Communicating Outcomes
Results, accomplishments and collaborations presented and discussed
By Danielle Supercinski
Sunny, warm weather greeted those attending the Annual Joint Rio Grande Basin Initiatives Conference held May 15-17 at South Padre Island, Texas with 170 attendees.
Right away Kenneth White, newly retired Uvalde County agricultural Extension agent, found out that this was not a formal event. He was arrested by the Cameron County sheriff and a deputy and escorted to the front of the conference room for “breaking the law by wearing a tie in South Padre.” Thankfully he didn’t have to serve hard time or pay a fine; they just cut his tie off for him.
Conference welcomes and introductions followed including comments from Brad Rein of USDA–Cooperative Research, Education and Extension Service; Bill Dugas of Texas Agricultural Experiment Station; Roland Smith of Texas Cooperative Extension; LeRoy Daugherty of New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station; Gerald Chacon of New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service; Kevin Urbanczyk and Walter Rast of Texas State University System; Craig Runyan of New Mexico State University; and Bill Harris of The Texas A&M University System Texas Water Resources Institute.
A new session was added to this year’s agenda focusing on collaboration. This allowed selected participants to highlight some of the major partnerships and projects with other agencies, organizations and universities to demonstrate how collaborating produces greater results.
Throughout the rest of the conference, project participants made presentations highlighting their project efforts and results. The conference served as a time where all members of Texas and New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Stations and Cooperative Extension and the Texas State University System projects could be brought up-to-date on the efforts of other project members. This meeting also provided time for members of the various universities and agencies to visit with one another and discuss possible future collaborations.
The conference ended with a four-stop field tour on Thursday afternoon. Sites visited included Cameron County Irrigation District No. 2, the Southmost Desalination Facility, the Seawater Desalination Plant and the Agricultural Demonstration Initiative.
Eric Leigh won the photo contest for his photo of a rock weir built on the Rio Grande near the Los Fresnos Irrigation District’s river pump. This photo was used on the cover of the accomplishment report, agenda and the front of the last “Outcomes” newsletter.
Posters were displayed and judged throughout the conference. Poster contest winners were:
1st place – Maximizing On-Farm Irrigation Use Efficiency for Water Conservation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: Irrigation Scheduling and Improvement of Water Delivery Systems by Xavier Peries, Juan Enciso, J. Morales, Tom McLemore and Wayne Halbert
2nd place – RGBI Ag Economists – Bringing Economics, Finance Accounting and Computer Modeling to Water Planning in the Lower Rio Grande Valley by Allen Sturdivant, Ed Rister and Ron Lacewell
3rd place – In-Home Water Conservation Demonstration Project by Janie Harris
Special thanks went to Allen Sturdivant for his help in planning the pre-conference fishing activities as well as the field tour stops.
The conference power points and wrap-up information are posted at http://riogrande-conference.tamu.edu/wrapup/2007/.
