Former landfill – now a small Montopolis park – gets grant for improvements

Ecology Action of Texas has landed a $29,200 grant to renovate a 9.7-acre park on the site of a former landfill in the Montopolis neighborhood in southeast Austin.

The grant, part of $3.38 million in grants to fund 19 recreational trail projects around the state, will be used to renovate the half-mile trail network, establish a new side trail, and to spruce up three trail heads, signages and a picnic area at Circle Acres.

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Despite its history of destructive uses, the 9.7-acre pocket of urban parkland still holds traces of forest, wetlands and grassland.

The grants were funded through the federal gas tax generated by gasoline purchases for off-road motorcycles and four-wheelers.