A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop will be held on Feb. 7 at Collin College Farmersville Campus, 501 S. Collin Parkway, Farmersville.
The workshop is a joint effort of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, North Texas Municipal Water District, NTMWD, and Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board.
The free workshop will run from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Coffee, snacks and lunch are provided. Preregistration is required at https://tx.ag/LSHSFeb7LavonLake.
Four Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits for pesticide applicators are available in the integrated pest management and laws and regulations categories.
Program focus
The program will focus on the Lavon Lake watershed and discuss basic watershed function, water quality and specific best management practices.
“The goal of the Lone Star Healthy Streams program is to protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination originating from livestock, wildlife and invasive species that may pose a serious health risk to Texans,” said Leanne Wiley, AgriLife Extension program specialist and Lone Star Healthy Streams coordinator, Bryan-College Station.
“The aim is to increase awareness, provide educational materials to Texas livestock producers and landowners, and encourage implementation,” Wiley said.
The event includes information on voluntary conservation practices along with sources for technical and financial assistance designed to reduce pollutants such as fecal bacteria in waterways.
Watershed partnership
“Lavon Lake supplies drinking water for over 2 million people in North Texas,” said David Cowan, watershed manager for the North Texas Municipal Water District. “It also provides wildlife habitat, recreation and flood control. So, it is an extremely important water resource for the region.”
He said routine water quality monitoring in Wilson Creek and the East Fork of the Trinity River upstream of Lavon Lake indicate elevated levels of bacteria.
“In order to address these issues, NTMWD and AgriLife Extension worked in partnership with local stakeholders to develop a non-regulatory watershed protection plan for Lavon Lake,” Cowan said. “The plan identifies potential sources of pollution in the watershed and strategies for protecting and improving water quality. More information on this project will be presented at the workshop.”
Funding for this effort is provided through a Clean Water Act Section 319 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 979-240-8407 or leanne.wiley@ag.tamu.edu; Cowan at 469-626-4416 or dcowan@NTMWD.com; or Chase Brooke, AgriLife Extension agent for Collin County at 972-548-4232 or chase.brooke@ag.tamu.edu.
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