SAVING CYPRESS IN HOUSTON
Student groups and concerned citizens took action throughout the country on Arbor Day to protect cypress forests. Raleigh Ricart, a GRN activist, gives a dispatch from the Houston event:
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My name is Raleigh Ricart and I am an undergraduate at Rice University and also an active member of the Gulf Restoration Network. When I started this campaign in February, I was overwhelmed when I found out about the irrational deforestation of irreplaceable cypress forests. I knew that this issue was important and that I needed to do something to help out.
As the GRN representative for Houston, I began by spreading awareness on the issue by doing a co-presentation (with Dan Favre) for the Rice Environmental Club. From there, I began to compile a schedule for the weeks leading up to the Day of Action. I knew that the most important part of making the event successful was collecting volunteers. Luckily, through several attendances at the environmental club, I got three people to sign on as activist for the Day of Action who proved to be loyal and helpful during the entire process.
Planning for the actual day was trickier than I had originally anticipated. Unfortunately, the Cypress Day of Action landed on a day dedicated to studying for final exams at Rice. This meant that not only I had a lot to do academically, but so did everyone else. I wanted to do a lot more, but I knew with my workload I had to skip out on many of my big ideas in order to have the event be a success. I decided on the simplest approach for the Day of Action: make a banner, pass out fliers, get signatures, and talk to the manager.
On April 27th, I did just that. We decided to focus all of our energy on the Home Depot store at 59 and 610 in Houston. We started at 10am and were eventually asked to leave by the manager at roughly 11:30am. We got over 15 signatures and caused a small amount of ruckus outside the store. Our banner was beautiful and my fellow activists were amazing. I felt, although being small, our event was extremely successful. I know that our presense at this Home Depot opened the eyes of many about an issue that is easily overlooked in our day and age. While we were there, We spoke to the elderly, soccer moms, working men, and fellow environmental activists, all of whom found common ground when realizing the importance of environmental preservation.
Although this one day was a success, there are still many days ahead of us to keep pushing to get this atrocity to cease. Even with my hectic schedule. I hope that I will continue to help with this issue in the future, and wish all the best for those who have taken the time to help stop an injustice.
Raleigh Ricart is a student at Rice University and an active member of the Gulf Restoration Network.
Student groups and concerned citizens took action throughout the country on Arbor Day to protect cypress forests. Raleigh Ricart, a GRN activist, gives a dispatch from the Houston event:
************************************
My name is Raleigh Ricart and I am an undergraduate at Rice University and also an active member of the Gulf Restoration Network. When I started this campaign in February, I was overwhelmed when I found out about the irrational deforestation of irreplaceable cypress forests. I knew that this issue was important and that I needed to do something to help out.
As the GRN representative for Houston, I began by spreading awareness on the issue by doing a co-presentation (with Dan Favre) for the Rice Environmental Club. From there, I began to compile a schedule for the weeks leading up to the Day of Action. I knew that the most important part of making the event successful was collecting volunteers. Luckily, through several attendances at the environmental club, I got three people to sign on as activist for the Day of Action who proved to be loyal and helpful during the entire process.
Planning for the actual day was trickier than I had originally anticipated. Unfortunately, the Cypress Day of Action landed on a day dedicated to studying for final exams at Rice. This meant that not only I had a lot to do academically, but so did everyone else. I wanted to do a lot more, but I knew with my workload I had to skip out on many of my big ideas in order to have the event be a success. I decided on the simplest approach for the Day of Action: make a banner, pass out fliers, get signatures, and talk to the manager.
On April 27th, I did just that. We decided to focus all of our energy on the Home Depot store at 59 and 610 in Houston. We started at 10am and were eventually asked to leave by the manager at roughly 11:30am. We got over 15 signatures and caused a small amount of ruckus outside the store. Our banner was beautiful and my fellow activists were amazing. I felt, although being small, our event was extremely successful. I know that our presense at this Home Depot opened the eyes of many about an issue that is easily overlooked in our day and age. While we were there, We spoke to the elderly, soccer moms, working men, and fellow environmental activists, all of whom found common ground when realizing the importance of environmental preservation.
Although this one day was a success, there are still many days ahead of us to keep pushing to get this atrocity to cease. Even with my hectic schedule. I hope that I will continue to help with this issue in the future, and wish all the best for those who have taken the time to help stop an injustice.
Raleigh Ricart is a student at Rice University and an active member of the Gulf Restoration Network.
posted by Dan at 12:13 PM
3 Comments:
Raleigh,
I applaud your groups efforts and dedication. You do not have to have a large group to make an impact, as you perhaps discovered last week.
Save Our Cypress Coalition
I hope this ultimately means that there is a better life in the future for the cypress. If they're getting cut down anyhow and they're just not getting chipped and put in bags, we're no richer than we were before. Does anyone know if they were harvested just for chips?
Hi David,
Once Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's stop selling cypress mulch, there will indeed be a better future for cypress. Whole trees are currently being used solely for cypress mulch (check out photos at www.saveourcypress.org). The mulch market is driving cypress deforestation, and the ability to cut and use any size tree means complete ecosystem destruction. No more mulch means lots more trees.
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