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May 17, 2011

Coalition Notes 05-18-2011

  1. Sex in the Garden. Flo Oxley, education and conservation director at the LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center, will give a talk on “Sex in the Garden,” for this month’s meeting of the Native Plant Society–Houston. Arrive early for a self-guided walk around the arboretum, socialize at 7:00 pm, and program at 7:30 pm. More information at http://www.npsot.org/Houston/.
  2. World Turtle Day Beach Cleanup. Join Surfrider Foundation Galveston Chapter On Saturday, May 21, 2011, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am for a beautiful day at the beach, celebrating our coastal environments and the special creatures who live there!Supported by Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, Turtle Wax, and Clean Ocean Project. Fort Crockett Seawall Park, 4800 Seawall Boulevard, Galveston, TX. http://galveston.surfrider.org
  3. Bay Day Festival Provides Free Family Fun. The Galveston Bay Foundation will host the Bay Day Festival this Saturday, May 21, 2011, from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the Kemah Boardwalk. The free family event will feature live entertainment, interactive exhibits, and a scavenger hunt. Featured acts include Billy B, Mad Science, and Mr. Habitat. Music will be provided by Atomic Rocks, Chips on The Trail, DJ Dave Robertson, and Percussion One. Houston Texans cheerleaders and mascot Toro will be on hand to meet festival visitors. Festival sponsor Reliant Energy will showcase new electric car charging stations that will soon appear around Houston and will also highlight their new “EcoShare” program. Children will have fun learning about the importance of Galveston Bay in our everyday lives at exhibitor booths including the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, Baytown Nature Center, Gulf of Mexico Foundation, Texas A&M Sea Camp, Texas Fly Fishing of Houston, and more. Please visit www.galvbay.org for more details.
  4. SCA’s 2011 Summer High School Community Crew Program. Do you have a great conservation or community project but not enough manpower to make it happen? The Student Conservation Association is looking for worksite partners for SCA’s 2011 Summer High School Community Crew program. The program runs Monday-Friday from June 27th until August 5th and SCA is looking for projects that include technical trail work (boardwalk, bridge, step construction, reroutes, etc), community gardening, and/or habitat restoration. Worksite partners provide the materials and SCA provides the tools, transportation, training, and a crew of 10 high school students led by two adult crew leaders. If you have a great project and could use a crew of highly motivated community youth please contact Andy Janes at 713.520.1835 or ajanes@thesca.org.
  5. Galveston Bay Area Wetland Watch (GBAWW). Heather Biggs, GBK’s new program director, is working to save freshwater wetlands! This week she trained her fourth group of Galveston Bay Area Wetland Watchers, recieved four reports from volunteers, reported four sites to the USACE and one to the EPA. To learn more about GBAWW go to http://www.galvestonbaykeeper.org/ contact them to schedule a training with your organization.
  6. Galveston Bay Area Sierra Club Houston Meeting. Galveston Bay Area Sierra Club Houston will be holding a meeting on May 26th from 4-6pm at the JSC’s Gilruth Recreation Center. The speakers are Alan Amor and Dimetra Hamilton. Alan Amor, JSC Environmental Engineer, will speak about the storm water system at JSC, and Dimetra Hamilton, MPA from the Harris County Watershed Protection Group, will answer questions about storm drains.
  7. New Monthly Bird Count at Hermann Park. Houston Audubon is now conducting a monthly survey on the second Monday of each month at Hermann Park and welcome new participants! We meet at 7:30 AM in the parking lot behind the Historic Golf Clubhouse at 6201 Hermann Park Drive, just across the street from the Zoo Auditorium. Next Survey: June 13. For the June survey the coordinator will be Bill Harwell. For more about this and other counts, visit www.houstonaudubon.org. Don’t forget, the Houston Bird Survey will be held starting June 1, 2011.
  8. RDA announce winners. The Rice Design Alliance is pleased to announce the winners of the twelfth annual “Initiatives for Houston” grant program, which funds research, study, and problem-solving around Houston’s built environment. From making Houston’s public infrastructure more interconnected to creating an emergency shelter, this year’s winners’ projects seek to improve the conditions of the city. More information at http://ricedesignalliance.org.