Meadow Playa Festival

Today concluded the Playa Festival at Burleson Elementary in Meadow. Students from Wellman-Union, Dawson and Burleson ,along with their teachers, took part in our two-day learning experience.

Our 5th graders enjoyed listing to the different presenters and learning about our watershed. When we went to the playa visit on the second day, the kids couldn't wait to get off the bus to collect plants and animals in their bags. We did get a little muddy, but it was nothing that we couldn't wash off later.

A special thanks goes out to all of our presenters this week and our schools and their awesome teachers and staff. Also to the Terry County NRCS, Jackie Pate, Terry County AgriLife Extension, SPUWCD and the Ogallala Commons. It is amazing how much we can accomplish and how many students we can reach, when we work together.

Denver City Playa Festival

We had another great group of students at the Denver City Playa Festival. The teachers and students seemed to enjoy learning about the environment first hand.

The 5th graders and playa festival staff, took a field trip to a local playa on Monday. The students collected plants, bugs and anything else they could find, to use for their art mural the next day.

On Tuesday, we traveled to the local land fill. We learned about the importance of recycling and how water can effect different part of the landfill. The employees at the land fill even let us weigh our bus which was almost 11 tons.

Here are a few pictures from the festival in Denver City...

Oak Grove Playa Festival

Last week, the South Plains UWCD partnered with the Terry County Soil & Water Conservation District and the Ogallala Commons to host a Playa Festival. The event took place at Oak Grove Elementary in Brownfield.

The morning of the first day, 5th grade students and their teachers, were given a presentation about playas from Dr. David Haukos, from Texas Tech University. Other 5th grade students participated in a soil sample exercise presented by employees of the Brownfield NRCS.

Next, the students rotated through five presentations; Bird Identification, Playa Plants Identification, Amphibians & Macro-Invertebrate, Playa Raptors & Playa Lakes Buffers and Waterfowl Demonstration.

After lunch, the students were taken to a playa to learn first hand the type of plants and animals that live in or around playas and why playas are so important to the High Plains.

The second day of the festival, the students were given a presentation on watersheds and aquifers. They were then taken to Rick Lake, by Meadow, and were once again able to explore the great outdoors.

This is just a quick overview of the different activities that we participated in at the festival. The Sandy Land UWCD is hosting a festival today and tomorrow in Denver City. Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the South Plains UWCD will host a festival in Meadow. After all of the festivals are completed, I will update you on each presentation with more detail. Until then, enjoy the pictures below from the Playa Festival in Brownfield.

Ag & Oil Day

This years Ag & Oil Day in Seminole was a success. The LEUWCD hosted a booth inside for adult visitors who came to the event.

The display discussed what groundwater management areas are the desired future conditions of the aquifer.

Outside, two-hundred and fifty, 4th graders from Seagraves, Seminole & Loop , gathered to hear presentations from eight different presenters. The students learned about farm animals, peanuts, cotton and much more.

The LEUWCD booth for the 4th graders was focused on rainwater harvesting. The Education Coordinator spoke about what rainwater harvesting is and how it can be used at home. They also discussed the importance of saving water and how they could do so.

After the presentation, the students played a game where they competed against each other on how much water they could harvest. Buckets full of beads ,aka:rain, were raced across to a their teams "gutters".

I had a great time at Ag & Oil Day, in Seminole, this year. The LEUWCD hosted a booth for adult visitors.

The students and teachers were so great this year. Everyone was so respectful and were full of questions about rainwater harvesting. The LEUWCD also asked each student and teacher to guess how many gallons of water it takes to make one football. The student below had the closest guess and was awarded a sonic gift card.