What’s new with solar?  Time for an update.  A solar farm is in development for Houston, and Tesla will tell us what their solar offering is these days. In addition, we’ll have a bit of permit data about solar installations in Houston.

Dori Wolfe, founder of Wolfe Energy, will discuss her C-40 proposal to the City of Houston to convert a brownfield landfill to a solar farm including systems thinking and recent progress in the community solar movement.  Mark Mason, market manager of Houston Metro/Mexico of TESLA, will fill you in on the various solar products offered by Tesla, such as those solar roof tiles you’ve heard about, and how those are different from the other products on the market.

The City of Houston—Public Works & Engineering Code Enforcement Green Building Resource Center presents this Education Seminar in partnership with the Texas Chapter of the US Green Building Council.  This 2019 series is generously underwritten by Rockwool.

CEUs available.  Please RSVP to steve.stelzer@houstontx.gov. Free parking.  Bus stop: Preston@Elder.

Meet count leader Jason Bonilla in the parking lot of Woodland Park. Please note that the park does not have a maintained trail system. As such, there is a lot of poison ivy that is somewhat unavoidable when walking the park and looking for birds. Additionally, there are terrain changes and unstable areas. Participants should wear long pants and closed-toe shoes. They usually meet on the fourth Saturday of the month.

Please join the Houston Chapter of Native Prairies Association of Texas for their Fall Wildflower Day to enjoy the fall blooms and wildlife at the Lawther-Deer Park Prairie Preserve.

See prairie plants that you can use in your garden to attract pollinators, learn seed collecting techniques and take some Deer Park Prairie seeds home. Experience the beauty of insects through Chuck Duplant’s photos at tinyurl.com/CDuplant; then come and learn about them from him in person.  Bring your camera or smartphone to take photos of plants and animals that you see and post on the Deer Park Prairie Project on Naturalist.org.  Activities include:

● Bird Survey (tentative)
● Insect Net Sweeping – by Chuck DuPlant at the Insect Popup Tent
● Wildflower Walk – learn plant identification techniques, including taking photos
● Seed Collecting / Prairie History walk
● Complimentary lunch

Since lunch will be provided, RSVP IS REQUIRED, at https://tinyurl.com/DPP190928, so they can have a food count.

Shell Educators’ Preview: Start your evening at 4 p.m. and earn one hour of CPE credit while viewing our newly renovated George W. Strake Hall of Malacology.

HMNS’ Educator Members will have an opportunity to speak to Tina Petway, the
Museum’s Associate Curator of Malacology, during the Shell Educators’ Preview.
As a special treat, all guests will also be able to visit our newest special exhibition,
Art of the Brick until 6:00 p.m.!

The Educator Event @HMNS: Continue your evening with us starting at 5 p.m.
and earn up to three additional hours of CPE credit depending on which
programming you attend. HMNS is featuring several ways to earn CPE credit from
attending workshops to taking a guided tour to seeing a show in our Planetarium.
Educators are able to earn a total of up to 4 hours of CPE credit while attending
HMNS’, An Evening for Educators!

Registration Information
Educators: Free
Non-Educators: $10.00

(Pricing includes entry to the George W. Strake Hall of Malacology and Art of the Brick)
Registration begins Tuesday, July 30th and ends Wednesday, October 2nd.
Please complete the online form at hmns.org/eveningforeducators to reserve your spot. For questions, contact educatorevent@hmns.org.

Free to attend, donations appreciated. Work on your bird watching skills while helping the Arboretum monitor bird populations on a fun, relaxed morning walk. Join the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center on the second Saturday of each month at the front door of the building for a two-hour bird walk led by Kelsey Low and Theo Ostler, a resident bird enthusiast. We welcome all levels of bird watching skill and all ages (as long as you’re quiet) – but no dogs, please! If you have binoculars of your own, please bring them. We do have some binoculars available to borrow. For more events with the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, visit their Events Calendar!

The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N. is sponsoring a FREE Going Green Sustainability lecture: “Mycophile or Mycophobe–we all need mushrooms” with guest speaker, Teri MacArthur, Certified Texas Master Naturalist. This event is free and open to the public.

Meet count leader Jason Bonilla in the parking lot of Woodland Park. Please note that the park does not have a maintained trail system. As such, there is a lot of poison ivy that is somewhat unavoidable when walking the park and looking for birds. Additionally, there are terrain changes and unstable areas. Participants should wear long pants and closed-toe shoes. They usually meet on the fourth Saturday of the month.

Rain is as important as carbon dioxide in cooling our planet. People must restore trees and soil to restore the water cycle.

The image above shows how trees pump huge amounts of water back into the air and create more rain further inland. It is a river in the sky.

When folks started climate modeling, to simplify, they ignored water vapor and focused on carbon dioxide. But the water cycle is 95% of planetary cooling while carbon dioxide is only 5%, according to Dr. Walter Jehne. We need to keep on reducing emissions, but it’s time to also work on restoring ecosystems and their soils. Besides this may be an easier and faster way to make a difference.

To learn more and register to this event visit Coolingourplanet

Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP) will receive the 2019 Rudy Bruner Award Silver Medal for the transformation of Buffalo Bayou Park during a presentation on October 28. Following the presentation by Rudy Bruner Director Anne-Marie Lubenau, a panel discussion will highlight Buffalo Bayou Park and proposed improvements along Buffalo Bayou east of downtown.

Co-sponsored by AIA Houston and BBP, the panel will include Anne-Marie Lubenau; Guy Hagstette, Vice President of Parks & Civic Projects at the Kinder Foundation; Cary Hirschstein, Partner at HR&A; and Scott McCready, Principal of SWA Group.

The panel will be moderated by Bill Fulton, Director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.  The event is free and open to the public. 

Environmental Impacts of ITC Fire:
What Galveston Bay Foundation Has Found

Galveston Bay Foundation has partnered with Texas A&M’s Superfund Research Center to collect and analyze water samples around the ITC incident for PFAs, a group of chemical compounds frequently found in industrial product and firefighting foam. Join us for a presentation by Galveston Bay Foundation and Texas A&M Researchers to share our monitoring efforts and subsequent findings related to the ITC Chemical Fire.

Presenters include:
Weihsueh Chiu Ph.D, Professor, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Texas A&M SRP Principle Investigator for Decision Science, Research Translation Cores.
Garret Sansom, DrPh, Research Assistant Professor, Texas A&M Environmental and Occupation Health, and Texas A&M Superfund Research Center Co-Investigator for Community Engagement Core.

Please RSVP at
http://support.galvbay.org/site/Calendar?id=100421&view=Detail