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December 31, 2013

ECONOTES 2013-12-31: Environmental Headlines for the Houston Region

Featured

  1. Flood control district weighing public input on Buffalo Bayou project on Memorial Park project (Robin Foster – The Examiner, 12/23/2013)
    There’s at least some common ground between local conservationists and the Harris County Flood Control District when it comes to making repairs along Buffalo Bayou between Memorial Park and the River Oaks Country Club — they agree some work is needed to stabilize the bayou banks. But when the discussion turns to how much work or the methods that will be used to do it, their paths diverge. As project manager, HCFCD wants to use what it describes as natural channel design techniques to stabilize about 6,800 feet of the bayou’s banks, from just south of Memorial Park’s Picnic Loop to the Hogg Bird Sanctuary at Bayou Bend. Groups like the Sierra Club and the non-profit Endangered Species Media Project remain alarmed over the extent of damage the project will cause to existing habitat in the park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary.
    http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/
  2. Texas Neighborhoods Where Climate Change Could Hurt (Dave Fehling – StateImpact, 12/23/2013)
    Texas needs to do more as a state to prepare its most vulnerable communities for the impact of climate change according to health researchers. In an analysis last year, Texas Health Institute ranked Texas next to last in being proactive on things like having top-level advisory groups and a climate change plan. Some neighborhoods are more vulnerable to climate change, including Galena Park, a small city right up against the Port of Houston, one of the busiest sea ports in the nation and home to the biggest concentration of refineries and chemical plants. Climate change not only might increase the odds of devastating storms, it might also increase their flooding potential because of rising sea-levels.
    http://stateimpact.npr.org/
  3. Get to know birds of your neighborhood (Gary Clark – Houston Chronicle, 12/28/2013)
    No matter where you live in the Houston area, you’ll find an abundance of birds unequaled in most U.S. metropolitan cities. The exciting thing is how they change during the seasons. Right now, we have northern-breeding songbirds like American goldfinches, orange-crowned warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, eastern phoebes, then in mid-January, flocks of cedar waxwings. Spring arrives quickly in Houston. You’ll be able to tell the season’s approach from resident birds – Northern cardinals, Carolina chickadees and American robins – that will begin belting out their mating songs in February.
    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/

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