A new tree grove in Austin’s Zilker Park was recently named after Billie Eilish. Here’s how the crossover happened.
Billie Eilish is best known for being an award-winning singer-songwriter, but the 24-year-old is also a passionate environmentalist. She spoke with National Geographic in April about the sustainability efforts she’s been making on her tours since discovering the negative toll live music productions take on the environment. “The waste involved in live music is really hard to take in,” she said.
To combat the issue, the “Birds of a Feather” singer decided to raise money through her Changemaker Ticket Program during her “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT TOUR.” Eilish partnered with REVERB to raise over $11 million to help support both environmental and social causes she’s passionate about.
$20,000 of that was distributed to Zilker Park in Austin to plant a tree grove near Barton Springs Pool. It’ll officially be known as “Billie Eilish Grove” and span over 6,000 square feet of woodland. 150 native trees, like redbuds, flowering dogwoods, Mexican plums, and mountain laurels, were planted there in March. Organizers are hoping the trees will start blooming next spring. Fleetwood Jacobs, the executive director for Zilker 351—the nonprofit preserving the park—told Chron that the trees have an 85% chance of survival as of writing.
Partnering with American Forests and TreeFolks, Zilker 351 recruited over 150 volunteers to help plant trees in Eilish’s grove. For Madeline Weir, the director of impact at REVERB, using Eilish’s concert funds to help Zilker Park was a no-brainer. “This Zilker Park opportunity was a natural fit given its connection to Austin City Limits Music Festival and other community events,” she said.
For those who aren’t in the know, Eilish has performed at Austin City Limits twice—once in 2019 and then again in 2021 as a headliner. And while she didn’t play a direct hand in planting or naming the tree grove, Jacobs is hopeful she might show up at some point. The group is working to make the name official through a formal dedication from Austin, and if that happens, they’ll invite the California native out for the ceremony.
Jacobs said, “If we get it, we’ll invite Ms. Eilish to come see her trees in bloom and plant one with us. The redbuds will be ready, and so will we.” In the meantime, her fans can visit the grove by accessing its location on Google Maps. There aren’t any signs up yet with her name on it, and any visitors are asked to please remain on the trail at all times to help protect the budding trees as they continue to grow.
It’s part of a greater effort to improve Austin
In addition to planting “Billie Eilish Grove,” Zilker 351 planted a 51,000-square-foot meadow of wildflowers nearby to help attract pollinators like native bees and monarch butterflies to help the trees bloom. It’s part of the group’s ongoing effort to protect Barton Springs, which typically experiences high levels of pollution due to stormwater runoff.
As Fleetwood Jacobs explained to Chron, “Austin is in Flash Flood Alley, so when it rains here, it often pours.” By creating the tree grove, the group was able to raise soil berms to slow down runoff and add shallow channels to help filter stormwater before it enters Barton Creek. The hope is that this will reduce pollution while also making Zilker Park a more beautiful, inviting place for visitors to spend time at.
