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!

Workdays are held once a month, October through March on the second Saturday of the month. We start work around 8:30 AM and work until about noon, when we break for lunch, provided by Houston Audubon and prepared by the lunch crew. Lunch at the picnic area of Boy Scout Woods is a good chance to visit with other volunteers and recharge from a morning of exercise and work. After lunch, we take about an hour to tie up any loose ends and clean up.

Come be a part of sanctuary maintenance, habitat restoration, and Houston Audubon’s amazing volunteer workforce. Email Pete Deichmann at pdeichmann@houstonaudubon.org for more information or to be put on the email list.

• November 10
• December 8
• January 12
• February 9
• March 9

Mayor Landrieu will discuss lessons learned from a natural disaster.

Texas Edible Landscapes, in cooperation with Permaculture Education, LLC. is proud to announce a new workshop, co-hosted with international permaculture teacher and designer, David Dornbrack.

This is the second in a series of workshops, designing a community food forest! The workshops will be hosted on the site of the upcoming garden. You and Mr. Dombrack will be designing, building, planting, maintaining and harvesting the exact food forest system where this workshop is hosted. You will also be learning valuable skills on how to create a home orchard in your own backyard!

Come, learn and hang out and make friends with like-minded individuals who also want to learn how to grow their own organic, nutrient dense food with minimal effort and maintenance!

For more information, visit txediblelandscapes.com or contact Joshua Reynolds at JOSH@TXEDIBLELANDSCAPES.COM or 832-838-4949.

Are you a wannabeekeeper or simply have questions about beekeeping?
Learn the basics of what you need to know to get started keeping bees in your backyard or rooftop. Hear about honey bee biology and behavior and learn what honeybee stewardship entails. The class will focus on sustainable urban beekeeping, including a hands-on demonstration of necessary equipment and information on where and when to purchase supplies. You’ll walk away with the resources and knowledge you’ll need to decide whether to pursue this sweet, rewarding hobby!

If the weather permits, we can look inside a hive – so bring a suit if you have one! If not, one can be provided. Also, please wear closed-toe shoes and refrain from using scented clothing or beauty/hair products.

This workshop will walk attendees through the online application process. The workshop is geared toward those who have never applied for a solid waste grant with H-GAC or have not applied in the recent past.
There are two ways to attend this workshop:
To attend in person register here.
To attend via live webinar register here.

The Bitter Herbs of Passover presented by Jean Fefer, PhD.
You can contribute to the educational value of Wednesday’s program by bringing a food item to the pot-luck dinner that contains at least one bitter ingredient. This is easier than it sounds – there are all the endives, chicories, and cruciferous vegetables to choose from; quinoa, millet or amaranth; artichokes, eggplant or white asparagus; anything with citrus (especially the peel); and anything flavored with chocolate, beer, or coffee. If that’s not enough inspiration, here is a list of herbs classified as bitter – peppermint, dandelion, arugula, cilantro, oregano, sorrel, chamomile, lovage, chervil, thyme, marjoram, sage, rosemary, tarragon, and bay leaves. And bitter spices to consider include turmeric, fenugreek, cardamom, pepper, and ginger.
If you have any of these herbs growing in your garden, please bring a few stalks to share. This will help make a Bitter program a Sweet experience for all!

Michelle Chang will host a digital media and fabrication workshop “Noise-forms” on March 22 in the McGregor Computer Lab at Anderson Hall.

“Noise-forms” will experiment with the translation of astronomical pictures to three-dimensional physical objects with the use of the Processing application and rapid prototyping machines. Students from all departments are invited to learn methods to engage scientific image analysis with artistic modeling techniques.

For more information, visit aiahouston.org.

H-GAC is hosting a series of seminars and hands-on workshops to learn to use H-GAC’s interactive web applications for community and transportation planning. Participants will have access to computers to participate in an interactive session to master the use of these online applications.

A webinar option is also available; however, hands-on activities will be presented to in-person attendees only.

• Seminar 1: Demographic Explorer and Snapshot - Thursday, March 22
  
• Seminar 2: Regional Employment Snapshot & Commute Patterns - Thursday, April 26
• Seminar 3: Activity-Connectivity Explorer - Thursday, May 24

Seminar 1 focuses on the Demographic Explorer and Snapshot which provides quick and easy access to US Census American Community Survey data

Learn how to customize the data displayed to fit your needs:

• Draw and select an area of interest
• Query the data for more information
• Perform market analysis
• Summarize and download data
• Directly use the demographic snapshot tool and maps for presentations

For more information, visit h-gac.com.