AGAGgiegieAgendaAgenda June/July 2020

In This Issue: New faculty

Virtual wheat tour

Peanut breeding

New Dicamba rules

Changing urban landscapes

Greenhouse gas research

more .....

The summer heat has been turned on as we passed the longest day of the year, both with temperature and activity. Here at College Station, we have benefited from some late June rain that kept temperatures from reaching extremes and kept us from entering a drought. Researchers and Extension personnel are busy harvesting and irrigating, and as samples come in our crop-quality labs ramp up. Year-end financial transactions, new budgets, and planning for upcoming year turn up the heat for all the faculty, extension personnel and business office employees.

Summer is also the time for field days. Many have gone virtual and many others canceled with the Covid-19 issues. An update on events still in the planning stage is included in the calendar.

We continue to implement cost saving strategies to meet the budget reductions and, like our clientele and students, worry about how much more impact will be felt from the pandemic. We are fortunate to continue negotiations for soils and legume breeding positions. Our Extension turf and forage positions are on hold.

If you have not had an opportunity to meet our new hires in 2020 please take the opportunity, as visiting restrictions are reduced, to meet Ben McKnight, State Cotton Specialist; Fernando Guillen, State Small Grain and Oil Seed Specialist; Chase Straw, Turfgrass; Becky Bowling, Water and Turf (transferred to Dallas), and Craig Bednarz, Director Semi-arid Agricultural Systems Institute in Canyon (see story page 4).

We wish Dr. Audrey Girard the best as she transitions to a new faculty role in grain quality at the University of Wisconsin.

A special thanks to the Texas Wheat Board for recent commitment to funding for this fall’s wheat research. We continue to appreciate the partnership with all of our commodity boards to support our research and extension efforts to solve problems for the industry.

We continue to explore collaboration on unique qualities in our wheat breeding program with Ardent Mills. I continue to chair the State Seed and Plant Board where we approved the first hemp cultivars for certified seed production in Texas. I continue to chair the National Agricultural Research Extension, Education and Economics advisory committee, serve as president elect for the Council of Agriculture Science and Technology and past chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.

Congratulations to faculty members on a very large number of federal submissions. Best wishes on success. We have heard positive preliminary indications on a few, and have many more in preparation and currently under review. Special commendations to Dr. Peyton Smith on her first PI federal grant, Nithya Rajan on major funding, Alma Fernandez on an X grant, Paul De Laune, Michael Thomson and Muthu Bagavathiannan on success with funding from NIFA, and Russell Jessup for hemp research funding.

Kudos also to Seth Murray on once again

being selected as a finalist for the Blavatnik Awards. Congratulations to David Stelly on election as incoming vice-chair of the Council of Principle Investigators.

As the summer continues there will be more opportunities for engaging the public, but many of our activities will be virtual as we continue to have issues with the rapid spread of the pandemic. Our faculty and staff have worked to transition rice field days, NAPB, ACSESS(tri-societies), Texas Turfgrass Association summer meeting, and others to virtual events.

A huge thanks to the Soil and Crop Sciences Department faculty, staff and students for adjusting to the Covid crisis and making things work. The Aggie Spirit is alive and well. We adjusted everything from in-class to remote instruction, working in the field while maintaining social distance and delivering our outreach electronically. It has been amazing to be a part of the adjustment, but it looks as if major adjustments will continue through the rest of 2020.

Our students are ready to return to campus for an unusually early start this August so we can wrap up the semester on campus for Thanksgiving. We look forward to the fall semester when they return refreshed and ready to take on new challenges. Stay safe!

Comments from our Department Head

Dr. David BaltenspergerDepartment HeadTexas A&M UniversityDepartment of Soil and Crop Sciencesdbaltensperger@tamu.edu

You can support Soil and Crop Sciences research, teaching and extension outreach with your tax-deductible donations.More Information can be found at: http://soilcrop.tamu.edu/giving/

Greenhouse gas emissions from sorghum fields in the Texas High Plains will be the focus of a Texas A&M AgriLife Research study funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, ARPA-E.This $3.1 million collaborative project, led by Gopal Kakani, Ph.D., of Oklahoma State University, is funded through ARPA-E’s Systems for Monitoring and Analytics for Renewable Transportation Fuels from Agricultural Resources and Management, or SMARTFARM, program.About one-third of the grant will be utilized in Texas by Nithya Rajan, Ph.D., crop physiology and agroecology associate professor, who is the lead investigator for AgriLife Research on this project. Rajan will be joined by Ronnie Schnell, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cropping systems specialist for sorghum. Both are in Texas A&M University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in College Station.“We are excited about this multi-state SMARTFARM project,” said David Baltensperger, Ph.D., head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. “This project strengthens our ties with Texas sorghum producers and supports the goal of sorghum production in an environmentally friendly manner.”Goals of measuring greenhouse gas emissionsThe SMARTFARM program’s objective is to bridge the data gap in the biofuel supply chain by funding technologies that can quantify feedstock-related emissions at the field level and enable new market

incentives for efficiency.Rajan said the ARPA-E project will utilize current technology and sensor networks to continuously quantify field-level emissions for major greenhouse gases. This is expected to provide a “gold standard” assessment of emissions from bioenergy feedstocks in the Southern Great Plains.“With any agriculture production field, greenhouse gas emission is inevitable — typically carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — and that increases with the application of fertilizer, manure and other management practices,” she said. “Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that can stay in the atmosphere for several decades and can cause environmental issues.”Rajan’s current research shows that there is a daily pattern associated with nitrous oxide emissions in agricultural fields. Emissions usually happen after fertilizer application and rainfall, but such frequent measurements are rarely made by scientists in production conditions due to the cost of equipment needed for continuous monitoring.Carbon source or sinkAgricultural fields also sequester carbon. Tracking both carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously is necessary to understand if the field is a carbon source or a sink, as greenhouse gas emissions are usually expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents.Schnell said sorghum production systems in the Southern Great Plains have an opportunity to contribute sustainable energy production in the U.S. Production environments,

water use and common management practices have the potential for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.Rajan said the team is concentrating on grain sorghum initially, because Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma are three of the nation’s main sorghum-producing states.The Texas portion of the project is designed to take measurements of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, at an 85-acre commercial production field, continuously using the state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodologies. Schnell will assist with spatial measurements of soil water, nutrient, and crop growth at the site.“This is the first time anyone is trying to do it at this scale,” Rajan said. “We are using a farmer’s field in the Panhandle area. We will be setting up a lot of equipment to make these measurements.”She said the equipment will allow them to take greenhouse gas measurements continuously from the sorghum field. Additionally, soil temperature and moisture sensors will be installed on each sub-acre of the 85-acre field. Soil and plant samples will also be collected from each acre.The end goal is to build a ‘gold standard’ data set. The data set then will be available for all researchers studying the life cycle analysis and modeling of greenhouse gas emissions.

Walker Crane, a member of Nithya Rajan’s team, measures nitrous oxide measurements from a young sorghum field. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo)

Setting the “gold-standard” forgreenhouse gas emission measurements.

By: Kay Ledbetter

Prominent researcher to leadSemi-Arid Agricultural Systems Institute

A regional native and nationally prominent researcher in plant breeding has been hired as the director of the Semi-Arid Agricultural Systems Institute at West Texas A&M University in Canyon.

Craig Bednarz, Ph.D., an Idalou native, began May 1 in a joint appointment by West Texas A&M, Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo and the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

Bednarz will serve as an associate professor of plant, soil and environmental sciences at West Texas A&M. He will lead and expand the research, instruction and service programs of the institute, addressing issues facing semi-arid agriculture systems in the Texas Panhandle and surrounding area, said Lance Kieth, Ph.D., head of West Texas A&M’s Department of Agricultural Sciences.

The Semi-Arid Agricultural Systems Institute, formerly known as the Dryland Agriculture Institute, was led by Bob Stewart, Ph.D., until his retirement in 2017. Its mission is to assist researchers, educators, extension workers and administrators to develop practical and workable strategies for improving the sustainability of dryland agriculture systems worldwide.

“We knew that replacing Dr. Stewart would be a difficult task, so having Dr. Bednarz fill the void left by Dr. Stewart’s retirement has been a win-win for both WT and AgriLife Research,” Kieth said. “Like Dr. Stewart, Dr. Bednarz is a leader, and we expect him not only to lead research efforts, but also to build and lead a team of researchers and

educators to tackle agriculture’s utilization of water resources in the Texas Panhandle and surrounding region.”

“I’m delighted to have someone with Craig’s horsepower on board with us,” said Brent Auvermann, Ph.D., center director of AgriLife Research at Amarillo. “He’s a worthy heir to Dr. Stewart’s legacy, and his program is going to fill an important niche in our region’s agricultural research portfolio. Also, Craig’s expertise in cotton is a tremendous bonus as the cotton patch expands northward.”

Bednarz is a nationally prominent researcher in crop physiology for row crop production systems, primarily cotton.

He is one of two hires who will work jointly under the Chancellor’s Research Initiative. Bednarz will lead a formal research program in water-resource management, water use in drought tolerance crops, limited-irrigation cropping systems, remote sensing technologies, and intensive cattle grazing systems for Panhandle agriculture and allied industries.

A focus on water scarcity and needs is a key component of “WT125: From the Panhandle to the World,” which is the title of West Texas A&M’s plan to become a regional research university.

“When I was younger and growing up in this area, we used to irrigate cotton from a ditch,” Bednarz said. “Back then, the well capacity was a lot higher. That’s all changed now. Water availability in the Ogallala Aquifer has been drying up, and that certainly is impacting the quality of life in this area.”

Bednarz said he wants to do whatever he can to ensure future generations can still utilize those water resources

“That’s in line with my scientific interests and, on a personal note, I have a tie to this region and to agriculture in this region, and I want to see it continue to grow and thrive,” he said.

Bednarz earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education and a master’s degree in crop science from Texas Tech University; he earned a doctorate in agronomy from the University of Arkansas. He has previously worked as a cotton breeder in private industry and as a cotton agronomist for Texas Tech, Mississippi State University and the University of Georgia.

Craig Bednarz, Ph.D., will lead the Semi-Ar-id Agricultural Systems Institute at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, with join responsibilities to Texas A&M AgriLife Re-search-Amarillo. (Courtesy photo)

By: Chip Chandler

As the human population booms, we hear the term “sustainable food supply” a great deal. One Texas A&M AgriLife researcher’s efforts to make corn production, whether for human or livestock consumption, more sustainable has earned him national recognition.

Texas A&M AgriLife Research corn breeder Seth Murray, Ph.D., is the Eugene Butler Endowed Chair in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in College Station, and he is among the finalists for the prestigious Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists.

Murray determined that individual genes poorly predict corn yield, so he began to evaluate the physical and spectral traits, the “phenome”, of corn instead. Through the innovative use of statistical analysis of images collected from drones, he along with colleagues and students on his team examined the physical traits of corn over time and model traits to predict the highest yielding plants, optimizing breeding and selection.

While innovative breeding strategies have mostly focused on developing higher yielding and more stress and aflatoxin resistant corn, Murray is also in the process of creating perennial varieties of corn that could revolutionize agricultural practices and ensure the sustainability of corn production.

“Dr. Murray is leading the way in crop breeding and the use of advanced technologies that will allow growers to benefit from higher yields and increased stress resistance in corn,” said Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of AgriLife Research. “His pursuit to contribute to a safer and more secure food supply for our nation epitomizes the spirit of a land-grant university.”

The Blavatnik National Award

The Blavatnik award is presented by the New York Academy of Sciences that recognizes America’s most innovative young scientists and engineers. Thirty-one of the nation’s rising stars in science were announced June 17 as 2020 finalists of the prestigious award, the world’s largest unrestricted prize for early career scientists.

Murray was chosen from 305 nominations from 161 academic and research centers across 41 U.S. states, and is competing to be one of three Blavatnik National Awards Laureates, one in each of the award categories: Chemistry, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Life Sciences. Each Laureate will win $250,000. The three 2020 Blavatnik National Awards Laureates will be announced on July 22.

Launched in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the awards were created with the New York Academy of Sciences to enhance research funding opportunities and emphasize the work of promising scientists under the age of 42 in three disciplinary categories of science and engineering.

Advancing corn research

Murray focuses his research on solving large-scale problems in crop production through plant breeding and technology,

including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs or drones, in agricultural decision making.

Murray, a world-renowned expert on crop field phenotyping, co-led a project of 40-plus faculty across disciplines in developing procedures for scaling UAV technology for breeding and precision agriculture. This project led to his program’s focus on crop characteristics and use of high-throughput measurements to select the most promising varieties in a breeding program.

Murray’s research program focuses on both quantitative genetic discovery and applied corn breeding for Texas and the southern U.S. Last year he released five new corn hybrids bred for the southern U.S.’s longer growing season and multiple stresses, characterizing them as “foundational to our future inbred and hybrid production and breeding efforts.”

Breeding trait research in his program includes improved aflatoxin resistance, drought tolerance and nutrient-use efficiency. It also addresses incorporation of novel genetic diversity for perennial, blue and quality protein corn.

“Corn is a tremendously productive crop, and through scientific discoveries farmers have increased yields eight-fold over the last 100 years,” he said. “That means one-eighth of the land is needed to get the same production, freeing up land for recreation, urbanization, wildlife or simply producing additional crops needed to feed a growing population.”

The next generation of UAVs and phenomics research will allow further improving crop yield while also improving the economic and environmental sustainability of growing them, Murray said.

Texas A&M Agrilife Researcher Creating Better Corn Yields, Quality on Less Land

Murray earns Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists finalist recognition for second yearBy: Kay Ledbetter

Dr. Seth Murray

The lengthy process of breeding better peanut plants can be sped up by using a biophysics technique, Raman spectroscopy.

Texas A&M AgriLife biophysicists and plant breeders have demonstrated the use of Raman spectroscopy to quickly scan the levels of oleic acid in peanuts. Oleic acid, a monounsaturated oil, lends peanuts a longer shelf life. The oil is also healthy for the heart.

They also used the method to determine how resistant plants are to nematode pests.

Using Raman spectroscopy is quicker, cheaper and more portable than standard approaches of screening peanut varieties for these beneficial traits. The study was recently published in Scientific Reports.

“We’ve shown that the method can save a huge amount of time in our screening process,” said John Cason, Ph.D., coauthor and Texas A&M AgriLife Research peanut breeder, Stephenville. “You can get a ‘fingerprint’ of a particular peanut and tease out large amounts of information. The possibilities are endless.”

“Raman spectroscopy is commonplace in biochemistry but mostly unknown

in the world of farmers and plant breeders,” said Dmitry Kurouski, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Yet it is portable, inexpensive, accurate and fast, and can transform digital farming.”

Funding for the study came from AgriLife Research and the Governor’s University Research Initiative. In addition, the Texas Peanut Producers Board and Southwestern Peanut Shellers Association provided funding for Cason’s group to buy a hand-held Raman spectrometer.

Benefits of Raman versus established methods

In the past, if Cason wanted to analyze the pest-resistance of plants or the fatty acid content of peanuts, he would extract DNA from plants or send samples to an off-site lab for infrared analysis. Both methods are considerably more time-, cost- and labor-intensive than Raman, Cason said.

For this project, the collaborators used a commercially available, hand-held Raman spectrometer, a device about the size of a shoebox. Raman spectroscopy measures how materials scatter harmless laser light. Each material has a specific scattering “fingerprint” that offers clues about many types of molecular information in a one-second scan. Running a scan is relatively straightforward, Cason said, but the collaborators are still developing and fine-tuning ways to analyze the data.

Cason’s team received training and guidance from Kurouski and three young scientists from his lab: Charles Farber, a graduate student; Lee

Sanchez, a research assistant; and Stanislav Rizevsky, Ph.D., a visiting scholar.

Scans of peanut leaves could distinguish nematode-resistant and susceptible plants with roughly 75% accuracy. What’s more, scans of peanut seeds could distinguish with 82% accuracy the varieties with high levels of oleic acid.

Other peanut projects in the works

The team is currently expanding its studies of peanut plants. The first goal is to use Raman to quickly isolate peanut varieties with high tolerance for drought conditions. The team is also looking into expanding its studies of nutritional content to help breed more nutritious peanut varieties.

One limitation of the technology is that the scanner needs to be in contact with the material being scanned. Kurouski’s team is working on a Raman “telescope” to enable scans of plants that are 100 feet away.

“Biophysicists and peanut breeders don’t usually associate in the same circles, but this has been a good project,” Cason said. “I don’t think it will be the last from this team.”

By: Olga Kuchment

Fast, accurate way to check peanut plants for healthy traits

John Cason, Texas A&M AgriLife peanut breeder, is testing a hand-held Raman spectrometer to analyze peanut plant traits in the field.

The Raman spectrometer may help researchers screen plants for beneficial traits more quickly, easily and cost-effectively.

Virtual wheat tour brings statewide research and trial updates to producers

Texas A&M AgriLife wheat research and variety trials did not take a break during the COVID-19 pandemic. But it was not possible to conduct a traditional May wheat field tour, so Texas A&M AgriLife faculty across the state are bringing fields to producers – virtually.

The 2020 Virtual Wheat Tour is a combination of videos from across the state that allow producers to view the field trials and hear the latest in research, said Fernando Guillen, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service statewide small grains and oilseed crops specialist, College Station.

Picking the best of the best

Winter wheat uniform variety trials, or UVT, were planted at 23 sites across the state in 18 different geographic locations to evaluate lines of wheat under both irrigated and dryland conditions, Guillen said.

The plots are a collaboration of AgriLife Extension agronomists and county agents as well as Texas A&M AgriLife Research’s two wheat breeders, Jackie Rudd, Ph.D., Amarillo, and Amir Ibrahim, Ph.D., College Station.

Guillen said the UVT include different varieties and experimental lines developed by Texas A&M AgriLife, as well as varieties from other universities and private industry. The results gathered from these test plots are used to make sound variety recommendations to producers in the different growing regions – High Plains, Rolling Plains, Blacklands and South Texas – by way of an annual “Picks list.” The 2020-2021 list will be posted in early August.

The best materials placed in the Picks list are selected based on a careful evaluation of:• Grain yield – the variety performs above average in its target region.• Disease and insect package – the variety’s ability to cope with seasonal

disease and pressures within the target region – particularly leaf rust, stripe rust, stem rust, wheat streak mosaic virus, soil-borne mosaic virus, greenbug, wheat curl mite and Hessian fly.• End-use quality – specifically the variety must have above average test weight and good milling and baking attributes.• Stability – the variety must have the ability to perform consistently across locations and years within a given region.

Variety trial locations

In the High Plains, there were three irrigated and three dryland trials located near Bushland, Groom, Perryton, Dumas and Dalhart. In these trials, 34 varieties were planted in the dryland trials and 36 in the irrigated ones. The dryland trials included eight Texas A&M AgriLife, TAM, varieties, four new experimental TAM lines, nine from other universities and 13 from the seed industry. The irrigated trials had eight TAM varieties, three experimental TAM lines, 11 from other universities and 14 from private industry. This year no trials were lost due to weather conditions at the Panhandle.

In the Rolling Plains, there were trials under dryland conditions near Abilene, Chillicothe, Munday and San Angelo. They included 31 varieties – five TAM varieties, five experimental TAM lines, five from other universities and 16 from private industry. One location, Chillicothe, was impacted by freeze and hail damage.

The Blacklands had trials in Ellis, Hillsboro, McGregor, Muenster, Thrall and Prosper, all under dryland conditions. The Thrall location was lost, however, due to significant cattle damage. Harvest is underway at most locations. There were 23 varieties planted – four TAM, four experimental TAM lines, one from another university and 14 from private industry.

In South Texas, dryland trials were planted at Castroville, College Station, Eagle Lake and Uvalde and all were

harvested in May. Twenty varieties were included in these trials – four TAM, five new experimental TAM lines, one from another university and 10 from private industry.

Wheat tour: Conditions and yields

Guillen said based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture report from May, approximately 80% of winter wheat was in fair condition or better. Only 21% was listed as poor or very poor. And at that time, about 30% had been harvested.

Ibrahim reported leaf rust was a problem again this year in the southern regions of the state, although not as severe as in previous years.

“It’s been wet in many areas of the Blacklands, so much so that we didn’t get to apply second dose of nitrogen this year,” he said. “Our yields were 50 to 60 bushels per acre instead of the 70 or 80 bushels per acre we typically see there.

Rudd said the weather has definitely provided the most optimum conditions to find the hardiest varieties.

“The reason our varieties are such strong performers under stress is because they have been bred and selected under stress,” he said.

In 2018, there was almost no rain and 2019 there was a lot of rain and good yields. Now in 2020, the rains were in the middle – decent early rains and then some snow through February and March, before they shut off.

“This gives us a good diversity of what we need when looking at different germplasm. Since breeding is a long multi-year process, something that can do really well in all three years are definitely keepers,” Rudd said.“There are several experimental lines coming through the pipeline that we feel very good about. What we have in the pipeline are better than the existing varieties. The process works.”

By: Kay Ledbetter

The Texas landscape is changing and becoming more urban. In her new role in Dallas — one of the fastest-growing cities in the country — Dr. Becky Bowling hopes to see that urban landscape become more water efficient and uniquely, beautifully Texan in the future.

“I would say conservation is my passion,” Bowling said. “And I’m really interested in it from an urban perspective.”

Bowling is an assistant professor in the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialist for urban water at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research at the Dallas Center. She works closely with the center’s Water University group, as well as doing work for the Texas Water Resources Institute.

New connectionsBowling sees Dallas as an opportunity to make new conservation connections in Texas’ growing urban landscape.

“Historically, there’s always been a lot of focus on large-scale producers farming conventional agriculture,” Bowling said of water conservation overall.

“But I think now we’re starting to recognize that the average homeowner, especially when you’ve got 8 million of them concentrated in one area, can have a really significant impact on the environment, particularly in the city where they’re living.”

More and more people are living in Dallas these days. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex saw the largest increase in resident population of any metro area in the entire country, adding 1,206,599 new residents between 2010 and 2019.

“Dallas is a really great place to launch some exploration into understanding what grabs people’s decision making and how to adapt to different audiences to have the greatest impact,” Bowling said. She added that reaching out to previously under-engaged groups that can play a big role in urban water conservation is a big part of her goals for the future.

“Some of my research looking at this from a multi-faceted approach is not just looking at the end-user, the homeowner, but also looking at the role that some other entities play.”

Bowling explained that groups between the municipal water utilities and the homeowner can play a big role in how residents use water in the urban landscape, making them important players in urban water conservation.

For example, homebuilders can have a significant influence on a landscape’s initial design. Homeowners associations (HOAs) can control homeowners’ subsequent landscape decisions. Professional landscapers also are a source of advice and information to homeowners on maintenance decisions. All these groups can be important players in urban water conservation. However, these mid-level influencers have not been the focus of much water conservation outreach in the past.

Bowling wants to find out how to change that.

“How we can get everybody on board to consider conservation and prioritize conservation as resources become increasingly more limited in our state?” she asked. “I would like to build more and more resources to strengthen our relationship with anybody who’s involved in the landscape.”

Perspective shiftOne of the things Bowling hopes to see in Dallas’ — and Texas’ — future is a perspective shift when it comes to how communities define a beautiful urban landscape.

“There is this surprisingly uniform idea of what a landscape should look like — regardless of where you are or what socio-economic bracket you fall into — where the goal is monocultural turfgrass lawn, green and weedless, with a short list of landscape options,” she explained.

But what if the motivations informing urban landscape decisions were who can

be the “greenest” or who can conserve the most water? Bowling thinks Dallas is a good place to find out.

“I would love to see Dallas be a leader in what that could look like. As a rapidly growing urban population, it could be an example of a different type of value and a different type of aesthetic.”

Beautiful and sustainable are not mutually exclusive, Bowling said. Her vision of an ideal Texas aesthetic would celebrate uniqueness and recognize the variety of Texas’ many ecosystems and work with them.

“I would love to see landscapes that are very unique to not just Texas, but where you are in Texas. Native and native adapted plants that really represent your geographical region and are beautiful without a lot of extra work and effort because they’re designed to be there,” she said. “I would also love to see a little pressure off of turfgrass areas to be perfect and a more flexible mindset that allows for periods where turfgrass can go dormant during drought periods.”

“Texas is in a unique position to set an example or model what conservation can look like for urban areas that are in different ecosystems. We have several major cities that are in very different environments, get very different precipitation, experience very different annual temperatures and very different soil characteristics,” she said, adding that she sees Texas as one of the few states with such an opportunity.

“There’s an opportunity to create sustainable urban models that can set examples for other parts of the country.”

Becky Bowling discusses the future look of urban Texas landscapes

By: Kerry Halladay

The average home owner can have a significant impact on the environment through how they choose to use water in their urban landscapes.

Texas cotton farmers adjusting in wake of court ruling on dicamba

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service stands ready to advise producers on agronomic alternatives and options in the wake of a June 3 ruling from the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to immediately vacate the registrations of three dicamba products, Xtendimax, FeXapan and Engenia.Approximately 80% of the state’s cotton has been planted, and an estimated 60-80% is XtendFlex cotton – a dicamba-tolerant cotton that would have allowed the application of available registered dicamba herbicide products for weed control.Producers are working to determine their next moves, which are somewhat complicated by the different actions being taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Texas Department of Agriculture, TDA, as well as those pesticide registrants involved in the litigation.Dan Hale, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension associate director, College Station, suggests producers comply with the EPA existing stocks provisions by making allowable applications of products according to the specific product labels. AgriLife Extension cotton specialists and county agents also suggest producers consider selecting alternative seed options with other herbicide technologies such as 2,4-D, if they have not planted their 2020 cotton crops.BackgroundIn 2016, EPA granted conditional, two-year registrations for these three products. When this conditional registration was set to expire in late 2018, EPA approved another conditional two-year registration for the products, with additional restrictions on use, said Scott Nolte, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension state weed specialist.

In addition to being federally restricted-use pesticides, these dicamba products were “state-limited-use” pesticides in Texas, requiring specific applicator training annually prior to use, Nolte said. AgriLife Extension has offered this training to more than 7,000 producers in 2018, 4,500 in 2019 and 3,200 this year.Status of the cotton crop across TexasReports from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomists from around the state provided these estimates:– In the South Plains, an estimated 80% of the producers use the dicamba technology and at least 80% of that seed is already in the ground, said Murilo Maeda, Ph.D., Lubbock.– In the Coastal Bend region, roughly 50% of the already-planted cotton crop is using those technologies, said Josh McGinty, Ph.D., Corpus Christi.– In West Central Texas, approximately 60% of the cotton has been planted, with primarily dryland left to plant. About 70% of the producers utilize these technologies, and have already purchased seed, fungicide and some herbicides, said Reagan Noland, Ph.D., San Angelo.– In the Rolling Plains region, about 80% of the producers incorporated the technology into this year’s crop, which is 70% planted, said Emi Kimura, Ph.D., Vernon.– In the High Plains, all cotton acres are planted, as the last date to plant was May 31, and at least 50% or more of the producers use these technologies, said Jourdan Bell, Ph.D., Amarillo.Moving forward without the dicamba technologiesNolte and Peter Dotray, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research weed scientist, Lubbock, suggest affected producers consider some alternative weed control options to address management problems

considering this new development.Preplant and at-plant soil residual herbicides were used by most growers, and it will be critical to use additional soil residual herbicides such as Dual, Warrant and Outlook early or mid- postemergence, regardless of what postemergence herbicide is used, they said.“Based on the EPA’s order, we expect growers to continue to rely on dicamba until July 31,” Dotray said. “When dicamba is limited or not available, glyphosate and/or glufosinate may be used at one or both of the postemergence application timings. We may see more cultivation and hooded sprayers used to manage weeds.”Producers can access the latest version of the AgriLife Extension cotton weed management guide for more information.Additionally, Syngenta’s Tavium Plus Vapor Grip, which was registered separately in 2019, was not included in this litigation. Its registration, which allows application to Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans and Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton, remains in place. It has label restrictions that must be followed. In cotton, a single postemergence application may be made until the 6-leaf cotton stage or 60 days after planting, whichever comes first.Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has said he will formally request a Section 18 exemption from the EPA to allow the continued use of dicamba in Texas under emergency conditions.An Emergency Exemption under Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, FIFRA, would authorize EPA to allow limited use of the pesticide in defined geographic areas for a finite period once the EPA confirms that the situation meets the statutory definition of an “emergency condition.”

By: Kay Ledbetter

Two graduate students from the Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Tia Dunbar and Ammani Kyanam, were among those named as Borlaug Scholars for 2020 by the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB).Dunbar, a Master’s student under Dr. Michael Thomson, and Kyanam, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Bill Rooney, each want to help improve agriculture through plant breeding, but they are approaching it from different angles.

Dunbar is working to optimize “in planta” gene editing techniques using nanotechnologies, while Kyanam is mapping QTL for sugarcane aphid tolerance, and evaluating a chemical male gametocide.“Most gene editing methods for crop improvement require time and labor-intensive in vitro tissue culture techniques,” Dunbar said in her application. “Bypassing the in vitro regeneration processes could facilitate gene editing and expand its use.”“If we are successful, our optimized gene editing protocol will enable accelerated improvement of rice,” Dunbar said.

While her research currently focuses on rice, Dunbar hopes to pursue a career that applies gene-editing techniques to a broader range of organisms. “Growing up, my family did not always have access to healthy food, so I chose to major in Plant Breeding to learn more about crop improvement,” Dunbar said. “I see biotechnology as the key to manipulate agriculture to better serve the growing population and ease the suffering caused by hunger and malnutrition.”“I chose to pursue agriculture because of Dr. Borlaug, but I chose plant breeding when I learned how direct an impact it had on the livelihoods of farmers, especially small farmers,” Kyanam said. As an undergraduate at the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University in Hyderabad, India, Kyanam participated in the Rural Agricultural Work Experience Programme (RAWEP), where she shadowed a small farmer for a crop season.“My enquiries showed me that farmers had progressive views about purchasing seed, and the boon that was BT cotton,” she said. “It also helped that my father was a seed salesman and I had learned how important quality seed is to a farming operation.”Fortunately for Kyanam, she not only loved plant breeding as a subject, but also has a knack for it. Her current focus is streamlining the sorghum breeding process.“For my Ph.D. research, I am testing a chemical gametocide, Triflouromethanesulfonamide to assess its potential in generating testcross hybrid seed,” she said. “Hybrid seed production relies on male-sterile seed parents and the current process to develop those parents is tedious and time consuming.”Kyanam plans to pursue a career in an

applied breeding program, developing new breeding materials and commercial hybrids, as well as evaluating pre-commercial hybrids.“My secondary goal is to work in science communication and to contribute to clearing up the misinformation that is so prevalent,”Kyanam said.Both young women are active outside the classroom as well.Dunbar is an officer in the Texas A&M SACNAS chapter and the university’s Women in Science and Engineering organization. She is an active member of Texas A&M’s Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS), and she was on the organizing committee for the Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium in 2020.Kyanam is a founding member of the Corteva Plant Science Series’ Student Advisory Council, and a graduate student liaison for NAPB’s Communication Committee. She has chaired several plant breeding symposia at Texas A&M, and was a founding officer in the Soil and Crop Sciences Graduate Organization.

Tia Dunbar is among those named as Borlaug Scholars for 2020 by the National Association of Plant Breeders. (Photo by Beth Ann Luedeker)

Ammani Kyanam is one of the students selected as a National Association of Plant Breeders Borlaug Scholar for 2020.

Graduate students named 2020 Borlaug Scholars by plant breeding association

By: Beth Ann Luedeker

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recognizes excellent students and faculty

Each spring, Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hosts an awards ceremony to recognize outstanding students and faculty in the college. With the early closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, these individuals were recognized in a virtual ceremony.

Among the honorees were four seniors and one faculty member from the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. Ryan Earp, Shelby Ferguson, Nick Frisbee and Sarah Marsh were named Senior Merit winners, and Dr. Kathy Carson received the Gail W. and David P. Marion ‘65 Teaching Award.

Ryan Earp was a Turfgrass Science major from Florence, TX. As an undergraduate he was very involved with the Turfgrass Club, serving as President for 2019-20. He participated in the Sports Turf Managers Association Student Challenge, placing 5th in 2019 and 4th in 2020. He was a Terry Scholar, and volunteered with Sports for Kids and the Florence FFA alumni organization.

Earp was as student worker with the Texas A&M field staff for the past two years, completed internships with Scotts MiracleGro and The Preserve Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee, and was engaged in undergraduate research investigating the viability of spent coffee grounds as a potential fertilizer source.

Earp earned his Bachelor’s degree and a minor in Business this May. He will be pursuing his Master of Science in Turfgrass Breeding this fall at Oklahoma State University.

Shelby Ferguson, Spring, TX, was a Plant and Environmental Soil Science and Turfgrass Science double major and part of the Honors program. Shelby was a member of the Turfgrass Club and served as Treasurer and Communications/Website coordinator. She represented Texas A&M at two national competitions as a member of the Turf Bowl team, and holds national offices in both the American Pinzgauer Cattle Association and the National Junior Santa Gertrudis Cattle Association.

Ferguson was a student worker with the Texas A&M AgriLife Soil, Water and Forage Testing Lab and the Turfgrass Science Lab. She also worked as a Public Relations Assistant for Purpose Media Group.

Ferguson earned her Bachelor’s degrees in May, also earning minors in Agronomy and Environmental Sciences. She plans to attend graduate school, or perhaps law school, to become an advocate for the agriculture industry.

Nickolas Frisbee, of Harper, TX, earned his degree in Plant and Environmental Soil Science. He was an active member of the Texas A&M Agronomy Society and the Texas A&M Soils Judging team which qualified for Nationals in 2019-20. He was active in CARPOOL, a student-run, volunteer organization striving to eliminate drinking and driving in Bryan/College Station. He was also a member of ASA/SSSA/CSSA and a delegate to the national conference where he placed first with his internship poster presentation.

Frisbee completed an internship with the corn breeding division of Bayer Crop Science in Kunia, HI, and participated in undergraduate research studying the impact of tillage practices on soil health and grain yields at three locations in Texas. He was a student worker in the department’s instruction office, earning the department’s Outstanding Student Worker award in 2020.

Frisbee completed his Bachelor’s degree in May and will be pursuing a graduate degree in crop science or plant breeding.

Sarah Marsh was a Plant and Environmental Soil Science major from Arbuckle, CA. She was an active member of several organizations including Alpha Zeta, where she served as President; Texas A&M Agronomy Society, where she served as Secretary; and the Texas A&M women’s rugby team. She was also a member of Students of Agronomy, Soils, and Environmental Sciences (SASES), ASA and CSSA.

Marsh was selected as a Borlaug Scholar for 2019 by the National Association of Plant Breeders and the Texas A&M President’s Endowed Scholarship. She was a student worker for the AgriLife Vegetable Breeding Lab, and the Soil Fertility Lab. In addition, she completed internships with the University of California Cooperative Extension and Corteva AgriScience.

Marsh earned her Bachelor’s degree and a minor in Plant Breeding in May. She will be continuing her education in Agronomy and Horticulture focused on weed ecology and management. Her ultimate goal is a career in extension.

Ryan Earp

Shelby Ferguson

Nick Frisbee

Sarah Marsh

Dr. Kathy Carson has over 20 years of experience in academia as a teacher, scientist and mentor. Her primary research focus is pesticide fate in environmental systems. She has taught several graduate and undergraduate courses, including Methods of Plant, Soil and Water Analysis in Environmental Systems, Weed Biology and Ecology, Problem Solving in Plant and Soil Systems, and World Food and Fiber Crops.

Carson earned her Master’s degree in Agronomy from Texas A&M in 1995, and her Ph.D. in Agronomy from The University of Arkansas in 1999. She then returned to Texas A&M and has been with the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences since.

She has been recognized by the department for her contributions in research support and teaching, and by the Southern Weed Science Society for her role as coach in weed judging. Dr. Carson has co-authored seven journal publications, chaired one Master’s student and served on three other graduate

committees. She has spent numerous years mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students in the department.

The Gail W. and David P. Marion ‘65 Teaching Award she received was established in 2012 to recognize a faculty member in the college who routinely teaches and mentors freshman and sophomore students and is an effective communicator. Dr. Kathy Carson, Instructional

Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

continued from previous page

Texas A&M University Council of Principal Investigators elections held

Three members of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences were among the 24 Principal Investigators elected to the 2020-21 Council of Prinicipal Investigators.Dr. David Stelly, Professor and cotton breeder in College Station; Dr. Lee Tarpley, Professor and crop physiologist in Beaumont; and Qingwu Xue, Associate Professor and Regents Fellow in Amarillo, will serve the 2,090 PIs across the Texas A&M University research community.Stelly is the council’s new Vice Chair. Tarpley will be serving his second term with the council.Texas A&M University is well known for its research. The Council of Principal Investigators is tasked with enhanc-ing the research environment to optimize the success of the students, faculty and staff involved.“In my experiences, CPI provides functions pivotal to the success of our PIs, our institutions, and indeed, all re-searchers at them. Our research success greatly impacts the institutions reputation, and its ability to meet educa-tional and service missions as well,” said Stelly in his nomination letter. “I will strive to help CPI serve these roles and needs, and to help mold our future to the best possible.”

Sympathies and Concerns

All those whose lives and careers were disrupted by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

Dana McMahon and her family as they mourn the loss of her mother-in-law, Sue McMahon, who passed away June 10. Dana is the Business Administrator for the department.

The family of Dr. Morris Merkle, retired weed scientist, who passed away in May. He was a recognized scholar and teacher.

Please keep these members of our Soil & Crop Sciences family in your thoughts and prayers.

The golf industry is under increasing public pressure to improve environmental impacts by reducing management inputs, particularly irrigation water. The concept of site-specific management (also referred to as precision turfgrass management) is a viable strategy to achieve reductions by making applications only where, when, and in the amount needed.

Many golf course superintendents already make site-specific irrigation applications, to a certain degree; for example, programing individual heads within fairways to irrigate more or less often than others based on perceived dry or wet areas. This answers some of the where question, but when water should be applied and how much to apply remain unanswered.

Utilizing weather data to replace water lost from surface evaporation and turfgrass transpiration is a proven method to reduce water use and can be an answer for the when and how much questions; however, it is difficult to account for small-scale spatial variations, which lead to “blanket” applications over entire fairways although certain areas may not require any water at all.

In-ground soil moisture sensors are currently available that measure soil moisture in real-time. The majority of these sensors are wireless and installed a few inches below the surface. Placing multiple sensors in designated areas throughout a golf course and monitoring the data can aid in irrigation scheduling once soil moisture values reach a threshold.

GPS-equipped soil moisture sensors (mostly handheld) are also currently available and capable of obtaining georeferenced point data for creating maps to identify soil moisture variability across a golf course. These maps can be utilized to determine soil moisture classes within management zones, where zones with the same class have comparable soil moisture values and can be irrigated similarly.

Combined use of these technologies may assist in more precise, site-specific irrigation applications that could lead to significant water reductions beyond the ET-based irrigation scheduling method.

As of 2015, only 33% of golf course superintendents were utilizing soil moisture sensor devices (Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, 2015), and primarily the handheld versions on putting greens, which demonstrates that most are irrigating their golf course fairways based on when they feel it is necessary. The lack of adoption towards soil moisture sensor and mapping technologies is likely due to a combination of factors, such as cost, time, and lack of familiarity. Additionally, there is currently no available protocol to guide data collection for further analyses and interpretation.

With all of this in mind, while at the University of Minnesota I worked closely with the Minnesota Golf Course Superintendents Association (MGCSA) to develop a free protocol that outlines step-by-step instructions to collect and analyze GPS soil moisture data, so that golf courses can have a baseline for developing a more data-driven irrigation management plan.

The detailed protocol outlines step-by-step instructions to collect georeferenced soil moisture data with a GPS-equipped, handheld soil moisture meter, which can then be used to create fairway soil moisture maps and irrigation management zones with free mapping software.

A system was also put in place in Minnesota where those who do not have access to a GPS-equipped soil moisture meter can borrow a MGCSA- or fellow member-owned device. The protocol takes one person 2-3 days to complete, so time and labor are still required; however, it is our hope that the protocol is used as an educational tool to get golf course superintendents’ foot in the door with mapping technologies and data-driven management until more efficient methods of data collection become available.

The protocol, which is available at no charge, is applicable to any type of golf course and to-date has been downloaded from golf course superintendents in 21 states, plus areas of Canada. Positive outcomes anticipated from this initiative, include water conservation, reduced water cost, increased familiarity with new technologies, state agency acknowledgement with potential long-term impact on water priorities, and added membership value to local participating associations.

It can be found by searching online for “golf course soil moisture mapping protocol” or in the “Useful Links” section of aggieturf.tamu.edu website.

A protocol for data-driven golf course irrigationBy: Chase Straw, Ph.D.

Final map after completing the golf course soil moisture mapping protocol, where irrigation classes have been assigned to individual irrigation heads based on surrounding soil moisture values

Welcome to the Department!Several new staff members have joined the department in the last few weeks.

Russ Garetson returned to the department July 1 as an Extension Program Specialist. He is working with Dr. Fernando Guillen in small grains and oilseeds.Garetson is very familiar with our department. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Plant and Environmental Soil Science, 2015, and his Master’s in Agronomy, 2017, both at Texas A&M.As a student, he was a member of the Agronomy Club, the Motorcycle Club and the W5AC Amateur Radio Club.After receiving his Master’s, Garetson spent a few years working as an agronomist for an agricultural cooperative and then as a clinical sales rep for Allergan, while he helped his grandparents on their farm in Iowa.He enjoyed living in Iowa, but really wanted to get back home to Texas.“It feels great to be back. There is no place like home,” Garetson said. “I always loved this area and now that I am setting down roots, I couldn’t be more excited.”Garetson and his wife, Amanda, were just married this April. She is an Iowa native, but is loving Texas, he said.

Weston Floyd joined the turfgrass staff July 1 as a research specialist. He will be assisting Dr. Chase Straw with turfgrass research as well as assisting undergraduates and graduate student research.Floyd is returning to Aggieland after a fifteen year absence. He earned a double major in Agronomy and Entomology from Texas A&M in 2005. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Aggie Turf Club and served as the Vice President and President. He was also a member of Squadron 8, and worked at the campus golf course, Penberthy and was a member of the A&M field staff. For the past seven years he has served as an athletic field and sports turf specialist for the University of Texas at Austin. He was responsible for the maintenance of the McCombs softball field and assisted with the maintenance of all other athletic facilities.“I am looking forward to the opportunity to work in research and promote better cultural practices in the turfgrass industry,” Floyd said. “I enjoy talking about turf and learning new techniques for safe and healthy fields.”“I also enjoy playing with new turf

technology, and I viewed this job as an opportunity to do that every day”, he said.Floyd is a member of the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) and currently the president of the Texas chapter (TXSTMA). He has won the Texas Turfgrass Association (TTA) Field of the Year in baseball, softball and soccer.Floyd’s wife, Angie, is an 8th grade math teacher and they have one daughter, Mallory.

Colby Bass joined the department in late June as a Research Assistant. He will be working in Dr. Seth Murray’s corn breeding program.He is from Downsville, LA.Bass earned his Bachelor’s degree in Secondary education from Louisiana Tech University in May, 2020.While an undergraduate, he worked with the Louisiana Tech cattle operation.“I joined the research program because I wanted to be a member of the Aggie community,” Bass said. He plans to pursue his Master of Science degree while he is here.Bass and his fiancé, Madeline, plan to get married early next year. She has been accepted to the Texas A&M vet school, and will begin this fall.

Russ Garetson

Weston Floyd

Colby Bass

Bayer announces 2020 BBIS Impact Award winners

Bayer recently announced the winners of the 2020 Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars (BBIS) Ted Crosbie Impact Award.First place winner is Dr. Prakash Gangashetty, lead scientist for pearl millet breeding at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics, ICRISAT. The two second place winners were Drs. Filippo Bassi, Senior Scientist in the ICARDA wheat breeding program, and Sabrina Elias, Assistant Professor, Independent University, Bangladesh.The BBIS program has been helping graduate students focused on rice and wheat for the past ten years.“Through leadership and oversight by Texas A&M AgriLife and Dr. Ed Runge, the program has supported 89 Ph.D. students through their academic careers, in both developed and undeveloped countries,” the announcement read.This is the second year the award has been presented. It was designed to honor the legacy of plant breeders Drs. Henry Beachell and Norman Borlaug and the devotion of Dr. Ted Crosbie to developing leaders.

Dr. Prakash Gangashetty was named the 2020 BBIS Ted Crosbie Impact Award winner.

Dr. Sabrina Elias, above, and Dr. Filippo Bassi, below, were finalists for the award.

Showing off COVID beards/haircuts

Dr. Calvin Trostle decided to remove his beard. It’s the first time since they have been married that his wife has seen him without one. She was reportedly not a fan...

Below: Dr. Jake Mowrer grew tomatoes and watermelon radishes instead of a beard.

Stephen Labar is his own barber, so it was business as usual for him. Instead he built a prototype finger weeder precision cultivator he may call the Covidivator.

Left: Research Assistant, Scott Wilde, rocks the quintessential COVID look.

Below: Even Dr. Baltensperger let himself go... a little bit.

Ben Wherley took it to the extreme...

Barbara Childress grabbed the wrong guard and took off a little more than she planned. This is two weeks later!

Calendar

SeptemberSeptember

AugustAugust

2- Texas Watershed Stewards Workshop - Plum Creek watershed, Luling, TX contact: Michael Kuitu3 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - Arroyo-Colorado Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu 15 - Texas Watershed Stewards Workshop - Joe Pool Lake, Mansfield, TX contact: Michael Kuitu

4 - Virtual Small Grains Workers Meeting - wheat breeding and small grains variety testing teams 5 - Virtual Small Grains Workers Meeting - small grains workers6 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop, Cypress Creek Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu 11 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - Lavaca River Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu 12- Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - Tres Palacious Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu 20 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - Mill Creek Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu 21 - Stockpiled forage and winter pasture virtual program - https://agriliferegister.tamu.edu/pasture26 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - Leon River Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu 20 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - Lampasas River Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu

JulyJuly8 - UPL/Advanta virtual field day Contact: Josh McGinty9 - Annual Beaumont Rice Field Day - virtual16 - LRGV field crops virtual field day Contact: Josh McGinty19-21 - Texas Turfgrass Assoc. virtual Summer Conference, Horseshoe Bay, TX28 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop, Cedar Bayou Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu

Looking AheadLooking AheadOctober 3 - Healthy Lawns Healthy Waters online workshop - San Jacinto west fork Contact: johnwsmith@tamu.edu November 12 - Texas Watershed Stewards Workshop - Lake Livingston, Livingston, TX Contact: Michael Kuitu