Seeking volunteers to create maps for Outdoors Austin 4th Edition

From Nancy Bellows, editor of Outdoors Austin: A Sierra Club Guide:

The third edition of Outdoors Austin: A Sierra Club Guide was published in 1995 by Texas A&M University Press and Nancy Bellows was the editor of the third edition (3e), although her name back then was Nancy Fuentes. She is now spearheading the effort to update the book and is looking for volunteers to do maps for the 4^th edition. The third edition had one four-color circular map, which was meant for the back cover so the colors would show but was unfortunately printed on the inside front cover in black and white. The only other map was a “sector map” that divided Austin into five central regions (central, north, south, east, and west) and four outlying quadrants (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest). The book covers an area that is roughly a circle with a radius of 100 miles around Austin, and we hope to have at least one four-color map at the beginning of the book that shows that area. We would like to have other maps, too, though. We could perhaps have one for each of the five central regions and one for each of the four quadrants.

The book needs updating to reflect the many changes that have occurred in Central Texas since 1995. One obvious change is that Town Lake in downtown Austin was renamed Lady Bird Lake, but many other changes have occurred as well. The outline of the 4^th edition (4e) will essentially be the same as that of the third edition, with nine chapters covering the heart of the city; parks and preserves; activities like bicycling, caving, and rock climbing; a chapter called “Up in the Air;” and other chapters called “Out with Fauna and Friends, and “In Tune with Nature.” There’s also “Out for the View,” plus sections of other chapters yet up for grabs. The chapter called “In and On the Water,” which includes canoeing, kayaking, sailing and other water activities, has been essentially completed by the person who volunteered to update that chapter.

If you have questions, feel free to email Nancy Bellows at nbellowsconcerns@gmail.com. We would greatly appreciate some help with maps for the book’s 4^th edition. You might enjoy helping out if you know the resources for a particular outdoor area especially well or enjoy researching what’s available. The third edition, by the way, is still available if you google the title or contact Half Price Books.