Houston Environmental News Update January 21, 2014

Houston Environmental News Update January 21, 2014

COALITION NOTES

1. KPC Owl Howl and Coyote Prowl. Join in the fun for Owl Howl and Coyote Prowl on January 24, 2014, from 6-9pm at the Indiangrass Preserve. You can stargaze and get a glimpse of nocturnal creatures in a peaceful nighttime setting on the Katy Prairie at Katy Prairie Conservancy’s (KPC) first Wild West Tour of the year. Join Master Naturalist and birding expert Glenn Olsen for a twilight tour as he leads the group out onto KPC preserves to search for great horned owls, screech owls, barn owls, short-eared owls and maybe even some coyotes. The event includes a light dinner and requires advance registration. Cost for the Wild West Tour is $50 per person, and a portion of that fee goes toward funding KPC educational programs. For more information, visit www.katyprairie.org.
2. Houston Wilderness Collaborative Access Event – USFWS Urban Initiative. Learn about the Fish & Wildlife Service’s new Urban Refuge Initiative and how the Houston region is slated to play a major role in the initiative. Discussion topics include: agency perspective on Urban Refuge Initiative, potential partnership opportunities, environmental education programming, and habitat restoration. The speakers are Ken Garrahan, Chief, Division of Visitor Services, Southwest Region and Nancy Brown, Public Outreach Specialist, Southwest Region. January 23, 2014 from 10am-noon at the Houston Wilderness Conference Room. RSVP to Holly Thorson at holly@houstonwilderness.org. http://houstonwilderness.org.
3. An Evening with the Birds-of-Paradise. In the words of David Attenborough “Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?” and so it was through the eyes and camera lens of David Attenborough that Ed Scholes discovered the birds known to many as the most spectacular and unusual birds on the planet earth. Please join Houston Audubon for An Evening with the Birds-of-Paradise and in welcoming Ed Scholes! The presentation will be held on January 23, 2014, at 6pm at the Sosa Community Center (1414 Wirt Road, 77055). If time permits, there will be a book signing after the presentation. Read more about the evening at www.houstonaudubon.org.
4. Towers and Trees Walking Tour. Joint AIA Houston on January 25, 2014, at 10am, for a walking tour that starts at Hermann Square. Towers and Trees Downtown Tour explores the magnificent architecture between Hermann Square and Discovery Green as well as the changing dynamics of our downtown. Participants will look at the partially realized civic center plan surrounding Hermann Square, the historic backbone of Main Street, the ambitious 1970 proposal that would become Houston Center, the internationally recognized icons from the skyscraper boom of the 70′s and 80′s, and Discovery Green, the newest catalyst for downtown development in Houston. The cost is $5 for ArCH and AIA Houston Members Architecture students with current ID, and $10 for non-members. Learn more here.
5. USGBC Monthly Meeting: Living Building Challenge in Houston. Learn about the Living Building Challenge at the USGBC monthly meeting on January 22, 2014 from 6-8pm at the Houston Permitting Center (1002 Washington Avenue). The purpose of the Living Building Challenge is straightforward – it defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to diminish the gap between current limits and ideal solutions. It calls for the creation of building projects at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully, and efficiently as nature’s architecture. An overview of the Challenge will be reviewed with a case study of the first project in Texas built to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. More at http://cechouston.org/.
6. Call of the Wild Speaker Series: Battle for Elephants Documentary. Watch the stories of wildlife heroes from all over the world, as they share their stories of working with local communities to protect animals and habitats. The event will be held on January 23, 2014, at the Brown Education Center (6200 Hermann Park Dr). Complimentary wine and appetizers will be served before the film screening. Doors will open at 6:30pm, and the film is from 7-8:30pm. The film’s producer, John Heminway, will be present for discussion after the film. The cost is $25 per ticket, and zoo members receive a $5 discount. Learn more and purchase tickets at http://houstonzoo.doubleknot.com/.
7. Arbor Day Native Plant Sale. Visit Houston Arboretum & Nature Center on Saturday, January 25, 2014 from 9am-5pm. Using native plants in your yard is beneficial for a variety of reasons: they’re lower maintenance, save you money, and create a habitat for a host of native wildlife – including songbirds, butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Attend the Native Plant Sale to find over 100 Houston area native species that can enrich your landscape, beautify your yard, and simplify your life! This plant sale will include trees, shrubs, vines, fern, groundcovers, grasses and meadow forbs, and more! Plants are sourced from local growers and proceeds from the sale benefit the Arboretum’s conservation and education efforts. Members always get a discount! http://cechouston.org/
8. 2014 HAUFC Tree Planting Competition. The Houston Area Urban Forestry Council, Harris County Flood Control District, CenterPoint Energy and Trees For Houston are once again sponsoring the Great Texas Tree Planting Competition to be held in conjunction with local Arbor Day celebrations. Each team will consist of 10 planting members and a non-working captain and scoring will be based not only on time, but also on correct hole depth/width, mulching, planting techniques, etc. The Houston Area Urban Forestry Council will be supplying the judges and timers for the event. The competition this year will be a little different from years past, and the winning team will be awarded a “Golden Shovel”. The competition will be limited to 20 teams, door and raffle prizes will be awarded and each team member will receive an event t-shirt. Join in the fun on February 1, 2014 at 10am at the HCFCD Retention Basin (7600 West Little York Road). Find more details, including the registration form and list of rules, at http://cechouston.org/.
9. Memorial Park Long-Range Master Planning Process. Love Ecology? Love Memorial Park? Memorial Park Conservancy, in collaboration with Houston Parks and Recreation Department and Uptown Houston, is leading an ambitious effort to restore and revitalize Memorial Park through a long-range master planning effort that was announced this fall. The Conservancy is facilitating a robust public input process and wants to hear from people just like you! Just complete the short online survey at http://memorialparkmasterplan.mindmixer.com.
10. 1st Annual GCBO Raptor Rodeo – January 2014. Help GCBO document the status of wintering raptors and support the Smith Point Hawk Watch at the same time! The Smith Point Hawk Watch is one of only four Gulf coast hawk watches and one of only two that capture the bulk of the Mississippi and Swallow-tailed Kite migration, yet each year there is a struggle to raise the funds to support a paid counter. Your $50 Raptor Rodeo entrance fee will help GCBO meet the funding goal for the watch and provide you with a day of fun searching for raptors anywhere you’d like! The Raptor Rodeo is a contest to see who can spot the highest number of raptors in one 24-hour period. You can participate on any day in January. Winners receive bragging rights and The Arvin Award honoring former GCBO Research Coordinator John Arvin. Find the rules and entry form at http://www.gcbo.org/.
11. 15th Annual Grants Program. The Rice Design Alliance is sponsoring the 15th annual grants program for students and faculty of the Rice School of Architecture, the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, the College of Architecture at Prairie View A&M University, and the Department of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University. RDA will make separate awards of up to $5,000 each to a student winner(s) and a faculty winner(s). The Initiatives for Houston grants program focuses on Houston’s built environment, its history, present condition, and future development. A variety of regional projects will be considered, including historic research, speculative studies, problem-solving and planning projects, and documentary studies of the conditions of the city and its architecture. Proposals will be evaluated for their potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the city and the region. Starting on January 6, 2014, the application will be available for download on the website, http://ricedesignalliance.org/. The deadline for applications is March 24, and awards will be announced April 28.

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COMMUNITY NOTES

1. Capitalizing on Water Conservation; Benefits, Opportunities, Requirements & Lessons Learned. Join your fellow water providers on January 23, 2014, for the 3rd Annual Gulf Coast Water Conservation Symposium. The symposium will be held at the United Way Resource Center from 8:30am-3:30pm. Come learn how proposition 6, water infrastructure funding & HB 4 may affect you; what the new Texas water conservation legislation means for your community; strategies for smart infrastructure investment & evaluating water demand trends; and more! The cost is $40. Please register here or contact Jennifer Walker at 512-627-9931 if you have any questions about the symposium.
2. Distinguished Lecture Series: Dr. Peter Raven. The animals, plants, and other organisms of our planet collectively make our lives on Earth possible, and yet we are destroying their habitats, changing the climate, introducing weeds, diseases and pests widely, and overharvesting many of them. In turn, these factors are driven by our rapidly growing population, increasing consumption levels, and use of destructive technologies. As a result, we could drive to extinction more than half the kinds of plants and animals that exist now within the next 75 years or so. For plants, the world has more than 400,000 species. In the U.S. alone, some 4,000 of the estimated 19,000 kinds of plants, and in Texas nearly 300 of the roughly 4,800 native species are of conservation concern – 27 of them already federally-listed. Fortunately plants can be saved through genetic seed banks, the establishment of protected areas and botanic garden collections. Dr. Peter Raven, president emeritus of St. Louis Botanical Garden, will describe the efforts to save as many these species in the USA as possible, while we still have time to do so. The presentation will be held on January 30, 2014, at 6:30pm at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS). Learn more at http://houstonmuseumdistrict.org.
3. The Woodlands Township Transit Plan Presentation. As part of The Woodlands Township’s agenda for their January 22, 2014, Town Hall meeting, a team engaged by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) will discuss the fresh look at transit currently underway for the area. The Woodlands Township Transit Plan covers The Woodlands and surrounding areas of South Montgomery County and North Harris County. The consultant team’s project manager, Chris Proud of Steer Davies Gleave, will give the presentation, which describes the study’s purpose, study area and examples of the potential range of transit options or improvements to be considered. The presentation will be followed by a facilitated question/answer/input session. The Town Hall meeting starts at 7pm at The Woodlands Township’s Board Chambers Room (2801 Technology Forest Blvd). For more information on The Woodlands Township Transit Plan, contact Carlene Mullins, 832-681-2585, carlene.mullins@h-gac.com, or Thomas Gray, 832-681-2545, thomas.gray@h-gac.com. Visit the project’s website at http://montgomerycountymobility.com for updates and to take a survey.
4. Japhet Creek Restoration/Clean-up. Volunteer for the Japhet Creek Restoration/Clean-up on January 25 2014, from 8:30am-12pm at Clinton Drive & Emile Street. Activities at Japhet Creek Linear Park clean-ups include picking up trash, planting native trees and bushes, clearing the pathways of vines and limbs, mulching around trees and in pathways, removing non-native plant species, and other outdoor tasks. Groups of volunteers may be working along the banks and in the waterway. For more information, view the brochure or call/email the volunteer coordinator at 713-492-9397 or eileen4510@aol.com.
5. Houston KidWind Challenge. Think you or your class has what it takes to build the most efficient, functional, and innovative wind turbine? Try your luck at the KidWind Challenge! Be creative, have fun, and apply your knowledge of wind energy to win cool prizes. Participants need to be students in the 4th-12th grade. Find a team consisting of 1-10 students, find an adult coach (teacher parent, etc.), and find a generator, some parts, and a whole lot of creativity! Register online. The challenge will be held on February 6, 2014, at T-STEM E4 Academy at Attucks. Can’t make it to this event? The Challenge Online is always open and free to students K-college, worldwide! Learn more about the Challenge and find rules, learning resources, parts, and building tips online at challenge.kidwind.org.
6. 2nd Annual “Growing Up Recycling” Cart Decorating Contest. For the second year in a row, the City of Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department is challenging 15 local Houston high schools in decorating green, 96-gallon recycling carts with recycled materials and art supplies in their “Growing Up Recycling” cart decorating contest. The contest is limited to the first 15 high schools that register by January 24, 2014; however, the deadline may be extended. Carts should be decorated in a recycling or environmental theme. The carts will be displayed and the winner announced at HISD’s “When I Grow Up” Career Fair and Expo on Saturday, March 8, 2014, 10am-2pm at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, 4400 W. 18th St, 77092. This event is FREE and open to the public. The expo is geared towards students learning about the many interesting careers in both the public and private sectors. The recycling contest is geared towards students re-thinking the everyday idea of trash by transforming the carts into unique and creative art with an environmental message. Interested parties should contact Sandra Jackson at Sandra.jackson2@houstontx.gov or (713) 837-9164 for a registration form. Read more at www.houstontx.gov.
7. Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. The most inspiring and thought provoking film festival on earth is returning to Houston for two days, starting on February 21, 2014. This festival is a life changing ideas summit and social gathering. Come out for two amazing evenings filled with the best documentaries, powerful short films, avant-garde animation, adrenaline films, guest filmmakers, and expert panelists. The festival will be held at the Asia Society Texas Center in the Museum District. Learn more at www.mountainfilm.org. Find a schedule of events here, and purchase tickets here. Seating is limited so purchase tickets today!
8. Community Solutions Collaboration. IREX is an international nonprofit organization providing thought leadership and innovative programs to promote positive lasting change globally. IREX is currently seeking U.S. community-based, non-profit organizations and government offices that actively engage in community development projects to host, mentor, and guide global community leaders during a four-month U.S.-based fellowship. Community Solutions leaders come from over 60 countries worldwide and are among the best and brightest global community leaders working in Transparency & Accountability, Tolerance & Conflict Resolution, Environmental Issues, and Women’s & Gender Issues. Through the program, leaders bring years of experience to community development in the U.S. while strengthening their capacity for leadership and development in their home countries. Through tailored fellowships, leaders gain hands-on experience in community work; collaborate and learn best practices through an online leadership institute; and create action plans for community-based initiatives back home. If you are interested in hosting a 2014 CSP Leader, please respond to csp@irex.org by Friday, January 31st, 2014, and include a short project description/scope of work that a CSP Leader might contribute to this August-December. Learn more at www.irex.org.
9. The Texas Wildlife & Woodland Expo – Call for Exhibitors. The Texas Wildlife & Woodland Expo, in partnership with LSC-Montgomery, Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife, USDA Forest Service and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, features the latest in education seminars on trees, healthy communities, living fit, land & natural resource management, nature & art, wildlife habitats, and outdoor interactive activities for the entire family. Each year thousands of attendees take advantage of this “one-stop-shop” experience while having an opportunity to meet one-on-one with top experts in gardening, healthy living, birding, wildlife, trees, nature, community preparedness & safety, outdoor adventures and much more. The expo will be held on March 22, 2014 at Lone Star College-Montgomery. Now is the time to reserve your space as an exhibitor. Exhibit spaces are free! For more information or to reserve your space, please visit http://expo.tamu.edu.
10. Westbury Community Garden. The Houston Housing Authority, the Houston Parks Board, Mayor Annise Parker, City Council member Larry Green, and Joe Turner – Director of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department have been working together to save the 7 acres Westbury Community Garden and to keep it as greenspace, as it has been for the last 30 years. A capital campaign has been started to raise $500,000 (the total cost of the land). To make a donation, visit https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/.
11. Texas Brigades Summer Program. The Texas Brigades is a combination of five educational programs: Bobwhite Brigade (quail), Buckskin Brigade (deer), Bass Brigade, Waterfowl Brigade (ducks and geese), and Ranch Brigade (cattle). Each camp is 4 ½ days of intense, interactive, fun learning from top wildlife and natural resource professionals in Texas. Subjects covered include everything from biology, habitat management, watersheds, population dynamics, ecology, and botany, to photography, journalism, firearm safety, fishing, communication, critical-thinking, team building, and leadership. Texas Brigades is now accepting applications for the summer program. All students with an interest in biology, wildlife, fisheries, conservation, or the outdoors are encouraged to apply. You must be 13-17 years of age and you should also be willing to commit to conducting a minimum of three educational programs when you return home. Applications must be postmarked by March 15, 2014. Find out more at http://www.texasbrigades.org/.
12. Public GIS Map Viewer for Oil, Gas, and Pipeline Data. The enhanced Public GIS Viewer provides modernized functionality with improved searching and navigating through the Railroad Commission’s GIS database, as well as providing nine distinct and up-to-date basemap layer options which include streets, aerial imagery, and others. Enhanced printing and address location are also now available with the new viewer. Survey & Pipeline searches will be added in future releases of the viewer. The legacy GIS Viewer will remain until all search functionality has been added to the new viewer. Check out the map viewer at http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/.
13. Gulf Restoration Comment Period. Responding to requests from the public, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (Trustees) have extended the public review and comment period for the Draft Programmatic and Phase III Early Restoration Plan and Draft Early Restoration Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (draft). The draft, which proposes $627 million in early restoration projects across the Gulf states is now available for public review and comment through February 19, 2014 rather than February 4, the original deadline. This marks the third and largest phase of early restoration to date. Included in the draft are 44 proposed projects. Some aim to restore barrier islands, dunes, marshes, shorelines and oyster beds. Others, such as boat ramps and park enhancements, seek to address the lost recreational use of natural resources. The draft also proposes a programmatic plan for continuing to pursue early restoration. The draft, available at www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov, includes the programmatic plan and the complete list of proposed projects, with locations and descriptions. (Click here for a list of proposed projects). More at http://content.govdelivery.com/.
14. Houston Write-a-thon. Reading an ordinance or understanding a city process can be complex. Abbreviations, legal language, and references to other documents can sometimes feel like doing homework. The first ever “Houston Write-a-thon” aims to fix that. The City of Houston and Mayor Annise Parker, along with Open Houston, Code for America, January Advisors, and many other great partners are hosting an open and free event to help translate our ordinances, our processes, and our manuals into language that’s easier to navigate. This is a call to action for you to lend your expertise and to work with writers, designers, and civil servants to improve government communication for all of us. Read more at http://www.edforh.com/. The Write-a-thon will be held on February 22, 2014 from 10am-5pm at the Freed-Montrose Library. Find out more at http://www.houstonwriteathon.com/.
15. TV: Texas Parks & Wildlife. Broadcast on KUHT Channel 8 at 3:00 PM each Saturday and on municipal access cable channels in Baytown, Deer Park, Houston, Nassau Bay, Pasadena, Seabrook, Sugar Land, and on HCC TV. More info on the TPWD website (* indicates a segment about the Houston area).
    • Above Texas: The Coast
    • Parks & Wildlife People: Kerr Swine Research Team
    • Caddo Lake Paddling Trail
    • Student Parking
16. Air Quality Forecast. http://www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/monops/forecast_today.html. Houston Clean Air Network and Realtime Ozone Mapping: http://houstoncleanairnetwork.com.

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ECONOTES Featured News Articles–For dozens of additional headlines, visit the CEC website. (You can let us know about articles, too. E-mail news@cechouston.org).

1. EPA Ponders Future Of San Jacinto Waste Pits Superfund Site (Laurie Johnson – KUHF News, 1/16/2014)
   The San Jacinto Waste Pits were a dumping site in the 1960s for toxic sludge from a nearby paper mill. The Superfund site has partially subsided into the San Jacinto River, and leaking chemicals have spread to the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay. Harris County has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Waste Management and International Paper for mismanagement of the site. That litigation goes to trial in September.
   http://app1.kuhf.org
2. Analysis: Sub-freezing temperatures less frequent in Texas cities (Texas Climate News, 1/11/2014)
   The super-cold spell that recently afflicted Texas and other areas offered another opportunity for skeptics and deniers to mock scientists’ increasingly confident conclusion that manmade pollution is the main cause of the global warming trend driving multifaceted climate change. Climate scientists and their supporters like Gore have never actually said, of course, that global warming means an end to cold — or super-cold — winter weather. Climate Central, a website staffed by scientists and journalists whose articles appear in TCN’s Featured Reports department, published the results of its analysis showing that “intense cold such as this event is now occurring far less frequently in the continental U.S. than it used to,” with “winter warming trends due to manmade global warming and natural climate variability.”
   http://texasclimatenews.org
3. Big plans could bring small wild cat back to Texas (Matthew Tresaugue – Houston Chronicle, 1/15/2014)
   Nearly 30 years after the jaguarundi was last seen in South Texas, the federal government has a plan to return the small cat to its historic range in the state. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released recovery plans for the endangered species – which is slightly larger than a household cat – with the goal of creating a stable population of at least 500 jaguarundis in the Rio Grande Valley by 2050. The plan addresses a range of threats to the cat, including border fencing, roads, competition with other species and climate change.
   www.houstonchronicle.com