People + Nature Conference
Houston Tomorrow & Katy Prairie Conservancy Present
People + Nature Conference
BioScience Research Collaborative, Rice University
6500 Main St. Houston, TX 77030
October 20-22, 2015
2015 P&N Sponsors Art.jpg
HOW DO WE MAKE CITIES AND TOWNS BETTER FOR PEOPLE?
Our best cities are well connected, walkable, bikeable places designed for human connectivity. They are also rich with nature, wildlife, and local food. We want to help envision a city that seamlessly fuses these elements to create better human habitat for us all.
HOW DO WE SAVE OUR LAST FARMS AND WILD PLACES?
Saving our remaining forests, prairies, bays, wetlands, and farmland will require us to encourage our growing population to live more sustainable, less land-consumptive lifestyles. It’s time to discuss how creating smarter cities and towns can help conserve our remaining natural treasures for both people and wildlife.
THIS IS HOUSTON’S MOMENT!
The reinvention of Houston is already underway. Our bayous are being reconnected with trails and new bike lanes are opening. More people travel Main street via rail on transit per mile than on any other modern light rail line in the nation, pockets of wild nature are being embedded in our cities, and our signature parks are being greatly transformed.
The 2015 People & Nature Conference will bring together the best minds in urbanism and conservation to accelerate this progress. Our offerings are designed to attract urban planners, biologists, landscape architects, decision makers, child and parks advocates, health professionals, conservationists, and more.
We are equally pleased to tell you that 100% of proceeds raised from this conference will benefit the new Houston Children in Nature Collaborative. Please help support our work to make Houston a greener, healthier, and better connected city and region.
Learn more about this unique event.
About the Conference
Conference overview
The first day of the conference, October 20th, is when all field trips take place. The following two days are jam-packed with interesting speakers and presentations at the BioScience Research Collaborative, and in the afternoons, you are free to choose which track you would like to follow to see presentations on specific subjects that interest you.
points of agreement
Regular access to nature is a quality of life issue because of its vital connections to human happiness, health, and academic achievement.
People are also more happy, healthy, and prosperous when living in compact, walkable places with ready access to mass transit.
Therefore, we should work together to create communities that are more walkable, compact, transit-friendly, and verdant.
The creation of desirable compact, walkable, and verdant cities and town centers is critical to slowing the sprawl that is threatening our last best rural wildlife habitats and farms.
Therefore, nature conservationists need to work more closely with urban quality of life advocates to be more successful in conserving biodiversity and living landscapes.
Training is critical to getting urban planners, landscape architects, and others to incorporate more biodiverse nature and urban farming in towns and cities.
The hosting organizations
Katy Prairie Conservancy, Houston Tomorrow, and the Texas Sea Grant have come together to produce this conference. Each of these organizations carries its own mission and vision for Houston's future, but they all strive to generate meaningful, positive change in Houston and beyond. The missions are stated below:
Katy Prairie Conservancy: To preserve an ecologically vital tall-grass prairie and associated wetlands area on Houston's far west side for the enjoyment and benefit of all.
Houston Tomorrow: To improve the quality of life of all people in the Houston region.
Texas Sea Grant: To improve the understanding, wise use and stewardship of Texas coastal and marine resources