Celebrating and preserving Texas’ natural beauty through docuseries, guided tours, and more
Austin, TX — March 21, 2024 – Waterloo Greenway Conservancy and H-E-B, today announced the Our Texas, Our Future Wildlife & Environmental Festival at Waterloo Park. The free festival is a celebration of Texas’ beautiful parks, resilient wildlife, and the Texans helping conserve & protect them for future generations. The festival will feature interactive exhibits, wildlife demonstrations, sustainability workshops, guided garden tours, and a variety of hands-on art and STEM workshops. Upon entry to the festival, H-E-B encourages visitors to bring their plastic retail bags to recycle in the H-E-B bins. Visitors who bring plastic bags to recycle will be entered to win exciting prizes and gift cards from H-E-B, Texas State Parks, and Waterloo Greenway.
The festival is highlighted by an outdoor screening of H-E-B’s award-winning, five-part environmental docuseries Our Texas, Our Future. Both the festival and films are part of H-E-B’s ongoing commitment to help engage our Texan community with nature, along with their own sustainability pledge to reduce its impact on the environment through waste diversion efforts and several other programs that help conserve and protect our great state, now and for generations to come.
“H-E-B has a deep commitment to help protect, conserve, and beautify our great state for all Texans to enjoy, now and for future generations,” said Leslie Sweet, H-E-B Managing Director of Sustainability & Environmental Affairs. “We’re excited to bring the Our Texas, Our Future Wildlife & Environmental Festival at Waterloo Park to share the important stories and bring environmental nonprofits together that we hope will inspire people to celebrate and protect the diverse habitats, unique wildlife, and beautiful landscapes across Texas.”
H-E-B Presents: Our Texas, Our Future Film Screening
From Texas bats to black bears, ocelots, and the redfish along the Gulf Coast, the docuseries was created to bring attention to important work being done across the state to protect delicate wildlife habitats, threatened animal species, as well as showcase the wonders and splendors of the Texas outdoors. The series was produced in partnership with Austin-based Fin and Fur Films, and features narration by Shane Smith & original music by native Texans Shane Smith & the Saints.
- 1 PM – Our Texas, Our Future: “A Century Celebration: Texas State Parks”
- 2 PM – Our Texas, Our Future: “Batsies” and “Redfish Revival”
- 3 PM – Our Texas, Our Future: “Second Chances” and “Ranching with Ocelots”
Texas Wildlife Workshops
The event will also feature multiple wildlife exhibitions and demonstrations including: Central Texas Snake ID Safety seminars from Austin Reptile Service, beekeeping with Round Rock Honey, and bat echolocation with Austin Bat Refuge.
Hill Country Garden Guided Tour
Visitors of all ages are encouraged to participate in a series of tours through Waterloo Park’s Hill Country Garden. Tour topics include Native Plants & Pollinators led by Monarch Sanctuary Project and Design Principles & Sustainability Principles and Practices led by Waterloo Greenway’s Vice-President of Projects & Planning (3:30 PM).
Hands-On Environmental Workshops & Crafts
Families can spend the day in the park exploring a variety of hands-on art and environmental workshops led by Families in Nature, Travis Audubon, Round Rock Honey, Austin Resource Recovery, MadScience, and more.
Our Texas, Our Future Festival at Waterloo Park is presented by H-E-B. H-E-B is fiercely proud of our home state, and they support many Texas farmers, ranchers, researchers, and environmentalists who take good care of our land, water, and air. H-E-B is dedicated to putting Our Texas, Our Future first, so they can continue to support the communities they serve while helping preserve Texas’ natural beauty for generations to come. To learn more about H-E-B’s Our Texas, Our Future mission, please visit OurTexasOurFuture.com.