A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop is planned for Oct. 18 for residents of the Tres Palacios watershed and Matagorda Basin.
The free program will be from 8 a.m.-noon and is offered virtually and in person at the Markham Community Center 528 Farm-to-Market Road 1468 N. Markham. The workshop will focus specifically on issues within the Tres Palacios watershed and its watershed protection plan.
A watershed protection plan is a coordinated framework for implementing prioritized and integrated water quality protection and restoration strategies driven by environmental objectives.
Preregister for the workshop online at
https://tx.ag/LSHSMatBasinReg or call the Matagorda County Extension office at 979-245-4100.
Three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits – two general and one integrated pest management – will be provided for certified pesticide applicators.
Funding for this project is provided through a Clean Water Act Section 319 Nonpoint Source Grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
About the Lone Star Healthy Streams program
The Lone Star Healthy Streams program is a project of the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and AgriLife Extension. It 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 Leanne Wiley, AgriLife Extension program specialist, Bryan-College Station.
Currently, about 300 Texas water bodies do not comply with state water quality standards established for E. coli bacteria, Wiley said. By participating in this workshop, livestock producers and landowners will learn specific conservation practices that can be implemented to help minimize bacterial contamination in Texas water bodies.
“Bacteria are the leading cause of water pollution in the state of Texas,” said Larry Redmon, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension program leader and associate department head of the Department of Soil and Crop Science. “When found in rivers, streams, lakes, ponds and other water bodies, fecal bacteria serve as indicator species for the presence of pathogenic bacteria, viruses or parasites, which can cause waterborne illnesses, including typhoid fever, dysentery and cholera.”
For more information on the workshop, contact Wiley at 979-318-2617 or leanne.wiley@ag.tamu.edu; Aaron Sumrall, AgriLife Extension agent, Matagorda County, at 979-245-4100 or sasumrall@ag.tamu.edu; or Nathan Glavy, AgriLife Extension program specialist with the Texas Water Resources Institute, at 979-845-1851 or nathan.glavy@ag.tamu.edu.
For more information on the Tres Palacios Watershed and its watershed protection plan, visit the Tres Palacios website.
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