Lone Star Healthy Streams program set May 12 in Temple

Focus on minimizing feral hog, livestock contamination in the watershed

The Big Elm Creek Watershed Partnership will host a Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop on May 12 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Room 720 E. Blackland Road, Temple.

The workshop is a joint effort with Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. 

The free program will run from 8 a.m.-noon. Preregistration is required by calling the AgriLife Extension office in Bell County at 254-933-5305. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

Two Texas Department of Agriculture integrated pest management continuing education credits for pesticide applicators are available.

The program will focus on the Big Elm Creek watershed and will discuss basic watershed function, water quality and specific best management practices that can be implemented to help minimize bacterial contamination originating from livestock and feral hogs. 

Watershed partnership

Voluntary implementation of best management practices that address pollutant contributions from livestock and feral hogs was identified by the Big Elm Creek Watershed Partnership as a way for landowners to help improve water quality in the watershed.

“This workshop is part of the outreach and education strategy of the Big Elm Creek Watershed Protection Plan,” said Ward Ling, Texas Water Resources Institute watershed coordinator.

The Big Elm Creek Watershed Partnership, facilitated by TWRI, is comprised of area residents and other stakeholders from across the watershed area.

“The partnership worked diligently to develop a watershed protection plan to address water quality concerns within the watershed,” Ling said. “Having the LSHS program come to the area is an essential part of implementation.”

The watershed includes parts of Bell, Milam, Falls and McLennan counties. Additional information on this project will be presented at the workshop.

Lone Star Healthy Streams Program

“The goal of the Lone Star Healthy Streams program is to educate Texas livestock producers and landowners about how to best protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination associated with beef cattle, sheep, goats and feral hogs,” said Leanne Wiley, AgriLife Extension program specialist and Lone Star Healthy Streams instructor, Bryan-College Station.

Funding for this effort is provided through a Clean Water Act nonpoint source grant administered by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information on the workshop, contact Wiley at 979-318-2617 or leanne.wiley@ag.tamu.edu; Ling at 254-774-6008 or ward.ling@ag.tamu.edu; or Whitney Ingram, AgriLife Extension agent for Bell County, at 254-933-5305 or whitney.ingram@ag.tamu.edu.

-30-