Calendar
Join the Architecture Center Houston for their Annual Gingerbread Build-Off.Â
EVENT DAY SCHEDULE:
9:00am–10:00am Team Check-in
10:00am–3:00pm Competition Building & Kids Construction Zone
10:00am–4:00pm Food Trucks
12:00–2:00pm      SANTA
4:00pm–4:30pm   Awards
Join us for the 4th Annual Wild About Houston Green Film Festival, showcasing more than a dozen short films from the Greater Houston Area that tell the story of local environmental issues, their champions, and how you can make a difference.
Time:Â 10:30 to 12:00 pm
Parking:Â City Lot H
Location:Â The Water Works at Buffalo Bayou Park (105 Sabine St.)
Enjoy a free walking tour in Buffalo Bayou Park highlighting the landscape and ecology of 19th century Texas that created Houston, as well as the importance of prairies in rebuilding this astonishing and all but vanished ecosystem.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour is returning to Houston on January 29, 2022. Hosted by the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, this year’s film fest will be a hybrid event, taking place both online and in person at MATCH to accommodate everyone’s COVID safety preferences.
SPONSORS
Thank you to our 2022 Sponsors:
Parks and Natural Areas Awards
H-GAC established the Parks and Natural Areas awards program in 2006 to highlight best practices and innovative approaches to parks planning and implementation. H-GAC honors projects in the categories of Projects Over $500,000, Projects Under $500,000, Planning Process and Policy Tools, and Programming.
This program recognizes outstanding parks and natural areas around the region. No funding is associated with this award program.
Plant-it-Forward will give a presentation on city farming and plant growing times. Plant-it-Forward empowers refugees to develop sustainable urban farming businesses that produce fresh, healthy food for our community. This event is free and registration is required. Masks and social distancing are highly encouraged.
Calling people of all faiths or no faith at all in Houston to care for our shared environment in observance of Earth Day/Month!  We will engage in hands-on environmental stewardship at the Willow Waterhole Conservation Reserve. This event will offer activities for all ages and skill. Meet at the Swartz Gazebo in the park to sign in. Metro bus line 7 stops nearby, and line 49 is not far. Tools/supplies will be provided. This event is organized by Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Interfaith Environmental Network of Houston, in partnership with the Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy. The conservancy requires signing of a waiver to participate. Please register for planning purposes on www.eventbrite.com at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spring-2022-interfaith-environmental-stewardship-event-tickets-273115956177. Contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com for more information.
Conservation Grants
Conservation Grants can be awarded to projects anywhere in Texas. In its first 25 years the Birding Classic has donated $1,071,000 in conservation funding to nature tourism and avian habitat restoration, enhancement, and acquisition projects throughout the state!
Number of grants awarded (and their amounts) are determined based on team registration fees (independent and sponsored) and corporate sponsorship dollars collected each year. The Birding Classic is a cost-recovery event, so once minimal event costs are covered all remaining funds go to conservation grants in Texas. Organizations are not required to register a team in the Birding Classic to be eligible to submit a project proposal.
All approved projects submitted by the May 1st deadline will be provided to winning Birding Classic teams to select which projects are funded by Conservation Grants.
Plastic pollution now contaminates the deepest trenches in the ocean, high mountain peaks, and even the air we breathe – plus recently being found in our blood. Plastic has entered the food chain, killing wildlife, and causing the average person to eat one credit card’s worth of plastic each week. To learn more about this issue & take action to affect change, join the online Plastic Free EcoChallenge in July. You select the challenges you’d like to accomplish during the month and when/how you do them.  You can join as an individual, create your own team, or join an existing team. You are invited to consider joining one of the two teams listed below. Learn more at: https://plasticfree.ecochallenge.org/. Contact Lisa Brenskelle, team captain, at gcs.lrc@gmail.com.
Join the Lutherans Restoring Creation – Gulf Coast team at: https://plasticfree.ecochallenge.org/participants/join?referral_code=2f02b437-c6a1-4b89-84c1-82740e495ad7&team_invitation=true&team_id=20241.
Join the Interfaith Environmental Network of Houston team at: https://plasticfree.ecochallenge.org/participants/join?referral_code=57e7e24b-05c8-4199-9efc-0d99c59abe89&team_invitation=true&team_id=20242
“Green Jobs†are all over the internet. What is the true intention of the term? Clearly, installing solar panels is a green job, but are green jobs limited to renewable energy positions?  Join Steve Stelzer, Program Director of Houston’s Green Building Resource Center, who has researched this subject, for a multi-faceted presentation to help people understand the various green and not-so-green interpretations out there in the job market. In addition, he has some suggestions for “greening up†one’s conventional job. Time for interactive discussion with the speaker will be provided. Please register for this talk on www.eventbrite.com. Contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com with any questions.