A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop will be held Oct. 15 at the Refugio County Expo Center, 245 Fairgrounds Road, Refugio.
The free Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service workshop will be from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. An RSVP is requested by Oct. 12 to the AgriLife Extension office in Refugio County, 361-526-2825, or on the Lone Star Healthy Streams website.
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 wild pigs, said Matt Brown, AgriLife Extension program specialist, College Station.
“These presentations are great for land managers who are 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, he said.
This program is being delivered in the watersheds of the Mission and Aransas rivers to encourage landowners to integrate practices that will improve local water quality into their operations, said Allen Berthold, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at the Texas Water Resources Institute, College Station.
Around 300 Texas water bodies do not comply with state water quality standards established for E. coli bacteria, Berthold said. Livestock producers and landowners can learn about specific conservation practices they can utilize to help improve and protect the quality of the streams around them.
The program will highlight key practices to improve resource utilization, support herd health, decrease operational costs over time and produce clean water from the property, he said.
For more information about the Lone Star Healthy Streams program, contact the AgriLife Extension office in Refugio County at 361-526-2825.
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.
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