How Major League Soccer is helping keep Austin clean

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Major League Soccer fans, all-star guests and local volunteers gathered on Saturday to clean and restore the trails and shoreline of Lady Bird Lake.

Approximately 300 people gathered to help clean and restore 5.2 million square feet of water and trail, in partnership with Keeping Austin Beautiful, The Trail Conservancy and TreeFolks.

Vice President of Community Impact for Austin FC, Trennis Jones, stated that cleanups like these were essential to the community.

“It’s a beautiful day to be out there and cleaning up trash – but I think caring for the trees, caring for the trail … you know, it is an essential part,” Jones said. “All of us require individual action as part of a collective action. There were lots of people … cleanups don’t stop when All-Star does, and so we look forward to having people out for that too.”

Re-mulching trees was also a priority during the cleanup, distributing over 400 cubic pounds of mulch, with local volunteers like Robert Allen participating in the effort.

“It’s a beautiful thing, man. I’m an original Austinite,” Allen said. “Having MLS come out here and just celebrate the city. Trees and nature is a big part of Austin … hopefully we get to do this again.”

For more information on All-Star week, visit Austin FC’s webpage.