Watershed protection effort benefits from community participation

South Central Texas effort helped by area businesses, landowners, students and others

SEGUIN – “It takes a community” like the one involved through the Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Watershed Partnership to ensure adequate water quantity and quality to meet current and future needs, said Ward Ling, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program specialist who coordinates the partnership.

Geronimo Creek is listed on the Texas Integrated Report of Surface Water Quality for concerns about nitrate nitrogen and impairment of contact recreation use due to elevated E. coli bacteria concentrations, Ling explained. Since Alligator Creek flows into Geronimo Creek, it is included in watershed restoration efforts.

“Public participation in water quality improvement efforts is critical, as the success of any watershed protection plan depends on stakeholder involvement,” Ling said.

Geronimo Creek and its tributary Alligator Creek are located in Comal and Guadalupe counties.  Alligator Creek begins in southeastern Comal County near New Braunfels and flows southeast towards Seguin until about midway, where it joins Geronimo Creek.

Through a federal Clean Water Act grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and AgriLife Extension facilitated stakeholder interest to develop the Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Watershed Protection Plan.

The plan, which reflected concerns and suggestions from area landowners, businesses, community leaders and individuals, was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2102. For more information, go to http://www.geronimocreek.org/.

Since that time, the community has come together in a variety of ways to help implement the plan and support overall water quality improvement efforts, Ling said.

“We have quarterly meetings to discuss progress and plan activities. They have had really good attendance and interest from people from throughout the community,” Ling said.

Ling said one of the ways the community has shown its support has been through the annual Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Cleanup Event, the next of which to take place April 11. For these cleanup events, community volunteers gather in the morning at designated sites, where they are given breakfast tacos and an event T-shirt, along with specific safety instructions and any supplies they might need.

“This event would not have been possible without the support from many area sponsors,” said Mike Urrutia, director of water quality services for the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority. “We were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the community for last year’s event.”

He said the 2014 cleanup drew 230 volunteers posted at 22 stations in the Geronimo and Alligator creeks watershed area, who collected a total of 7,020 pounds of trash, 45 tires, 2 cubic yards of scrap metal and other refuse

Sponsors providing financial support for the cleanup included: Alamo Group; Continental; Guadalupe County Commissioner Greg Seidenberger; Geronimo Lions Club; Geronimo Creek Retreat; H-E-B; KWED Radio; Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority; New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung; Progressive Waste Solutions; Seguin Gazette; Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church; Thrivent Financial for Lutherans; Liz Sedlacek; AgriLife Extension; Robin and Bill Walker, and other individual contributors. The cities of New Braunfels and Seguin donated large containers to collect the trash and provide free disposal.

In another community watershed protection effort, 37 students from Seguin High School teacher Zach Brown’s wildlife and agricultural fabrication classes are involved in efforts to improve water quality in the area. Their “project-based learning” effort is supported by a $3,000 grant from the Seguin Education Foundation, which provides for educational field trips and helps fund the purchase of materials to build traps to be used to help manage feral hog populations in the watershed.

As part of this learning experience, students from Brown’s fabrication class toured Seguin Fabricators, where Karen Taylor, co-owner the family steel fabrication company, and shop workers explained how to turn blueprints and architectural drawings into actual fabrications.

“They showed the different materials and methods we might use in fabricating our feral hog traps,” said Alvin Petty, a Seguin High School senior on the tour. “We picked up a lot of tips for how we would make our feral hog traps in Mr. Brown’s class.”

Brown said the students should complete the fabrication of the traps by the end of April and will coordinate with area landowners and other stakeholders as to where in Geronimo Creek area the traps will be used. He said one of the traps the students fabricated was given to the Seguin  Education Foundation for auction at its annual fundraiser.

“Ward Ling and Josh Helcel with AgriLife Extension also came to my classes and gave presentations to the students,” Brown said. “Ward spoke to the students in my wildlife class about nonpoint water pollution. Josh explained how feral hogs were identified as being responsible for high levels of bacteria and excess nutrients in Geronimo Creek, and especially their being responsible for a large amount of the E. coli bacteria.”

Helcel, an AgriLife Extension associate and feral hog specialist based in Gatesville, also showed students in Brown’s agricultural fabrication class diagrams and drawings of various feral hog traps and explained best practices for feral hog control.

In addition, Cinde Thomas-Jimenez with the river authority’s public communication and education department and Lee Gudgell, a water quality technician with the river authority,  provided water quality-related instruction to Brown’s classes at the Irma Lewis Seguin Outdoor Learning Center.

“The chamber saw this project-based learning effort as an opportunity for local businesses and chamber members to share their expertise and resources with area schools,” said Kendy Gravett, president of the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce. “We support the effort of the watershed partnership and of these students, and were glad to help provide these students with some of the information, talent and resources needed for their project.”

Ling said additional community-wide efforts involving the Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Watershed Partnership and the community have included working with area landowners to install vegetative filter-strip buffers between potential contamination sources and water bodies, educating area residents on proper septic system maintenance and showing individuals how to maintain water quality through soil testing.

In addition, Joseph McIntosh, a newly hired district technician for the Comal-Guadalupe Soil and Water Conservation District, can assist farmers and ranchers in developing water quality management plans for their individual operations, he said.

Ling said McIntosh’s expertise is available to area agriculturists thanks to a grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board that also provides financial incentives to help producers implement approved practices, such as fencing, buffer areas, waterways, pastureland and rangeland planting, and more.

“It’s rare to have a community so completely involved in watershed protection planning and implementation,” Ling said. “But obviously the people living in the Geronimo and Alligator creeks watershed area realize the importance of maintaining water quality for their own sake as well as that of their neighbors.”