Category: 2015

Texas A&M University students recently took a hands-on approach to understanding water resource management concerns in rural regions. This past summer 19 graduate students from Texas A&M University and 15 students from the University of Guanajuato enrolled in a two-week water management study abroad course in Guanajuato, Mexico. The Water Management and Hydrological Sciences (WMHS)…

Since the 1950s, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff, referred to as the Kills and Spills Team, have responded to and investigated 9,345-reported pollution events and fish and wildlife kills in the state. Fish kills result from predominately natural causes, according to the TPWD website. The most common cause is a low concentration of dissolved oxygen…

Not every grass is a good fit for home lawns, golf courses or athletic playing fields, so turfgrass researcher Dr. Casey Reynolds is testing varieties and comparing them side by side under Texas conditions as a part of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP). Reynolds, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service turfgrass specialist in College Station, is joined by…

New lawn sprinklers have built-in pressure regulators, but how accurate are they? Charles Swanson, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service irrigation specialist, and Dr. Guy Fipps, AgriLife Extension irrigation engineer, set up the Irrigation Technology Program lab in 2008 to test “smart” weather-based irrigation controllers, Swanson said. The lab is part of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M…

Dr. John C. Tracy was recently appointed as the new director of the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) by Dr. Mark Hussey, vice chancellor and dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University System. The position is currently held by Dr. Roel Lopez, who also is and will continue to serve as director of the…

The Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board are hosting two watershed protection plan kickoff meetings in November for Brazos and Robertson county residents interested in improving and protecting water quality in the Navasota River and its watershed downstream of Lake Limestone. Meeting times, dates and locations are: – 1:30-3:30…

The Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) is on Pinterest, and we want you to check us out! From classroom resources about conservation to gardening tips and more, TWRI’s Pinterest page is chock-full of great information.  For those who aren’t Pinners, Pinterest is a visual social bookmarking site that allows users to collect and organize content by…

Ever wonder what a state climatologist does? The Fall 2015 issue of txH2O, the Texas Water Resources Institute’s flagship publication, will profile Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas’ climatologist and a regents professor in Texas A&M University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences. The issue will also include stories on the management of floods in Texas, the institute’s award-winning bacterial source tracking…

An international research consortium led by Dr. Sam Brody, professor in the Department of Marine Science and director of the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores (CTBS) at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMU-Galveston) was awarded a $3.6 million Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) grant by the National Science Foundation’s Office of International Science and Engineering. The team…