Sierra Club Monthly Meeting

Austin Regional Group of the Sierra Club
Phoebe Allen, program coordinator
DECEMBER 11 – Central Texas Planning Gets Real: Sustainable Places Project. Architects Jana McCann and Jim Adams will feature the work they (and others) are doing for the Capital Area Council of Government’s Sustainable Places Project in Elgin, Hutto, Lockhart and Dripping Springs, which is HUD-funded. The McCann Adams firm focuses on designs for new communities, revitalization strategies, transit-oriented development planning, and public space design in cities as varied as Vancouver, Moscow, Manila, London and Paris. Austin projects have included the Mueller Redevelopment, the Highland Mall Redevelopment Plan, and the Downtown Austin Plan. www.sustainableplacesproject.com

McCann Adams Studio

JANUARY 8 – MOVIE NIGHT: The Ice and the Sea, by Bruce Melton, P.E. (45 minutes). Join our own Sierra Club member and ex-com board member to view his film about a solo trip to the Greenland Ice Sheet to film climate change as it is happening. After Greenland, Bruce takes us far down the Padre Island National Seashore four-wheel-drive-only beach to help us understand the great threat of sea level rise and damage already done to our barrier islands. Bruce is a professional engineer, filmmaker, author and climate change outreach specialist. He has been actively reporting climate science since 2005 and has worked on critical environmental issues in the Central Texas region since graduating from Texas A&M in 1983.

Melton

FEBRUARY 12, 2013 – River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado with author and illustrator Margie Crisp. From its beginning at the edge of the High Plains of Texas, the Colorado River flows some 800 miles through twenty counties to meet the Gulf of Mexico. On its way, it fills nine lakes and reservoirs to supply water and electricity to vast areas of Texas. The river runs through the center of towns like Colorado City, La Grange, Wharton, and Austin. Over 1.1 million people in Central Texas alone depend on the Colorado River’s water for drinking, irrigation, electricity, and industry. The Colorado River is one of the most utilized and important rivers in Texas yet it is also one of the most underappreciated. Crisp’s book interweaves the complex stories of the River’s past with the present and future using personal narrative and interviews with land owners and river people to link local history and lore, natural history, geology and current issues. Forward by Andrew Sansom; sponsored by The River Systems Institute at Texas State University. Margie lives in Elgin with her husband. Her artwork can be found in numerous public and private collections.

The Austin Regional Group of the Sierra Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise noted, at 7:00 pm in the north dining room of Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto. Come as early as 6:00 p.m. for happy hour and ordering eats.
The nearest bus, #20, runs along Red River, two blocks away. A bike lane runs along Trinity. Free street parking is available after 5 and is usually free in the state parking garages after 6 pm – next to, behind and across from Scholz Garten. Directions and menus at www.scholzgarten.net.