Coalition Notes 07-02-2012

1. HUG–Home Cooking and Food Distribution. The next meeting of Houston Urban Gardeners will be Monday July 9 at 6:30 PM at the Houston Garden Center, 1500 Hermann Dr. in Hermann Park, Houston (713-284-1989). To access the parking lot go to Golf Course Drive (recently renamed Hermann Park Dr.) and enter the lot right across from Miller Outdoor Theater. Our presenter, Jacquie Clark, owned and operated her own restaurant, Jacquisine, in the Champions area of Houston, then took over as the second manager of the (then) Bayou City Farmers Market. She has a passionate interest in everyone having the best food possible. Jacquie will share tips, strategies, and easy recipes for adding more seasonal vegetables to our home cooking repertoires. Learn more at www.houstonurbangardeners.org.
2. Wetland Plant Identification and Restoration Course. Texas Coastal Watershed Program is offering a wetlands plants course that runs through August. Learn about the work of the Wetland Restoration Team and receive basic plant identification training which will aid in your participation with the Team. The course runs 5 weeks in August, 9-12am every Wednesday, at Sheldon Lake State Park in northeast Harris County. A different plant family–-wetland grasses, rushes, sedges, and Sagittaria–-will be the focus of each week, plus an introduction to our wetland restoration efforts of the past five years, current projects, and future projects. Due to the popularity of the course and the limitation of the classroom size, the class is limited to 24 students. You must register with Marissa Sipocz (m-sipocz@tamu.edu) by July 25, 2010 and receive a confirmation email to reserve a spot in the course. The fee for this course is $20. For more information on the course, including a carpool from our Clear Lake office, please see the online flyer at http://www.urban-nature.org/urbanwet/documents/WetlandRestoreClass12.pdf.
3. Bayou Land Conservancy Mussel Pond Adventure Day. Join the Bayou Land Conservancy July 14, 8-11am, for a fun and environmentally friendly morning at the Mussel Pond Preserve (3750 FM 2854 Conroe, TX). Volunteers can help clear the trails at the Mussel Pond Preserve, learn about the 70 different species of birds and trees in the area, and explore the pond with kayaks provided by REI. RSVP to info@bayouland.org or call 281-576-1634 before July 12th. Learn more at http://bayoulandconservancy.org/.
4. GHORBA Receives Grant. The Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Association (GHORBA) is pleased to announce the award of a grant through the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) in partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). This $100,000 grant is scoped to provide capital to build up to six new miles of natural surface trail and to increase the sustainability of an additional existing six miles of natural surface trail. Upon completion, a contiguous natural surface trail should stretch from the George Mitchell Nature Preserve to I-45 along the northern bank of Spring Creek. In addition to the RTP funding, Montgomery County will provide a 25% match to the grant. For more information on this grant and others visit http://www.ghorba.org.
5. Surface Water Quality Public Comment Meetings. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will hold four public meetings to receive comments on the Bacteria Implementation Group’s (BIG) draft implementation plan to reduce bacteria in specified waterbodies across the H-GAC region. The meetings will be held:
   • Tuesday, July 10, at 10:30 a.m. at the East Montgomery County Improvement District, 21575 US Highway 59 North, Special Events Room, New Caney
   • Tuesday, July 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Westside Event Center, 2150 Countryplace Parkway, Pearland
   • Wednesday, July 11, at 10:30 a.m. at the Waller ISD Administration Building, District Board Room, 2214 Waller Street, Waller
   • Wednesday, July 11, at 6:30 p.m. at H-GAC, Conference Room A, Second Floor, 3555 Timmons Lane, Houston

   After the public comment period, the BIG may revise the draft implementation plan, if appropriate. The TCEQ will then consider the final plan for approval. Written comments should be submitted to Chip Morris, Water Quality Planning Division, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, MC 203, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas, 78711-3087 or faxed to 512-239-1414. Comments may be submitted electronically to www5.tceq. texas.gov/rules/ecomments by midnight on Monday, July 30, and should reference the  Implementation Plan for Seventy-Two Total Maximum Daily Loads for Bacteria in the Houston-Galveston Region. More information about the BIG project is available at www.h-gac.com/BIG.

6. Learn About Civil Prosecution at Upcoming Roundtable. Civil prosecution of environmental violations is the topic for the next Environmental Enforcement Roundtable from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, July 10, at H-GAC Conference Room A, Second Floor. During this roundtable, participants can learn more about preparing environmental investigations for civil prosecution, including what makes a strong case. Rock Owens, Harris County Attorney, and Jennifer Wheeler, Compliance Manager for Harris County Pollution Control Service, will provide information on common cases and how those cases are handled. Please RSVP by Monday, July 9, by contacting Erin Livingston at 832-681-2525.
7. Summer Salon: The Powerful Relationship between Education and Health. The Summer Salon Series continues on July 18th, 7:30-9pm, at Canopy on Montrose (3939 Montrose Blvd). The presentation will explore the powerful, and sometimes surprising, relationship of education and health, as published in Center for Houston’s Future’s 2012 Human Capital and Education Indicator Report. There is a fee of $15 to attend. RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/.
8. GCBO Celebrates Outdoor Classroom. The Gulf Coast Bird Observatory recently celebrated the completion of a new Outdoor Classroom with a Ribbon-Cutting ceremony held on June 5th. To showcase the importance of wetlands to birds and other wildlife, the classroom, funded by a Dow Chemical Community Grant, consists of a wetland education deck, an observation tower overlooking both the forest canopy and the 1.5-acre Heron’s Haunt Wetland and interpretive signage. Over the past 12 month, GCBO has welcomed 1,407 guests from across Texas and 21 other states, as well as Canada and Europe and virtually all of them utilized this outdoor venue and new photo blind. More info at www.gcbo.org.
9. GBCC Unveils Master Plan for Greens Bayou. With the help of the National Park Service, Greens Bayou Corridor Coalition (GBCC) created a Parks and Trails Master Plan that features 40 proposed projects in the four Reaches along the bayou. Projects range from parks and trails, to a canoe paddle trail, invasive species removal and outdoor education programs. The Master Plan was achieved through community input, committee expertise, and a passion for the GBCC mission of flood mitigation, quality of life enhancement, and creating and improving parks and trails throughout the watershed. More at www.greensbayou.org.