Teresa Gonzales - Carson County Water Festival

Ogallala Commons partnered with Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District (PGCD) and the Square House Museum to hold a Water Festival in Panhandle, TX, on Oct. 3rd. Three schools (Panhandle, Claude, and Groom) sent 86 5th Graders and 8 teachers to our event. Jim Steiert, a regular on our Playa Festival Faculty, taught the Nature Journaling topic at this Festival, as well as his usual outdoor presentation on playa buffers and waterfowl. Meanwhile, Darryl Birkenfeld lead presentations on "What is a Playa?" and "Soils, Macroinvertebrates, and Food Webs." Rounding out the Festival were presentations on water conservation by Joy Shadid of Panhandle GCD and a history overview on our region by the Square House Museum. After lunch, students and teachers only had to drive a mile to a fantastic rangeland playa on the west edge of Panhandle. This playa had huge cracks (see photo)! Even though it is a drought year, we were please to find a large number of wet playa plants like barnyard grass (see student holding plant), annual aster, and pink smartweed.

This student seems very pleased to have located barnyard grass in his search for wet playa plants. This is unusual given the drought year we have just experienced.

Young scientists making observations and journaling in the wonderful outdoors!