Guests are welcome. Info: Mary Graves at mary.graves@txhtc.org to reserve seats.

A tour of our gardens is one way to share Valentine’s Day with the one you love. See some of the hidden treasures at Texas Discovery Gardens. Tour ends in time for the Butterfly Release talk at noon in the conservatory. Included with admission.

Alert from Downwinders at Risk: 

One of only three national public hearings on lowering the federal ozone, or smog standard, is taking place here in DFW, at Arlington City Hall all day next Thursday. 

Lowering the federal ozone level means it will be tougher in the future for the state to claim it doesn't have to implement any new pollution controls on cement kilns, coal plants or gas facilities. More importantly, enforcement of a tougher standard means better public health: fewer "bad air days," fewer asthma attacks, fewer trips to the emergency room because your child can't breath and fewer deaths caused by dirty air. 

To secure a 3-minute speaking slot, e-mail Eloise Shepard at shepherd.eloise@epa.gov and ask for one in the time period most convenient for you. Slots are going fast (and not necessarily to citizens), so do it asap: )

Denton's successful citizens revolt is off the streets for now and in the courts. The next organized front in the battle over urban gas drilling in DFW is the Fort Worth suburb of Mansfield. And hard-pressed residents there need your help in turning the tide.

In response to months of grassroots effort on the ground, and only after the very first presentation by a physician on the medical consequences of fracking, Mansfield's city council has called for a "work session" to "discuss" changing its circa-2009 drilling ordinance for next week.

Showing up next Wednesday means you're saying no to the bullying tactics the Mansfield city government are using to silence local residents. 

READ MORE FROM DOWNWINDERS AT RISK

Mansfield Gas Well Awareness, a new group of Mansfield residents, is sponsoring what’s believed to be the first DFW presentation by a medical doctor on the health effects of fracking as part of a campaign to re-write the city’s six-year old drilling ordinance they say no longer reflects the best science, or provides enough public protection.

Dr. Anne Epstein, M.D. is an internal medicine specialist who graduated from Baylor Medical School and sits on the Lubbock County Board of Health. She’s a member of the Board’s Oil and Gas Advisory Committee that recently voted to recommend setbacks of 1,500 feet separating homes, workplaces, and schools from wells. Mansfield currently allows wells as close as 600 feet to residences, with post drilling development up to 100 feet.

READ Star-Telegram article.

Monthly gathering of DFW environmental groups and activists. Items to be discussed.

1)  Denton and the Fracking ban – Learn the blow by blow of Denton City Council that night.  Find out what other cities in Texas are thinking about the same thing.

2)  ALEC – what happened around this Koch-funded group coming to town

3)  Dallas Green Alliance – update

4)  Earth, Wind & Fire Summit – New speakers, the excitement builds. The EarthWindFireSummit.org site is up and running. Register via PAYPAL now!!

5) Your announcements

We are hoping folks from Clean Water Action may also join us to tell us what they are working on.

Info: Rita Beving, Dallas Sierra Club, 214-557-2271 or antiquerita@aol.com.

The DFW Clean Air Network (Downwinders at Risk, Texas Campaign for the Environment, State Rep Lon Burnham and others) has been invited to present their plan on how to get to cleaner air in North Texas.

Bring your questions and comments to the meeting to build a new clean air plan for the 10-county North Texas area.

Info: Info@DownwindersAtRisk.org.

Despite three state air plans over 15 years, DFW has yet to meet the 1997 federal smog standard.

Now, even as we’re still trying to meet an almost 20- year smog standard, a new, stricter standard is being enforced. The deadline for meeting it is 2018. The new plan for how to meet it must be turned into EPA by 2015. That plan is being written now. And you can help make it much better. 

Please come to the next ciitzens’ meeting to ask questions and learn more. 

Air quality watchdog Downwinders at Risk is urging residents to attend this meeting on DFW air quality. It's an opportunity to grill TCEQ employees about the state's plan. 

Info: Jim Schermbeck at schermbeck@aol.com.

State Representative Lon Burnam and Downwinders at Risk are hosting a brainstorming session regarding the region's newest anti-smog plan.

A recently publicized UNT graduate student study shows why this anti-smog plan is the largest regional fracking fight that no one is fighting right now. It's also the best chance to get more action on coal plants and cement kilns, public transit, energy efficiency, renewables, etc. For the next year and a half we have a chance to wage a truly regional clean air fight that could benefit a lot of different causes and campaigns and unify our energy. But we need your help to pull it off.

Join Rep. Burnam, members of Downwinders, the Sierra Club and other local air quality activists as we do some short-term and long-term planning to make sure we get as much out of this anti-smog effort as we can.

If you can't attend on the 6th, come to NCTCOG's Air Quality meeting April 17 at 10 a.m.

http://greensourcedfw.org/events/north-central-texas-council-governments...

Info: Jim Schermbeck at schermbeck@aol.com.