Wonderful Adult Education Program at River Bend

River Bend Nature Center had an excellent adult education program last night. Fred Hall, our new county extension agent, was the presenter on personal water conservation. I wanted to share with you just a couple of tidbits I picked up:

• 30 - 50% of urban water use in Texas is used for irrigation of lawns and gardens
• People spread 67M lbs of pesticides on Texas lawns and currently 5 - 10% of water wells have detectable levels of pesticides in them
• 1 hour lawn mowing releases as many volatile organic compounds as driving 100 miles in your car
• Trees lower home energy bills by 25%

He also mentioned that corn meal gluten will help rid your lawn of crab grass and grass burs, although he recommends crab grass for grazing cattle--they apparently love it.

Anyway, a fascinating presentation. Be sure to attend the next program in the series. Daniel Nix from the City of Wichita Falls will be talking about city water planning on Feb 15, 7 - 9 PM at RBNC.