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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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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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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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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Learn how to coordinate a Seedball-Making activity for your guests to make, take and scatter around town!
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center provides instructions and video on how to make seedballs at home.
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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!
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Program an event that includes Keep Austin Beautiful’s Generation Zero Waste: Activity Kits, all-inclusive activities for up to 30 youth! Issued on a loan basis, so be sure to reserve yours for your event date!
Incorporate zero waste into your overall Roots & Wings Festival event using these tips!
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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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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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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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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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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Through engaging lessons and hands-on activities, participants will delve into the intricate anatomy of trees, discovering the roles of roots, trunks, branches, leaves, and more! They'll uncover the fascinating processes of trees, gaining a deeper understanding of how trees contribute to the health of our city. This activity typically lasts 90 minutes.
Click here to inquire about this City of Austin Urban Forest Program activity!
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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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Super Sapling Superheroes agree to serve and protect our city’s living things by making choices that support healthy trees, rivers, creeks, and wildlife! This activity typically lasts 45-60 minutes and is appropriate for children K-5.
Invite the Urban Forest Youth Program to your event to host a Super Sapling activity for the littles!
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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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Invite Central Texas Mycology to your event and encourage your community to learn about growing their own mushrooms!
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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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The City of Austin’s Urban Youth Forest Council can come to your event to lead this educational activity! Attendees will 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.
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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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Learn year-round tree care techniques from the City of Austin's Education Forester through this workshop, designed for groups interested in tree health and increasing the resilience of our urban forest. Request this workshop for your event!
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Passionate about taking photos outside? Fine tune your skills in digital nature photography by exploring and applying concepts like lighting, composition, and texture in the environment.
This workshop, led by the City of Austin’s Urban Forest Program, is geared towards amateur photographers with an interest and passion for capturing images in the natural world— only a smartphone is necessary, however digital SLRs are welcome. Click here to inquire about this program for your event!
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Interested in learning more about the trees in your neighborhood? The City of Austin's Urban Forest Program would love to take a Tree ID Walk with you and your neighbors!
Request a Tree ID Tour to explore local flora, learn to recognize different tree species, and discover fascinating facts about our urban forest!
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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.