Coalition Notes 09-14-2011

1. Sundays in Nature Series at Armand Bayou Nature Center. Join ABNC on September 18th from 1pm – 3pm for our “Sundays in Nature” Series, “Your Place in the Water Shed”. This series focuses on what a watershed is, its importance and what we need to do to protect it. Join us in visiting the hands on displays and activities. Admission to Sundays in Nature is $4 for adults and $2 for children 4-12 and seniors 60 and older; For more information, phone 281-474-2551 or visit www.abnc.org.
   
2. Cedar Bayou Watershed Partnership. H-GAC invites you to attend the first meeting of the Cedar Bayou Watershed Partnership on Thursday, September 22, 2011, from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center in Baytown. Learn about water quality in Cedar Bayou, and help determine the future of the bayou at a public meeting. Refreshments will be served. More at www.cedarbayouwatershed.com.
3. Volunteers Prepare New Wetland Area. Volunteers from University of Houston-Clear Lake, the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, UH-Clear Lake’s Environmental Institute of Houston, the Armand Bayou Nature Center, Master Naturalists and UH-Clear Lake Environmental Science program students gathered at UH-Clear Lake on Aug. 27 to help prepare a new wetland area at the university. This included planting various varieties of wetland plants. The new wetland will provide habitat for fish and wildlife and treat storm water runoff entering Horsepen Bayou, a tributary to Armand Bayou. Funding for the project came from the Galveston Bay Estuary Program. A ribbon cutting will be held in late September. More at http://newsroom.uhcl.edu.
4. Galveston Bay Foundation Works With Local Bay Residents to Restore Near-shore Oyster Reefs. The Galveston Bay Foundation (“GBF”) worked with residents from several communities along Galveston Bay this summer as part of GBF’s community-based oyster reef restoration program. The program was reinstated as a result of the devastation to native oyster populations from Hurricane Ike in 2008, when sediments were deposited across reefs, suffocating 50% of Galveston Bay’s oysters. Volunteers in San Leon, Bayview, and Kemah, Texas, joined together to restore Galveston Bay’s oysters and became “oyster gardeners”, raising oysters that will be used to seed nearby reef restoration sites. More at www.galvbay.org.
5. Pushed to LEED: The Value Proposition. Learn about  growth in LEED incentives and mandates at various government levels in the United States. Furthermore, it will discuss if this push to LEED will translate into higher building value from an appraisal standpoint. Ms. Rese Fox will discuss the appraisal process and various challenges and tools that appraisers have when examining green buildings. Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 6:00 pm at Gensler. More information at http://usgbctexasgulfcoast.org.
6. HAUS Project Home Energy Audit and Energy Savings Presentation. The HAUS Project, Houston’s own, cooperative housing created for affordability and sustainability, recently received a complimentary home energy audit from Thermegy Home Audits. Thermegy uses thermal infrared scanning technology to detect conductive heat loss, moisture, duct leaks and potential electrical hazards. HAUS and other audit findings will be presented along with energy saving tips. Free and open the public. Thursday, September 29, 2011, 6:30 pm, Green Building Resource Center – 1002 Washington Ave, Houston
   TX 77002. More at http://transitiontexas.ning.com.
7. More Trees for Bolivar. Apache Tree Foundation donated 1,000 trees for the Bolivar Peninsula. Houston Audubon figured it would need to schedule 2 days for them to be picked up at Ft Travis, but it only took two hours! Peninsula property owners were lined up to get trees. There were so many people excited to get trees that Audubon and the Apache Tree Foundation could have given 2,000 away. More at www.houstonaudubon.org.
8. NPSOT Symposium 2011. Registration is ongoing for the Native Plant Society of Texas Symposium 2011, one of the largest environmental education events of the decade in Houston. The symposium will be heald from October 13th to the 16th at the Omni Houston Hotel at Westside (13210 Katy Freeway and Eldridge Parkway). The event will kick off Texas Native Plant Week in grand style by gathering together experts and gardeners from across the state, offering speakers, field trips, educational exhibits, workshops, and a native plant sale. Early bird registration ends Sept 15th. To register, visit http://npsot.org/wp/symposium2011/.
9. National Public Lands Day. National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands in the United States. Volunteers work to remove trash and invasive plants, build and maintain trails, and plant trees and other native plants. The event is taking place on September 24th, and the local sites include Hermann Park, Sam Houston National Forest near New Waverly, and Trinity River Refuge in Libterty. To learn more about how to attend and volunteer, visit http://www.publiclandsday.org/.