By Eleni Himaras, Staff Writer

Sunday morning’s brief sprinklings brought some needed relief to volunteers cleaning up the trails at Red Bud Isle.

The group, a branch of Scoop the Poop and Friends of Red Bud Isle, came out about 18-people strong this weekend to make sure that the contamination issues cropping up at Bull Creek don’t find their way to Red Bud Isle. 

“It started in 2007 as a byproduct of ‘It’s My Park,’ day,” said Scoop the Poop founder Bern Abplanalp. “After we did that, we wanted to do more ongoing parks stewardship.”

The off-leash park has been a longtime staple for dog-owners and non-dog-owners alike, but the most common complaint has always been dog excrement left unscooped by inattentive owners. Patrons of a similar park at Bull Creek may soon lose their off-leash privileges because of a recent study that shows much higher levels of bacteria in the water at the park than any other area of the creek, though the results were inconclusive as to whether that bacteria came from dog feces or other sources. 

“I regularly come out here Sunday morning with my two older dogs,” said first-time volunteer Diane Causey. “I like unfenced dog parks and this is the one of the only places in Austin we can come.”

She brought her dogs, Milo and Tequila, to share the morning and said she’s been meaning to come do her part on the loosely scheduled monthly workdays and the schedules finally lined up. 

Ludy Zambrano was another first-time volunteer who said she came out just to give back since she enjoys the park so often with her Springer spaniel. 

“It’s very important to have this,” she said, taking a break from breaking down branches that were growing out into the trails. “If we don’t continue to participate and do our part, it could be taken away. I don’t have a problem [cleaning it up] at all. You just come out and do it and don’t complain.”

Susan Abplanalp has been a part of many clean-up dayswith her husband, Bern, and says that they would need to be done less frequently if people demonstrated proper etiquette at dog parks. 

“Some other folks just kind of don’t pay attention,” she said. “Even at an off-leash park, you have to pay attention to your dog because it is the safe, healthy thing for everyone.”

She said she and her husband use all of the dog parks in the city for different reasons but that Red Bud Isle is unique for its open trails and ample opportunities for swimming. 

Bern Abplanalp said that volunteers scooped 75-100 piles this weekend as opposed to the typical 50 or so and that they plan to up their efforts from monthly to weekly. Last year, the friends of Red Bud Isle installed three more mutt mitt stations in hopes of helping to curb the problem.

“In all the years I’ve been going to and supporting Red Bud, I’ve never once seen a person get a citation for not picking up after their pet,” he said. “I believe one big component of solving this problem is curbing people’s behavior, which could be partially achieved through more frequent reinforcement of the city code by having police visit the park on busy weekends and give warnings and/or tickets. That said, in the light of the city reducing its budget, I don’t expect that they have the personnel to do this very frequently.”

For more information on Scoop the Poop visit http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watershed/wq_scoop.htm and for more information on the Friends of Red Bud Isle, visit www.redbudisle.org.