HOUSTON ARBORETUM AND NATURE CENTER – WEEKEND TOURS
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 2 pm or 3 pm
Location: 4501 Woodway Drive
Fee: Free
Contact: (713) 681-8433

HOUSTON ARBORETUM AND NATURE CENTER – ANIMAL FEEDING
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 1:30 pm
Location: 4501 Woodway Drive
Fee: Free
Contact: (713) 681-8433

BAYTOWN NATURE CENTER – NURTURE NATURE FESTIVAL
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 12 – 5 pm Nature Festival, 7:30 – 11:30 am Trash Bash Cleanup (register for trash bash)
Location: Baytown Nature Center, 6213 Bayway Drive
Fee: None
Contact: For Nature Festival – (281) 420-5360; For Trash Bash – (281) 486-9500; for more information, visit website www.baytown.org

Complete Description: The Nurture Nature Festival promises lots of free fun and education, with live animals to meet, games to play, and activities to enjoy. Baytown is a city surrounded by waterways, and the Nurture Nature Festival’s goal is to promote public awareness of those resources to kids and adults. Participants include: the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center, the Texas Zoo from Victoria, TX, and Clint the Snake Man with live Texas snakes. Birding tours of the Baytown Nature Center are given all afternoon, and educational introductions of birds, mammals, and reptiles will be presented by the Texas Zoo at 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm at the new San Jacinto Point Stage.

BLACKWOOD EDUCATIONAL LAND INSTITUTE – A MORNING IN THE COUNTRY: HOW GLOBAL WARMING WILL AFFECT US
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 10 am – 2 pm
Location: Blackwood Educational Land Institute, Hempstead, TX; please call for directions
Fee: $24 per person (includes admission and lunch); Pre-registration required
Contact: RSVP to (713) 768-3422

Complete Description:
Come visit a wonderful straw bale home, a country retreat and gardens based upon Permaculture Design Principles, and learn what effects global warming may have upon Houston Gulf Coast residences and businesses, and on our livelihoods and ways of life.

URBAN HARVEST – PROPAGATION: STARTING YOUR OWN PLANTS IN A CONTAINER
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: Urban Harvest, 1900 Kane
Fee: $30 ($10 members); Pre-registration required
Contact: RSVP to (713) 880-5540; information at www.urbanharvest.org

Complete Description:
Instructor: Jean Fefer
Learn to start plants from seeds, cuttings, divisions, and layering. Includes a hands-on workshop on propagation by cuttings. Bring a pair of small pruning shears. Other materials will be provided.

HOUSTON ZOO ZOOPENDOUS SATURDAYS – DIGGING DEEPER (AGES 6 – 10)
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 9:30 – 11:30 am
Location: Houston Zoo, Brown Education Center
Fee: $35 for Houston Zoo member, $40 for non-member; pre-registration required
Contact: www.houstonzoo.org/education or (713) 533-6550

Complete Description:
Enjoy hands-on activities, meeting keepers, and visiting our “touchable” animals in these interactive classes. In this class, Digging Deeper, meet and learn about mole rats, meerkats, and prairie dogs. Many animals have burrows underground, and some animals spend nearly their entire lives below the surface living in tunnels and chambers they have constructed. Find out what special adaptations these animals need as you dig for the truth about life underground.

BUFFALO BAYOU PARTNERSHIP – JAPHET CREEK TRASH BASH
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 9 am – 12 pm (meet at 9 am)
Location: Japhet Creek, meet at the empty lot on the corner of 4601 Clinton Drive and Emile
Fee: none
Contact: Brian Herod at (713) 480-6303 or bjherod@gmail.com

Complete Description:
During these days, crews of volunteers will help pick up small trash, plant native trees, broadcast seeds, and other efforts to help restore the creek to its original beauty. Cotton gloves, trashbags, and water will be provided as will supervision from the restoration team. Volunteers should wear long pants, long sleeves, shoes they don’t mind getting dirty, and any sunscreen or insect repellent they would need. At the end of the day, volunteers will be treated to hot dogs and sodas.

HOUSTON AUDUBON SOCIETY – AUDUBON DOCENT GUILD SPRING DOCENT TRAINING
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 9 am – 12 pm
Location: Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary, 440 Wilchester Blvd, just south of Memorial Drive
Fee: None; but Pre-registration required
Contact: RSVP to (713) 464-4900 or bhenderson@houstonaudubon.org

Complete Description:
The Audubon Docent Guild will be hosting its spring orientation for new volunteer tour guides to lead groups of children, teenagers, and adults. Orientation will be held in the Sanctuary’s historic 1932 log cabin and on its wooded trails. Dress for walking in the woods. The volunteer schedules are flexible; the dress code is casual; and the other volunteers are some of the most interesting people you will meet. Weekday as well as weekend tour guides are needed.

JESSE H. JONES PARK AND NATURE CENTER – GIRL SCOUT WILDLIFE BADGE
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 9 am – 3 pm
Location: 20634 Kenswick Drive
Fee: None; but Reservations required beginning Wed, Mar 21
Contact: (281) 446-8588

Complete Description:
Junior Girl Scouts, earn your Wildlife Badge through this fun and educational day.

TRASH BASH – ARMAND BAYOU
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: 8:30 am – 1:30 pm
Location: Armand Bayou near Armand Bayou Nature Center
Fee: Free; but Pre-registration required
Contact: (281) 474-2551 or www.abnc.org

Complete Description:
Please call for reservations or to obtain more information. Several other trash bash locations are also holding events throughout the Houston/Galveston area on this day.

OUTDOOR NATURE CLUB FIELD TRIP – WILDFLOWERS OF DEWITT COUNTY
Date: Sat, Mar 31
Time: Meet at 8 am
Location: Meet at Cuero City Park, Cuero, TX
Fee: None; but Reservations required
Contact: Connie Blakley at (281) 358-5407 or nature_notes1@outdoornatureclub.org

Complete Description:
We will be searching the back roads for wildflowers and butterflies. Derek lives in this area and is an expert on local flora and fauna.
Directions: Coming into Cuero on US Hwy 77, turn left (east) on Broadway past the Dewitt County Historical Museum about 1/2 mile. The City Park is on the right, across from Wal-Mart.

By Ella Tyler

The report “An Analysis of Toxic Chemicals Released in Communities across the United States”, recently released by Environment Texas, is fascinating, in a horrifying kind of way. (more…)

CEC’s annual meeting on Tuesday, April 24, will feature a presentation on the effect of global warming on Houston. Dr. Barry Lefer, atmospheric scientist and assistant professor in geophysics at University of Houston, and LaVerne Williams, a local pioneer in green architecture, will make presentations about the global and local effects of atmospheric warming. Karl Pepple, Director of Environmental Programming, Mayor’s Office, City of Houston, will moderate. (more…)

The Citizens’ Environmental Coalition conducts a membership drive for group memberships each spring, ending when our annual resource guide goes to print, which will be April 5. (more…)

The film “Hot Town, Cool City”, by local filmmaker Maureen McNamara will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Friday, March 30 and be shown again on Saturday and Sunday. (more…)

On Sunday, April 1, Camille Waters is hosting her final lettuce tasting party before she moves to Mexico. (more…)

The Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, a coalition of more than 100 environmental organizations in the Houston region, seeks a dynamic and self-motivated Executive Director. (more…)