Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
bySumaiya Malik
When Tamara Stutz heard about a free tree planting program at her neighbor’s house, she was sold. Coordinators from TreeFolks, an Austin-based non-profit, had reached out to property owners in her neighborhood outside Manor offering to plant trees in an effort to prevent floods.
“This is a 100-year floodplain we are standing on,” Stutz said when Reporting Texas visited in April.
By February 2020, Stutz had more than 1,800 saplings planted on 3⅓ acres of her 30-acre farm. Her part of the bargain: Leave them alone. The trees would fend for themselves. Stutz was so delighted with how the saplings progressed that she asked TreeFolks to come again in 2021.
Stutz gets trees and protection against erosion and everyone benefits from the carbon dioxide-sequestering potential of her saplings. TreeFolks earns carbon credits for planting the trees, which the organization then sells to the City of Austin.
A carbon credit is “a tradable credit granted to a country, company, etc., for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases by one metric ton,” […]
byAimée Knight
Sterile grass carp did too good a job controlling hydrilla and ended up ruining Lake Austin as bass habitat.
byCat DeLaura
Roots is an intentional community devoted to exploring more sustainable ways of life.
byMemo Hutson
The owners of Green Gate Farms say drier weather during the planting season has created difficult conditions throughout the year and delayed planting times.