Category: 2016

The 2011 statewide drought is ranked as the most severe one-year drought on record. In the five years since, 16 regional water planning groups throughout the state have worked to develop regional water plans that would form the basis for the 2017 State Water Plan. “On behalf of the hundreds of Texans that assisted with its…

The Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources (IRNR) bat research team is asking for help from citizens in its efforts to document bat populations in Texas. The institute’s Bat and Hibernacula Surveys team is conducting surveys of wintering bats and their roosts throughout Texas to get baseline numbers in anticipation of white-nose syndrome appearing in the…

The 2017 the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) and the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) conference will be held June 13-15, 2017, in Fort Collins, Colorado. This year’s conference theme is Water in a Changing Environment, and the call for abstracts has been announced. Organizers invite attendees to join the dialogue on seeking to develop transdisciplinary and disciplinary solutions to…

The Texas Sea Grant College Program has released its 2018-2020 request for research proposals. Texas Sea Grant is seeking proposals from investigators at ALL universities and colleges. Others eligible include: nonprofit, non-academic institutions; for-profit organizations; state, local and Indian tribal governments; and unaffiliated persons. Awards will support outcome-oriented research that spans broad areas of natural, physical, social, behavioral…

In a December news release, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) announced its support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposal to remove the black-capped vireo from the federal endangered species list. USFWS is accepting public comments on the proposal. “The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department applauds this proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to…

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is soliciting applications for Agricultural Water Conservation Grants. The total amount of the grants to be awarded under this request for applications by the TWDB will not exceed $600,000 from the Agricultural Water Conservation Fund. Applications are due Feb. 15, 2017, and application instructions and details are on the TWDB website. Applications…

The Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) has announced the request for pre-proposals for the National Competitive Grant Program by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Institutes for Water Resources. Pre-proposals are requested on the topics of improving and enhancing the nation’s water supply and availability. Further information on the specific priority research issues is in the RFP. Any investigator at an…

What if there was a way to irrigate less but still have good-looking landscapes? Thanks to research results recently published by the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources (IRNR) and the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), homeowners and landscapers can now learn exactly how little water is needed by popular Central Texas ornamental plants to not…

Fifteen years ago, Dr. Richard White began to think about the need to consolidate Texas A&M University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences turfgrass research in College Station. For years, the professor and his colleagues had conducted field research and analyzed data in two separate locations making their work more difficult and less efficient. In 2010, Texas…