Grazing Field Day Increases Knowledge and Tools
by Darryl Birkenfeld, OC Director
(Landowners along with agency personnel discuss grazing techniques at the Playa Classroom in Nazareth on March 24th.)
On a blustery, chilly morning, 22 landowners and agency personnel (not to mention 43 cows) braved the elements to learn about benefits and challenges of prescribed grazing at a Playa Grazing Management Day conducted on March 24th in Nazareth, TX. It was an opportunity to share knowledge between landowners, ag producers and educators who have years of experience and expertise. In addition to learning out on the land, presentations before and after the field tour provided on overview of playas on the Southern Great Plains, with a focus on how grazing, when properly applied, can help create healthy playa habitat.
The Management Day will began with an overview of playas and their ecological services, given by Dr. David Haukos, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Out at the field site, Julie Hodges, Ogallala Commons Education Coordinator, introduced attendees to the Playa Classroom. Next, Charles Coffman of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department led the group on a walking examination of grazing paddocks, while giving key pointers regarding prescribed or planned grazing in playas and their adjoining uplands. After about 90 minutes in the brisk outdoors, the group returned to the Home Mercantile building for a hot lunch, and some brief remarks on playa wildlife opportunities given by Ken Cearley and outdoorsman Jim Steiert. The event finished with a special presentation on saturated thickness and current depletion rates in the Southern High Plains region of the Ogallala Aquifer, given by Dr. Kevin Mulligan, Dept. of Geosciences at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX.
The workshop was conducted by Ogallala Commons, with its partners: the Dixon Water Foundation, the Xcel Energy Foundation, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and Playa Lakes Joint Venture. In the coming months, Ogallala Commons will conduct Field Days on playa buffer establishment and playa plant identification.
Conservation Education Days Enliven Teachers and Landowners
By Julie Hodges, Prairie Workshop, LLC, OC Education Coordinator
On Tuesday, March 8, Ogallala Commons completed the last of a series of five Conservation Education Days for educators participating in Playa Festivals, regional agency personnel, landowners and community members.
Each of the Conservation Education days provided educators with basic information about playas and Playa Festivals, as well as opportunities for teachers to share tools and activities that enhance TEKS-based learning before and after the Festivals. In addition, landowners were invited to join the sessions to learn with educators. This interchange allowed landowners to see that there is interest in playa conservation at local schools, with a new generation of students, provided educators to meet landowners who might have an interest in playa conservation and/or schools visits to their playas and enabled teachers and landowners to learn some pertinent information about playas, conservation of the Ogallala Aquifer, and natural resources in general.
A total of 95 teachers, educators, landowners, agency personnel and community members attended Conservation Education Days in Brownfield, Friona, Portales, Clovis, and Amarillo.
Ogallala Commons was assisted by many of our partners at the trainings, including The Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife, US Fish and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the Xcel Energy Foundation, Texas Tech University Professors, city officials and regional Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
OC Semester Intern Profile
By Jennifer Zavaleta
(Jennifer poses in her office with a program evaluation text she is studying to conduct surveys that will assist OC in its playa education work)
My name is Jennifer Zavaleta and I am a graduate student in the Natural Resource Management Department at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. For my thesis, I will be analyzing data about vegetation restoration in prairie chicken habitat. Prairie chickens’ habitat has changed dramatically with the suppression of fires and loss of playas. My research interests and personal interest in environmental education overlap nicely with the goals of Ogallala Commons.
For my semester-long internship, I am developing program evaluation tools, or surveys, to measure how effective Ogallala Common is at transferring information and changing attitudes about water conservation. Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about a program’s effectiveness.
Since Ogallala Commons works with a variety of groups, I will have to make a few individualized instruments. Each of the instruments, however, will include information related to knowledge acquisition, change in attitude, and intentions to change behavior. The first evaluation will be for producers who will be attending a conference in Nazareth at the end of the month. Next, I will develop two instruments to evaluate how much students and teachers are impacted by playa festivals. Finally, I will develop a tool to evaluate the experience of people that visit the outdoor classroom.
This internship will help me develop skills in evaluation and provide some experience with consulting. After graduation, I hope to spend some time working abroad before coming back to continue my education. My future is uncertain, but luckily people are beginning to recognize the value of natural resources, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a worthwhile project!
Seeding the Spring: High Plains Food Coop Partners with GrowHaus
By Chris Sramek, OC Board President, Atwood, Kansas
(Participants check out tomato and chile seeds at the Seed Swap)
On March 5th in Denver, Colorado, the GrowHaus (www.thegrowhaus.com) held its first annual Seed Swap and Planting Party, followed by a "Growing our Urban AgriCULTURE" potluck hosted by Grow Local Colorado. Over 400 gardeners stopped in over the course of the day to trade seeds kicking off this year’s growing season, and $1000 was raised for the community farm program!
The High Plains Food Co-op (www.highplainsfood.org) and The GrowHaus are partnering to bring Urban and Rural Agriculture TOGETHER and develop a local food system for the Elyria – Swansea, Five Points and Curtis Park neighborhoods located in the heart of Denver County. These communities are in a food desert with the closest grocery store, being Wal-Mart 3.5 miles away. The High Plains Food Co-op and The GrowHaus’s urban farm will work together to supply fresh and local food to a new farmers market, emerging corner stores and schools. They will use a combination of donations and a pay what you can model to ensure everyone has access to the food.
The Seed Swap was the first event the HPFC co-sponsored, and on April 1st, folks from the GrowHaus will be in Atwood, KS at the Rawlins County Youth Entrepreneurship Fair speaking on Aquaponic Systems, Food Justice and Social Entrepreneurship. Plans for the two entities are to continue co-hosting educational events, have urban and rural youth exchanges, and be key players in the developing Denver local food system.
