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One of the few green spaces in downtown is Houston's
oldest park, Sam Houston Park. This six-acre park is
tucked in between a major freeway, two large exit
ramps and several skyscrapers. The park contains
historic structures operated by The Heritage Society.
Sam Houston Park seemed the ideal home for many
wildlife habitat projects with approximately 500,000
visitors each year. In light of the tremendous educational
opportunity, the Environmental Institute of Houston
received a conservation education grant from the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with Enron
as the matching donor to begin the conservation.
Several wildlife habitat projects were designed with
the assistance of Enron employee volunteers, the
Environmental Institute of Houston, and a variety
of federal, state, and local agencies and conservation
organizations. Two native wildflower gardens, a native
wetland garden, bat house, and two purple martin houses
have been completed, along with a unique opportunity
to use existing chimneys in the historic structures for
chimney swift nesting.
Education aspects of the project include
several training sessions with The Heritage Society
docents and, for Enron employees, a series of
"Wild@Work-Brown Bag Lunch" presentations on
butterfly gardening, dragonflies, introduction to bird
watching, advanced bird watching, and butterflies of
Texas. Lunch-time "field trips" to the Park for dragonfly
identification and bird watching are also available.
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