Shea continues search for creative solutions to climate crisis

As an environmentalist, Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea spends a lot of time thinking about worst-case scenarios. Still, the commissioner’s approach to leadership is far from doom and gloom. In fact, as the climate crisis worsens across the globe, Shea is driven by her search for creative solutions within Travis County borders.

The county got its own taste of climate disaster in February, when trees collapsed en masse under layers of ice brought by Winter Storm Mara, wreaking havoc on power lines and leaving hundreds of thousands of Central Texas residents in the dark. The storm generated 350,000 cubic yards of tree debris, and the monthslong cleanup effort cost an estimated $5.7 million, the majority of which was reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

With nearly 52,000 tons of debris in tow, the county partnered with Texas Disposal Systems in a massive effort to recycle the dead tree material into usable mulch, a move that Shea says spared the county a spike in methane emissions had it ended up in landfills.

“When you put mulch on land, you help it to absorb more carbon, more rainwater and provide fuel for the mycorrhizae that are an essential part of healthy soil,” Shea said in a conversation with the Austin Monitor. “So it was this fabulous karmic wheel, repurposing the dead trees to help enhance the community’s soil.”

In 2023 local politics and policymaking, land use was a major focus, with the voter-approved $276.44 million bond package in November marking a historic investment in county parks, trails and conservation areas. The majority of that total is slated to fund the acquisition of land alongside creeks in eastern Travis County, kicking off plans to improve the area’s riparian corridors and provide publicly accessible trail networks. On the attached land, Shea is excited about the growth of a program providing cheaper and longer leases to farmers agreeing to a menu of regenerative agricultural techniques that improve soil quality and enhance carbon absorption.

“There is some really cool stuff going on in these conservation easements; it’s something I want to focus on in the coming year,” Shea said. She said the Multicultural Refugee Coalition’s farm, New Leaf Agriculture, is growing crops on one tract of land, “and there are some remarkable practices underway on the regenerative agriculture front.”

As the city continues to weather Stage 2 drought, Shea is excited to see the growth of the purple pipe system, which conserves drinking water by using treated wastewater to power air conditioning. When the city fulfills its commitment to connect both the new Civil and Family Courts Facility and Probate Court to the system, Shea says they will have permanently eliminated the annual demand for treated drinking water by 45 million gallons.

“That’s just the county’s efforts,” she said, noting that Austin’s new mayor and city manager have been critical partners in the project’s success. “If there was a more ambitious effort to convert big users like the state Capitol complex and University of Texas complex, just those two facilities hooked up to purple pipe would save almost a billion gallons of water a year.”

On the public health front, Shea was excited to see the opening of the brand-new Harvest Trauma Recovery Center, a collaboration with City Council that marks the first facility of its kind in Texas. The “one-stop shop” for services like therapy and legal counseling, run in partnership with the African American Youth Harvest Foundation, is modeled after similar efforts in states like California that have measured a dramatic reduction in homelessness among those served.

Next, Shea and her colleagues will embark on the lengthy process of developing a mental health diversion center, conceived as an alternative to jail for nonviolent offenders with untreated substance abuse and mental health issues. Commissioners hope the project, which will take an estimated five years before it’s operational, will help to alleviate the overcrowding and mental health epidemic currently plaguing the county’s jails.

“This is a problem all over the country, but it’s especially a problem in Texas, where state leaders have systematically underinvested in mental health care. They can’t even open the brand-new state hospital because they refuse to pay even mildly competitive wages for staff,” she said.

In facing the years ahead, Shea says the county has a lot to learn from local governments across the globe, each confronting the climate crisis in their own unique ways. At visits to summits like COP28 in Dubai and the Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver, paid for on her own dime, Shea says she’s seen incredible pioneers of climate leadership.

“There’s an amazing initiative in Bogotá to manage the 600,000 refugees they’ve taken in from Venezuela – rather than the fearmongering we’re doing on our own southern border, they’ve given them work permits, legal housing and put their children in school so they can contribute to the retirement system and local economy,” Shea said. “Through ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), we’re also partnering with Mérida, Mexico, which has some interesting problems not unlike our own. We’re just beginning that partnership, which is a great opportunity to compare notes.”

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