Residents, scientists urge Austin to rethink park land management, warn against broad tree clearing and widespread prescribed burns

Dozens of residents, environmental scientists and conservation groups urged the Austin City Council on Jan. 30 to slow and rethink city plans for tree clearing and prescribed burning on publicly managed lands, arguing the proposed approaches risk degrading water recharge, air and soil quality and habitat in the Edwards Plateau and Balcones Canyonlands region.

Scientists and longtime land stewards told council members that management approaches developed for western conifer forests do not translate to central Texas limestone landscapes, and that proposals to substantially thin canopies and increase prescribed burns across thousands of acres would likely increase — not decrease — wildfire risk in many local conditions.

The calls came during public comment on consent items related to parkland and Austin Water land-management plans and funding. Elizabeth McGreevey, a natural-resources consultant and program director of the nonprofit Project Bedrock, said Baylor University's 2009 Austin-Travis County Community Wildfire Protection Plan and more recent regional studies better reflect the ecological conditions of the Edwards Plateau than…