Celebrate the holiday season at a special year-end general meeting. Bring your favorite holiday treats or pot luck dish to share; celebrate this year’s awards with our awardees, listed below, along with awards to our local group volunteers; and enjoy a 'Gulf Coast' indoor snowball fight.

 

Environmental Reporting Awards:

Iris Gonzalez, for her op ed in March, “Equity matters. Houston needs to protect everyone from flooding.” - Gonzalez is the Director of CEER, the Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience (of which Houston Sierra is a member group). This article was part of a successful advocacy effort to make the Commissioners' Court give meaning to the equity language included in last year's flood bond.

 

Jordan Macha, for her op ed in April, "Our billion-dollar chance to fix Houston's wastewater" - Macha is the Executive Director of Bayou City Waterkeeper and a former Sierra Club employee. This op ed was part of a broader advocacy and litigation strategy that forced the City of Houston to finally address its persistent sanitary sewer overflow problem.

 

Special Service Awards:

Rep. Jessica Farrar: Farrar, a long time Sierra Club member, announced her retirement earlier this year. This award would recognize her steadfast support of environmental issues at the Texas Legislature over many years. During the last legislative session, she responded to the Sierra Club's request to introduce a bill which would have terminated the practice of snake-gassing in Texas. She was also the initiator of two pollinator bills and has been an advocate for other environmental measures.

 

Stuart Marcus: He has been the first and only Refuge Manager for the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge since it was established in 1994. For the past 25 years Stuart has guided the ship for one of the least known, most important, but with the fewest personnel, Refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Due to Stuart’s steady hand the TRNWR has grown from zero to 30,000 acres. The beautiful Trinity River Bottoms are in better shape since Stuart became its’ Refuge Manager. This will acknowledge his long career working to conserve and improve this important Texas ecosystem.