A Must Watch: Foreverland

by Charlie McCabe

If you’re attending the Greater and Greener Parks conference in Austin in June, you need to watch the new documentary Foreverland.

I lived in Austin for 18 years (1994-2012) and for the last seven, I served as Executive Director of the Austin Parks Foundation. (Since then, I’ve lived primarily in the Boston area continuing to work in parks, public spaces, and programming.)

During my time running the then still small and scrappy Austin Parks Foundation, I worked with many public officials, volunteers, donors, and fellow nonprofit leaders on parks projects large and small. There was an amazing collaboration amongst this informal group.

Four of those people who continuously made such collaboration possible are the subject of the new documentary, Foreverland, which is how the city of Austin came to acquire what is now Barton Creek Wilderness Park and other public spaces along the Barton Creek Greenbelt.

Beverly Griffith, George Cofer, Ted Siff, and Butch Smith have made a lasting mark on the parks and open spaces of Austin and the surrounding area, having been involved with dozens of campaigns, fundraising efforts, elections, and actual acquisitions of land that is now protected. They did this despite Austin being one of the most rapidly growing cities in the United States for the last four decades.

When I think of these four, either individually or collectively, tireless is the most apt label I can affix to them. I owe my success in working in parks and public spaces to them – Beverly being a cofounder and key funder of the Austin Parks Foundation (APF), Ted being my predecessor as Executive Director at APF, and Butch and George serving as partners and mentors to me in volunteer and nonprofit leader roles.

But the bigger story is that this is just one of a number of successful projects and campaigns that they worked on. In addition to the Austin Parks Foundation, and the Hill Country Conservancy (where George and Butch continued their efforts), an additional nonprofit, Austin Outside is a nonprofit that builds on the work and legacy of all four, incorporating nonprofits and businesses across the Austin area, continuing to push for protecting and preserving more of the natural areas of Austin.

Sadly, both George and Ted will be away during Greater and Greener and Beverly spends more of her time outside of Austin. I’m planning to meet up with Butch and I’m looking forward to that. We'll raise our glasses to the others for sure!