Houston Environmental News Update October 28, 2015

• Austin
• Brazoria
• Chambers
• Colorado
• Fort Bend
• Galveston
• Harris
• Liberty
• Matagorda
• Montgomery
• Walker
• Waller
• Wharton

Voters have the opportunity to decide on seven amendments to the Texas Constitution, relating to residential homestead exemptions; residency requirements for state officers; charitable raffles by professional sports team charitable foundations; road construction by small counties; the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife; and dedicating certain tax revenue to the state highway fund.  In addition to the state ballot items, voters will have a chance to weigh in on matters such as bonds for many counties, school districts, and utility districts; school board members; and city council members and mayors.

CEC NOTES

1. Save the Date: Forum for Mayoral Runoff Candidates
   

   The organizers of the Mayoral Forum for Parks, Bikes, & Waterways are now coordinating an event for the two candidates who make it to the probable December 12 runoff. Please mark you calendar and keep an eye out for additional information. CEC is pleased to be supporting this effort.

2. New Subscribers
   Thank you to our new subscribers: Theresa, Allison, Jim, Molly, Mary, Sarah, and Elizabeth. We hope you enjoy our emails. Please consider liking us on facebook.
3. CEC Events–Save the Dates
   • November 12, 2015: CEC Holiday Open House and Volunteer Appreciation Celebration
   • January 27 & 28, 2016: Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour
   • March 24, 2016: CEC’s Greater Houston Environmental Summit

COALITION NOTES

1. OKRA Charity Saloon – Scenic Houston. Scenic Houston is one of the charities selected by the OKRA Charity Saloon for the month of October. For every drink purchased you can vote for one of the Charities. The Charity with the most votes receives the November profits from the Saloon. Come out to The Original Okra Charity Saloon (924 Congress) during October and cast your vote! Learn more at http://friedokra.org.
2. Solar Energy Workshop. Solar installations are increasing in Houston. HREG crunched and analyzed the numbers to understand the trends and see how Houston compares with its peers. Come learn all about solar energy at the workshop on October 28, 2015, 9am-noon at TX/RX Labs (205 Roberts Street). While all workshops are free and open to the public, space is limited. Learn more and register at www.eventbrite.com.
3. Carbon 2065 Workshop. Cities do not easily change; they need a significant catalyst typically tied to an economic imperative. Carbon 2065 anticipates the emergence of an active carbon market and the dramatic effects it will have, not only on a post-carbon economy, but on the urban environments that this economy will produce. If the old carbon city was about extracting carbon from the ground and burning it, the new carbon city will be about extracting carbon from the sky and storing it. Carbon 2065 is a staged, fifty-year urban plan for Houston’s Fifth Ward that combines large-scale, mass-timber construction with a new form of carbon-intensive urban forestry. This workshop will be held on October 29, 2015, 7:30am-5:30pm at Rice University. The cost to attend is $35. https://shellcenter.rice.edu
4. Power Thirsty: Water and The Bottom Line. Water is a vital resource for modern life. Excessive consumption of water can lead to resource depletion, pollution, and an overall increase in price. Come out for an engaging dialogue with a panel of subject matter experts about how better water management can increase your bottom line and change the way you think about water. This free event will be held on October 29, 2015, 11am-1:30pm, at Federal Reserve Bank. Register at www.eventbrite.com.
5. Coastal Heritage Preserve Volunteer Opportunity. Artist Boat and CITGO are proud to announce volunteer workdays at the Coastal Heritage Preserve! Volunteers will help Artist Boat staff and agency partners steward the land by inspecting the land for invasive fire ants and treating the mounds, trimming back and managing the invasive Macartney Rose, and restringing the fence line surrounding the Preserve’s borders. If you’re interested in learning more about these volunteer work days or would like to sign up for this event, please contact Nate Johnson at njohnson@artistboat.org. Learn more: AB_CITGO_OctoberWorkdays. The final volunteer workday is Fence Line Friday – October 30, 2015, 10am-1pm.
6. Prairie Month. Celebrate Prairie Month from October 8, 2015, to November 14, 2015. Join the conservation community for a series of fun and informative events in 
the Greater Houston region, celebrating and restoring 
our prairie heartland! There will be, Not-So-Scary Prairie Trick-or-Treating on the Katy Prairie (October 31),Refuge Van Tours at Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge ( November 7), Putting Down Roots Restoration Day on the Katy Prairie (November 7), 2015 Southern Plains & Prairies Conference (November 12-14), Prairie Plant-A-thon at Sheldon Lake State Park (November 14), Putting Down Roots Restoration Day on the Katy Prairie (November 14), and more! Learn more about these events at http://prairiepartner.org.
7. Cigna Sunday Streets: Museum Park. Cigna Sunday Streets Houston is an initiative to promote and improve the health of Houstonians. Cigna Sunday Streets Houston opens a stretch of streets normally reserved for cars and other vehicles to allow cycling, walking, dancing, socializing and provides a family-friendly opportunity to be physically active. Come out and enjoy Houston! The next event will be held on November 1, 2015, 12-4pm on Caroline between Binz and Wentworth and Binz between Caroline and Chenevert. Learn more at www.houstontx.gov.
8. Houston Bike Challenge. Bike Houston, the Energy Corridor District, and Love to Ride are promoting the Houston Bike Challenge. This is a fun, free competition to encourage people to experience the joys and benefits of riding a bike. Participating Houston businesses will compete against each other to see who can get the most staff to ride a bike during the Challenge from November 1 to November 30, 2015. Prizes include movie and restaurant vouchers, bike gear, and more. Registration is free. More information, including how the competition works and how to register, is available at www.lovetoride.net.
9. Scenic Galveston Annual Meeting. The annual meeting of Scenic Houston will be held on November 7, 2015, at 4:45pm at O’Quinn Pavillion At Reitan Point. Come out for a relaxing gathering with libations and hors d’oeuvre and music by Moondogs, followed by the Scenic Galveston meeting, a shrimp and gumbo supper, and even more music. All may come to the festivities although members only may vote at the Annual Meeting. Cold, rain, or shine – enjoy the event and good company with friends, special guests, resource agency professionals, and conservation supporters at one of the most beautiful vistas in Galveston County. Casual Attire; RSVP necessary for dinner, drinks, seating and materials. E-mail evangelinewhorton@yahoo or call 409-789-4996,979-234-2096. Scenic Galveston Flyer
10. Sunday Supper at Sparrow. Urban Harvest joins culinary forces with restaurateur Monica Pope and a coterie of notable Houston chefs to host “Sunday Supper at Sparrow,” a multi-course dinner that features a bounty of ingredients sourced from select responsible local farms. The chefs — all of whom support Urban Harvest’s philosophy of encouraging community, good nutrition and sustainability through organic gardening — have pledged to impress guests with sophisticated combinations that highlight and enhance the ingredients’ natural flavors. Urban Harvest’s Youth Education Program, the beneficiary of the event, explores healthy nutrition, food systems, native habitats and ecosystems through garden activities implemented in Houston-area schools and community centers. Although supported by after school grants, parent associations, community groups and local businesses, the initiative is subsidized mostly by the efforts of Urban Harvest staff and active volunteers. The dinner will be held on November 8, 2015, 5-8pm at the Sparrow Bar. Tickets from $175; tables from $2,500. Learn more at http://urbanharvest.org.
11. 2015 State of the Air Luncheon. Join Air Alliance Houston on November 10, 2015, 11am-1pm, for their annual educational luncheon, State of the Air. The two informative speakers will be John Nielsen-Gammon, a Regents Professor at Texas A&M University and is the Texas State Climatologist, and Jim Blackburn, a practicing environmental lawyer and planner and professor at Rice University. The event will be held at Mr. Peeples (1911 Bagby St). Registration is $35, which includes a delicious three-course meal, tax, and gratuity. Learn more and register at http://airalliancehouston.org.
12. Dinner and Conversation with Nicholas Kristof. Join Center for Houston’s Future on November 11, 2015, at 6pm at the River Oaks Country Club, for a discussion on Civic Vitality. This topic has become a recurrent theme in the work of the 2015 guest of honor, New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof. He won his first Pulitzer in collaboration with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn for their coverage of the Chinese democracy movement and its suppression in Tiananmen Square. Kristof received his second Pulitzer in recognition of his “graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world.” In their latest book, A Path Appears, Kristof and WuDunn shine a light on the work of people actively engaging with the world to battle oppression and expand opportunity. Moderating the conversation will be Chris Knapp, perhaps Houston’s foremost advocate of impact investing, and whose community engagement leadership runs from the University of Houston Honors College to the Hermann and Memorial Park conservancies to Workshop Houston and Peckerwood Garden. Learn more and reserve your seat by visiting https://interland3.donorperfect.net.
13. Houston Audubon November Speaker Event: Bird-Friendly Communities. Join the conversation about Houston Audubon’s Bird-Friendly Communities initiative—a new program that aims to transform Houston into a greener, birdier city! Houston Audubon is proud to lead efforts to preserve urban wild spaces and to encourage all Houstonians to experience the joy that comes from making room for birds and other wildlife in decisions—whether through planting native plants, building owl boxes, or advocating for more natural spaces in our neighborhoods. Learn how better bird habitat in Houston supports all urban wildlife and makes Houston a happier, healthier place for people too. The speaker event will be held on November 12, 2015, at 7pm at United Way (50 Waugh Dr). Speakers will include Houston Audubon’s new Bird-Friendly Communities Program Manager, Sarah Flournoy; Education Director, Mary Anne Weber; Conservation Director, Richard Gibbons; and Conservation Specialist, Flo Hannah. Learn more at www.houstonaudubon.org.
14. Keeping Us Moving: Great Places – More Choices Workshop. On November 13, 2015, 10:30am-4pm, the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) will host the Keeping Us Moving: Great Places-More Choices workshop at the Norris Conference Center located at Houston’s CITYCENTRE. This half-day event will provide a collaborative forum around topics related to the Livable Centers and pedestrian/bicyclist programs. The program will include a luncheon with keynote speaker Adam Thies, the former director of planning and development initiatives for the City of Indianapolis and a nationally recognized leader in urban planning. The cost to attend is $45. Register at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com.
15. Buy Recycled Boutique with the 3R Bazaar Festival. The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N. (TWG) is pleased to announce the 15th year of its Buy Recycled Boutique with the 3R Bazaar festival celebrating Texas Recycles Day. This is a pre- holiday tradition featuring jewelry, decorative art, glassware, children’s toys, purses, garden supplies. Loyal shoppers come annually for many one-of-a-kind gifts for family and friends. Being made from recycled and repurposed products such as glass, plastic, aluminum, computer parts, tires, etc., all products come with an interesting story. The Boutique will be held 9am-1pm on November 14, 2015, at The Woodlands Township Environmental Services building (8203 Millennium Forest Drive). http://events.americarecyclesday.org
16. Energy Corridor Recycles Day. More than 2.4 million tons of electronic waste – many laced with toxic heavy metals – are thrown into landfills or incinerated every year in the United States. Help keep the environment safe and dispose of your old e-waste sustainably at The Energy Corridor Recycles Day 2015, 9am-2pm on November 14, 2015, at the Addicks Park and Ride. At the seventh annual Energy Corridor Recycles Day, one of Houston’s largest e-cycling events, volunteers will make it easy to properly dispose of unused electronics, household recyclables, clothes and even toys, while securely shredding documents. You don’t even have to get out of your car. Load up your televisions, computers, phones, hard drives, monitors, telecommunications equipment, game consoles and other electronics and bring them to Energy Corridor Recycles Day where they will be disposed of properly. Learn more at http://energycorridor.org.
17. Additional Upcoming Events   
    • 11/14/15: HPJC Annual Peacemaker Awards Dinner
    • 12/31/15 (deadline): Call for Projects Houston Zero Emission Delivery Vehicle Deployment
    • 1/31/16: 2016 Earth Day Art Contest

COMMUNITY NOTES

1. Fall Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup. The results for the annual Fall Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup on September 29, 2016, by the Texas General Land Office are in. Unfortunately red tide conditions resulted in the cancellation of nine sites along the southern part of the coast including six locations in the Corpus Christi area and all three locations in the Rio Grande Valley. Despite this setback, 7,427 volunteers showed up at 21 locations to remove 208,816 pounds of trash from 116 miles of Texas coastline. The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program is an all-volunteer effort to remove trash from Texas’ shores. Coastal cleanups are held three times each year and the program’s success is due to the hard work of volunteers, including local coordinators who work many unpaid hours publicizing the cleanups in coastal communities. Read more at http://guidrynews.com.
2. Taking Houston’s Landscape in a New Direction. Join panelists, Alison West from Cleveland’s Flower’s & Gardens, LLC; Shellye Arnold CEO, Memorial Park Conservancy; and Joe Icett, Executive Director of Last Organic Outpost in an informative discussion of new trends in sustainable landscape design like vertical gardening, community impact and urban agriculture. This lecture will be held on October 29, 2015, 5:30-7:30pm at the City of Houston Green Building Resource Center. For more information, contact Historic Houston at 713-553-7035.
3. Climate Change Engineering, Science & Public Policy Dinner Meeting. Come out on November 3, 2015, 5:30-8pm to the NASA JSC Gilruth Center, Alamo Ballroom for the AIAA Houston Section November 2015 dinner meeting, “Climate Change Engineering, Science & Public Policy.” Two presentations will be given, the first by Ian Mills, NASA/JSC robotics engineer, talking about using SPDM (Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator) DEXTRE and the International Space Station (ISS) robotic arm to install climate science instruments such as CATS (Cloud Aerosol Transport System). The second presentation will be given by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Bruce McCarl of Texas A&M University in College Station. The award shared with Al Gore by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about human-induced climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. Learn more and register at www.aiaahouston.org.
4. Illustrated talk about Rescuing Eden: Preserving America’s Historic Gardens. Peckerwood Garden Foundation and the ICAA present author Caroline Seebohm in an illustrated talk about her new book, Rescuing Eden: Preserving America’s Historic Gardens. The talk will be held on November 5, 2015, 6-8pm at Canopy (3939 Montrose Blvd). Admission is $20 for general tickets and $15 for PGCF and ICAA members, includes refreshments (memberships available online or at the door). Buy tickets at https://squareup.com.
5. Public Comment Meeting – Gulf of Mexico Restoration Plan. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (Trustees) propose a comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem restoration plan for the Gulf of Mexico. The draft plan is based on an assessment of impacts to the Gulf’s natural resources—and on the services those resources provide—following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Draft Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (PDARP) and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) is available for public review and comment through December 4th. There will be a series of public input meetings throughout the Gulf Coast region. A meeting will be held at the Hilton Galveston Island Resort, Crystal Ballroom (5400 Seawall Blvd) on November 10, 2015, at 6pm. Learn more at http://tpwd.texas.gov.
6. Sunday Evening Conversations on Creation – The State of the Air. Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church invites you to a series of web meetings to talk about creation. Planned as a regular, ongoing monthly series held the last Sunday of each month (except December), conversations will be on a variety of topics, both purely environmental as well as theological. To get the series started on November 29, 2015, at 6pm, Dr. Dan Cohan, an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, will address the State of the Air. This talk will cover climate change, as well as other forms of air pollution. If you would like to join the conversation, contact Lisa at gcs.lrc@gmail.com to receive an invitation to the talk.
7. Save the Date – 10th State of the Bay Symposium. The Galveston Bay Estuary Program and partners have made great progress in protecting the bay’s ecological and economic health over the past 20 years! Don’t miss an opportunity to hear from regional leaders and local experts, and connect with other leading scientists and natural resource management experts. January 13-14, 2016 at the Moody Gardens Hotel and Convention Center in Galveston, TX. For more information on the Galveston Bay Estuary Program and the latest symposium updates, visit http://gbep.texas.gov.
8. 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). For a preview, visit TPWD’s YouTube Page.

   • Birding in the Brushlands

   • Lone Star Land Steward: The BigWoods on the Trinity
   • Fishing With Your Piers
   • Texas State Railroad
9. Air Quality Forecast
   http://www.tceq.texas.gov/airquality/monops/forecast_today.html. Houston Clean Air Network and Realtime Ozone Mapping: http://houstoncleanairnetwork.com.
   • Oct. 28, 2015: Yellow–Moderate–PM2.5. Winds may be light enough for the daily PM2.5 AQI to reach the lower end of the “Moderate” range in parts of the Houston area.
   • Oct. 29, 2015: Yellow–Moderate–PM2.5. Continental air, high humidity, and light wind speeds along the Gulf coast may be enough to allow the daily PM2.5 AQI to reach the lower end of the “Moderate” range in parts of the Houston area, with highest concentrations in the morning and evening.
   • Oct. 30, 2015: Green–Good. Moderate to strong winds, increased cloud cover with precipitation, and lower incoming background levels should help keep air quality in the “Good” range.
   • Oct. 31, 2015: Green–Good. Moderate to strong winds, lingering cloud cover with precipitation, and/or lower incoming background levels should help keep air quality in the “Good” range statewide.