Over the last 10 years the population of Texas has grown dramatically and it is predicted that by 2030 there will be 34–41 million residents, which is nearly twice as many as in 2000. One common ingredient necessary to the survival and health of humans and the land is water. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation predicts that by 2025, a significant number of areas, including urban centers in areas with moderate rainfall, will fail to meet water demands for people, farms and the environment.
Given increased water demand and the subsequent decreases in water quality and quantity associated with urbanization and changing land-use practices, a need clearly exists to re-examine how we develop and manage existing, as well as new sources of water.
Although we use water from streams, rivers, reservoirs and groundwater wells, somewhere in our rush to become more civilized, the majority of Texans lost knowledge of techniques used by early Texas settlers to capture, hold, and use water from rainfall events. The Texas AgriLife Extension Service has a unique multidisciplinary group called the Rainwater Harvesting Task Force, whose goal is to increase knowledge about water recycling in the environment by teaching and training people how to manage rainfall on their property.
To accomplish this goal, Extension employees from the Departments of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Horticulture, Soil and Crop Sciences, Ecosystem Science and Management, Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and the Texas Water Resources Institute and County Extension Agents partnered to create innovative educational resources and training opportunities and integrated them with Extension volunteer programs like Texas Master Gardeners and Texas Master Naturalists.
This Task Force was recently recognized for outstanding achievement, by receiving an AgriLife Extension Service Superior Service Team Award on January 13, 2008. Their innovative programming and educational resources include:
· Five courses geared towards rainwater stewardship for County Programs, Texas Master Gardeners, Texas Master Naturalists, In-Home Use of Rainwater, Practitioner Accreditation
· Nine Texas AgriLife Extension Service publications, 3 web-based articles, and 6 popular articles
· Developed the Rainwater Harvesting Web-site,
· Nine video clips teaching rainfall capture techniques and scores of photos demonstrating classes, devices, and activities can be found on the web site
· Rainwater harvest educational materials were viewed by 118,000 attendees at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo in 2007 and 107,607 in 2008
· At least 31 demonstration sites having rainwater capture systems can be found at county Extension and municipal offices and learning centers
Task Force efforts were multiplied by students trained in rainwater harvesting. Overall, 190 Master Gardeners from 56 different counties completed the 2-day, 16-hour training event. To date, 87 Master Gardeners earned Rainwater Harvesting Specialist certification and in turn they contributed 2,107 service hours, valued at $37,930. Volunteers taught 6,116 fellow Texans and many more viewed educational articles in Master Gardener publications and/or newsletters.
Since the inception of the Rainwater Harvesting Task Force in 2004, the team has been extraordinarily productive. The acceptance and implementation of rainwater harvesting as an alternative water supply over the last few years has fostered the development of a rainwater harvesting industry in