CEC Annual Meeting
The CEC Annual Meeting was held on January 12, 2000 at the Houston Environmental Center. At the meeting, delegates elected new trustees and officers. In addition, the following new member organizations were approved: Buffalo Bayou Partnership; Christmas Bay Foundation; Electric Auto Association, Houston Chapter; HART; Houston Women's Caucus for Art; Moody Gardens; and Texans for Alternatives to Pesticides.

David Crossley, president of CEC from 1996 to 1999, reviewed the programs, events, and financial information from 1999. CEC's new president, Justus Baird, then discussed the challenges ahead and what CEC plans to accomplish in the year to come.

Rice Environmental Conference
Houston Air Quality, Smart Growth, and Future Transportation Technologies are just some of the topics to be covered at the Rice Environmental Conference, Planes, Trains and Automobiles: The Future of Transportation, to be held at the Rice University Student Center on February 12, 2000.

The Conference represents a collective effort by environmentally concerned Rice students to heighten awareness and promote grassroots activism with the Houston community. Former Mayor of Houston Bob Lanier, John Johnson of the Statewide Transportation Commission, and representatives from the scientific, business, and environmental communities will speak at the event.

A highlight of the day’s events will be a Cars of the Future display open for viewing by conference participants. The conference is free and open to the public.

For more information and to view a tentative schedule, visit www.ruf.rice.edu/-enviclub/conferencehome.html.

Baptists
The Baptist General Convention of Texas held a planning meeting on January 11 for a conference on religion and the environment. For more information contact Terri Morgan, Coordinator of Special Projects/ Community Ministry, at 214-828-5190 or at Morgan@bgct.org.

Council for Environmental Education
The Council for Environmental Education’s Wet in the City program provides teachers with training and materials for use in the classroom to educate K-12 students about water, especially in the urban setting.

The Council is collecting resources for two web sites. The first will serve as an online source for teachers and students alike to access information that can enhance the learning provided by Wet in the City. The other, Houston-site specific, will be designed to give teachers easy access to information about local organizations that might be able to provide classroom speakers or field trip or service project opportunities.

If your organization is interested in contributing information to either of these websites, the following would be helpful:
• brief organizational description
• education opportunities
• contact information
• website link

Send information to Elizabeth Burgess, CEE, 555 Morningside Dr., Suite 212, Houston, Texas 77005.

Eco Notes

Gulf Restoration Network
The Gulf Restoration Network has released a report, Destruction by Design: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Continuing Attack on America’s Environment. According to a December 14, 1999, news release, the report calls upon the Corps to abide by all federal laws and to use its permitting process to better protect rapidly disappearing wetlands resources of the lower Mississippi River Basin and Gulf Regions.

This report examines seven Civil Works projects and two of the Corps’ permitting practices on the lower Mississippi River Basin and coastal Gulf of Mexico region that demonstrate the continued need for systematic changes in the policies and practices of the Corps. The chosen examples are:
• the Big Sunflower River Maintenance Project in Mississippi
• channelization of Clear Creek in Texas
• the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Project in Mississippi
• the Jackson Access Channel and Port Facility in Alabama
• the Apalachicola River Maintenance Project in Florida
• the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Expansion in Louisiana
• the White & Cache River Navigation Diversion, Irrigation, and Water Management Projects in Arkansas
• permitting of Gulf Coast Casino Development in Mississippi
• permitting in the Econlockhatchee River Basin in Florida.

The Network comprises 41 local, regional and national environmental, labor, and public interest groups dedicated to restoring the biological and ecological integrity of the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1996, the Network and Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (formerly Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) issued a joint report, The Costly Corps: How the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Spends Your Tax Dollars to Destroy America’s Natural Resources. That report focused on ten egregious examples of Corps projects from around the Gulf of Mexico that wasted tax dollars, destroyed wetlands, and provided few, if any, true economic benefits or benefits to flood control and navigation.

For more information, contact Mona Shoup of the Galveston Bay Conservation & Preservation Association at 281-335-7194.

Spiritual Connection
A Harvard study documented “a threefold increase” in the mid 1990s of those attending “environmentally focused churches.” According to a 12/23 article in the Christian Science Monitor, there is a “growing global movement” of “spiritual leaders of all faiths” preaching the “strong connection between a healthy environment, spiritual fulfillment, and fundamental religious teachings.”

Solar Power
The solar photovoltaic industry in the United States wants to regain its lead in solar technology — a lead recently lost to other nations such as Australia, the European Union countries, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

To assist the effort, the Department of Energy has published a five-year business plan for photovoltaic (PV) technology and outlined long-range strategies and goals through the year 2020, entitled “Energy for the New Millennium.” (ENS)

Looking for the Rose-Mallow
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is attempting to determine the population and range of the Neches River rose-mallow (Hibiscus dasycalyx). This Texas native has only been found in Houston, Trinity, and Cherokee counties.

The Neches rose-mallow is described as a shrubby perennial plant growing 3-7 feet tall; one or more stems per clump; fairly erect; often branched; stems cylindrical and not pubescent.

The leaves are alternate, simple, light to dark green, 2-4 inches long and 1-4 inches wide at base, deeply lobed and arrowhead shaped.

Flowers are large and showy (about 3-6 inches wide); white with red or purple center and found in leaf axils near the tips of branches. Flowers are generally present June-August depending on moisture.

Fruits are rounded capsule with pointed tip, 0.5-1 inches long, buoyant in water and generally present from July-November.

Habitat is wetlands in areas of open sun. Populations are generally located within the floodplain of a permanent stream or river, along a body of water (pond, creek, slough or oxbow) flooded at least once a year, but not necessarily connected to the mainstream for most of the year.

There are only four known sites of occurrence (one each in Cherokee and Houston counties and two sites in Trinity county). Known sites involve the floodplains of the Angelina, Neches, and Trinity rivers. All known sites are on private land or highway right-of-way, most sites are less than 10 acres in size.
Threats include:
• reduced range and numbers due to wetland drainage
• stream channelization
• urban and highway development
• herbicides
• brush clearing
• conversion to improved pasture
• genetic swamping by similar rose-mallow species.
Recommended management procedures are:
• avoid site disturbance or alteration, including changes in hydrology
• minimize herbicide use or selectively spot-treat targeted species
• provide a 50-100 foot buffer between rose-mallow habitat and timber activity
• reduce competition by selectively removing non-native invasives.

If you believe you have this species or its habitat on your land and wish to provide protection or enhancement, contact Kathy Nemec with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 281-286-8282.

Financial support for landowners to enhance or restore habitat is possible. Occurrence of this species on private land does not affect landowner rights.