I’ll be tweeting on my InvasiveHunter Twitter account and creating blog posts about the conference this week.
Tomorrow, I’ll join Ms. Jessica Strickland, Invasive Species Program Manager at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center; Dr. Damon Waitt, Director Native Plant Information Network; and an elite team from the Wildflower Center and the Green Army to map invasive species as part of the conference events.
Commander Ben with a Giant Reed at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Austin has a lot of great museums to learn about science, the arts, and more! The annual Austin Museum Day will be this Sunday, September 23, and it’s a great way to get to know the exhibits and participate in fun activities all for free!
All the museums will have great events, and if you’re an inspiring invasive hunter, you’ll find the following museums a lot of fun for learning about science and nature, including how to protect our native ecosystem against invasive species.
The nice thing about the Wildflower Center is that you can see the native plants up close. Most of the plants have name tags along with some identifying information which makes it very easy to learn how to identify them when you see them in the wild.
This is a great place with lots of live animals which represent native animals species you can find right here in the wilds of central Texas!
And something really special about this place is that you can bring a piece of the natural world that you may have found at your own home and leave it with this museum. And for doing this, you will receive credits that allow you to browse what other kids have traded-in.
But not only do you get to browse, you can use your credits to take home a treasure that another kid has traded-in. These are basically free souvenirs! 😉 And while you’re touring the Austin Nature Science Center, see if you can spot a Giant Reed!
Be sure to stop by the Texas Natural Science Center and enjoy Family Fossil Day from 1:00 pm to 4:45 pm. Maybe some of these fossils were invasives back in their day! 🙂
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And of course next month, you’ll want to be part of the Invasive Hunter Academy to complete your training at the UT Austin Environmental Science Institute’s next “Hot Science. Cool Talks.” presentation on October 26, 2012.
Be part of the fight against invasive species as part of the SXSW Eco conference!
On October 4, Ms. Jessica Strickland, Invasive Species Program Manager at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and an elite team from the Wildflower Center will show volunteers how to identify and map invasive plant species along Waller Creek in Austin, Texas.
I’ll be part of this volunteer army too. Middle schoolers and teens are welcome, so if you can make it, join me, and I’ll lead a squad of kids to hunt down and map out these invasive species as part of the Wildflower Center teams.
The afternoon started at the Scottish Rite Theater with an address by the festival’s keynote speaker Turk Pipkin, founder of The Nobelity Project. This project focuses on two things:
Doing good thought the world…including our own backyard right here in central Texas, and
Creating documentary films focusing on these acts of good works.
I really enjoyed his talk.
Commander Ben and Turk Pipkin at the 4th Annual “Lights. Camera. Help.” Focus on Good Film Festival.
Let There Be Sight
One of the Nobelity Project’s films was “Let Their Be Sight”, a joint project with The SEVA Foundation – Compassion in Action, that provides eye care, including eye surgeries, to people living in rural areas of Nepal. Many of the program’s participants were blind and their sight was restored through cataract surgery. It was amazing to see a Nepali woman, who had to be carried through the mountains to see the eye doctor. After the cataract operation, she was able to see and walk home!
Nepalese children Photo credit: The Nobelity Project
1000 Books for Hope
Another cause highlighted by the Nobelity Project was 1000 Books for Hope which provides donated books to children in Kenya. This project asks people to donate just one book…their favorite book. So why one book? Well, when they asked folks to simply donate “books”, they received a lot of junk that no one wanted. One example was How to Build a Swimming Pool! Not a much needed topic in Kenya where the luxury of being able to ever build a swimming pool is highly unlikely!
But once the project focused on asking people to donate just one favorite book, lots of wonderful books came pouring in. What was particularly nice about this project is that all the donated books contain an inscription from the donor to the kids. Mr. Pipkin said that this is the first thing the kids rush to read.
1000 Books for Hope Photo credit: The Nobelity Project
Replanting Fire Burned Bastrop State Park
And what about our own backyard? Well, the Nobelity Project has partnered with none other than one of my favorite organizations, The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, to replant the pine trees in Bastrop State Park that were destroyed in last year’s Texas wildfires. And these aren’t just any ordinary pine trees, these are a species only found in the Bastrop area. Luckily, even though almost all of the trees were destroyed in the fire, there were seeds stored in a seed bank that they are using for replanting.
Bastrop Replant the Park Project Photo credit: The Nobelity Project.
The Last Day of Films
After the keynote address, we all headed over to the Spirit of Texas Theater at the Bob Bullock State History Museum to watch a number of great uplifting films, including Stay: Migration and poverty in rural Mexico. This was an amazing film benefiting Bread for the World.
Stay: Migration and Poverty in Rural Mexico Photo credit: Bread for the World
The Awards Party
After the films were over, we all headed back to the Scottish Rite Theater for an Awards Party…my first cocktail party! But oh man…that ginger brew…soda, that is, was strong! 😉 LOL! Mind you, I was the only middle-schooler at the party but luckily there was plenty of soda! And some great food too. I especially enjoyed the sushi from How Do You Roll.
Commander Ben at “Lights. Camera. Help.” Awards Party Buffet Line
Watch out for the Ginger Brew!
Festival Winners
At the party I had the chance to talk with a lot of great film makers who shared some wonderful advice with me about film making and acting. Once everyone had plenty to eat, we all settled into the theater where the winners of the Film Festival were announced.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 “Lights. Camera. Help.” Film Festival:
Thanks to all the great festival sponsors, including the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and blackbaud. (Their logos were on the cool “photo wall” that we used as a background for photos!)
Best Ever Film Festival and Many Thanks
Overall, the “Lights. Camera. Help.” Focus on Good Film Festival was the best film festival I’ve ever been too…and so far, the only one I’ve ever been too…for now! 😉 But I’m so looking forward to the 2013 5th Annual “Lights. Camera. Help.” Focus on Good Film Festival! As a matter of fact, I’m already planning my next film.
I’m so happy that my video, “Native Plant Avengers”, was selected to be shown at the film festival to entertain and help raise awareness about invasive species and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
If you didn’t get a chance to see it at the festival, here’s the video:
For more information, here are additional posts and pages about the film festival and Native Plant Avengers:
Thanks Texas Bluebonnet, Bitterweed, Indian Paintbrush…and yes, even Bastard Cabbage…for helping me make this great video to entertain kids of all ages about Texas Wildflowers and invasive species!
A few months ago, I submitted one of my “Battles with Invasive Species” videos to the “Lights. Camera. Help.” Focus on Good film festival for their consideration. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to encouraging other nonprofit and cause-driven organizations to use film and video to tell their stories. One of the ways they do this is through their annual film festival.
I am so happy to share with you that my Native Plant Avengers – Ecosystem’s Mightiest Heroes video was selected to be part of the “Lights. Camera. Help.” 4th Annual Film Festival. It will be screened to a live audience on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, at 7:00pm in the Spirit of Texas Theater at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. The winner of the film festival will be announced at 7:30pm on Friday, September 14, 2012, at their awards party at the Scottish Rite Theater.
Winners of the film festival will receive prize money to donate to the charity of their choosing. If I win, I’ve asked to donate my proceeds to one of my favorite organizations whose hard work fighting invasive species everyday keeps native plants going strong in central Texas…The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center!
If you’d like to join me at the “Lights. Camera. Help.” Film Festival, you can view the three day schedule and buy tickets here. Hope you’ll come out and support a great cause!
My name is Commander Ben and I'm the Invasive Hunter. I educate kids of all ages - and all learning styles - about invasive species, science, and dyslexia.
Commander Ben 