SEGUIN — A Feral Hog Workshop and Lone Star Healthy Streams program will be held Sept. 1 in Seguin.
The program will be from 8:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office for Guadalupe County, 210 E. Live Oak St.
Feral hogs will be one of the topics at the Sept. 1 program in Seguin. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
photo)
The workshop is free and the catered lunch is $10.
“Feral hogs negatively impact water quality in our creeks and rivers, as well as cause millions of dollars in loss to agricultural production statewide every year,” said Ward Ling, AgriLife Extension watershed coordinator for Geronimo and Alligator Creeks.
Ling said in January 2010, AgriLife Extension, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board established the Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Watershed Partnership to assess and improve water quality in the watershed.
“The partnership analyzed water quality data, identified water quality concerns that are of importance to communities within the watershed and developed a watershed protection plan that was accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2012,” he said. “This program is part of that protection plan implementation.”
Ling said the Sept. 1 workshop will address feral hog biology, trapping and other control measures.
“The Lone Star Healthy Streams program aims to educate Texas livestock producers and landowners on how to best protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination associated with livestock production and feral hogs,” said Matt Brown, AgriLife Extension program specialist, College Station.
Brown said bacteria is the No. 1 cause of water pollution in Texas, and more than half of the water bodies evaluated in the state are impaired due to excess bacteria levels.
“Bacteria in water can pose a significant health risk to humans,” he said. “While not all bacteria are harmful to human health, some can be pathogenic, which means they can cause disease.”
Brown said about 300 Texas water bodies do not comply with state water quality standards established for E. coli bacteria, including Geronimo and Alligator creeks, which will be discussed at this meeting.
“By participating in this workshop, livestock producers and landowners can learn specific conservation practices that can help combat bacteria pollution and improve and protect the quality of Texas water bodies,” he said.
Three Texas Department of Agriculture general continuing education credits will be provided for certified pesticide applicators.
An RSVP for the program is required by Aug. 28th. Go to http://lshs.tamu.edu/workshops/ or call the AgriLife Extension office for Guadalupe County at 830-303-3889.
The Lone Star Healthy Streams program is funded through a Clean Water Act nonpoint source grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the EPA.
For more information about the Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Watershed Protection Plan, go to http://www.geronimocreek.org/.
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