Grazing Workshops Offer Classroom and Hands-On Learning Opportunity

Livestock and wildlife producers, land managers and others interested in learning more about managing and optimizing their grazing lands will have an opportunity at one of five workshops being held throughout Texas from Sept. 3 to Oct. 1, 2008. “My Piece of Texas” grazing schools will teach attendees how to estimate forage production, determine grazeable acres and set proper stocking rates as well as learn valuable grazing management principles.

The $25 registration fee will include lunch and a copy of the soon-to-be published handbook, “Managing My Piece of Texas.” The how-to guide was peer reviewed by ranchers throughout Texas after being developed by grazing specialists from the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), Texas AgriLife Extension Service, and the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

“A few years ago, a producer asked us if there was a book that contained all the grazing information that all the agencies had,” said Mark Moseley, NRCS Rangeland Management Specialist/GLCI Liaison. “We knew there was no need to develop new information, so we took the information and made it into a ‘how-to get started and where do I go from here’ handbook that a new landowner as well as a seasoned livestock producer can use.”

The workshop morning session will feature grazing experts from GLCI, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas AgriLife Research and NRCS discussing grazing basics, strategies and follow through. After lunch, the outdoor session will include hands-on learning demonstration and field examples of grazing evaluation of forages, determining stocking rates, cattle habitats, grazeable acres and adjustment evaluations.

“If there is enough interest, this will be first of a series of workshops on managing your piece of Texas based on the handbook,” said Moseley.

To find out how to attend a workshop contact Melissa Blair (361) 241-0609.

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Landowners Paid For Storing Carbon In Their Trees

Texas landowners are among the first in the nation to receive checks for participating in forestry carbon offset projects.  These projects offset the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

The Chicago Climate Exchange is the world’s first integrated trading system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  Carbon credits, awarded to landowners for planting trees and managing forestlands, are traded on the exchange similar to the way stocks are traded on Wall Street.    

Texas Forest Service is the first state agency in the nation to become an Authorized Verifier for Forestry Offset Projects.

Monday, September 8, 2008
10 a.m.

506 West Duval
Troup, TX
903.842.3040
936.639.8180

Texas Forest Service

Texas Forest Service has the statewide responsibility of protecting and conserving the state’s trees, forests and natural resources for the benefit of all. Part of that mission includes protecting the services that forests provide that traditionally are taken for granted. Clean air, clear water and carbon sequestration are examples of “ecosystem services.” Texas Forest Service is promoting a carbon credit program that could help keep forests in forests, provide sustained carbon storage, and generate revenue to forest landowners.

Texas Forest Service is the first state agency in the nation to become an Authorized Verifier for Forestry Offset Projects by the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). CCX is currently the largest market that trades forestry carbon credits. TFS was approved in 2007 to verify forestry offset projects for landowners seeking to sell their trees' carbon credits on the open market.