyed 499 likely voters in the upcoming May 1 election, recruiting respondents via a survey instrument called Dynamic Online Sampling. According to the poll, which was conducted March 16-19, only 19 percent of those surveyed said the mayor does not currently have enough power. About half, or 49 percent, said the mayor has the right amount of power, and 32 percent said the mayor has too much power. Of those surveyed, 57 percent responded that it would be unfair for the mayor to be able to veto laws approved by the majority of Council. The poll found that only 20 percent of respondents would vote yes or lean toward voting yes on Prop F. Said Change Research: “That opposition is shared by majorities of voters across age, race, gender, education and partisan divides.” Austinites for Progressive Reform, the PAC that proposed Prop F, argues that the city government is currently led by an unelected city manager. Nelson Linder, one of the backers of Prop F, has said, “Austin voters deserve to choose the person who leads us. Moving to a mayor-Council system will strengthen our democracy and make our government more responsive to all of us.”

Thanks to the Austin Parks Foundation, a new Zilker train will be coming down the tracks soon; the popular attraction is anticipated to reopen in the fall. The train isn’t the only thing that’s getting revitalized; the tunnel under Barton Springs Road Bridge, which is on the train’s route, is also due for an upgrade and a “site-specific outdoor mural.” The parks foundation is partnering with the city’s Art in Public Places program on a request for proposals for the mural space and is accepting submissions through April 23. According to a news release from APF, “The mural site is set on the west side of the river and the piece will run underneath the bridge, approximately 52 feet and between 8-10 feet high. Once an artist and design is selected internally by APF, the organization will work with the AIPP team on the final selection and have the project and art approved.” Ladye Anne Wofford, the foundation’s chief mission officer, added, “With so much excitement around the opening of the new Zilker Park train, our goal in this restoration process is to evoke the spirit of Austin – past and present.” Find the full RFP here.

Jason Stanford has joined the Austin Independent School District as chief of communications and community engagement. Stanford, you may recall, was Mayor Steve Adler’s communications director from November 2015 to May 2018. From there he joined the PR firm Hill Knowlton Strategies, where he has worked for the past three years. He is also the co-author, with Bryan Burrough and Chris Tomlinson, of Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, which is scheduled for publication in June. The book “provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas’ struggle for independence, then shows how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late 19th and early 20th century,” according to publisher Penguin Random House.

We’ve got some bad news for dogs and the people who love them. The city is monitoring the blue-green algae that produces toxins which can sicken and kill dogs and has “detected low levels of dihydroanatoxin in an algae sample taken in mid-March from Lake Austin near Mansfield Dam” as well as trace levels in two samples from Lady Bird Lake. While the levels of dihydroanatoxin are too low to be harmful to humans, it poses a high risk to dogs. The city recommends that “dog owners not allow their dogs to ingest or touch algae in any area lakes, creeks or water bodies. If owners allow their dogs in the water, it is at their own risk. It may help to rinse dogs after contact with water bodies to help prevent them from licking algae off their fur.”

The Travis County Commissioners Court has issued a new burn ban for the unincorporated areas of the county. The ban will expire on May 5, “unless further action is taken by the County Judge or County Fire Marshal prior to that date.” As Travis County Chief Fire Marshal Tony Callaway explained in a news release, “We continue to have elevated wildfire risk three or four days a week. The amount of rain we received was not sufficient to improve the dry conditions. Additionally, the National Weather Service is forecasting a potential high to extreme fire danger for this week.” The burn ban does not affect “outdoor welding, cutting or grinding operations, and outdoor hot works operations conducted in accordance with the guidelines established by the Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office.” As always, be mindful when grilling outdoors and keep water nearby in case of a fire.

The Save Austin Now PAC, which is raising money to finance its campaign to pass Proposition B, which would reinstate the ordinance banning camping in most public places, reported raising nearly $438,000 from Feb. 3-March 22. Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak, who is leading the campaign, provided information about the group’s fundraising prowess in a press release indicating that the group had filed its campaign finance report on April 1. However, the report did not appear when a reporter searched the city clerk’s website on Monday morning. City Clerk Jannette Goodall told the Austin Monitor via email, “They haven’t filed it properly, they are having technical issues and we are trying to figure out the issues.” Apparently the issues were resolved, because the campaign finance report did appear on the website later. According to the report, a group associated with a business called Best Efforts contributed $20,000 and Danay Covert of Covert Auto contributed $10,000 to the campaign. There were several other large donations, but according to the press statement, the average contribution was $214.78, with “more than 82 percent of all contributions under $200.” Save Austin Now reported spending nearly $320,000 on its campaign over the six-week time period. The group paid WAB Holdings LLC of Strongsville, Ohio $240,000 for what is described as “voter identification efforts,” under the category of advertising expense. Mackowiak said in his press release, “No one has ever run as sophisticated a campaign as the one we are running. … This city is ready to finally and fully end the public camping disaster which has been bad for both the residents and the homeless.” The election is May 1, with early voting April 19-27.