Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Matt Brown, 979-862-8072, matthew.brown@ag.tamu.edu
CAMERON – A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop for the Little River will be held May 24 at the Cameron Youth Expo Center, 301 S. Houston Ave. in Cameron.
The workshop, presented by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A catered lunch will be provided at no cost, but an RSVP is requested by May 20 to the AgriLife Extension offices in either Bell County, 254-933-5305, or Milam County, 254-697-7045.
Workshop presentations will focus on basic watershed function, water quality and specific best management practices that can be implemented to help minimize bacterial contamination originating from beef cattle, horses and feral hogs, said Matt Brown, AgriLife Extension program specialist in College Station.
Three general continuing education units, will be provided for certified pesticide applicators through the Texas Department of Agriculture, Brown said.
The goal of the Lone Star Healthy Streams program is to educate Texas livestock producers and land managers on how to best protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination associated with livestock production and feral hogs, said Heidi Prude, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent in Bell County.
The Lone Star Healthy Streams program is a great program for land managers who are concerned with maximizing livestock production and maintaining a healthy landscape, said Floyd Ingram, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent in Milam County.
The program will highlight key practices to improve resource utilization, support herd health, decrease operational costs over time and produce clean water from the property, Ingram said.
This program is happening at a location where a watershed characterization is taking place on the Little River and to encourage landowners from Central Texas to integrate practices that will improve local water quality into their operations, said Allen Berthold, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist with the Texas Water Resources Institute in College Station.
Currently, about 300 Texas water bodies do not comply with state water quality standards established for E. coli bacteria, Berthold said. By participating in this workshop, livestock producers and landowners can learn about specific conservation practices that can be utilized to help improve and protect the quality of Texas’ water bodies.
For more information about the Lone Star Healthy Streams program, contact one of the AgriLife Extension offices or visit http://lshs.tamu.edu/workshops/.
The Lone Star Healthy Streams program is funded through a Clean Water Act nonpoint source grant from the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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