Water As A Crop project reviving riparian areas in Trinity River Basin

Recently, Trinity Waters took part in a video promoting the Water As A Crop project in conjunction with the Sand County Foundation out of Wisconsin. The Tarrant Regional Water District and MillerCoors also took part in the video, which was produced by the Mother Nature Network.

Water As A Crop seeks to enhance the water coming off private lands by restoring the habitats on these private lands at no cost to landowners. These groups work with landowners to determine what practices will be most beneficial to the landowners, as well as wildlife and water resources. Practices include native grass and forb plantings in riparian areas and cross-fencing to enable rotational grazing.

The program works by connecting with corporate sponsors, such as MillerCoors, to fund conservation activities done on private lands. By restoring these lands and managing them properly, they can act as a "sponge" as native grasses and forbs increase absorption into the ground, which will reduce flooding and erosion downstream.

The first project is taking place in the Mill Creek watershed that empties into the Richland-Chambers Reservoir in Navarro County. This reservoir is managed by the Tarrant Regional Water District and is crucial to their operation as it supplies drinking water to their customers in Fort Worth and surrounding communities. This is one example of how rural lands provide a multitude of benefits to urban residents.

To learn more, view the video below.

4-H Hunting and Wildlife Coaches Workshop Held

4-H Hunting and Wildlife Coaches Workshop

In this day and age of tight budgets and personnel shortages, how do you continue to connect kids to the outdoors in a meaningful, long-lasting way?

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service’s 4-H program has a way. A 4-H Hunting and Wildlife Coach Training in College Station on February 4^th and 5^th proved this once again, and was a huge success. Twenty 4-H volunteers from across the state participated in the 2-day workshop. The goal of the training was to produce volunteers who would lead youth in safe, knowledgeable and responsible hunting projects and clubs. The agenda was jam-packed with 4-H Hunting Curriculum activities, a variety of live fire exercises, and Texas Hunter Education Instructor Training. Participants were dual certified as 4-H Hunting Coaches and TPWD Hunter Education Instructors. Presentations were given on Texas Youth Hunting Program (TYHP) by David Baxter, while other presenters gave talks on Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC), and 4-H Wildlife Challenge, along with other natural resource programs. David did an awesome job of inspiring us all!

· Many positive comments were made after the training, one in particular being, "how can we keep this momentum going?” Good question. Larry Hysmith, 4-H Natural Resource Coordinator, and Denise Garza, Texas AgriLife Extension Associate in Wildlife and Fisheries, who planned the workshop, are already planning another. You can look for more dates and more information about other natural resource youth programs at texas4-h@tamu.edu.

Each coach received a 2010 Draft 4-H Hunting Curriculum from National 4-H. A finalized version will be available soon on line. The curriculum is over 200 pages of lesson plans and fact sheets related to hunting. Additionally, each participant walked away with NRA Hunter’s Guide, Texas Hunter Education Student Manual, NRA’s Youth Hunter Education Challenge Rules and Example Exams, NRA’s Muzzleloading Rifle Handbooks, copies of A Sand County Almanac, and other resources such as gun locks.

The shooting events were hosted by Kyle Kacal at Tonkaway Ranch in Brazos County. We got to shoot in every event: rifle, archery, muzzleloading, and shotgun. Even though the rain threatened our muzzleloading, we were able to keep our powder dry. Current 4-H Hunting coaches Mike Malone and Kevin Dockery brought their children to help with muzzleloading and archery. They did an outstanding job! Mike and Kevin also provided instruction on orienteering and wildlife challenge.

These twenty new 4-H Hunting and Wildlife Coaches will now go back to their counties and provide year-long leadership to youth in their area. They can provide basic hunter education, monthly activities on a variety of topics related to wildlife and hunting and then end their year with a hunt through Texas Youth Hunting Program. All accomplished through quality training and their volunteer hours.

Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection Expands Knowledge of Wildlife in Texas

The Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection (TCWC) was established in 1936 by Dr. William B. Davis, founder of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University. The TCWC houses over 1,000,000 preserved specimens in four divisions: birds, fishes, mammals, and reptiles and amphibians. All four divisions are ranked either first or second in the state and all are considered internationally invaluable.

For centuries, natural history collections have played a leading role in biodiversity-based research focused on systematics and taxonomy, and broad studies of ecology and evolution seeking to document species distributions, habitat, and morphological and genetic diversity. TCWC curators and their students strive to maintain and explore worldwide biodiversity by conducting research in Africa, Mexico, Central and South America, and throughout the United States, with a focus on Texas. Current TCWC research ranges from conservation of critically endangered species, to applying cutting-edge genetic techniques to identify populations in need of conservation, to the discovery and description of species new to science.

The TCWC plays a unique role at Texas A&M University in that labs associated with five courses are taught in, and rely heavily on, the collections. Teaching courses in the TCWC exposes students (over 200 each semester) to natural history collections, museum-based research, and the importance of collections to the scientific process. This has allowed the TCWC to attract dozens of undergraduate students interested in volunteering or interning at the collection, or in conducting research with TCWC Curators. Many of these undergraduates go on to become graduate students in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and utilize TCWC specimens in their research. The TCWC is extensively involved in community outreach with ties to various groups such as public schools, Texas Master Naturalists, Boy Scouts, and the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History.

TCWC curators and affiliates have a rich history of publishing their research, with over 1230 papers published since 1936. Faculty Curators have been successful in obtaining millions of dollars from federal, state, and local agencies to fund their research and improve the collections at the TCWC. If you are interested in learning more about what we do or how to support research and teaching at the TCWC, click here.

Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act Turns 75

Image Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Seventy-five years ago, history was made when the Congress of the United States passed a bill known as the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. Known better by its two chief sponsors, Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, and Representative A. Willis Robertson of Virginia, the Pittman-Robertson Act has provided funds to the restoration of fish and wildlife species, ranging from wild turkey, white-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope, wood duck, beaver, black bear, giant Canada goose, American elk, desert bighorn sheep, bobcat, mountain lion, and several species of predatory birds. Many of these species we take for granted today, but in 1937, even white-tailed deer were rare in many areas.

In the 1930s, a group of concerned American sportsmen, fishermen, and conservationists, along with the firearms industry urged congress to create a funding apparatus to preserve what was left of the diverse wildlife and fish of the nation, and work to restore them to their former range. This was to be achieved by placing a 10% excise tax on firearms, ammunition, and other hunting-related items to provide funding for such endeavors. In the subsequent years, taxable items have expanded to include other items related these pursuits.

This money is sent directly to the states, and is matched by the states at a rate of 1 dollar to every 3 of federal funds. For Texas, that comes out by about $9 million annually. These funds support various projects and efforts in a variety of ways, from habitat acquisition, restoration efforts, wildlife research, and even hunter education. Although hunters and fishermen ultimately fund the projects, non-consumptive users benefit by utilizing lands and resources acquired, to say nothing for the rich wildlife diversity present. Many non-game species benefit from restoring native habitats.

As wildlife and fish enthusiasts of all stripes look forward to the future, we must look back and admire what those forward thinking individuals set in motion back in 1937. Consider where we might be without it.

Free workshops offered to Trinity River basin landowners

We at Texas AgriLife Extension, Trinity Waters, and the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources (IRNR) are working hard to provide high quality products and information for landowners in the Trinity River Basin. As I posted awhile back, the folks at IRNR recently updated the Trinity River Information Management System (TRIMS), which is an online mapping tool specifically designed for 38 Texas counties within the Trinity Basin. TRIMS has some great features that would benefit any landowner seeking to do conservation or proper land management. TRIMS provides access to soils, elevation, hydrology, and vegetative cover data and can show areas that can be restored to native grasslands or bottomland hardwood forests. Agricultural producers can also use it to measure acreage or fenceline length.

Trinity Waters is hosting 2 FREE half day workshops on February 28 in Terrell and February 29 in Huntsville. At these workshops, landowners will be loaned a computer and work with system developers to learn how to use TRIMS effectively.

There are only 20 spots available at each workshop, so you must preregister by emailing Blake Alldredge at balldredge@tamu.edu. Read more about the workshop in this news release from AgriLife Today.

Lone Star Healthy Streams--Linking Feral Hogs and Water Quality

Image Courtesy of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Over the last few years, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the health of our inland waterways. Water is becoming a big topic everywhere, and Texas is no different. I used to listen to my grandpa talk about the times when you could drink water right out of Possum Creek, near my boyhood home. Nowadays, you simply can't do that due to degraded water quality.

Here at Wild Wonderings, you know we look for every opportunity to promote wildlife-related issues. This is no different, since there are a number of factors influencing the health of our streams and rivers. Most of these are non-point source. That means simply that, unlike a factory dumping directly into a stream--which is an easy source to point out--these cannot be identified as just one source of pollution.

Notable among the current problems facing Texas' Streams are the effects of Feral Hogs. This is a problem our friends over at the Plum Creek Watershed Partnership are working hard to address. Much of this is due to the rooting behavior of hogs which increases erosion and sedimentation, but also health concerns related to hog excrement and E. coli.

A new website, Lone Star Healthy Streams, has been produced by our friends in the Texas AgriLife Extension Service's Soil and Crop Sciences Unit, in partnership with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) and the Texas Water Resources Institute. This website highlights not only the effects of Feral Hogs, but also management practices, health concerns, and general life histories. The Lone Star Healthy Streams goes a step further, out of the realm of wildlife, to discuss effects of various livestock animals on water quality.

Feral Hogs Negatively Affect Native Plant Communities

Feral hogs cause a great deal of damage to the Texas landscape. One damage that may not be as obvious is their impact on native plant communities. Researchers at Rice University and Texas A&M University conducted a study in the Big Thicket National Preserve excluding feral hogs from study plots to determine if feral hogs impacted vegetation. There were several interesting findings, one being that large seeded tree species such as oaks were less abundant in unfenced areas due to consumption by feral hogs. Additionally unfenced plots had more bare ground and less plant diversity, most likely due to rooting by feral hogs. For more findings from this research and management recommendations in ecologically sensitive areas see this new publication titled: "Feral Hogs Negatively Affect Native Plant Communities" available below or at the Texas AgriLife Extension bookstore.

Feral Hogs Negatively Affect Native Plant Communities