September News

Fall Playa Festival Season is Underway!

A student reaches into a deep crack in the OC Playa.

This year, Ogallala Commons has a full schedule of Playa Festivals at schools in Texas and Eastern New Mexico.  During September and October we will be conducting fifteen Playa Festivals that will include twenty-four schools and over 1200 students, their teachers, parents and community members. 

Each Playa Festival includes presentations from scientists, naturalists and Ogallala Commons staff.  Our presentations include: What is A Playa?, How to Use a Nature Journal as a Resource in the Field, Playa Soils and Plants, Bird Identification, Prairie Raptors, Playa Amphibians and Reptiles, Rainwater Harvesting in Playas and At Home, and Playa Buffers and Waterfowl.  After students rotate through presentations, they take a field trip to an actual playa! We walk through a playa, write in our journals, make observations, collect cool things--seeing, touching, and exploring all of the things we have learned about during presentations.

Every Tuesday and Thursday for the next six weeks, we will be dawning our hiking boots, loading up our bird calls, bags of clay soil and assortments of field guides in order to help children across the Southern High Plains discover the treasures in our own backyards!  Wish us luck.

Playa Management Day on Sept. 14—a Welcome Sight!

The sun sets over a wet playa near Silverton, TX, a rare site in this dry year.

A group of 24 attended our OC Playa Management Day on September 14^th in Silverton, Texas.  Based on returned surveys, 14 landowners with playas attended the event, and our presentations potentially impacted over 80 playas totaling more than 900 acres.

After introductions and some superb presentations on playa hydrology, soils and general playa geomorphology, our group went on tour to see some of the only wet playas for hundreds of miles around (thanks to an 8-inch rain that fell one night in late June).  Our first stop was to a gigantic wet playa south of Silverton near the Briscoe-Floyd County line.  This site gave participants a chance to view typical playa plants: barnyard grass, pink smartweed, curly dock, and arrowhead.  On the way to a second stop just into Floyd County northwest of South Plains, the tour encountered large flocks of ducks and shorebirds on a wet playa along a county road. 

Our main stop was at the farm of Janet Minton (where no big rain fell), to view a recently-established playa buffer.  The buffer, planted in 2009, encircles a 65-acre playa and consists of native grasses as well as 4-wing saltbush and dryland alfalfa for wildlife food.  Adequate buffers are essential for preventing soil erosion from washing into a playa basin, and for offering wildlife habitat.

The workshop was sponsored by Ogallala Commons, in collaboration with its partners: the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, and Playa Lakes Joint Venture.  

Fifth Annual Youth Engagement Day - Plainview, Tx

The fifth annual Youth Engagement Day was conducted in Plainview, Tx on 09/13/11.  Growing Entrepreneurs Building Businesses is the focus of this event and it was time well-spent on tomorrow's community, state and country leaders.  I was impressed by with the city leaders and business owners who came together to make this year's event  successful.  The students were welcomed by Mayor John Anderson who was pleased to have us come and explore ideas and listen to the stories of local business owners. After our keynote address, the students were divided into 7 investigation teams that interviewed two local businesses after which they gave a 5 minute presentation to the whole group.   

A Plainview High School students shares what she learned during the business tour that was a part of the Youth Engagement Day held in Plainview on September 13, 2011.

My team visited the Crisis Center of the Plains where we learned that you need is a degree to be considered for a position; the training is provided for you.  Our next visit was to the Perry Buildings.  Dr. Collins introduced us to the idea that you can have a job and do other things ...idea...passive income!  This can be accomplished when you find a business partner with your goals but also with the talents that you are weak in.   Combining talents and strengths sounds like common sense but it is difficult to "trust"  that the other person is equally invested.  David Splawn spoke of how the Broadway Brewer came to be and why.  David and his wife knew there was a need for this business and were thinking of ways to have a sustained  income that would allow his wife to stay home with their young children.  The business now takes more time to run than anticipated but it is a successful business in Plainview. 

A group reports their findings after visiting several local businesses.

Students were challenged to develop a business plan to enter in the Youth Entrepreneur Fair in November.  The students were provided detailed instructions on how to develop a solid business plan and inspired by a usable roadmap called "e-DREAMS." (providing a means by way of directions)

This was time definitely well-spent with the youth of Plainview and Hart, Tx.