Soil for Water Workshop  

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, in partnership with the Cypress Creek Project and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) hosted a Soil for Water workshop featuring local conservation leaders Peggy Sechrist – Soil for Water Coordinator and Steve Nelle – Natural Resource Specialist in Wimberley. 

The event took place on Mar. 3 at the Wimberley Community Center and Jacob’s Well Natural Area and was attended by over 45 individuals interested in protecting the Cypress Creek watershed. The topics discussed included soil and range management techniques, riparian restoration techniques and riparian ecosystem monitoring. Participants learned how to improve the condition of their land, store more water on-site, increase biodiversity and productivity, and how to reduce the effect of drought and flooding.

“Improving soil health is one of the most efficient approaches to watershed protection,” Fellow of The Meadows Center and Cypress Creek Project Coordinator Meredith Miller said. “Healthy soil that is rich in organic matter acts like a living sponge - holding tens of thousands of gallons of water per acre and slowly releasing it to plants, springs, rivers, and aquifers.”

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) Soil for Water initiative is a program aimed at catching and holding more rainwater in soil. Increasing soil health makes land more resilient during drought. Furthermore, when heavy rainfall occurs, more water can infiltrate before running off into our creeks and rivers. For more information on the Soil for Water Program, please visit https://www.ncat.org/soilforwater/.

This event was supported in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.