A wide array of greens and critters claim as their home Austin’s Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail, the multiuse path that traces a ring around Lady Bird Lake. Some of them are rare, beautiful—others invasive and prickly.
Austin’s Trail Conservancy is the nonprofit that oversees Butler’s operation. Their conservation manager, Collin McMichael, is an expert on the park’s natural elements because he spends much of his time knee deep in them.
Here are five interesting facts about all that wriggles or grows around Lady Bird Lake.
More:A power plant once split this East Austin neighborhood. Now the community is reclaiming it
1. ‘The largest thing you’d see on the trail’
Reptiles make up the vast majority of crawling wildlife on Butler—lizards, turtles, snakes—but Lady Bird Lake sometimes sees scaled visitors of a larger ilk, according to McMichael.
Alligators are sometimes found in the lake, he said; they typically come up from the Del Valle area.
A small gator made headlines in 2020, spotted in Lady Bird Lake by a kayaker. Numerous others have been spied by game wardens in Del Valle.
“But that'd be probably the largest thing you'd see on the trail,” McMichael said with a laugh.
2. ‘He’s real mangy and gross’
Mammals on the trail include racoons, skunks and opossums—common fare, said McMichael. Less common, however, are Austin’s urban coyotes.
A handful roam the city. Since 2018, the Austin's had a dedicated management policy for the furry cosmopolites: leave them alone.
As Austin’s outer bounds have grown, the urban sprawl has encroached on coyote habitat. Now their habitat is the city. Austin’s policy is to let them do their thing: no removals or relocations.
McMichael said one of the coyotes in particular roams Butler trail.
“He is a very urban looking coyote,” McMichael said with a chuckle. “He's really mangy and gross.”
3. A rare flower grows almost exclusively on the trail
Of all the plants that root along Butler trail, one is particularly unique: a pink flower found almost nowhere else in the world.
The Correl’s False Dragonhead, McMichael explained, is an endangered breed. The conservation manager estimated Butler trail held about three-quarters of the species' entire population.
And at that, there are so few of the rare blooms left that McMichael tallies them one by one.
“I think we have 22 individuals—23 actually, at last count,” he said. “We found a baby came up.”
4. An ‘invasion’ on Holly Shores
While some plants are found to be few on the Butler trail, others have grown too many.
An invasive species called Hedge Parsley has made its way to Austin from the steppes of Asia, where the plant is native. Throughout the Southeastern United States, species of hedge parsley are cropping up.
Along the Butler trail, McMichael said the “invasion” is worst on Holly Shores, around the trail’s northeast section. As a “disturbed soil specialist”, he said, the plant loves cities and spreads through the burs it disperses on clothes, pets and mowers.
The small, prickly pods that form from flowers on Hedge Parsley are extremely onerous to remove from clothes, so watch out: A few plants can disperse hundreds of the stubborn burs.
5. The savannas of Longhorn Shores
Many of the Butler trail’s wetland ecosystems are unique to Central Texas because, as McMichael said, “standing water is unique to Central Texas.” But the eastern shores of Lady Bird Lake also harbor small savanna ecosystems.
Like the savanna of Africa? Yes. Savanna is a special mix of grass and woodland, where moderately spaced trees form small, shaded crowns but don’t overshadow the grass with canopy.
A special kind of soil on Longhorn Shores called “gaddy” soil, McMichael said, allows rare Central Texas savanna to thrive along the southeastern shore of Lady Bird Lake.
6. The trail is ‘a source of diversity for the entire city’
For many Austinites, the Butler trail provides an escape from the city to a natural space. But McMichael’s hope is to see the Butler trail escape itself.
To preserve the unique genetic makeup of the plants that call Butler home, the conservancy encourages local gardeners to bring a little piece of the park home with them.
Seed collecting, McMichael said, lets local green thumbs benefit from the trail’s rich biodiversity. In turn, the practice preserves it.
“We really want the trail to be a source of diversity for the whole city,” McMichael said.
Many of the new trees and shrubs planted along Butler are grown from seeds collected on the trail. Not only that, but local nurseries also collect seeds, grow them into saplings and ship the plants across Texas.
“We do a lot of trying to get the genetics of the park out and preserved,” McMichael said.
As it turns out, Butler trail is much bigger than itself, springing up in gardens across Austin and throughout the state.
