Houston 2012 has already rallied those volunteers. In a recent project, the group organized local Boy Scouts to plant trees in the Sunset Trail area. Planners expect to complete up to five similar projects in the coming months. The USOC will visit the projects when they come to Houston in 2001 as part of the selection process. In the early 90s, a volunteer project to plant two million trees in the area was successful, and is seen as a model for other large-scale initiatives.
Opportunity comes with responsibility.
Although Mary Ellen Whitworth of the Bayou Preservation Association is pleased that the focus of the Games will be Houston's bayous, she warns that environmental organizations need to be on their toes. Whitworth has some reservations about the direct impact of the Olympics as well. When you crowd that many people into a small place, and try to move them around, there are implications for air pollution and water pollution. Some are also concerned about habitat destruction. In Athens, controversy is rising over the proposed creation of rowing and canoeing venues in precious wetlands for the 2004 Olympics.