The 14th iteration of the Texas Water Resources Institute's Texas Watershed Planning Short Course training took place Jan. 27-30 at the Mayan Ranch in Bandera. Part of the Texas Watershed Planning project, the 4-day course brought together 35 water professionals from across the United States to learn the ins and outs of watershed protection plans and best practices.
"This year was a fantastic group that was really engaged and participated," TWRI Associate Director Lucas Gregory, Ph.D., said. "They asked some great questions and brought great insights."
This year's training was overseen by Gregory and TWRI Program Specialist Tina Hendon, with assistance from Nikki Dictson.
"The short course is basically a crash course in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's nine key elements for developing successful watershed plans," Gregory said. "We talk through how you would go about developing a watershed plan and point them in the direction of a lot of key resources and tools that you would need to utilize, or at least use something similar to developing a plan and share a lot of experience from over the years."
In-person trainings like these helps water professionals, especially those new to the field, connect with others while also experiencing new perspectives.
"They gain connections, hearing first-hand experiences from others and getting insights from other parts of the world," Gregory said. "For instance, this year we had people from EPA Region Three, the northeast, Pennsylvania and Maryland, there and we had their perspectives, which were nice to add to the conversation."
Click through below to see what some of the course looked like:
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