The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is seeking volunteers for the Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area near Fredericksburg, which is home to about 3 million Mexican free-tailed bats.

FILE 2006/Staff

The Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area near Fredericksburg is home to Mexican free-tailed bats.

Volunteers may serve for any length of time to greet visitors and perform other duties.

A training session March 22 will provide an introduction to the program. Incentives for volunteers include field trips to other bat sites in Texas.

To sign up for the training, e-mail Nyta Hensley at nyta.hensley@tpwd.state.tx.us. Volunteers must complete an application and work agreement and pass a criminal background check.

Space is limited, and registration is required.

1-800-792-1112; www.tpwd.state.tx.us

Harbor House, an inn-style hotel at Pier 21 in Galveston, has reopened after repairs to correct minor flooding that occurred in September during Hurricane Ike.

However, elevator service at the 42-room hotel is not expected to be working until mid-April. And the nine boat slips in the hotel's marina, normally available for use by guests, are under repair.

A new restaurant called Olympia Grill at Pier 21 is expected to open next to door to the hotel in May or June and will provide room service to Harbor House.

The building that houses the hotel is a former waterfront warehouse, and the site once was home to a Galveston steamship terminal. It is near the city's Strand Historic District and has a view of the harbor.

1-800-874-3721; www.harborhousepier21.com

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center near Glen Rose is offering a wildlife photography workshop Feb. 28 and March 1 that includes dusk and dawn tours to take photos.

The workshop includes a classroom session, a dusk photo tour, a dawn photo tour, evaluation of students' photos taken during the workshop, and dinner and breakfast at the center's Safari Camp.

Students will be taken through Fossil Rim's 1,700 acres of pastures, where about 60 animal species live.

Among them are white rhinoceros, blackbuck, European red deer, gemsbok, zebras, addax, waterbuck, giraffe, sable, aoudad and greater kudu.

Attendance is limited. Cost is $300.

254-897-2960; www.fossilrim.org

USA Cycling has chosen Cedar Glades Park in Hot Springs, Ark., as the site of a national mountain bike event on March 7.

The event is part of the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Ultra-Endurance Calendar and will offer a $2,000 purse.

USA Cycling is the governing body for Olympic, amateur and professional mountain bike racing.

Cedar Glades Park has a 10-mile mountain bike race course.

719-866-4581; www.usacycling.org.