The Mill Creek Watershed Partnership will host the Lone Star Healthy Streams Workshop June 21 at the Washington County Fairgrounds Sales Facility, 1305 E. Blue Bell Road in Brenham.
The free workshop will be from 1-5 p.m., and light refreshments will be provided. Three general Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education credits will be provided for certified pesticide applicators.
The Lone Star Healthy Streams program aims to educate Texas livestock producers and landowners on how to best protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination associated with beef cattle, horses and feral hogs, said Matt Brown, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program specialist, College Station.
“Feral hogs are a problem in Texas that impact water quality in our creeks and rivers, as well as causing financial loss to agricultural production,” Brown said.
Workshop presentations will focus on the Mill Creek watershed and address basic watershed function, water quality and specific best management practices that can be implemented to help minimize bacterial contamination originating from livestock and feral hogs.
An RSVP is requested by going to http://lshs.tamu.edu/workshops/ or calling the AgriLife Extension office in Washington County at 979-277-6212.
About 300 Texas water bodies do not comply with state water quality standards established for E. coli bacteria, including the Mill Creek watershed, said Ward Ling, AgriLife Extension watershed coordinator, College Station.
“By participating in this workshop, livestock producers and landowners can learn specific conservation practices that can help combat bacteria pollution and improve and protect the quality of the Mill Creek watershed area as well as other Texas water bodies,” Ling said
In January 2015, AgriLife Extension and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board established the Mill Creek Watershed Partnership to assess and improve water quality in the watershed. The Partnership analyzed water quality data, identified water quality concerns of importance to communities within the watershed, and developed a watershed protection plan. The plan was approved by the partnership and accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in February 2016. For more information about the Mill Creek Watershed Protection Plan, go to https://millcreek.tamu.edu/
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 EPA.