Omkar Kannan, 14 months, sits on his mother, Rajani Srinivasan's lap while he plays with balloons at the Blackland Research and Extension Center's 100th birthday party.  Srinivasan is an AgriLife research scientist at Blackland, which was created in 1909 as part of Texas AgriLife Research (formerly Texas Agricultural Experiment Station), the state research agency affiliated with the Texas A&M System.  It is one of 13 off-campus research and extension centers that performs research and delivers education programs to ensure a safe and affordable food supply; save and restore the environment; and strengthen the economy, according to its Web site.

--Reprinted with permission of Temple Daily Telegram

RIESEL - This modest McLennan County farm town of 2,600, just 35 minutes from Temple, holds some key solutions to quenching a parched planet.

In this photo from the late 1930s, technicians take streamflow measurements at a Brushy Creek sampling station located on private land downstream of the federally owned Riesel Watersheds.
--Courtesy photo

Located just 2½ miles from the town’s center is the 840-acre Agricultural Research Service experimental watershed facility nicknamed the Riesel Watersheds. The facility is world-renowned for its research in hydrology and water quality - the study of water, its use and its conservation. Throughout its 72-year operation, it has been divided into smaller watersheds in the Brushy Creek watershed for research purposes.

The site manager is Dr. Daren Harmel, agricultural engineer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple. ARS - USDA’s chief scientific research agency - owns and operates the Riesel Watersheds but works closely with Texas AgriLife Research.

“As farmers’ and ranchers’ needs change and weather patterns shift, the research emphasis changes to meet those needs,” Harmel said.

Currently, Harmel’s research focuses on keeping applied fertilizer on crop and pasture land and out of nearby streams.

“We’re constantly considering what issues we can address at Riesel. Right now, we’re trying to optimize fertilizer use. We want farmers to put out exactly what the crop needs, and nothing more, to maximize their profits,” Harmel said. “If farmers put out too much fertilizer or apply at the wrong time, the crops can’t utilize it and they have wasted money. In addition, excess fertilizers can get into streams and rivers, which is bad environmentally. Excess fertilizer in water can stimulate growth of undesirable aquatic plants, degrading wildlife habitat and increasing water treatment costs.”

Dr. Daren Harmel, agricultural engineer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Station, stands in one of the pastures in the Brushy Creek watershed at the Riesel Watersheds. The site is a working farm as well as a world-class research facility.
--Courtesy photo

In this cooperative project with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Harmel and Dr. Rick Haney are using this world-class research farm to solve real-life agricultural production problems and to protect the environment.

Harmel’s research at Riesel and other sites has led to national attention. Recently, the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers named Harmel winner of one of its most prestigious honors, the New Holland Young Researcher Award. He was honored for his outstanding achievements and contributions to agricultural hydrology and water quality research.

Harmel conceived and developed improved methods for sampling water quality on small watersheds. Federal, state and local agencies, universities and consulting firms are using his research for everything from project implementation and product design to writing regulations.

Harmel’s research is even affecting gas well drilling in North Texas. The city of Denton, sitting on the gas-rich Barnett Shale, contacted him for an economical, accurate method of measuring water quality from the ever-growing number of gas production sites.

At Riesel, Harmel and his team of technicians oversees 13 water-monitoring stations and 15 rain gauges that measure rainfall, runoff and water quality on the various kinds of lands found in Central Texas - native prairie, improved pasture and cultivated cropland.

“The Riesel Watersheds facility is an excellent site for visitors to learn about state-of-the-art hydrologic and water quality instrumentation,” Harmel said. “That’s because very few sites have the type and amount of instrumentation and infrastructure we have to measure hydrologic processes on actual landscapes.”

As a result, the Grassland Research Lab in Temple and the Riesel Watersheds have attracted scientists from throughout the world - Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Pakistan and the United Kingdom - as well as the United States.

The black waxy soil of Central Texas intrigues foreign visitors.

“This soil is infamous for its shrinking and swelling, which causes considerable soil movement and damage to building and road foundations,” Harmel added.

The USDA opened the Riesel Watersheds in 1937 as part of the New Deal’s attempt to pull farmers out of the deep economic doldrums and to prevent massive erosion losses as occurred in the Dust Bowl. The facility was established on the heels of the Great Depression in the 1930s, when droughts, dust storms, plant diseases and general economic malaise seemed like unsolvable problems.

“In the 1930s, the USDA realized the importance of understanding hydrologic processes on agricultural fields and watersheds,” Harmel said. “It established three experimental watersheds. Of the three, the Riesel Watersheds and the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed in Ohio are still operating.”

Thousands of acres of fertile farmlands literally “blew away” in dust storms, prompted by droughts. For example, an Oklahoma agronomist estimated that a 100,000-square-mile dust storm was enough dirt in the air to cover 5 million acres 1 foot deep during the 1930s drought, according to “Dust Bowl” by Donald Wooster.

The Riesel facility has dovetailed well into the Temple-based Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Service, a leader in controlling undesirable plants that compete with grasses on rangelands.

The Grassland Lab has developed new strains of pasture and range grasses and pioneered efforts to develop computer simulation of agricultural processes. Many of its projects focus on computer models and databases used for soil and water testing, geographic-information systems, and other projects based on large sets of data on soils, water and other natural resources throughout Texas and the world.

Dollar for dollar, Agricultural Research Service research nets big returns for the U.S. population, Harmel said. For example, Research Service scientists developed a technique that eradicated the screwworm from the U.S. and Central America. Now a problem of the past, this parasite once infected livestock, wildlife and humans - costing untold dollars and many lives.

“This one ARS accomplishment continues to save the U.S. beef industry millions of dollars, and there are countless other examples like this.” Harmel said. “If a hot topic comes up, ARS can snap its fingers and immediately dispatch scientists to work on it. No other agency can do that. As scientists we’re told here’s the problem, you solve it for the American people. What a great opportunity and responsibility.”

pbenoit@temple-telegram.com

--Reprinted with permission of Temple Daily Telegram

July 16, 2009 - Soil testing is widely recommended to farmers and ranchers who have to make decisions on how much fertilizer to apply to their fields or pastures, but an Agriculture Research Service researcher believes that the plant itself can be a more accurate analysis than a traditional soil test.

Dr. Rick Haney, ARS soil scientist at the Grassland, Soil and Water Research Lab in Temple, Texas, discusses methods of tracking fertilizer usage by the plant in order to determine the amount of fertilizer to apply.
--Staff photo by Coppedge

Speaking to producers at a recent Central Texas crops tour, ARS soil scientist Rick Haney said that not fertilizing is not an option, but over-fertilizing can be just as damaging to the producers' bottom line and the land itself. Finding just the right amount of fertilizer to apply is the key, he said.

"Every corn plant is its own soil test," Haney said. "We know how much nutrient uptake we need to grow a bushel of wheat, corn, or sorghum. Using that as a base, you can figure out your own fertilizer needs."

On test plots at the Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple and on various farms in Central Texas, Haney has established test plots of between two and five acres. The plots are treated the same as the rest of the field except for two things: they do not receive fertilizer and they are harvested separately.

Using the results of a soil test that Haney has developed that checks levels of ammonium nitrate, phosphate and one-day CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels, Haney makes fertilizer recommendations for the field. By comparing the results from the fertilized and non-fertilized fields, it's easy to see how many nutrients it takes to grow a crop, he said.

Noting that farmers usually put out about 22,000 seeds per acre to produce their annual yield, Haney said, "You use the yield from this field plot to calculate the nutrients removed by the crop. In other words, this calculation is essentially the plant nutrients that will be available for the growing season.

"It's sort of like taking 22,000 soil samples per acre but only better because it eliminates all the steps necessary to analyze the soil and the margin of error associated with the analysis. It's more exact, more precise."

Using statistics from the 2007 Texas Agricultural Statistics Service, Haney estimates that producers from District 31, which includes about 813,000 cultivated acres, could have saved at least 35 pounds of nitrogen per acre.

"That's also nitrogen fertilizer that isn't applied to the soil, which reduces nitrogen loss from runoff that otherwise would end up in our lakes, streams and groundwater," he added.

Much of Haney's work for ARS is aimed at helping producers save money during a time of volatile fertilizer prices and uncertain markets. Even before input costs skyrocketed, Haney advocated using nutrients already available in the soil to save money on fertilizer.

"We can't afford to over-fertilize, or to use a certain amount of fertilizer for no other reason than that's how we've always done it or it's how our fathers did it," he said. "These have been some tough times, but it has taught us to be more efficient."

Another tip Haney has for producers is in the calculation of liquid fertilizer, namely whether it should be applied by the gallon or by weight.

"Most liquid fertilizer concentrates weigh 10 to 11 pounds per gallon," he said. "That means it makes about nine gallons of liquid to compare to 100 pounds of dry fertilizer. If the dry fertilizer costs nine dollars per hundred, you should be on guard if the liquid fertilizer of the same formulation costs more than a dollar per gallon."

Fertilizers of the same grade, formulation, placement and rates give nearly identical responses whether liquid or dry, he said.

Producers interested in learning more about Haney's soil-testing methods or those interested in having Haney conduct a test for them can contact him at (254) 770-6503 or at rick.haney@ars.usda.gov .

 House Resolution for Blackland Research Center

Did you know that there’s a world-famous outdoor research facility right here in central Texas?  It’s located about 2-1/2 miles east of Riesel, and while it’s officially called the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory, it’s commonly known as the Riesel Watersheds.  The facility was established in 1937 as the Blacklands Experimental Watershed and is operated by ARS—the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture—in cooperation with Texas AgriLIFE Research.

Engineer and site manager Daren Harmel in a native hay field at the USDA-ARS Riesel Watersheds.

The USDA-ARS Riesel Watersheds have provided valuable information to the water resource community for more than 70 years, making it one of the longest continuously monitored hydrologic research sites in the country.  Long-term data sets are very rare, thus the 70 year data record from Riesel is extremely valuable for management of water supply, water quality, and flood impacts and for optimal design of culverts, bridges, detention basins and reservoirs.  The information produced at Riesel is continually used by university, federal and state agency, and private consulting firms in hydraulic design, flood analysis, and infrastructure planning.

Currently, 13 water monitoring stations and 15 rain gauges are in operation to measure rainfall, runoff, and water quality on native prairie, improved pasture, and cultivated cropland.  In addition to the active “edge- of-field” runoff sites, several larger stations located on Brushy Creek were monitored in the past.

Visitors from across the United States and around the world come to Riesel to see the research site.  In the last few years, we’ve given tours to scientists from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, as well as professors and students from several universities, including Purdue, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa State, Texas A&M, North Texas, Baylor, Louisiana State, and UT-San Antonio.

Streamflow measurements at a Brushy Creek sampling station in the late 1930’s. This station was located on private land downstream of the federally-owned smaller watersheds.

Baylor University Geology Department professor Peter Allen says his department uses the Riesel Watersheds for senior and graduate classes in hydrology “because Riesel is an excellent example of a world-class hydrologic field lab with examples of instrumentation from weather stations to weirs.”

The Riesel Watersheds facility is an excellent site for visitors to learn about state-of-the-art hydrologic and water quality instrumentation.  That’s because very few sites have the type and amount of instrumentation we have to measure rainfall, runoff, and water quality from small agricultural watersheds.  Visitors also come to site the see the Texas State Soil, which is Houston Black Clay.  This soil is infamous for its shrinking and swelling, which causes considerable soil movement and damage to building and road foundations.

Another valuable feature at the Riesel Watersheds is a remnant (native) prairie site, which provides a valuable baseline (natural background) view of water quality in the Texas Blackland Prairie.    

The site is managed as a typical Central Texas farm and ranch operation and is designed to provide field-scale, real-world information, which is a real plus for Riesel.  In a recently published a paper on the history of the Riesel Watersheds, I noted that in the mid-1930s USDA realized the importance of understanding hydrologic processes on agricultural fields and watersheds and established three experimental watersheds.  Of the three, the Riesel Watersheds and the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed near Coshocton, Ohio, are still operating.

Because water supply shortage, flood occurrence, and water quality degradation will increasingly affect the environment and future generations, watershed-based studies continue to be needed to solve these problems.  With the Riesel Watersheds and ARS scientific expertise, we are here ready and willing to attack these new challenging questions and develop effective, economical solutions.

If you have questions or would like a tour of the site, please contact me at 254-770-6521 (daren.harmel@ars.usda.gov).

Erin Witherington spent part of her 11-week internship with the Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory knee deep in sludge taking soil samples. She was happy to do it.

Witherington is finishing her degree in the Biotechnology Program of the Texas Bioscience Institute. Thursday she will give her internship presentation on “The Role of Biotechnology in Agroecology.”

Erin Witherington works with Mari-Vaughn Johnson, research agronomist in the greenhouse at Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory. They are measuring growth rates of invasive rangeland grasses.
--photo by Scott Gaulin/Telegram

The two-year associate degree in applied science prepares students to work in the biotechnology field, including medical research, forensics and agriculture research.

The Temple area is rich in resources for medical and clinical research, said Katie Burrows, chair of the department of associate of applied science in biotechnology.

It’s no surprise that many of the students choose to focus on medical and clinical research, but Witherington had different preferences.

“Erin liked the molecular research work, but she was also interested in environmental issues - remediation and biofuels,” Burrows said.

She contacted USDA Agriculture Research Service and Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple to see if they would be willing to take Witherington as an intern.

Witherington works with Dr. Virginia Jin, ecologist, and Dr. Mari-Vaughn Johnson, research agronomist, both with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service and Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory.

Jin and Johnson are working on a grant with the Hornsby Bends Biosolids Project - where Austin’s sewage and yard trimmings are recycled and turned into biosolids applied to land or turned into Dillo Dirt, a natural compost.

Soil samples are collected to ascertain nitrogen and carbon content. Soil chemistry analysis looks at trace metal content to determine if it’s in an acceptable range, because the land is used to grow hay for farm animals.

Since Hornsby Bends is close to the Colorado River, runoff is a concern. It’s also a bird habitat and that has to be considered when looking at the health of the land.

When Witherington began her internship, she was able to hit the ground running and start collecting soil samples, Johnson said.

Witherington has been processing the core samples taken at different areas in the Hornsby Bends site.

The cores are cut into small pieces, dried out, then tested to see what’s getting down into the soil, depending on the amount of waste applied in that area.

Witherington also works with Jim Kiniry on biofuels research.

“We try to make it as dynamic as we can for the intern,” Johnson said. “Erin has been exposed to all types of work - in the lab, field and greenhouse. We’ve been very impressed with her work, and Jim Kiniry has been able to extend her internship through the summer.”

This internship is great for young potential scientists, because they can get their feet wet, she said. They can find out what it’s really like to get out and take soil cores samples filled with municipal waste.

“I’ve smelled worse,” Witherington said.

The research community is losing soil scientists, losing people who might be interested, Johnson said.

“It may be a disconnect in the school between students and the environment,” she said. “You ask a kid where his shirt came from and the answer will be Wal-Mart rather than cotton.”

Students in the biotechnology program take the typical science and math classes required during the first year of most allied health classes. In the second year, the classes include laboratory instrumentation, laboratory methods and techniques, cell culture techniques.

Students who complete the biotechnology program are likely to continue their education.

“It’s a rigorous course load,” Burrows said. “It teaches really good skills. Researchers who have worked with the biotechnology students appreciate that the students know how to use the equipment. Our goal is to have the students well prepared for the frontline basics of working in a research lab.”

No matter what direction the students go, the same methodologies, techniques, basic skills and instruments are used, she said.

Biotechnology students have had internships at Scott & White, A&M College of Medicine and the VA.

One of the interns, Burrows said, is pursuing a four-year degree, one was hired in the lab where they had been working and another is now working at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

Witherington, who will move to Kentucky when her husband returns from Afghanistan, has been looking at what jobs are available there.

She was working on a bachelor’s degree in clinical laboratory science when she moved to Texas.

“I visited TC and they sent me to the Texas Bioscience Institute,” Witherington said. “They worked with me to get financial aid and here I am.”

Her goal is to get her master’s degree. “Even if I did leave the biotechnology field I’ve learned a lot,” she said.

The internships are where the students get their feet in the door and receive real-world experience, Burrows said. The classroom is good, but it can’t take the place of hands on activity.

“If Mrs. Burrows has another student who is interested in doing ecological or agronomic research, we’re certainly willing to host that person.” Jin said “It’s worked out fabulous for us.”

The Texas Bioscience Institute, its middle college for high school students and its college level programs, are a reality because the business community, Temple College, Scott & White, the VA and area school districts worked together to make it happen, Burrows said.

As biotechnology industry expands in Temple and startup companies move here, it will be possible for the Texas Bioscience Institute to tailor instruction to meet their needs, she said.

--Reprinted with permission of Temple Daily Telegram

by Fred Afflerbach - Telegram Business Writer

A simulation model developed by Texas AgriLife Research scientists will aid in predicting bioenergy sorghum crop yields, according to researchers.

Dr. Armen Kemanian, an AgriLife Research scientist at the Texas AgriLife Blackland Research and Extension Center in Temple, leads a team applying the EPIC model to assess potential yield of biomass sorghum.

Dr. Armen Kemanian, an AgriLife Research scientist at the Texas AgriLife Blackland Research and Extension Center in Temple, leads a team applying the Erosion Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to assess potential yield of biomass sorghum.

The model uses soil, weather and management data to obtain yield estimates.

"One critical issue is to provide a fair assessment of how much biomass can be produced in a particular region," Kemanian said.

"This production will vary from year to year.  In particular, a biomass processing plant will require certain biomass supply to operate and therefore they need an estimate of the supply available and its inter-annual variability (weather changes) in a given area."

The project applies the EPIC model developed by AgriLife Research scientist Dr. Jimmy Williams.  This as well as a sister model, the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender, allows researchers to simulate crop growth and hydrological processes in watersheds.

Processing the input data, the model EPIC can estimate biomass yield, nitrogen and phosphorus extraction and irrigation requirements, as well as nitrogen, phosphorus and temperature stress of biomass sorghum in Texas.

For example, the model suggests crops well supplied with nitrogen and water can produce significantly more than 8 tons per acre without major weather events (like hail), he said.  In dryland conditions, average yields can be about 50 percent to 60 percent of irrigated crops, but weather variations also can affect yields in the dry regions of the state.

"Of course, the simulations cannot be better than the input data," he said.  "Used with expertise and good judgement, the simulation model gives you good answers quickly and economically when the more desired field experiments are years away from providing hard data."

The AgriLife Research simulation project is receiving $4 million in state funding as part of the agency's bioenergy initiative.  The results of the project will be available through a Web accessible database.

--Reprinted with permission of Country World Central Texas

On February 4, 2009 over 50 fifth-grade gifted and talented Temple ISD students visited the Grassland, Soil, and Water Research Lab and Blackland Research Center for the 2^nd Annual Soil Festival.  While at the research station, students learned about many aspects of soil including soil formation, soil texture, the compost cycle, water quality, the soil food web and agricultural equipment used for tilling the soil.  Scientists from the center presented the students with information about the soil,  and students were given the opportunity for hands-on learning at each of the learning stations.

At the Soil Formation learning station presented by Dr. Virginia Jin, students learned about the nine different soil orders which can be found across Texas.  Students were able to view cross-sections of the nine soil profiles and compare the soil similarities and differences .  The factors of soil formation were discussed in relation to climate, parent material, topography, biology and time.

At the Soil Texture learning station presented by Evelyn Steglich and Todd Marek, students learned how to determine the type of soil by sieving soils through graduated sieves and estimating the percent of sand and clay present in the soil.

Students learn to ribbon the soil to determine whether the soil contains more clay or sand.

From this estimate they used a Soil Texture Triangle to determine what type of soil the sample was.  Students also learned how to determine in the field whether a soil contains more sand or clay by ribboning the soil sample.  Each student was given the opportunity to practice ribboning a soil sample and determine if the soil contained more clay or sand.

Students learn about items found in their homes which can be used for composting.

Students examine organisms which help in creating the compost.

At the Compost Cycle learning station presented by Dr. Dennis Hoffman, Dr. June Wolfe and Steve Potter, students learned what type of items from their homes could be used to create compost material which could then be used in the garden.  Students were able to feel and examine compost at different stages as well as examine the organisms helping to create the compost.

Students tested water samples for pH, turbidity and dissolved oxygen.

At the Water Quality learning station presented by Dr. Daren Harmel and Anne Gibson, students learned about the importance of soil-water interactions.  Students tested water samples from Salado Creek, the Middle Bosque River and tap water and determined the pH, turbidity and dissolved oxygen in each sample.

Dr. Rick Haney shows a group of fifth graders the equipment used in agricultural research.

At the Agricultural Equipment learning station presented by Dr. Rick Haney and Ron Whitis, students learned about the equipment needed for tillage and care of the soil as well as other equipment used in agricultural research.  Students learned the importance of tillage and its role in maintaining a good seed bed for successful crop growth.

Fifth grade gifted and talented student examines microorganisms found in soil samples.

At the Soil Food Web learning station presented by Dr. Wayne Polley and Dr. Phil Fay, students learned about the diversity of life in soils.  Students were able to view soil samples from a wheat field and from a never-plowed native prairie.  From these samples, students could visualize the differences in soil color and texture, and examine different numbers and types of organisms present in the two soils.

Dr. Jeff Arnold, scientist and director of lab, addresses students' questions about soils and research in general.

Students received frisbees for answering Dr. Arnold's questions.

After participating in the learning stations, students gathered for a question and answer session where they were given the opportunity to ask questions to the scientists relating to the individual learning stations as well as research and science in general.  Overall, the students and teachers enjoyed the demonstrations and hands-on opportunities and seemed eager to implement the information in their classroom activities.

The Fort Hood Training Lands Restoration and Management Program Team won the 2008 Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for the Industry/Agency/University/Association category. The team consists of Dr. William Fox of Texas AgriLife Blackland Research and Extension Center at Temple and the Texas Water Resources Institute, Brian Hays of the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources, Dr. Dennis Hoffman of the Texas AgriLife Blackland Research and Extension Center at Temple, Jerry Paruzinski of Fort Hood Integrated Training Area Management and Robert Ziehr of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The team won for its ongoing multi-agency contributions to the sustainability of Fort Hood’s training lands and the management of its natural resources; including water, soils, vegetation, and endangered species.

Recently the Texas National Guard Agribusiness Development team #2 came to the

Texas National Guard Agribusiness Development team members (front l-r) Sergeant Todd Plybon, Sergeant Major Harlan Hardy, (back l-r) First Lieutenant Brad Clark, Major John Ploch, Dr. Paul Dyke (leader of stateside support team) and Specialist Gabriel Greene.

Blackland Research and Extension Center and Texas AgriLife Research to receive training and develop a stateside support team.  Dr. Paul Dyke, a research scientist, at Blackland Research and Extension Center, Temple will lead the support team. 

The team members include Major John Ploch, First Lieutenant Brad Clark, Sergeant Major Harlan Hardy, Sergeant Todd Plybon, and Specialist Gabriel Greene.  The Texas National Guard team with supporting staff will have a total of about 65 members and will deploy to Afghanistan early in 2009 for a 8-13 month tour of duty there. 

Texas National Guard Agribusiness Development team receives training and develops stateside support team at Blackland Research and Extension Center.

Dr. Dyke became a part of this mission because he has been involved with a USAID Project in Afghanistan and has traveled to Afghanistan and has had experience with agriculture in Afghanistan over the past several years.  The National Guard team hopes to interface and gain assistance with the project from a Texas AgriLife Research staff already in Afghanistan.

A year ago this past October, six scientists from different parts of Italy journeyed to Temple, Texas for two weeks to learn the ins and outs of the WinEPIC and EPIC

Dr. Jimmy Williams and Evelyn Steglich (front center) were invited to lecture on the EPIC crop simulation model to a group of graduate students and faculty at the University of Sassari, Italy as part of a "Visiting Scientist" program funded by the University of Sassari.

 crop simulation models.  EPIC is a field-scale crop simulation model designed to simulate the interaction of natural resources (soil, water and climate) and crop management practices to estimate impacts on harvested crop yield, soil properties, soil erosion, profitability and nutrient/pesticide fate.  WinEPIC is a Windows interface to the EPIC model designed to help agricultural practitioners optimize crop management and maximize production and profit, to identify limitations to crop yield, to assist growers in replant decisions, and to identify best management practices that minimize impact of agriculture on soil erosion and water quality.  During their two-week stay at the research center, the scientists focused their attention on the simulation of corn, sunflowers, grapes and grassland production as well as the effects of climate change on these cropping systems.

That one visit has blossomed into a working relationship between the Blackland Research Center and agricultural research centers across Italy from Sassari to Rome to Ancona to Foggia.  In the past year scientists from Temple have worked with scientists from the various parts of Italy to simulate crop growth of sunflowers, corn, durum wheat and various grassland/pasture scenarios.  Luca Doro, a  scientist from Sassari, has been using the WinEPIC model as part of his doctoral dissertation in which he is simulating the long term changes in soil carbon for grassland and pasture scenarios being grazed by dairy sheep.  He will also use the model to simulate the effects of climate change on these cropping systems.

This past September Dr. Jimmy Williams, hydrologist and agricultural engineer, and Evelyn Steglich, agronomist, from the Blackland Research and Extension Center, Temple were invited to spend two weeks at the University of Sassari, Italy as part of a “Visiting Scientist” program available through the University of Sassari.  While at the university, Williams and Steglich presented three lectures to graduate students and faculty of the university’s agronomy department.  These lectures described the various features of the EPIC model and served as a demonstration of select features of the WinEPIC model interface.  Also while at the university, Williams and Steglich worked with graduate students and faculty using the model for dissertation work to assist them in better simulating their measured data.

Beginning in January 2009 Dr. Luca Doro and Dr. Roberto Orsini from Sassari, Italy and Ancona, Italy, respectively will be spending six months at the Blackland Research and Extension Center as part of a program called “Master and Back” funded by the University of Sassari.  While here they will work with Jimmy Williams, Evelyn Steglich and Armen Kemanian to gain a more in-depth understanding of the EPIC model as well as work with the Temple scientists to improve the grazing aspects of the model.  Dr. Roberto Orsini from Ancona will also be using the APEX model, a small watershed model similar to EPIC also developed by Dr. Williams, to simulate an extensive 10-year water erosion study near Ancona, Italy.  He will be simulating nitrate and phosphorus runoff as well as soil losses due to water erosion.  Once he has calibrated the model using his measured data, he will use the model to simulate climate change scenarios on current cropping systems and adaptation strategies and/or prescriptions for agro-environment systems.

It is the hopes of all involved that this collaboration will continue to grow and benefit the scientists of both countries.

According to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in College Station, a three-year $647,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant will enable researchers to examine how specific conservation practices affect the watershed's overall health and landscape.

"Results from this project will provide agencies and landowners with an understanding of how alternative conservation practices impact grazing lands and assist in achieving watershed health goals, " Dr. Fox said.

The research team includes scientists from College Station, Temple and Stephenville.

Cowhouse Creek begins in Mills County, about 90 miles northwest of Temple, and runs through Hamilton, Coryell and Bell counties where it eventually drains into Lake Belton.

--Reprinted with permission of the Temple Daily Telegram

This Special Issue on Advances in Ecohydrological Modelling with SWAT results from the Model Developers Workshop held in Potsdam, Germany in October 2006. The Workshop was organized following three international SWAT conferences (in Giessen, Germany in 2001, in Bari, Italy in 2003 and in Zürich, Switzerland in 2005), and brought together people involved in the SWAT model development. The Workshop aimed to: (a) summarize the state-of-the-art of model development for the following: landscape processes, channel processes, plant growth, nutrients, carbon, bacteria, and the model interface tools; (b) determine the directions for further model development; (c) coordinate further model development steps and decide on how to test model alterations; and (d) conduct a version control training seminar to improve communication and collaboration. The newest SWAT model developments and outlines further research needs are presented herein.

Hydrological Sciences Journal

Journal des sciences hydrologiques

Volume 53, number 5, October 2008

Special issue : Advances in Ecohydrological Modelling with SWAT

CONTENTS:

Valentina Krysanova & Jeffrey G. Arnold

Advances in ecohydrological modelling with SWAT—a review (Full Text), 939-947

J. R. Williams, J. G. Arnold, J. R. Kiniry, P. W. Gassman & C. H. Green

History of model development at Temple, Texas, 948-960

Etienne Lévesque, François Anctil, Ann Van Griensven & Nicolas Beauchamp

Evaluation of SWAT model’s streamflow simulation for two small watersheds under snowmelt and rainfall, 961-976

Rokhsare Rostamian, Aazam Jaleh, Majid Afyuni, Seyed Farhad Mousavi, Manouchehr Heidarpour, Ahmad Jalalian & Karim C. Abbaspour

Application of a SWAT model for estimating runoff and sediment in two mountainous watersheds in central Iran, 977-988

Britta Schmalz, Filipa Tavares & Nicola Fohrer

Modelling hydrological processes in mesoscale lowland river basins with SWAT—capabilities and challenges, 989-1000

Fred F. Hattermann, Valentina Krysanova & Cornelia Hesse

Modelling wetland processes in regional applications, 1001-1012

P. M. Allen , J. G. Arnold & W. Skipwith

Prediction of channel degradation rates in urbanizing watersheds, 1013-1029

J. R. Kiniry, J. D. MacDonald, Armen R. Kemanian, Brett Watson, Gordon Putz & Ellie E. Prepas

Plant growth simulation for landscapescale hydrological modelling, 1030-1042

Joachim Post, Tobias Conradt, Felicitas Suckow, Valentina Krysanova, Frank Wechsung & Fred F. Hattermann

Integrated assessment of cropland soil carbon sensitivity to recent and future climate in the Elbe River basin, 1043-1058

Lutz Breuer, Kellie B. Vaché, Stefan Julich & HansGeorg Frede

Current concepts in nitrogen dynamics for mesoscale catchments (Full Text), 1059-1074

Veerle Gevaert, Ann van Griensven, Katrijn Holvoet, Piet Seuntjens & Peter A. Vanrolleghem

SWAT developments and recommendations for modelling agricultural pesticide mitigation measures in river basins, 1075-1089

A. van Griensven, T. Meixner, R. Srinivasan & S. Grunwald

Fit for purpose analysis of uncertainty using splitsampling evaluations (Full Text), 1090-1103

Forthcoming papers, 1104

By Fred Afflerbach- Published September 17, 2008
TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Two members of a local research group aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty. Or a little smelly.

Scientists from the Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple are taking a close look at how the environment could be affected by using biosolids for fertilizer in agriculture.

The research is possible because of a $400,000 grant recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The two scientists, Dr. Mari-Vaughn Johnson and Dr. Virginia L. Jin, will take back to their laboratory soil samples from two Central Texas locations where for years biosolids have been applied to hay fields.

“For thousands of years we’ve been using them (biosolids) to grow crops with. The point of this research is to better understand. So we can use it responsibly,” Dr. Johnson said. “It makes people a little squeamish and a little uncomfortable to talk about it, but it’s something - as our population continues to grow - we’re really going to have to figure out what to do with it.”

The scientists are focusing on a group of chemicals called endocrine disrupting compounds that are often found in human waste, and how they could affect plants, animals and humans after significant rainfall. In the lab, they will use adjustable showerheads to manipulate weather conditions.

These chemicals begin innocently in human waste.

“Every time you take aspirin, your body uses what it can, and it expels the rest. Vitamins, birth control, all of it,” said Dr. Johnson. “You are getting rid of that and it is going into these biosolids and it’s being land applied and right now there’s not a management protocol for pharmaceuticals in waste.”

Working with a local rancher and the city of Austin, the researchers will extract soil samples from several different pastures.

“We’ll actually bring back cores, probably a foot in diameter. We’ll jam a PVC pipe into the ground and dig it out so that core of solid is undisturbed in the center. It’s intact. It’s much more realistic to do it that way,” Dr. Jin said.

The researchers plan to extract some of these samples from the Grandy Ranch, a sprawling patchwork of green fields in western Bell County near Nolanville.

Over the course of three decades, Glen Grandy has slowly turned several hundred acres of hard scrabble into pastures thick with coastal bermuda. The grass keeps 150 cattle fed and provides income through hay sales. Grandy forgoes the popular commercial fertilizers that are sold by the ton and measured by their mineral composition. He applies biosolids from septic tanks and municipal waste plants.

Grandy said he is happy to provide the researchers with access to his ranch. Although he already submits to mandatory state testing, he said this is a good idea.

“That’s not something that we test for, but we should be concerned about,” Grandy said, regarding the possibility of pharmaceuticals leaching into the soil. “And the USDA’s testing process is to find out is this something we should be concerned about. I’m very much interested in that too, because I want to be a good steward of the land. We’re not out here as a dump site, we’re a beneficial site.”

The researchers also are working in Austin at the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant. The plant basically applies the same methods as Grandy, but on a larger scale - 1,200 acres.

AND Tammy Leytham
TELEGRAM METRO EDITOR

Boaters, swimmers and anglers have enjoyed the waters of Lake Belton during the summer, but the Leon River continues its flow south of the Belton Dam with little activity.

Travel that portion of the meandering river that flows through Belton and you'll see a few rotting trot lines hanging from low tree limbs. Little else - save an occasional turtle - stirs the water.

The upper portion of the river near Hamilton and Lake Proctor has been designated ``impaired'' due to the level of bacteria found during water quality monitoring.

However, the river south of Belton Dam has good water quality, based on results of water samples taken by the Brazos River Authority in July.

Those samples show ``concentrations (of fecal coliform or other bacteria) at all locations were well below the state's water quality criterion for single grab samples,'' Jay Bragg of the Authority said in an e-mail.

Bragg said the testing result ``indicates good water quality at the time they were taken.''

This includes the area where the Temple Waste Water Treatment plant is located, though swimming and boating are prohibited at that site.

Most of the land along the river is privately owned and decks dot the banks along the route. Miller Springs Park and Heritage Park are located along the river, but public access is limited.

Still, if you catch a fish in the portion of the river south of the Belton Dam, it should be safe to eat, as long as the fish are cleaned, cooked and prepared properly, Bragg said.

For swimmers, there are always some risks associated with swimming in lakes and streams, Bragg said. ``However, there are certainly elevated risks associated with swimming in the portion of the river listed as `impaired,''' which is the upper portion above Belton Lake.

``The lower sections, however, have been determined to contain a sufficient flow for recreational use almost any time,'' according to Tim Dybala, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Water Resources Assessment Team.

According to Dybala, water quality in Lake Belton is excellent based on the testing done by the Brazos River Authority.

There are reasons to be cautious.

``In recent years, authority data indicates a slight increase trend in nutrient concentrations, specifically nitrate plus nitrate nitrogen,'' he wrote in an e-mail.

Suspected sources of the increased nutrient loadings are related to increased development activities around the lake such as lawn fertilizers and increased use of septic systems, Dybala said.

Nolan Creek also had ``bacteria impairment,'' according to data collected by the Authority. Nolan Creek flows through Belton, Killeen, Harker Heights and Fort Hood.

``Population growth is expanding rapidly in this region, resulting in roughly 600 new permits for on-site wastewater systems in the area each year,'' Dybala wrote. ``High levels of bacteria, E. coli, have been found in Nolan Creek, as well as a growing concern for nutrients.''

Municipal discharges, stormwater runoff, poorly functioning on-site sewage systems, and agriculture and livestock waste are also potential sources for nutrient and bacteria issues, he wrote.

Upper portion

The high levels of bacteria that have impaired the upper portion of the Leon River do not impact Lake Belton, said Dickie Clary, a Hamilton County commissioner.

``Bacteria is a live organism. It dies within a certain amount of days. Any bacteria that originate here is dead long before it gets to the lake,'' he said.

It's important to note, he said, that 41 percent of the bacteria in the upper portion of the river comes from nature - primarily wildlife - while 18 percent is human and 14 percent is from cattle.

There's a combined effort under way to protect all the bodies of water. ``The folks I've visited with in and around the Belton Lake area understand that we share this resource,'' he said.

The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board is working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Brazos River Authority in developing a Leon River Watershed Protection Plan, with local stakeholders taking an active role in developing land management strategies to reduce bacteria levels.

A Watershed Protection Plan is a coordinated framework for implementing strategies that holistically protect and restore the quality of water resources, said Pamela Casebolt of the Soil and Water Conservation Board.

``We're still working with small focus groups in order to understand the concerns of area residents and to develop preliminary strategies that seem to be feasible for the Leon River watershed,'' she said. ``We intend to expand the public participation process as we ask citizens and municipalities to make decisions on how they will protect and restore their water resources.''

That effort deals mainly with the upper portion of the river that flows through Hamilton, Comanche and Coryell counties.

Clary sees progress in bringing together landowners, dairy farmers and officials at the state and local levels to determine ``how we can go about improving the water.

``It makes sense to me to bring these people who will have to make the changes to the table - they are given the opportunity voluntarily to put measures in place,'' he said.

Once the plan is completed and implemented, Clary believes there will be a positive outcome.

``I'm highly optimistic that the process will have a significant impact with a minimal cost,'' he said.

Because of the cooperation between all the communities within the watershed, and with an approved management plan, he said there would be a chance to see measurable improvement in water quality within three to five years.

tleytham@temple-telegram.com

--Reprinted with permission of the Temple Daily Telegram

Arnold has published more than 235 articles and chapters and has reported at nearly 50 national and international meetings. In the United States, his work plays a key role in USDA’s conservation policy and the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental policy.

This article was reprinted with permission of the Texas Water Resources Institute

By Fred Afflerbach - Telegram Staff Writer

Published May 29, 2008

On a hot and humid May afternoon, 11 men crowded into U.S. Rep. John Carter’s Temple office. Carter’s deputy chief of staff, Jonas Miller, arranged armchairs in a horseshoe, their backs against the wall.

Landowners with photographs of river erosion, a county judge, a sheriff and four U.S. Army Corps of Engineer officials with stacks of folders tucked under their arms sat elbow-to-elbow. Someone cracked a joke about the pistol strapped to Milam County Sheriff David Greene’s hip - an icebreaker to ease possible tension between the groups.

Seated behind his desk, Miller addressed the men.

“I know these are emotional issues,” Miller said. “It’s important to get everybody in the same room all at once and have open discussion.”

For about two hours, the conversation meandered like a river with multiple tributaries. The men weighed in on riverbank restoration, eminent domain and the Corps’ methodology for releasing lake water.

Representing the Corps, chief of reservoir control Paul Rodman explained their decision-making process. He said they coordinate information from upstream and downstream to gauge when and what rate they release water.

“We look at the historical record and we look at the channel capacity downstream to decide what kind of releases we can make,” Rodman said. “We have a staged release pattern to limit the releases to 3,000 cubic feet per second.”

Kit Worley owns land on the San Gabriel River in Milam County and was invited to the meeting because he is having similar problems at his property. He introduced himself as an eighth-generation landowner, affected by similar circumstances due to his location downstream from Lake Granger, also managed by the Corps.

“I know we can’t turn back the hands of time, but there needs to be some sort of mitigation,” Worley said. “I hate to make the calculations on what’s been lost.”

He said losing riverfront property to erosion was like having land condemned to make way for a new highway.

Under eminent domain they have to make things right, Worley said. “I don’t know why we wouldn’t fall under that umbrella.”

Bell County landowner Sidney Kacir said researchers have extensively studied stream bank restoration. It’s nothing new. He planted Alamo switchgrass and grama grass along a washed-out riverbank at his pecan orchard. But after the vegetation had taken hold, water released from dams upstream submerged it.

“Once you totally immerse the vegetation for an extended period of time it kills it,” Kacir said.

Rodman, who works with the Corps division in Fort Worth, said he could look into changing when and how long they opened the floodgates. During the 2007 flood, releases reached 10,000 cubic feet per second, a rate that all parties agree causes significant erosion.

“The real critical problem - if it is coming from the way we make releases - we can look at alternatives,” Rodman said. “If we can cut back … increase flow discharge and put some breaks in there … maybe some plants can get oxygen.”

Rodman said there is a possible downside to this idea.

“But, are we going to flood some people with higher releases?”

Keeping the lakes at a lower level so they can catch more floodwater, and then be more slowly released, was not discussed. In fact, the trend has been in the opposite direction. Some lakes have added to their conservation level, including Lake Belton in 1973, to supply a thirsty state with more water to facilitate a mushrooming population.

With the urging of mediator Jonas Miller, discussion returned to stream bank restoration. Representing the Corps, Rodman said he would try to get experts from their waterways experiment station in Vicksburg, Miss., to make a trip to Texas to see if they could help.

Milam County Judge Frank Summers suggested someone should take charge and see the project through to fruition. He called for another, “bigger” meeting, which would include members of the Brazos River Authority.

“Whoever is going to be involved, needs to be involved,” Summers said. “So many times with these governmental agencies, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”

Judi Pearce, spokeswoman with the Brazos River Authority, said they were aware of the meeting, but not invited.

A few days after the meeting, a member of the Central Texas Stream Team visited Kacir’s organic pecan orchard on the Little River.

The Stream Team was launched last March by AgriLife Research, a part of the Texas A&M system, and located in Temple’s Blackland Research Center. With mosquitoes buzzing overhead, research assistant Jason McAlister scrambled down a sandy embankment, took pictures and field notes. He suggested using spur dikes, old cedar trees rammed into the bank pointing upstream.

“You’re trying to slow down the water flow, the velocity, by creating a little more turbulence with those branches. The concept is catching that flow and redirecting it,” McAlister said.

But, the work would be for naught, if the river continues to run at a high level for prolonged periods.

“You need to stabilize the system. It’s policy first that needs to be addressed,” McAlister said. “Until they do that, all the stuff in the world will get washed out.”

Looking for a change, Kacir and two other landowners have written the Brazos G Water Planning Group this spring petitioning them to consider changes. They have suggested installing more pipelines, keeping the lake at a lower level and repairing damaged riverbanks. Two of their letters are posted on the Brazos G Web site.

After the meeting, Kacir, said he agreed with Kit Worley’s comments about eminent domain.

“We have both constitutional and statutory provisions when your property has been taken,” the Temple attorney said. “So many good things only happen after litigation. I hope it’s not necessary. We may have to get some senators and representatives who are willing to carry the ball to authorize the litigation.”

Regarding stream bank restoration, Kacir said he saw “a little spark of hope.”

Before dams on the Leon and Lampasas rivers were built, the erosion problem that landowners and officials are grappling with in Central Texas was addressed in the book, “The Flood Control Controversy.”

Sponsored by the Conservation Foundation, the book’s two authors seemed to have a crystal ball.

“In many locations the erection of dams may lead to severe erosion problems in the alluvial valleys below them, with the final result that much more bank protective work will have to be undertaken in the future than is anticipated at the present time.”

The book was published in 1954.

--Reprinted with permission of Temple Daily Telegram

Published May 29, 2008

KILLEEN - State Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, will join with Bell County leaders at a news conference at 11 a.m. today to announce the possibility of an
experimental energy plant that is expected to be built in Killeen.

“There are no other plants like this one in the world,” Aycock said.

The announcement, which will be made at Killeen City Hall, will announce the arrival of a prototype energy conversion plant, funded by an estimated $300 million in private investments that will help create 200 jobs in Killeen, Aycock said.

“This won’t cost the taxpayers anything,” said Council-man Billy Workman, who serves as the chairman of the city’s solid waste committee. “This will bring revenue into the city.”

Workman, who has long been the lone advocate on the council for cleaner forms of energy conversion, such as wind and solar power, said this can only be good for the city and county.

“I have been talking about this for a long time,” Workman said.

The first such plant, know as a ZERO, is projected to be built in Killeen, but will also include participation from Fort Hood, Copperas Cove, Harker Heights and Bell County, Aycock said.

“We are excited to be the proposed site for this leading edge technology that will convert solid waste to energy and other marketable byproducts,” says Killeen City Manager Connie Green. “The new facility will present an opportunity for regional savings in solid waste hauling and landfill disposal costs in an environmentally responsible way.”

The plant, which was designed at Texas A&M University by Dr. Allen Jones, who was formerly part of the Blackland Research Station in Temple, will convert garbage into a usable energy source.

“We are hoping that this is a big deal,” Aycock said. “This is truly new and untested research.”

The plant would use an oxygenated system to convert as much as 300,000 tons of garbage annually into energy with zero emissions.

Aycock said he hopes this new system planned for Killeen would be used to generate electricity, with the possibility of alternative forms of fuel later on.

Aycock said the interest of having such a prototype in Bell County is because of the interest expressed by the Department of Defense and Fort Hood, in particular.

And even though the first plant isn’t even official, Aycock said he anticipates that if this one is as successful as he hopes, a second plant will be built in Bell County.

“Temple is in the running for that one,” Aycock said.

Despite the excitement of an alternative source of energy and the possibility of a stronger economic development future, nothing is yet certain, Aycock said.

“The i’s still have to be dotted and the t’s still need to be crossed,” he said.

--Reprinted with permission of Temple Daily Telegram

The park is named for Jones, who held the first ever Arbor Day celebration in Temple in 1889.  He also established the Texas Forestry Association, which later developed into the Texas Forest Service.

Participating in the Arbor Day program will be Mayor pro tem Patsy Luna, Parks and Leisure services officials and representatives from Keep Temple Beautiful, the city Tree Advisory Board and the Nan Brown Garden Club.

Speakers for the Arbor Day program will include Zoe Rascoe, vice chairwoman of Keep Temple Beautiful; Val Romming, city arborist; Carol Koster, president of the Nan Brown Garden Club; and Dr. Dennis Hoffman, a member of the Temple Tree Advisory Board.

“Temple Parks and Leisure Services is proud to have sponsored the city’s application to become a Tree City,” Parks and Leisure Services Director Ken Cicora said.

“One of the important responsibilities of being a Tree City USA is to educate our citizens about the importance of trees, “ Ms. Rascoe said.  “Arbor Day is a great opportunity to do that because people are already in that frame of mind.”

--Reprinted with permission of Temple Daily Telegram

Six individuals have also been named recipients of the 2007 Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Manuscript Review for JEQ. Awardees are:

• Bas Bouman, CGIAR, IRRI Crop, Soil, and Water Sciences;
• Armen Kemanian, Blackland Research and Extension Center, Texas AgriLife Research; 
• Nathan Nelson, Kansas State University;
• Andreas Papritz, ETH Zurich, Switzerland;
• Alan Steinman, Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University; and
• Andreas Voegelin, ETH Zurich, Switzerland;  

All journals published by ASA–CSSA–SSSA depend on the commitment and dedication of volunteer reviewers to maintain the high level of quality in the papers that are published. These six individuals provided particularly noteworthy reviews for JEQ during 2007. If you are interested in reviewing manuscripts, volunteer by contacting the JEQ editor, Dr. Dennis Corwin (dcorwin@ussl.ars.usda.gov) with your contact information and your areas of expertise. You can also indicate your willingness to assist authors whose first language is not English.

By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World staff writer

March 20, 2008 - In the “don’t judge a book by its cover” category is Jimmy Williams, a research scientist at the Blackland Research Center in Temple. If there is such a thing as your typical Ph.D., Williams flies in the face of that stereotype.

Though he is respected by his peers across the nation as a leader in agriculture research, primarily because of his pioneering work with computer modeling programs, Williams remains close to his roots, both professionally and geographically. He grew up on a farm in Falls County and still lives on a farm there, where he raises cattle.

“My dad was basically a cotton farmer until the drought of the 50s sort of put us out of business and we went more into cattle,” he said. “I was involved with FFA and all that kind of stuff.”

Today, when he isn’t troubleshooting some of the computer models he helped develop or assisting other researchers with their work, Williams, 67, can still be found working his Falls County land. He worked for the Agriculture Research Service for 31 years. He retired from that agency on a Friday and went to work the following Monday for what is now known as Texas AgriLife Extension.

“If I stay on until 2012, I will have been in this for 50 years,” he said, adding, “I don’t know that I will.”

Williams said he wasn’t sure he would stay involved with agriculture or agriculture research his whole life but he knew from a young age that he would attend Texas A&M University. He took all the math and science courses that he could in high school but wasn’t sure what he would study until the decision was more or less made for him.

“When I got into high school and FFA, I went to the Houston Livestock Show with some calves I was showing down there that I had won in a calf scramble,” he said. “They had a contest with record-keeping and all that kind of stuff, and I had to write an essay. I won a scholarship for $2,500 to A&M. That money had to be used to study some part of agriculture. So that narrowed my decision down quite a bit and I decided to go into agriculture engineering.”

After graduating from A&M in 1963, Williams took a job with Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS), where he had worked as a trainee between his junior and senior years of college. He went to the experiment station at Riesel in 1965.

Williams worked in the areas of hydrological development, sedimentation, and flood routing at Riesel, working with data that had been collected at the station since 1938. The studies were begun at Riesel in reaction to the soil erosion crisis of the 30s.

At Riesel, Williams started working with what would evolve into the modeling systems that are so extensively used today. The original focus of his work was to compare two watersheds; one with the best conservation practices that could be applied and one with no conservation practices applied.

All of Williams’ work at Riesel in the early days was done with a calculator and a slide rule. Researchers were using a computer even then, but there was only one computer available to him and that was on the A&M campus. Williams was taking post-graduate courses at A&M when he started working on that old computer. He didn’t know it at the time but he was on the ground floor of the technology boom.

Williams transferred to Temple in 1973 where the computer modeling programs blossomed from single event models to the comprehensive models of today.

The models currently supported at Temple are best known by their acronyms (SWAT, ALMANAC, EPIC and APEX) and work on spatial scales that range from individual fields to entire river basins. The work has come a long way from calculators and slide rules.

Passage of the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act in 1977 directed the secretary of agriculture to appraise soil, water and related resources and their conservation on agriculture land as a tool in policy decisions and as a way to protect natural resources. The EPIC (Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator) was developed as a result of that initiative.

The original EPIC components included weather simulation, hydrology, erosion-sedimentation, nutrient cycling, plant growth, tillage, soil temperatures, economics and management. Today the model has been expanded to solve a wide range of agriculture management problems and is also used in studies of global climate change and carbon sequestration.

As the technology has developed, one model has led to another with more capabilities and different objectives. Today many of those models are used to justify conservation practices included in the farm bill and to assess troubled watersheds.

Williams believes that ag producers can benefit from the models by using them to make management decisions such as determining land use and fertilizer rates but, he said, the models will help producers the most with longterm decisions.

When asked about the most satisfying part of his four decades of research, Williams said he likes the fact that the models are being ran and put to use.

“You can work your whole career in these tools and nobody uses them then that’s not very satisfying,” he said. He added that working closely with NRCS has helped put the computer models and conservation practices he and other researchers have worked on to use.

“I think we will see more and more of the computer analysis. I think farmers and ranchers will become more sophisticated in terms of the decisions they make,” he said. “Right now there’s the biofuels thing with producers selecting different energy crops and trying to decide whether or not to go that route. There’s a lot of different decisions that farmers and ranchers will have to make that these models can help.”

-- Reprinted with permission of Country World Central Texas

Daily high temperatures are dropping in Temple, and daily lows are rising, according to numbers crunched by a senior research scientist here.

Dr. Jimmy Williams of the Blackland Research Center pulled the data out of weather information he’s compiled from the last 95 years.

“I’ve been in touch with a colleague in Maryland - they’re experts in climate change - and he concluded the same thing we did,” Williams said.

Over the last nearly 100 years, the daily highs have dropped roughly 4 degrees Fahrenheit and daily lows have risen by about the same amount, according to Williams’ data.

Williams said the trend might or might not continue.

He said, though, he never foresees a time when the highs and lows will converge.

“If we’re getting warmer minimum temps, we could see a longer growing season,” Williams said. “The cooler maxes may be better for the summer crops.”

Regardless, he said, the fluctuations should have no real effect on corn, the top crop in this part of Texas.

Dr. Jim Kiniry, a fellow researcher at the Grassland Soil and Water Research lab, said if one variety of corn reacts strongly to climate change, farmers can simply find a variety that grows well under the prevailing conditions.

Another Grassland scientist, Dr. Wayne Polley, who said he doesn’t completely buy the hypothesis of global warming, suggested that a rise in minimum temperatures could lead to a new mix of insects as those that like warm weather extend their range.

Williams said he’d be reluctant to speculate on whether the changes are related to global warming.

Dr. John W. Nielsen-Gammon, who is the official state climatologist, said that, “in general changes in temperature as you describe are too large to be attributed to global-scale processes like global warming.”

Instead, he said, one possible cause might be irrigation.

“Increases in irrigation over the past century would lead to cooler days because with more water available to be evaporated, less of the solar energy goes into heating the ground,” he said. “At night, the increased moisture and higher dew points would lead to higher nighttime temperatures.

“If this is the correct explanation, it is unlikely the trends would continue, because irrigation is on the decline in Texas. Also, the effect would be smaller at locations farther from irrigated farmland.”

On the other hand, Dr. Mark Tjoelker of Texas A&M University, said, “An increase in daily minimum temperatures at night is entirely consistent with warming trends from increased concentrations of greenhouse gasses (such as carbon dioxide).”

Tjoelker is an associate professor in forest ecology, physiological ecology and global change.

Warming daily temperature minimums “is consistent with the evidence of human-caused warming,” he said.

Tjoelker said that if the trends continue, they could change the area’s ecosystem.

“Warmer temperatures may directly negatively impact crop and native plant growth by increasing nighttime losses of carbon,” he said. “However, warmer temperatures in springtime may promote earlier growth. Climate extremes in drought or high temperatures may impact both natural and managed ecosystems and services they provide for us.”

However, Tjoelker warned that a number of challenges face scientists as they try to learn more about climate change, its causes and its effects.

Several research projects are under way in Texas to directly manipulate temperature, water and other global change factors, he said, so experts can better understand what’s happening to the overall environment.

Williams’ research include plotting temperature variations by year and by decade. He found that the daily average has risen only slightly over the 95-year period.

His records show that the highest sustained daily temperatures in Temple were during the drought of the early to mid-1950s.

Sustained cooler highs were recorded in the early to mid-1980s.

Telegram photographer Scott Gaulin contributed to this report.

--Reprinted with permission of the Temple Daily Telegram

By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World staff writer

April 3, 2008 - When what is now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) was founded in the 1930s as the Soil Conservation Service, the first order of business was helping farmers and ranchers manage their land in a sustainable way in the midst and aftermath of the Dust Bowl. Families were leaving rural America in droves, defeated by the wind and dust and a dreadful farm economy.

Today people are moving into rural parts of the state and country in droves. Many of the issues and practices developed as a response to the Dust Bowl are still with us, but a burgeoning rural population brings new challenges for the NRCS and for people who make their living from the land.

Don Gohmert, 61, is the state conservationist for Texas. With the state's population expected to double by the year 2050, he believes the NRCS has a vital if challenging role to play in the state's populous future.

From Gohmert's perspective, the future holds pitfalls for ag producers and newcomers alike. Land fragmentation, water issues, diminishing wildlife habitat and the challenge of feeding a growing state and country from farm and ranch land that is being reduced by the state's increasing urbanization are some of the issues looming large in Texas' future, he said.

"There's probably more need today for the kind of assistance we provide than there was in the 30s," Gohmert said last week at his office in Temple. "I say that because in the 30s farmers didn't necessarily understand overgrazing. They didn't necessarily understand the impact of livestock on riparian areas. There was no agriculture technology for land conservation."

While technology and the results of long scientific study are available today for landowners, many people moving to the country for the first time aren't aware of it, Gohmert said.

"There are a lot of people moving to the country today who haven't made their living off the land. They don't know the conservation techniques or the technology that's available to them," he said.

"In a lot of cases they've just acquired the land. They have a lot of money. They think they want to build a lake out there so they go find a bulldozer, and they can do more damage to the land in one day than those farmers did in a lifetime.

"They don't know that we as an agency exist to help them understand that the lake they want to build is impossible to build because it all sandy land. It won't hold water; or it's too erosive or the watershed is too big.

"Regardless, they end up with a dry hole out there. Then what do you do with something like that?" A simple call to the NRCS could have averted that scenario, he said.

"The real challenge that we see coming for us is the new folks moving from the city to the rural areas, becoming new landowners and not necessarily understanding the land and not knowing that there is assistance there for them at their request."

The NRCS offers technical and cost-share assistance for landowners who want to use the best practices available to sustain and conserve their land. The technical assistance is free and, like all NRCS programs, voluntary.

Landowners who want to accelerate conservation practices on their land can participate in a cost-share program that pays a portion of the cost of implementing the practices. The landowner pays the rest.

One of the NRCS' most popular cost-share programs is the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) which is set up to provide a voluntary conservation program for farmers and ranchers. The NRCS wrote more than 28,000 EQIP contracts with producers statewide last year, Gohmert said.

The NRCS works with more than 200 local soil and water conservation districts across the state on soil and water conservation practices for local producers. Farmers and ranchers contact their local conservation districts for technical or financial assistance.

"We don't have an office in every county in the state, but we have a presence in every county in the state," Gohmert said. "No one should feel like they can't contact us. We are not a regulatory agency. That's not why we're here. We're a voluntary agency and we're available to landowners at their request."

Gohmert said that one thing landowners may be requesting more of in the future is water, but there may not be enough of it to go around if measures aren't taken now to prepare for the water needs of a rapidly expanding population.

"Water is definitely something we're going to be fighting over," he said. "There is not going to be enough of it to go around if we don't start planning for it now -- not only planning for it, but doing something about it."

Gohmert, a native Texan from Cuero, has spent most of his career with NRCS in Arizona and Louisiana. He was Louisiana's state conservationist when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated much of that state.

"The devastation from Katrina and Rita was so utter and so complete, and not just what you saw in New Orleans either," he said. "Katrina wiped out whole towns and settlements. There was nothing left. No homes, no churches, no schools, no roads, no gas stations, no ice, very little law enforcement. There was nothing left."

Gohmert took over as Texas' state conservationist in June of 2007, not long before historic floods ravaged North and Central Texas. Looking at the big picture, he said the state was growing and that the amount of productive farm and ranch land was diminishing in direct proportion to that growth.

"We have vast agriculture resources, not just the land but the people we have in the research field, in the mechanization field and in the producers that we have," he said. "We can feed 120-140 people with one farmer. But we're losing the one ingredient that we have to have - the land. Urbanization is taking the best of the land, the prime farm land in this country."

--Reprinted with permission of Country World Central Texas