A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop will be held Aug. 24 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office for Leon County, 113 W. Main, Centerville.
The AgriLife Extension workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A catered lunch will be provided at no cost, but an RSVP is requested by Aug. 20 to the AgriLife Extension office at 903-536-2531 or the Lone Star Healthy Streams website, http://lshs.tamu.edu/workshops.
Workshop presentations will focus on basic watershed function, water quality and specific best management practices that can be implemented to help minimize bacterial contamination originating from beef cattle, horses and feral hogs, said Matt Brown, AgriLife Extension program specialist in College Station.
These presentations are for land managers concerned with maximizing livestock production and maintaining a healthy landscape, Brown said.
Three general continuing education credits will be provided for certified pesticide applicators through the Texas Department of Agriculture.
This program is being delivered where a watershed plan development project is taking place on the Navasota River to encourage landowners to integrate practices to improve local water quality, said Dr. Lucas Gregory, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist with the Texas Water Resources Institute in College Station.
Currently, about 265 Texas water bodies do not comply with state water quality standards established for E. coli bacteria, Gregory said. At one time that number was as high as 300, “but we have been doing some good through programs like this,” he said.
By participating in this workshop, livestock producers and landowners can learn about specific conservation practices that can be utilized to help improve and protect the quality of Texas’ water bodies, he said.
The program is designed to educate individuals on how to best protect Texas waterways from livestock and feral hog bacterial contributions and simultaneously improve resource utilization, support herd health, decrease operational costs over time and produce clean water from the property, said Richard Parrish, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent in Leon County.
The Lone Star Healthy Streams program is funded through a Clean Water Act grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
