A gathering to stand in solidarity with the birds and trees of Brackenridge Park.

8:45AM Walk to the Blue Hole from Brackenridge

9AM: Pilgrimage from Blue Hole to Brackenridge Park

We will share : The Connection of the Indigenous Cosmovision from the Blue Hole to Brackenridge Park (Yanaguana).

*Wear White in Solidarity with the Birds!*

**Background: The City of San Antonio is committed to removing roughly 100 trees (including several elder trees) from the headwaters of the San Antonio River and is engaged in an ongoing violent assault on migratory birds to drive them from Brackenridge Park. Deceleration and other media have been documenting the war on migratory birds for several years, but this year has seen significant escalation via a variety of tactics. Most recent article is here: https://deceleration.news/2023/03/06/san-antonio-migratory-bird-rookery-egrets/

Next:

Texas Historical Commission will hear the City of San Antonio’s proposal again on April 11. After tabling a decision on phase one of the project earlier this year in Austin, the Commission this time will hear the proposal in San Antonio—without any time set aside for public comments. The San Antonio Historic Design and Review Committee is expected to take it up for approval the following week.

Join Gardopia Gardens on Saturday mornings to volunteer on the 0.5 acre Eastside Micro-Farm to practice healthy living and sustainability!

On Saturday morning Gardopia invites community members to get their hands dirty and cultivate San Antonio’s little slice of a garden utopia! From composting, chicken care, planting, crop rotation, organizing, and more! We are open to individuals, friends, families, beginners, experts, and anyone else who wants to help cultivate an educated, health, and environmentally sustainable city!

COVID-19: In order to help keep volunteers healthy, we offer free masks, have an open air space to allow for ventilation, and are currently keeping volunteer groups to 25 people or less to allow for optimal physical distancing.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization empowering people to experience breakthroughs exercising their personal and political power. The climate change solutions we support are a carbon fee and dividend, healthy forests, building electrification and efficiency, and clean energy permitting reform. To connect with the San Antonio chapter, contact Stuart Birnbaum (stuart.birnbaum@sbcglobal.net).

Zoom meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88997588055?pwd=Nm1xWmowSDc4N1l1enkvb2lQbVNKQT09

Meeting ID: 889 9758 8055
Passcode: 874038

Local meetings typically follow a national call at noon, which you can join here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/monthly-speakers/

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter or get events by email.

AITSCM welcomes you to our civic unity fair, ¡Unidos, Si Se Puede! April 8, 2023, located at the Historic Mission Marquee Plaza. (Rained out on March 18)The goal of the event is to offer San Antonio students and their families an opportunity to explore their civic rights, duties, and opportunities.

AIT’s Office of Civic Engagement and a host of civic-centered organizations will offer resources targeting ballot access, education, community engagement, and wellness.

Additionally, local government and community organizations will showcase their public service initiatives and provide students with an opportunity to volunteer and/or learn at their respective organizations. Local employers offering summer employment will also be in attendance.

The run of show will feature cultural arts performances, healing circles, educational displays, public speakers and a film screening. The 2014 biopic film “Cesar Chavez” will cap off the day’s festivities. Of course, local vendors will provide food, arts and crafts, and product giveaways.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter or get events by email.

The farmers market, happening every Wednesday at Woodlawn Pointe, offers farm fresh produce, local baked breads, pickles and other pantry staples. All produced or grown in our area. Vendors joining every week.

Contact 01farmersmarket@gmail.com for inquiries.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Select Wednesdays

GROW (Gardening Rooted in Occupational Wellness) is a dementia-friendly gardening project produced in partnership with UT Health San Antonio’s Caring for the Caregiver program at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. GROW is designed to promote improved mental health, quality of life, and opportunities for social connection for people living with dementia and their caregivers. Research has shown that participating in gardening programs and activities promotes positive outcomes for participants’ mental health and well-being. GROW utilizes hands-on gardening activities, such as planting, pruning, and exploring sensory aspects of plants, to promote these outcomes. Come ready to get your hands dirty and have fun!

Instructor: Christina Bittle, Doctor of Occupational Therapy student at UT Health San Antonio

Fee: Free.

Registration requested at Learn More link below or clicking here.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Listen In: Deceleration’s interview with Dr. Escobar about his visit is now live at Deceleration.news.

UTSA and Deceleration are excited to welcome Arturo Escobar, esteemed scholar-activist from Cali, Colombia, for a series of conversations on what it means to transition from the one world of colonial modernity into the many worlds of the pluriverse.

Join us for two important conversations intended to transform environmental justice and decolonial practice into thought (and vice versa) and build a bridge between earth-centered social movements of the North and South.

Wednesday, April 12 from 6-8pm @ Galería EVA

3412 S. Flores 78204

In this community gathering, local Indigenous communities and grassroots organizations engaged in decolonial struggles around land/earth protection in South Texas exchange work and ideas with Dr. Escobar. Participants include:

• Diana Lopez, Southwest Workers Union
• Frankie Orona (Chumash/Tongva/Borrado), Society of Native Nations
• Kimiya Factory, Black Freedom Factory
• Maria Turvin, Yanawana Herbolarios

Free and open to all, but space is small and seating is limited; please RSVP to editor@deceleration.news. For those unable to attend in person, event will be livestreamed on Deceleration’s Facebook channel.

Thursday, April 13 from 4-6pm @ UTSA Downtown

Aula Canaria Room, 501 W César E Chávez Blvd 78207

As the 2023 Brackenridge Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Escobar will present “Against Terracide: Envisioning Paths Toward Pluriversal Transition.” This presentation will outline a new narrative of life emerging at the interface of Latin American anti-extractivist territorial struggles and critical social theory. Such narrative might ground a vision and a set of strategies for pluriversal transitions beyond the liberal, secular, and rational modern worldview of life and the human, necessary to face the climate catastrophe caused by global capitalist development. Free and open to all. For those unable to attend in person, event will be livestreamed on Deceleration’s Facebook channel.

Deceleration is grateful for the financial support of CEMPROC (La Fundación Estudio, Mediación, Paz y Resolución de Conflictos) in hosting the Galería EVA event, and to UTSA for making possible Dr. Escobar’s visit.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Listen In: Deceleration’s interview with Dr. Escobar about his visit is now live at Deceleration.news.

UTSA and Deceleration are excited to welcome Arturo Escobar, esteemed scholar-activist from Cali, Colombia, for a series of conversations on what it means to transition from the one world of colonial modernity into the many worlds of the pluriverse.

Join us for two important conversations intended to transform environmental justice and decolonial practice into thought (and vice versa) and build a bridge between earth-centered social movements of the North and South.

Wednesday, April 12 from 6-8pm @ Galería EVA

3412 S. Flores 78204

In this community gathering, local Indigenous communities and grassroots organizations engaged in decolonial struggles around land/earth protection in South Texas exchange work and ideas with Dr. Escobar. Participants include:

• Diana Lopez, Southwest Workers Union
• Frankie Orona (Chumash/Tongva/Borrado), Society of Native Nations
• Kimiya Factory, Black Freedom Factory
• Maria Turvin, Yanawana Herbolarios

Free and open to all, but space is small and seating is limited; please RSVP to editor@deceleration.news. For those unable to attend in person, event will be livestreamed on Deceleration’s Facebook channel.

Thursday, April 13 from 4-6pm @ UTSA Downtown

Aula Canaria Room, 501 W César E Chávez Blvd 78207

As the 2023 Brackenridge Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Escobar will present “Against Terracide: Envisioning Paths Toward Pluriversal Transition.” This presentation will outline a new narrative of life emerging at the interface of Latin American anti-extractivist territorial struggles and critical social theory. Such narrative might ground a vision and a set of strategies for pluriversal transitions beyond the liberal, secular, and rational modern worldview of life and the human, necessary to face the climate catastrophe caused by global capitalist development. Free and open to all. For those unable to attend in person, event will be livestreamed on Deceleration’s Facebook channel.

Deceleration is grateful for the financial support of CEMPROC (La Fundación Estudio, Mediación, Paz y Resolución de Conflictos) in hosting the Galería EVA event, and to UTSA for making possible Dr. Escobar’s visit.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

The farmers market, happening every Wednesday at Woodlawn Pointe, offers farm fresh produce, local baked breads, pickles and other pantry staples. All produced or grown in our area. Vendors joining every week.

Contact 01farmersmarket@gmail.com for inquiries.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Join Gardopia Gardens on Saturday mornings to volunteer on the 0.5 acre Eastside Micro-Farm to practice healthy living and sustainability!

On Saturday morning Gardopia invites community members to get their hands dirty and cultivate San Antonio’s little slice of a garden utopia! From composting, chicken care, planting, crop rotation, organizing, and more! We are open to individuals, friends, families, beginners, experts, and anyone else who wants to help cultivate an educated, health, and environmentally sustainable city!

COVID-19: In order to help keep volunteers healthy, we offer free masks, have an open air space to allow for ventilation, and are currently keeping volunteer groups to 25 people or less to allow for optimal physical distancing.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization empowering people to experience breakthroughs exercising their personal and political power. The climate change solutions we support are a carbon fee and dividend, healthy forests, building electrification and efficiency, and clean energy permitting reform. To connect with the San Antonio chapter, contact Stuart Birnbaum (stuart.birnbaum@sbcglobal.net).

Zoom meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88997588055?pwd=Nm1xWmowSDc4N1l1enkvb2lQbVNKQT09

Meeting ID: 889 9758 8055
Passcode: 874038

Local meetings typically follow a national call at noon, which you can join here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/monthly-speakers/

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter or get events by email.

Our general meetings are on the third Tuesday of each month at William R. Sinkin Eco Centro. They are free and open to everyone. Socializing begins at 6:00 p.m., program at 6:30 p.m.. Presentations last about an hour. 

The Land Bridge at Phil Hardberger Park

Our April general meeting features Casey Cowan, Parks Naturalist, City of San Antonio and Charles Saxer, Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy Board of Directors. Their presentation is about the land bridge connecting the two sides of Hardberger Park and how it provides safe passage for wildlife and people.

This will be a hybrid meeting, in person and online.

Program topic

The Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge is a wildlife crossing that connects the two sides of Phil Hardberger Park. Learn how this unique bridge came to be built in San Antonio and how successful it is in providing safe passage for wildlife and people.

Casey Cowan, Park Naturalist with the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Natural Areas, shares the latest findings of the Land Bridge Wildlife Study, now in its third year. Chuck Saxer, longtime member and past Vice President of the Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy Board of Directors, explains the Conservancy’s role in building the bridge.

About our speakers

Casey Cowan, Parks Naturalist, City of San Antonio

Casey Cowan is Texas born and raised. As a kid her free time was usually spent camping, boating on Canyon Lake, fishing in the waters of Laguna Madre, and helping her Nana care for her dozens of exotic birds.

After graduating from Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology, Casey worked for AmeriCorps in California, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in South Dakota, then back to San Antonio, where she worked for Texas Parks and Wildlife at Government Canyon SNA, and eventually with the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department.

Casey currently maintains certification as a wildlife biologist from the Wildlife Society, holds an Endangered Species Recovery permit for the Golden-cheeked Warbler from the USFWS, and is a NOLS Wilderness First Responder. Additionally, she is certified to teach seventh through twelfth-grade life sciences.

When she’s not working, her focus shifts to her wonderful little kiddos, Colson, and Colby. Casey also enjoys running, home improvement, fostering dogs, and exploring our national parks.

Casey’s passion lies in the conservation of our natural resources. She is committed to helping protect wild things and ensuring future generations have the opportunity to experience and benefit from the natural world.

Charles (Chuck) Saxer, Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy Board of Directors

Charles Saxer or Chuck, as he prefers to be called, was born in Kewanee, Illinois and grew up in Prescott, Arizona. He graduated from Arizona State University as a distinguished ROTC graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Auburn University.

His 20-year Air Force career, primarily associated with “black programs” culminated in the positions of Deputy, Base Commander and DOD On-Scene Commander for Space Shuttle Landings at Edward’s AFB. He retired in San Antonio, Texas. For 22 years he was the owner of a management consulting and training development corporation.

Now he has retired and is primarily involved with civic organizations including: Northside Neighborhoods for Organized Development – Board Member and President for over 10 years; Vice President Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy since it was formed over 10 years ago and several other civic organizations. Chuck has served on numerous City of San Antonio boards and committees to include current San Antonio Parks Board member; 6 years on the San Antonio Ethics Review Board. He has been a member and officer with numerous other organizations to include 20 years of service on the San Antonio Manufacturers Association Board of Directors. He is an active member of Coker United Methodist Church.

The Alamo Group of the Sierra Club holds its general meetings the 3rd Tuesday of most months. They’re always free and open to the public. View videos of our past meetings on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page.

Zoom meeting access info

• Meeting ID: 966 5254 0606
• Passcode: 377093
• Link: https://sierraclub.zoom.us/j/96652540606?pwd=UUVISUw3OHluQ2xsQk5IeENxeXFZdz09

Eco Centro is located at San Antonio College, 1802 North Main Avenue @ Locust Street. There is a parking lot adjacent to Eco Centro which is entered from Locust Street. We can also use SAC parking lots 14, 15 and 17 (map of parking lots) to the north, west and south of the STIC building across North Main Avenue from Eco Centro.

Parking is also allowed on the residential streets to the east, north and south of Eco Centro.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

FPCSA welcomes everyone to join in the monthly conversation as we work to build a strong and viable local food system. Learn about hot topics, relevant announcements and how you can be a part of the this growing movement. Sign up on their webpage.

Meetings are normally held at noon on the third Wednesday of every month at: EcoCentro 1802 N. Main Avenue San Antonio, TX 78212.

Click here for agenda.

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Bandera Market is a state-certified farmer’s market open every weekend Saturdays 10 am-5 PM, Sundays 11 am-5 PM, and the third Friday night of every month 2-6 PM for a special event. The market offers to produce, eggs, honey, artisan bread, German & Puerto Rican baked goods, plants, planters, custom wood products, CBD, boutiques, artisan crafts, jams, jellies, and much more. Come support small and local San Antonio businesses.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

CPS Energy’s Board of Trustees meet the last Monday of every month. Deceleration will maintain this page with the current agendas and updates. For more about the City-owned electric and gas utility, see Deceleration’s CPS Energy Resource Page.

February 27, 2023

Janie Gonzalez assumes chair of Board of Trustees; overview of outstanding debt and collections efforts; approval of annual payment to COSA; update on work of the Rate Advisory Committee.

February 27, 2023, Agenda (PDF)

January 30, 2023

January 30, 2023, Agenda (PDF)

January 23, 2023

Special Meeting called meeting to vote on the future of the JK Spruce coal plant and future energy generation. Details Here.

December 19, 2023

December 19, 2022, Agenda (PDF)

On Monday, board members received the future energy generation recommendation from the Rate Advisory Committee. RAC members were strongly divided on their recommendation: 13 members recommending a pathway supposed to hit our 2030 carbon-reductions target (but failing 2040 and 2050) by swapping out coal for gas; seven members voted instead for plans much stronger on renewable energy.

BACKGROUND: Read Deceleration’s report:

“CPS Energy’s Rate Committee Readies Recommendation to Swap Out Coal for Gas.”

LIVESTREAM: Catch meetings online here.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Requests to make public comments must be received the week before the meeting (ie. Wedesday to Friday). Details at the CPS Energy Public Comment FAQ page.

SEE: Deceleration’s CPS Energy Resource Page for more about the utility.

Visit Deceleration’s Happening Events Calendar.

Sign up for Deceleration’s weekly newsletter.

Bexar Audubon is a diverse and supportive community that values our natural world and works together to ensure a healthy habitat for birds, other wildlife, and people. They host regular outings and events, including a monthly meeting on a range of environmental topics.

Deceleration will update this page with current programming for their monthly meetings.

March Event:

The Strange and Wondrous Adaptations Birds Rely On to Get By by Dr. Roger Lederer

When we see birds flying from branch to branch happily chirping or snatching up bugs, it is easy to imagine they lead a simple life of freedom and flight, like the bluebird of happiness. What we don’t see is the arduous, life-threatening challenges they face at every moment, such as predators, competitors, weather, and human-made obstacles. There are myriad, and often almost miraculous, things that birds do every day to merely stay alive. Like the goldfinch which manages extreme winter weather changes by doubling the density of its plumage. Or urban birds navigating traffic by learning the posted speed limits. We now know something about how and why birds use their sensory abilities to see ultraviolet, find food without seeing it, fly thousands of miles without stopping, change their songs in noisy cities, navigate by smell, and much more. Based on the book Beaks, Bones, and Bird Songs which “Reveals the strange and wondrous adaptations birds rely on to get by.” —National Audubon Society

Approved for AMMN AT hours.

About Dr. Lederer
Dr. Roger Lederer is Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at California State University, Chico, whose expertise is ecology, science education, and ornithology. He has published over 30 scientific research papers and eleven books, including Ecology and Field Biology, Amazing Birds (in seven languages), Latin for Bird Lovers, Birds of New England, Beaks, Bones, and Bird Songs, and The Art of the Bird.

If you own Dr. Lederer’s book, please bring it to the meeting, and he will be happy to sign it for you. We will meet in person at Alamo Colleges District, 2222 N. Alamo Street. 

This meeting is approved for AAMN AT hours.

To Watch from Home, Join the Zoom Meeting HERE
Meeting ID: 867 5998 9698
Passcode: 861470
Find your local number to call in here

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