Houston Environmental News Update June 8, 2016

Halfway through each year (and again at the end of the year), we like asking our readers to tell us what they might put on a top-ten list of the most important things impacting the environment in the Houston region this year.  Help us compile the list by making a suggestion (or more) on this online form. We’ll be sharing the results! Won’t it be fun to look back in 5 or 10 years?

Image Credit: This photo, by Charles Kruvand, was provided by the Texas Living Waters Project, a partnership of the Sierra Club-Lone Star Chapter, National Wildlife Federation, and Galveston Bay Foundation. TLWP recently released the Texas Water Conservation Scorecard, which includes assessments of over 300 water utilities in Texas to see how much they are doing to save our most precious resource – water.

CEC NOTES

• Save the Dates!
  • Plan to help CEC celebrate 45 years since its incorporation at an open house on Thursday, July 14, 2016.
  • Planning has begun for the Wild & Scenic Film Festival on Tour, which is scheduled for January 25 & 26, 2017. We are hosting our first film selection committee meeting tomorrow, Thursday, May 26, 2016, at 7:00 pm. If you are interested in participating–either tomorrow or over the course of the summer–please email rachel@cechouston.org.

COALITION NOTES

1. The Year of Reading Dangerously Reading Club. Do you have a secret desire to change the world? If you enjoy reading and discussing environmental issues and what makes people tick, you will want to join us at noon at the Houston Public Library Central Branch. Led by Steve Stelzer, Program Director, Houston Green Building Resource Center. On June 9, 2016, Breakpoint: Why the Web Will Implode, Search Will be Obsolete, and Eveything Else You Need to Know About Technology Is in Your Brain by Jeffrey Stibel. Learn more at http://houstonlibrary.org.
2. My Houston 2040: Lisa Kasianowitz & Catherine Butsch. My Houston 2040 is a monthly Happy Hour meeting of Houston’s urban, eco, creative and hungry minds. Co-hosted by Houston Tomorrow, Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, CNU – Houston (Congress for the New Urbanism), and APA – Houston (American Planning Association). June 9, 2016, 5:30-7pm, at Rudyard’s Pub. Lisa Kasianowitz & Catherine Butsch from the Houston Parks Board will give an update on the progress of the Bayou Greenways 2020 initiative, including a taste of what’s happening with utility corridors. Learn more at www.facebook.com.
3. BBQ, Beer & Bingo. Houston Arboretum & Nature Center presents its inaugural BBQ, Beer and Bingo, a fun and festive event on June 11, 2016, 6-8:30pm, on the lawn of the Arboretum. Enjoy a fun evening with delicious BBQ and beer supplied by St. Arnold’s Brewing Company while playing everyone’s favorite game, Bingo! There will be five rounds of bingo and chances to win great prizes provided by our friends at Bering’s Hardware. The first round will begin promptly at 6:30pm. BBQ and beverages will be served until supplies run out and iced coffee will be available throughout the night from our friends at Katz Coffee. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and your bingo daubers! Pre-registration is required due to limited space restrictions. Bingo sheets provided, daubers will be sold for $3 each. The cost is $20 per members or $45 for non-members. More at http://houstonarboretum.org.
4. Bolivar Rain Barrel Workshop 2016. Rain Barrel Workshops help save thousands of gallons of water. With your help, a predicted 134,000 gallons of water have been collected from barrels distributed at rain barrel workshops this year. Help the Bay by collecting rainwater from your own roof! The next workshop will be held on June 11, 2016, 9:30-11:30am at the Crystal Beach Fire Station. The cost is $35 and includes rain barrel, kit, and workshop. Register at www.galvbay.org.
5. Nature Discovery Center: camp spots still available. While some sessions are full, a few spots are still available for summer day camp at the Nature Discovery Center in Bellaire. Campers work together and independently to solve problems, perform experiments, play games, create imaginative crafts, and more. Camps are limited to 20 children each week with 4 teen counselors assisting the Camp Instructor. Learn more at www.naturediscoverycenter.org.
6. Happy Trails & Hot Dogs Event. The Friends of Woodland Park annual Happy Trails & Hot Dogs event celebrating National Trails Day is officially rescheduled for for June 11, 2016, from 11am-1pm at Woodland Park. Bring the whole family and enjoy some fun and food — hot dogs, lemonade, and St. Arnold’s root beer and floats! There will be activities for kids of all ages. www.friendsofwoodlandpark.org
7. KPC Unplugged Adventure: Nightlife. KPC will be holding an Unpluged Adventure on June 11, 2016, 7-9pm on the Indiangrass Preserve. Nighttime on the prairie is full of clicks, chirps, buzzes, and croaks. It’s a virtual symphony of sounds, alive with beautiful moths, fireflies, and night hunting birds. Join KPC for an adventurous expedition into the night prairie and learn what goes bump in the night. Audience: All Ages. Cost: $5 per person. www.katyprairie.org
8. Gear Packing Party – Final Prep for Summer Wilderness Experience. Join The Woods Project as they prepare to send 175 Houston high school students on a life-changing 2-week wilderness experience. Volunteers are needed for the last step: getting the gear ready for summer! TWP needs people to come help pack up the bags that will be shipped out to each of the summer locations. This is a big job and at least 40 volunteers will be needed to make it all happen. Snacks and beer will be provided to keep you fueled! Volunteers are needed on June 15, 2016, from 3-8pm. Learn more at www.volunteerhou.org.
9. The Edible Academy: Cultivating the Outdoor Classroom Workshop. This six-hour workshop, held June 16, 2016, from 8am-3pm, will provide classroom teachers, parents and garden coordinators with hands-on experience that will help you use your Outdoor Classroom as an exciting educational tool. Explore lessons in gardening and culinary arts that support TEKS objectives in the core subjects, plus make learning memorable and tasty too! $50, lunch included. Six (6) CPEs. Limited to 25 participants maximum. NOTE: This workshop is for those with an existing school garden. Garden design and construction will be covered in the Starting a Community or School Garden workshop to be held on August 13. Underwritten in part by the Garden Club of Houston.
10. H-GAC Releases Low Impact Development Guide. The Houston-Galveston Area Council is pleased to announce the release of Designing for Impact: A Regional Guide to Low Impact Development. In conjunction with the release, H-GAC is hosting a DESIGNING FOR IMPACT: LID Mobile Workshop on June 16, 2016, 9am-3:30pm. Participants will tour 3 LID projects in the region: Birnamwood Drive, Queenston Manor Apartments, and City of Houston: Fire Station 90.
11. Daylight Hour 2016. The Energy Capital of the World will continue its sustained commitment to becoming the Energy Conservation Capital by turning off non-essential lights Friday, June 17, 11am-noon. Daylight is an incredibly valuable but incredibly underused resource. If utilized to its full potential, it can help to cut energy use, electricity costs, and environmental footprint for people everywhere from municipal facilities to schools to high-powered businesses. To raise awareness about the benefits of harnessing daylight, the City of Houston encourages you to turn the lights out in honor of #DaylightHour. Learn more and sign up at www.greenhoustontx.gov.
12. Land Stewardship Day. Exploration Green! will be hosting a Land Stewardship Workday on June 18, 2016, 9am-noon. Help out with a wetland planting. All ages are welcome, so bring the whole family! Learn more at http://galvbay.org.
13. Honey Moon. Everyone’s buzzing about the Arboretum’s Honey Moon which will be held on June 18, 2016. The June full moon is called the “Honey Moon,” named for the honey-based mead given to newlywed couples in ancient times. In honor of this tradition and the start of National Pollinator Week, HANC is holding a celebration of bees and honey. Come sample a variety of delicious Texas honeys (along with alcoholic beverages, snacks, and coffee) while you learn all about bees. After learning about these powerhouse pollinators, head out on a night hike under the nearly full Honey Moon. The cost is $30 for members and $45 nonmembers.
14. The Power of Transit 2016 – Advancing Regional Coordination. Join Brazoria County Judge, Matt Sebesta, along with other community leaders and experts for a livestreamed panel discussion on the Regionally Coordinated Transportation Plan (RCTP). The theme of the discussion is “Focusing on Solutions.” The discussion will cover key regional transit issues and potential solutions. The event will be held on June 22, 2016, 10am-noon at the H-GAC offices. Learn more at www.h-gac.com.
15. Invasive Species Workshop. The Texas Coastal Watershed Program will be hosting Hans Landel, PhD, of the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center for a workshop on invasive plant species impacting regional prairie and wetlands. Dr. Landel will instruct invasive identification, management, and the use of the online tool Texasinvasives.org. The workshop will be held at TPWD’s regional office (14320 Garrett Rd) on June 25, 2016, from 9am-3pm. There will be both a classroom and field component to the workshop and lunch will not be provided. If you have any questions or would like to attend, contact Daniel Walton at dwalton2@tamu.edu. Seating will be limited so please RSVP.
16. Summer Salons: Water, Water Everywhere. Center for Houston’s Future will be hosting a series of breakfast discussions throughout the summer, bringing big-picture thinkers and regional leaders together for a deep-dive into our community indicators and next steps. The discussions are part of the Summer Salons. The theme is “Water, Water Everywhere: Drinking, Rising, Surging.” The dates are listed below. Tickets are $25. Learn more and RSVP at www.futurehouston.com.
    • July 13 – Rising Water: Dealing with Floods
    • August 10 – Surging Water–Storm Surge Protection and Response
17. Bayou City Eco-Almanac. The first edition of the Bayou City Eco-Almanac has just been released! Collaborating with friends and partners at the University of Houston Clear Lake, these video shorts are designed to encourage community eco-literacy and open our eyes to the richness of life right in our own backyard. Watch the video at www.youtube.com.
18. Grant for Open Space Conservation Projects. In just a little over a year, 1% To Conserve Galveston Island, a program of the Artist Boat, is now soliciting applications for funding open space conservation projects. 1% To Conserve Galveston Island’s mission is to fund land conservation projects on Galveston Island. These protected lands help conserve our beach; bay; upland prairie; view sheds; wildlife habitats; recreational access and clean water. If your organization has an open space conservation project 1% To Conserve Galveston IslandTM is a potential funding source. This round of grant funding will be $2,500 – $5,000. The grant guidelines and application for funding can be found on the website: www.toconservegalvestonisland.org. The deadline to apply is June 30, 2016. Read the press release: Good News! Applicants For Funding Press Release 05272016.
19. Community Outdoor Outreach Program. Artist Boat is pleased to announce that they received funding from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Community Outdoor Outreach Program (TPWD CO-OP) for the project titled: “Galveston County and State Park Community Prairie Restoration Outreach Program”. TPWD CO-OP grants help fund community-based youth and family outdoors-oriented programs and activities like camping, backpacking, kayaking and service projects. In the Galveston County and State Park Community Prairie Restoration Outreach Program, service-learning opportunities will be provided to 900 3rd-5th grade students from Galveston Island schools who are from predominately underserved (low income and minority) backgrounds at the Galveston Island State Park (GISP). Through this year-long project, students will become engaged in topics such as habitat loss, wildlife conservation, and ecosystem disruption on barrier islands such as Galveston through an in class Habitat Restoration Workshop, construction and maintenance of school nurseries where a total of 6,000 native prairie plants will be grown, and a Habitat Restoration Adventure, where students will plant the native prairie plants they grew at GISP.
 Read more: TPWD COOP Press Release May 2016.
20. Bucket Brigade Interpretive Beach Tours. The Bucket Brigade is out on Galveston beaches providing FREE interpretive tours of the coastal and marine ecosystems! Tours last approximately 45 minutes and include hands-on exploration of questions such as “what is in out water”, “how is seaweed a good thing” and “how do I connect to the ocean” that is fun and educational for ocean-lovers of all ages! Tours are available at multiple Galveston beach locations, including Stewart and East Beaches, during the weekends in April and May and daily in the summer. Sign up for tours is on location. For more information on tour times and locations, please visit www.artistboat.org or call 409-770-0722. The Bucket Brigade is a program of Artist Boat and the Galveston Island Park Board of Trustees.
21. Upcoming Events
    • World Oceans Day in Galveston – June 8, 2016
    • Full Moon Hike 2016 – June 18, 2016

COMMUNITY NOTES

1. EcoRise Youth Innovations. EcoRise Youth Innovations is an Austin based non-profit that provides sustainability, design, and entrepreneurship programming to K-12 schools with the mission of inspiring a new generation of green leaders. The program offers each school access to standards-aligned curricula, professional development opportunities for teachers, and ongoing support throughout the year. To enliven the classroom experience and promote 21st century career exposure, EcoRise facilitates deep connections between schools and the expansive network of green professionals and organizations across the globe, who provide guest lectures, host learning expeditions, and offer grant opportunities for campus projects. Learn more about the EcoRise Curriculum at http://ecorise.org.
2. HAUFC Meeting. The Houston Area Urban Forestry Council (HAUFC) was formed in 1986 with the mission of providing a forum where the different interests involved in urban forestry could come together to develop programs for an enhanced urban forest in the greater Houston area. The next scheduled HAUFC meeting is June 14, 2016, and will be held at the offices of Environmental Design. The meeting will start at 10am and around 11:15, David Marks will give a presentation and tour of Environmental Design’s tree moving/transplanting operations. ISA CEU’s have been applied for and will be offered for this presentation. After the meeting Environmental Design has graciously offered to feed us lunch (gumbo), to ensure there is enough food please RSVP to mmerritt@tfs.tamu.edu.
3. Dow Skimmer Day. This year Dow Texas Operations will hold their annual Skimmer Day on June 25, 2016, from 9am-noon. This free public event provides a rare opportunity to view one of the largest nesting colonies of Black Skimmers on the Texas Gulf Coast. Black Skimmers are considered colonial waterbirds because they nest in large colonies, usually on bay islands. These unique birds have a lower mandible longer than the upper which enables them to employ a unique feeding style. They feed by flying low over the water, opening their bills and skimming the water with their lower mandible to catch small fish. According to the colonial waterbird data, Black Skimmers pairs have declined on the Texas coast by 70% in the last 40 years so this colony at Dow is of increasing importance. Meet at the Dow A-41 gate located on FM 523 which is 1 mile south of the Hwy 332 and FM 523 intersections for shuttles to the site.
4. Summer Solar PV Session. Stay cool this summer by learning more about the technical and policy aspects of solar energy systems. All sessions are FREE and will be conducted by a contractor who can translate the complex aspects of solar energy into plain English, understandable by all – no prior solar PV knowledge required! Training topics include: Solar for Local Governments, Financing Solar Energy Systems, Fire Inspector Training & Fire Code Compliance for Solar Energy Systems, and Solar PV for Real Estate Professionals. The Houston session will be held June 20-21, 2016. Find out more and register at http://gosolartexas.org.
5. Sunday Evening Conversations on Creation: Water Conservation. Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church invites you to a series of web meetings to talk about creation. The June meeting, the second in a series on practical creation care, will take place on June 26, 2016, at 6pm. Whitney Milberger-Laird, a water resource and horticulture consultant, will speak on Water Conservation. Whitney spent 10 years working in government as a natural resource specialist and conservationist and then moved to private sector consulting in 2013. After her presentation, there will be time for questions/discussion. If you would like to join this conversation, contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com to receive an invitation to the talk.
6. Certified Arborist Test Prep Course. This course is designed to teach you arboriculture knowledge (the practice & study of the care of trees) and prepare you to take the ISA Certified Arborist Exam. All 16 chapters from the ISA Certification Study Guide will be covered in detail by professionals working in the field of arboriculture and urban forestry. The class will be held July 29 & 30 and August 5 & 6. Registration is $250. Learn more about the Certified Arborist Test Prep Course.
7. 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, Texas City, Galveston, 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.
   • The Gulf Wardens
   • Lone Star Land Steward: Rancho Zunzun
   • Swimming Holes