Event Host Resources
Event Host Toolkit
Welcome to the resources page for event hosts! Check back often as resources will be added as they become available.
Below, you’ll find:
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Host a tree planting day! Get free trees, mulch and how-to.
Print A Guide to Austin’s Forest Coloring Bookor request copies here!
Learn how to lead “Observing Leaves, Using Our Senses” activity. All you need are some leaves!
Get free lesson plans from Project Learning Tree!
Host a Kids’ Climb!
The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department’s Urban Forestry Team can bring equipment and staff to your site to facilitate a tree-climbing experience for children in grades K-12, lasting 2 to 6 hours!
Kids’ Climbs require extensive planning, so evaluation will be made as applications are received and selection will be made in collaboration with the Urban Forestry Team after event hosts are determined.
Please email the Urban Forestry Team for more information, and be sure to include your Kids’ Climb plans in your Roots & Wings Festival application!
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Host a Xerces Kids activity and turn your neighborhood kids into invertebrate saving superheroes! The City of Austin DSD Urban Forestry Youth Program can come to your event to lead this educational activity!
Use familiar cooking ingredients to create a colorful art project that details the lifecycle of a butterfly. This activity typically lasts 45-60 minutes and is appropriate for children K-5. Want to bring this activity to your event? Contact the Youth Forest Council.
Bring pollinators to the party! Visit the Natural Inquirer resources webpage for a variety of activities. Browse by topic, grade band, and resource type.
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Learn more about honey bees, native bees, and more with a variety of Natural Inquirer resources. Browse by topic, grade, and resource type.
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Lead a bird walk! Download the Celebrate Urban Birds in the Austin Area English and Spanish flyers to look for some of the common birds in your neighborhood.
Use the free Merlin app to help identify birds that you are hearing.
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Get ideas for bat centered activities to host at your event!
Check out Bat Conservation International’s website, Backyard Bativists for five exciting lessons; and Night Navigators, its collaboration with Lego, Lubee Bat Conservancy, and Zoo Miami to create a virtual field trip all about bats for kids!
Build bat houses! Use this step-by-step guide and materials list from the National Wildlife Federation to build bat houses at your event.
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Often overlooked and under-appreciated, fungi are an important part of our environment. Lead a K-2nd lesson that takes a closer look at this vital ecosystem resident.
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Visit the Hands-On Sensory Activities Exploring the Importance of Soil webpage hosted by Project Learning Tree and get ready to lead a soil focused activity at your event!
Host a work day! Use the Grow Green Guide to Central Texas to select your plants and get ready to dig in! Check out the searchable database or download the PDF.
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Visit the Hands-On Sensory Activities Exploring the Importance of Soil webpage hosted by Project Learning Tree and get ready to lead a soil focused activity at your event!
Project Learning Tree has many other nature-based sensory activities available here!
What activities will you host at your event? We’ve gathered some possibilities to get you started!
Event Activities
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Play the City of Austin's Arborama! A Tree Game at your event to create a gaming experience highlighting Central Texas native and climate-resilient trees! Visit us to learn more about the game, determine organization eligibility, and request the game set!
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Make your neighborhood Roots & Wings Festival event a Block Party! Block Parties are one-time closures of a single block to allow residents to hold small, locally-focused events. Visit the City of Austin Living Streets Program for more information or email Margaret.Rapuano@austintexas.gov.
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The Austin Recycle and Reuse Drop-off Center has free mulch available for pick-up. Visiting the Drop-off center is by appointment only. You must load the mulch yourself. Mulch is free for everyone.
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The Seed Collection is a joint project of the Austin Public Library and the Central Texas Seed Savers to establish a seed exchange of landrace, heirloom, locally adapted and native varieties of fruits and vegetable and other useful plants in Central Texas region. Request Seeds from the Seed Library.
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Request your own tree-centric education and outreach materials through the Urban Forest Materials Request Form.
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Feature tree seedlings to plant and/or to give away at your event!
Request seedlings on your Roots & Wings Festival application. Species to be announced in September!
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Keep Austin Beautiful Generation Zero Waste: Activity Kits
Learn more about these all-inclusive activities for up to 30 youth!
Austin Parks and Recreation Department’s Loose Parts Lending Kits
Learn about how to borrow these kits, including fort building materials, nature items, exploration materials and small world creation figures!
Event Materials
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Invite the Urban Forest Youth Program out to your event to host a Super Sapling activity for the littles!
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Invite Urban Forest Steward Stephanie Simmons to your event for a talk and/or walk on tree identification basics!
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Help Attendees Learn the Life Cycle of a Butterfly! The City of Austin Urban Forestry Youth Program can come to your event to lead this educational activity!
Use familiar cooking ingredients to create a colorful art project that details the lifecycle of a butterfly. This activity typically lasts 45-60 minutes and is appropriate for children K-5. Contact the Youth Forest Council for more information.
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As the Horticultural Specialist at The George Washington Carver Museum’s Sunken Garden, Harvé Franks teaches a variety of classes to the community. As a long-term garden and arts educator, Harvé can offer gardening demonstrations and lectures on health and wellness, farm to table and food sustainability, and the indigenous farming culture of Central Texas.
Contact Harvé about speaking at your event or sharing her expertise through activity!
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Katherine Tombs is a Capital Area Master Naturalist at Keep Austin Beautiful. She looks forward to sharing information and resources about KAB’s Vermicomposting program: Composting with worms!
Contact Katherine Tombs for more information.
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Ready to learn about bats? Invite Erin Cord of Bat Conservation International to join your community event.
Contact Erin Cord for more information.
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Invite Central Texas Mycology to your event and encourage your community to learn about growing their own mushrooms!
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Vicki Blachman is an experienced and enthusiastic Texas Master Gardener and Master Naturalist. As co-chair of PollinATX and a member of Austin’s Bee City USA initiative, Vicki is eager to teach your community about insects, pollinators, and more!
Contact Vicki to see about having her speak at your event.
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Ashleigh Alvarez, MHA has been working with families with special needs children for almost a decade. She is willing to be a guide for Event Hosts in creating sensory-inclusive events. If you'd like to chat with her, drop Ashleigh an email!
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Interested in reducing wildfire risk associated with wildland and natural areas impacting City of Austin? Cody Chappel from AFD can help cultivate a lasting culture of collective effort and awareness for both residents and City departments to be ready for the inevitability of wildfire by providing technical assistance and context for all things related to the fire environment and fire ecology in wildland ecosystems.
Community Experts
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Listed here are non-profit organizations that would like to do outreach through tabling at a Roots & Wings Festival. Please reach out directly to them for alignment of mission and logistics.
To be included in this wonderful list, email us!
Austin Public Health Quality of Life Program - Event Request Form
City of Austin Equity-Based Preservation Plan - Cara.Bertron@austintexas.gov
City of Austin Living Streets Program - Margaret.Rapuano@austintexas.gov
City of Austin Office of Sustainability - mary.priddy@austintexas.gov
City of Austin Watershed Protection & Grow Green Program - Katie.Duffy@austintexas.gov
City of Austin Wildfire Division - Cody.Chappel@austintexas.gov
Texas Conservation Corps of American YouthWorks - jointxcc@ayw.org
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Bring It's My Park Day, a community-led day of service, to your park as a Roots & Wings Festival Event! IMPD has a separate application process & timeline but is certainly a way to increase beautification to your park, qualify for additional funding for your event, and share in community building! IMPD application opens Sept. 2nd, so include your IMPD details into our app and put that date on your calendar! Click here for the sample app from '23.
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Click here to learn the procedures for hosting your event at a PARD park.