As part of the ESA Annual meeting hundreds of ecologists come from different parts of the United States to share their scientific findings. When visiting a new city the interactions with local communities sometimes seem limited; local problems and needs are often unnoticed by the visiting ecologist, and our knowledge isn’t applied on-site. This field trip will be a collaboration and mutual learning experience at the Oaks Springs Project with an Austin organization involved in environmental justice (EJ), PODER - People Organized in The Defense of Earth and her Resources http://www.poder-texas.org/projects.html. Participants will experience the goals of equity (either social or environmental) while having a direct action-ecology experience. As part of the EJ Section outreach, this field trip will explore a community initiative to restore, protect or enhance the natural resources of an urban area. Additionally, the initiative presents a local justice problem that is social, environmental or economic. The field trip also promotes the involvement of ecologists in regional and global issues by implementing action ecology. We’ll feature the exemplary efforts of the organization PODER - People Organized in The Defense of Earth and her Resources, in the Oaks Springs Project. The project occurs in a unique space located in the middle of an urban part of Austin that was destined to be a retail strip mall before PODER intervened. In this area, PODER now regularly does clean-ups and plantings, creating a space in which the community can now benefit. During the field trip we will learn more about the organization and their projects. In turn, we will serve the community by exchanging ecological information and providing some hands-on maintenance and plantings on the site. In this way we can promote the idea of being active ecologists, not only in nature preserves, but also in community urban spaces. Also, through this initiative, ecologists will gain a hands-on understanding of the important role of ecology in community initiatives.