A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop will be held on March 27 at the Wilson County Expo and Community Center, formerly the Wilson County Show Barn, 435 SH 97 East, in Floresville. This is a multi-county event for residents of the counties in the Cibolo Creek Watershed, including Wilson, Guadalupe, Bexar and Karnes counties.
The conference is offered as a joint effort by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board.
The free workshop will run from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with breakfast provided by Wilson County Soil and Water Conservation District #301. Two Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits for pesticide applicators are available in the Integrated Pest Management.
RSVP by March 22 to the Wilson County AgriLife Extension office at 830-393-7357.
Program focus
This workshop will focus on Cibolo Creek Watershed and many local efforts to improve water quality. Topics covered will include basic watershed function, water quality, and voluntary best-management practices to minimize bacterial contamination originating from grazing livestock and wild pigs. There will also be a focus on managing small acreage properties.
“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 of non-point source pollution, provide education materials to Texas producers and landowners, and encourage implementation.”
Protecting the Watershed
In addition to the sessions on best management practices for grazing livestock and feral hog management, technical and financial opportunities will be discussed by the local soil and water conservation district and the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Funding for this effort is provided through a Clean Water Act Section 319(h) 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; or AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent, Samantha Shannon in Wilson County, at 830-393-7357 or samantha.shannon@ag.tamu.edu.
