CEC Notes
Annual Meeting Scheduled
CEC will host its annual meeting on Tuesday, February 5. Come and learn about CEC’s plans for the new year and pick up your 2002 Resource Guide. Refreshments will be served. For more details, call the CEC office at 713-524-4232.

Coalition Notes
Ranking Streams
The Bayou Preservation Association (BPA) has developed an Internet mapping site for Harris County bayous that includes a stream ranking system. The site, located at www.bayoupreservation.org, contains a wealth of information for teachers, architects, engineers, realtors, developers, professors, students, and interested individuals. Click on the Bayou Information Center Maps icon to find details on watersheds, streams and bayous, floodplains, city and county boundaries, and elected officials. The site also features topographic maps, aerial photos, bayou photos, and links to sites covering water quality and hazardous waste siting.

EcoNotes
Tree Trimmings
The City of Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department and Parks and Recreation Department will recycle Christmas trees again this year. Undecorated, unflocked trees can be dropped off at 10 designated locations. To find the one nearest you and its operating hours, call the Recycling Hotline at 713-837-9130. Last year, the city collected more than 43,000 trees, which were processed into mulch products.

To Bird or Not To Bird
Birders have mixed emotions about a controversial plan to eliminate RV camping and automobile traffic in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park near Mission, Texas. The World Birding Center headquarters, to open just outside the park in 2003, will bring with it improved trails, hawk viewing towers, and bird viewing blinds. But those avid birders who set up trailers inside the park – many of whom stay all winter – are being forced to relocate. And visitors will only be allowed to access the park by foot or shuttle.

Human pressure has severely impacted habitat at Bentsen, says Russell Fishbeck of Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW), which manages the nearly 600-acre state-owned park. Many trees and plants are dying. Taking out the campers and cars will allow vital re-vegetation activities, including the reintroduction of historical flooding patterns.

Public sentiment on the new regulations has been mixed. But Fishbeck insists that these changes must be made in order to ensure that Bentsen remains a world-class birding site for years to come.

For more information on the World Birding Center, a project of TPW, call 956-584-9156 or visit www.worldbirdcenter.com.

Women Unite
Local shrimper and activist Diane Wilson, famous for her battles against Formosa Plastics, is rallying women from Texas and across the country to protest against refineries and other corporate polluters. A demonstration and other events are currently being organized. The women plan to call attention to the link between health and the environment, and push a platform of demands for change. For more information, and to find out how you can help, contact Wilson at 361-785-3907 or Wilsonalamobay@aol.com.

To learn more about Wilson, check out the children’s book, Nobody Particular: One Woman’s Fight to Save the Bays by Molly Bang, which highlights her struggles. It is available at Jeremy’s Books and Toys, 567 West Bay Area Blvd. in Webster, or online at www.amazon.com.