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When was the last time you heard the honking of wild geese, sat under a huge, spotless sky, or spied coyote tracks? Bundle up and join us this Saturday for a refreshing winter walk on the Nelson Farms Preserve – a Flat Out Wonderful preserve that is pulsing with life. We’ll make sure to top off the tour with a cup of hot cocoa.

Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010 from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Nelson Farms Preserve
What to Bring: All participants should wear appropriate outdoor clothing, including closed-toe shoes and long pants. A long-sleeve shirt is also recommended. Participants should bring their own water and insect repellent.
Registration required. Call 713.523.6135 or email us at info@katyprairie.org for more details.
Price: Free!
Start Time: 16:00 pm
Date: 2010-01-09
End Time: 18:00 pm

For more information, e-mail Steve.Stelzer@cityofhouston.net

Gensler Architects
700 Milam, Ste 400
Houston, TX 77002
Date: 2010-01-17

By boating, hiking, bird watching, horseback riding, bicycling, or just relaxing by the water, adventure and knowledge-seekers can witness some of the same ecological treasures that Stephen F. Austin found when he settled his first colonies along the river in the 1820s.  Furthermore, the preservation of these areas provides better water quality and a reduction in flooding damage, as well as economic development opportunities associated with ecotourism.

The Brazos River Trail runs through numerous parks, preserves, and wildlife refuges in Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties.  For locations of trails and directions to the parks, visit Houston Wilderness at  http://www.houstonwilderness.org.

Trail Blazers–The success if the Brazos River Trail project is the result of many public and private partners collaborating to provide recreation and educational opportunities, preserve land and water, help flood damage reduction, and aid in wetland mitigation. Four Trail Blazers were awarded by Houston Wilderness to individuals who championed the Brazos River Trail Project, including Brazoria County Judge Joe King, Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert, The Dow Chemical Company and The George Foundation.

The Sam Houston Trail & Wilderness Preserve–The Brazos River Trail is the second gem completed connecting a uniquely diverse necklace of ecosystems, green space, and nature trails throughout the 24-county Houston region.  The entire Houston area will benefit from the many recreational opportunities provided by The Sam Houston Trail and Wilderness Preserve –hiking, canoeing and kayaking, fishing, cycling, and horseback riding–all year round, and all within a 1.5 hour drive of downtown Houston.

Eleven leatherback sea turtles are taking part in the Great Turtle Race, speeding from foraging grounds in the frigid waters of Canada to nesting beaches on the sun-soaked shores of the Caribbean. The turtles are tagged with state-of-the-art satellite tracking devices that allow us to follow their incredible 3,700-mile (6,000-kilometer) journey.

The data collected from the turtles during the migration will help scientists in their own race to save this endangered species from threats such as coastal development, fishery bycatch, and egg harvesting.

Which turtle will reach the finish line first? Which will dive the deepest or go the farthest afield? Will they all make it to the end? Follow the turtles as they race across the Atlantic! More at http://www.greatturtlerace.com/.

The Gulf Restoration Network also provides information about the beginning of Sea Turtle Season: http://action.healthygulf.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27055.

LOCAL sea turtle information can be found at http://www.ridleyturtles.org/, the website for member organization Healp Endangered Animals-Ridley Turtles (HEART). There are a number of articles about local happenings, and you can sign up for a newsletter at http://www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=945.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, on March 12th, the July 2008 decision by Judge Jorge A. Solis in favor of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge in east Texas. The City of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board had filed suit hoping to overturn creation of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge to make way for a reservoir Dallas predicts might be needed in fifty years. Instead, Judge Solis upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2006 creation of the refuge.

Dallas and the TWDB contended the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to meet requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to do an adequate environmental assessment and by failing to cooperate with state and local officials.

After careful review, Judge Solis disagreed with the allegations and denied motions by Dallas and the TWDB to require a more detailed environmental study. Dallas and the TWDB appealed Judge Solis’ decision. Thursday, March 12, 2009, a three-judge panel affirmed the lower court ruling.

Biologists say the land within the boundaries of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge is some of the least disturbed and highest-quality bottomland hardwood forest left in Texas, rated Priority 1 for acquisition by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By contrast, the reservoir proposed for the same site is one of many water supply options available to Dallas Water Utilities.

The Neches River’s towering oaks and hickories shelter wildlife and provide nuts and acorns that deer, squirrel, wild turkey, wood ducks, and other animals depend on in winter. Bushes, smaller plants, and understory trees such as dogwoods provide a diverse array of food for resident animals. The Refuge is located in the heart of the North American Central Flyway, the major “highway” for migrating ducks and songbirds. The waters of the Neches River sustain the exceptional habitat of the Big Thicket National Preserve, the Davy Crockett, and Angelina National Forests, various state parks and wildlife management areas, and the Sabine Lake estuary.

The City of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board have 45 days from March 12th to appeal to the Supreme Court or ask for an en banc ruling. An en banc ruling is a request to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the three-judge panel ruling and have all judges (approximately twenty) of the Court rule. The Fifth Circuit can deny an en banc request and the Supreme Court can also deny a request for a hearing.

As soon as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is allowed to accept land donations, pending an appeal, conservationists are poised to donate several thousand acres to the Neches River refuge. We look forward to celebrating a wonderful new refuge on the Neches! (Reprinted with permission from  Houston Audubon’s website)

Audubon’s High Island Sanctuaries officially open on March 22, 2009. While these and other sanctuaries are open year round, the opening of the High Island Sanctuaries is a much anticipated event, with daily bird walks, half-day field trips, weekend lunches, a plant sale starting April 1, 2009, and of course, the famous patches. More online.

HAS is promulgating several calls to action. In addition to regular volunteer opportunities (High Island Workdays and and welcome crew, the HAS booth at FeatherFest, docent opportunities), HAS is asking for volunteers to provide purple marting and barn owl boxes for Bolivar Penninsula, to help stop bird kills at communications towers, and to support the protection of state park funding. More below and at Houston Audubon’s website.

HAS offers a huge variety of classes for children and adults (check out the “education” and “birding” links, respectively, on the HAS website). One class might be of special interest: Kevin Karlson, well-known and respected photographer and co-author of The Shorebird Guide, will conduct a Shorebird Workshop on Friday evening, March 6. On Saturday, March 7, Kevin, along with Glenn Olsen, will lead a field trip where participants can put their new identification skills to the test. Please contact Andrea Ritchie or call the HAS office at 713-932-1639 to register or if you have any questions.

Finally, HAS is hosting its gala, Birds & Beaches: Celebrating Birds and Their Environments, on Tuesday, March 15, 2009, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The evening’s festivities will include a digital photography presentation highlighting the beauty of the Upper Texas Coast by Kevin Karlson, Alan Murphy, and Kathy Adams Clark; a Birds & Beaches Photo Gallery featuring imagery for sale from members of the HAS Nature Photography Association and students of the Raul Yzaguirre School for Success; live and silent auctions; live jazz music by The Steve Ruff Group; and cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and desserts. Blackburn & Carter, Winnie Burkett, Galveston Bay Foundation, Lower Laguna Madre Foundation, and Scenic Galveston will be honored for outstanding achievement in coastal conservation. To purchase tickets, please use our secure online form or contact Andrea Ritchie, telephone 713-932-1639.

I was more than a little surprised to see a large display promoting the ‘greenness’ of Fiji bottled water at the grocery store. The display explained that Fiji will be carbon negative by 2010, it’s bottled in a better kind of plastic, and the company is helping save the Fijian rain forest. The display included reusable grocery bags and compact fluorescent light bulbs, but it will take a lot of other conservation efforts to mitigate the environmental costs of bottled water.

If Fiji is greener than any other bottled water, and it might be, that is still damming with faint praise. There are better ways to make your trip to the grocery store green.

Consider shopping at a store that is close to home or is on your way home from some other trip. I started doing that a few months ago, mainly to save time, and have found most of what I want at whatever store I am in.

Park in the first open space. Driving at parking lot speeds gives worse gas mileage than driving 80 mph. And idling – 0 mpg.

Buy local. Some stores highlight their Texas products, but at some you have to look at labels. And local isn’t just in the produce department. It’s easy to forget that Texas is an agricultural state, but check out the Texas Food Directory. Blue Bell ice cream, Arrowhead Mills flours, several rice brands, Falfurrias Butter, and on and on. A local or Texas-owned store is more likely to have regional products.

Avoid any product that is sent by air. If it’s perishable and not in season, then it probably was sent by air.

Don’t put your produce in separate little bags.

More and more genuinely eco-friendly products are showing up in mass-market stores. It is shocking to realize that many common cleaning products are classified as hazardous household waste and should not be put in the trash, but even Clorox has launched GreenWorks, a new line of products that are safer.

There is a new line of insecticides from EcoSMART that is made with plant oils and is safe enough that it doesn’t require any warning labels. I thought I would never get my mother to give up her can of Raid, but she’s very happy with the EcoSMART flying insect killer.

Whenever possible, buy the largest package you can use before it spoils, even for one person. A family size bag of frozen vegetables allows you to scoop out a single serving, instead of a box that has two servings and just creates leftovers.

Examine products that come in plastic before you buy them to see if the plastic can be recycled. A container that is a number 1 plastic and is easy to recycle looks a lot like a container that is a 6 and is hard to recycle. Look on the bottom of the product. Plastic cups also come in number 1 or number 6 plastic as well. There are always gizmos that claim to be better for the environment – I bought a set of bowl covers that look like little shower caps so I don’t have to use foil or saran wrap or find the right lid – but what really helps the environment is to consume less, shop mindfully, and plan your trip.

And, of course, we have great farmers’ markets, co-ops, community gardens, and gardening classes here. Check out Central City Co-Op and Urban Harvest.

Abraham Lincoln said, “God must have loved poor people, he made so many of them.” Take a look at the TCEQ’s newest Water Quality Inventory and 303(d) List, and you’ll conclude that we must love dirty water, we’ve made so much of it.

Until I got several announcements from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Houston Galveston Area Council about meetings to receive comments on draft Total Maximum Daily Loads, I hadn’t really thought about whether the water in our creeks and bayous is safe for swimming or wading.

Then I found out that the innocuous sounding term “Total Maximum Daily Loads”, usually abbreviated TMDL, is the amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive and still support its beneficial uses – such as swimming, wading, fishing – and that TMDLs are not prepared unless a body of water is impaired.

The TCEQ explains, “The goal of a TMDL is to restore the full use of a water body that has limited quality in relation to one or more of its uses. The TMDL defines an environmental target and, based on that target, the state develops an implementation plan to mitigate anthropogenic (human-caused) sources of pollution within the watershed and restore full use of the water body.”

• Monday, June 2, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at Kingwood College (SFA 125/126), 20000 Kingwood Dr., Kingwood;
• Tuesday, June 3, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at Cleveland Civic Center, 210 Peach St., Cleveland;
• Wednesday, June 4 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at Mercer Arboretum, 22306 Aldine-Westfield Road, Humble;
• Thursday, June 5 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at South Regional Library, 2101 Lake Robbins Dr., The Woodlands; and
• Thursday, June 12 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at Conroe Tower, Sixth Floor, 300 West Davis St., Conroe.

• Monday, June 9, 7 pm at Clear Lake Park Meeting Room, 5001 NASA Road 1 in Clear Lake; and
• Wednesday, June 11 at 2 pm at White Memorial Park, Whites Park Exhibit Hall, 225 Whites Memorial Drive in Hankamer.

For details, go online.

Cottage Grove is just inside the 610 Loop, west of White Oak Bayou. It is undergoing rapid densification from infill and redevelopment. Neighborhood residents are asking the city to call for TxDOT to change its plans so that the area can be used as a green corridor and to restore historical mobility connections. The area’s density trend of 23 dwellings per acre brings hundreds of families within a quarter-mile of the trail and it is four blocks away from an elementary school.

To encourage support for the project, Cottage Grove Civic Club activists are conducting guided tours of the trail on Friday, February 29 at 6 pm and on Saturday, March 1 and March 8 at 4 pm. They say, “Local residents, hikers, bird and butterfly watchers, off-road cyclists, runners, urban quality of life advocates, chaperoned children, and socialized dogs are invited.” Interested members of the public are also invited to the Cottage Grove Civic Club’s March 6 meeting, at 6:30 pm, at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. For details, see the Cottage Grove website.