Program areas at RGISC
1st exempt purpose accomplishment: outreach & education murals & public art in 2022, we unveiled our large-scale 217x10 foot mural "mi rio grande" that we commissioned with artist antonio tony briones iii, featuring a visit by the carrizo comecrudo tribe of Texas and nearly 100 students from the city's summer recreation program. We also commenced work on another large-scale mural at father mcnaboe park along the rio grande in northwest laredo called "las alas de laredo: portraits of our prized birds" to be completed in 2023. We completed large-scale sidewalk/basketball court murals with nearly 100 volunteers at tres laredos park with messages that included "protect our water," "the border is beautiful," el rio es vida- and "el rio nos une." Loving laredo paddle in october 2022, we held our first community paddle on the river since the covid pandemic, with nearly 60 paddlers + 1 dog. Our goal is to connect locals with the river and provide an outdoor adventure that allows them to experience the beauty of the rio grande in a safely guided environment. Loving laredo hikes in 2022, we held four community hikes at lake casa blanca, las palmas nature trail, slaughter park trails, and a bat hike at the chacon hike & bike trails. Our goal is to connect locals with the outdoors and provide opportunities for them to experience the beauty and learn more about the surrounding riparian and shrubland environment in laredo rio research roundup every october since its inception in 2010, Rgisc has hosted the annual rio research roundup. This award-winning binational environmental education project engages a couple of thousand students each year from the u.s. and mexico within the communities living throughout the entire rio grande basin. This field-based, hands-on water testing project allows students to connect classroom learning with real work experience. The students gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of our local water systems that sustain our communities and wildlife populations. Birds of the brush art contest Rgisc also held the 10th annual birds of the brush art contest, exhibit opening and awards ceremony in february 2022. The art contest received 160 submissions by student, novice and professional artists as well as photographers of all skill levels. Since its inception, the birds of the brush art contest has grown over the years to be the largest art contest in laredo and one of the largest bird art contests in south Texas. Dia del rio celebration every october Rgisc celebrates dia del rio through community events and volunteering opportunities. The 29th dia del rio featured a workday with several hundred volunteers at the paso del indio nature trail along the river at the lamar bruni vergara environmental science center. They helped remove debris and mulch and beautify the trail. Monarch pollinator gardens Rgisc planned and oversaw the construction of its fourth monarch pollinator garden at the downtown tres laredos park. Our goal is to educate the public on the disappearing monarch butterfly and native pollinators and how to maintain monarch gardens. We conducted regular maintenance sessions with volunteers and also began looking to identify community partners to oversee the maintenance of each of our gardens. Cleanups Rgisc conducted two community clean-ups in 2022: in march with hundreds of college volunteers (done in collaboration with Texas a&m international university), and an easter blitz clean-up event at lake casa blanca state park with dozens of volunteers. Annual meeting every year in the second quarter, as per Rgisc's bylaws, Rgisc organizes an annual meeting with the general public and our dues-paying membership. The 28th annual meeting was held in june 2022, where we give the public and our membership an update on our finances, projects and roadmap for where we're headed in the coming year. We also host our community recognition awards. Earth day we didn't host an earth day community event in 2022.
3rd exempt purpose accomplishment: special projects binational river park in 2022, we coordinated weekly meetings with a binational working group that included city officials from laredo and nuevo laredo, and members of the private sector, as well as urban planners and architects. One achievement was the creation of a vision concept for a 6.2 mile urban binational river park. The goal is to foster ecological restoration along the river, create new recreational opportunities, spur sustainable commercial development, aid border security, and celebrate our unique binational and bicultural heritage. We attended meetings in Washington d.c. and mexico city and also began work on setting out plans for project uno (phase i) at the site that includes zacate creek, las palmas nature trail, big island, and the historic neighborhood of el azteca. Laredo birding festival every february Rgisc, in partnership with the monte mucho audubon society, and laredo convention & visitors bureau, host the annual multi-day laredo birding festival. In 2022, we held our 10th festival with 113 registrants 31 other Texas cities and 12 other states and took them on professionally guided field trips to local ranches, parks and creeks, with guest presenters and workshops too.
2nd exempt purpose accomplishment: environmental justice & advocacy clean air laredo, ethylene oxide: in 2022, Rgisc intensified its work with addressing significant levels of carcinogenic ethylene oxide emissions from a company called midwest sterilization corp. we held public actions with community members, successfully worked with four local government entities to obtain funding to design a groundbreaking fenceline air monitoring plan (to be implemented in 2023), worked to get epa officials to visit laredo to address the community on this public health threat, and joined a lawsuit filed by earthjustice against the epa for its 17 year delay in updating the federal rule for commercial sterilizers. We worked to inform residents in impacted neighborhoods and business owners in impacted industrial parks, and also began to garner national attention for our advocacy efforts. Border wall advocacy in 2022, Rgisc achieved a victory when the department of homeland security shifted the lingering 1 billion in agency funds targeting webb and zapata counties for border wall construction to other locations on the u.s.-mexico border. Climate cohort & methane Rgisc began work to develop its new climate portfolio by hiring a new climate science and policy director, and building the framework for a methane flaring and emissions study for several counties including our (webb) which is one of the three largest natural gas producing counties in Texas and to respond and provide comments to the epa regarding its proposed update to the federal methane rule. We also launched our first college climate cohort, and worked with a network of community professionals to build student skills in public speaking. The group successfully convinced the city council to authorize the creation of laredo's first climate task force as an advisory council to the city (to come online in 2023). We also secured funding to acquire a flir thermal imaging camera for field work to detect and record "invisible" emissions of volatile organic compounds (vocs) from oil and gas facilities. Energy democracy we worked with a private foundation to acquire funding to host several energy democracy workshops with community members to discuss and think through how our south Texas region can diversify its sources of electricity, so that there is more community input, involvement and ownership. Water security & river monitoring in 2022, we began to work on hydrologic mapping of our immediate laredo region, and to begin researching needed infrastructure to prolong the life of water moving through our community, such as a community water and energy resource center that would look to recycle treated effluent and food waste for a variety of benefits. We also began work on developing a groundbreaking river restoration project in urban laredo to remove water thirsty invasive plants and reforest with more drought resistant native plants. We continued our monthly river monitoring at different spots along the rio grande in webb county through the Texas clean rivers program (tcrp), to monitor the river's health. We continued to keep open communications with nuevo laredo to engage in updates and possible solutions on the ongoing issue of untreated sewage discharge into the river, which was topping nearly 15 million gallons per day (mgd). We also documented and raised concerns about rampant de-vegetation along the riverbank on public lands by u.s. border patrol that lacked environmental assessments and erosion control measures to accomplish their line-of-sight goals. We were able to get a pause on those operations and work with city officials on an ongoing review of cbp's road and bridge proposal, to ensure that best practices are used to better protect the sensitive ecosystem along the river.
4th exempt purpose accomplishment: fundraisers festivals & galas & 5k runs on earth day, we held a 5k run/walk/bike competition at a local park, to raise funds for our clean air laredo coalition. We also invested time in a fall gala which didn't materialize due to scheduling conflicts with our main keynote speaker. Friendraisers & donor relations in 2022, Rgisc held several "friendraisers" to garner deeper engagement from supporters. We also worked to raise funds for our memorial scholarship fund. Board & community contributions in 2022, we held our second end-of-year fund drive targeting members of our board of directors and advisory board, as well as community members, collecting nearly 25,000 in donations. 5th exempt purpose accomplishment: general operations board of directors every year, a new term of the board of directors begins at the annual meeting when new members are voted in by dues-paying members. Expenses in 2022 were related to a strategic board retreat with our consultant from boston, robert zimmerman. General operations this included costs for several staff, such as office/finance administrator, community outreach, membership, as well as contract work and other professional services to cover accounting, and grant-writing among others.