Pasadena Citizen - Features
Clean & Green program plants 365 trees along Buffalo Bayou
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| Some 365 volunteers celebrated the first anniversary of the highly successful Clean & Green Port of Houston Program by planting 365 trees. |
Pasadena Citizen
What a difference 365 days can make. To celebrate the first anniversary of the highly successful Clean & Green Port of Houston Program, 365 volunteers planted 365 trees along Buffalo Bayou in Tony Marron Park at 808 North York, just east of downtown.
The 365 volunteers were recruited from the partners involved in the Clean & Green Program: the Port of Houston Authority, Shell Oil Company and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. Representatives from Fountain of Praise Youth Group, Project S.T.A.R. (Students and Teachers Achieving Results), Rice University, Emory University, STAR Drug Court and 150 eighth graders from Youth Education/Employment Services (Y.E.S.S., Houston Police Department-DARE Program) planted the 365 trees along the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The new trees not only beautify, but also help to stabilize the bayou. The “Clean & Green Team” also picked up trash and litter at the location.
In just one year, 1,845 cubic yards of trash have been removed from the banks and waters of Buffalo Bayou. This much trash could fill 74 garbage truckloads or the equivalent of 12,454 30-gallon trash bags. This is nearly double what the skimmer boat Mighty Tidy alone captured during the year before Clean & Green began (1,022 cubic yards). The bulk of the trash collected is plastics, and all of the trash, including plastics, paper, metal, glass and electronics, is being recycled.
The Clean & Green program is a public-private partnership utilizing community service workers to keep Houston’s Buffalo Bayou clean and green. The year-round initiative is managed by Buffalo Bayou Partnership and funded by Shell Oil Company and the Port of Houston Authority. Additional agency partners are Greater East End Management District, Harris County Constable Precinct 6, Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department and the Harris County Flood Control District. Other program partners are Vista Fibers Company and Williams Brothers Construction Company.
The goal of Clean & Green is to restore Buffalo Bayou to a cleaner, safer, pristine waterway through removal of trash and debris. Trash in the bayou ultimately floats into the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay.
Joining Port of Houston Authority Commissioner Elyse Lanier and Buffalo Bayou Partnership President Anne Olson for the tree planting were Judge Caprice Cosper, 339th Criminal District Court, Judge Brock Thomas, 338th Criminal District Court, Judge Mike Wilkinson, 179th Criminal District Court, Diane Schenke, executive director of The Park People, and Hedy Wolpa, interim president and program director, Greater East End Management District.
You can learn more about the Clean & Green Port of Houston Program by visiting the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Web site at www.buffalobayou.org or contact the Port of Houston Authority public affairs office at 713-670-2630 or visit its Web site at www.portofhouston.com.
The 365 volunteers were recruited from the partners involved in the Clean & Green Program: the Port of Houston Authority, Shell Oil Company and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. Representatives from Fountain of Praise Youth Group, Project S.T.A.R. (Students and Teachers Achieving Results), Rice University, Emory University, STAR Drug Court and 150 eighth graders from Youth Education/Employment Services (Y.E.S.S., Houston Police Department-DARE Program) planted the 365 trees along the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The new trees not only beautify, but also help to stabilize the bayou. The “Clean & Green Team” also picked up trash and litter at the location.
In just one year, 1,845 cubic yards of trash have been removed from the banks and waters of Buffalo Bayou. This much trash could fill 74 garbage truckloads or the equivalent of 12,454 30-gallon trash bags. This is nearly double what the skimmer boat Mighty Tidy alone captured during the year before Clean & Green began (1,022 cubic yards). The bulk of the trash collected is plastics, and all of the trash, including plastics, paper, metal, glass and electronics, is being recycled.
The Clean & Green program is a public-private partnership utilizing community service workers to keep Houston’s Buffalo Bayou clean and green. The year-round initiative is managed by Buffalo Bayou Partnership and funded by Shell Oil Company and the Port of Houston Authority. Additional agency partners are Greater East End Management District, Harris County Constable Precinct 6, Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department and the Harris County Flood Control District. Other program partners are Vista Fibers Company and Williams Brothers Construction Company.
The goal of Clean & Green is to restore Buffalo Bayou to a cleaner, safer, pristine waterway through removal of trash and debris. Trash in the bayou ultimately floats into the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay.
Joining Port of Houston Authority Commissioner Elyse Lanier and Buffalo Bayou Partnership President Anne Olson for the tree planting were Judge Caprice Cosper, 339th Criminal District Court, Judge Brock Thomas, 338th Criminal District Court, Judge Mike Wilkinson, 179th Criminal District Court, Diane Schenke, executive director of The Park People, and Hedy Wolpa, interim president and program director, Greater East End Management District.
You can learn more about the Clean & Green Port of Houston Program by visiting the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Web site at www.buffalobayou.org or contact the Port of Houston Authority public affairs office at 713-670-2630 or visit its Web site at www.portofhouston.com.
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