TMN Chapter Meeting

Texas Waters – Johnnie Smith, TPWD

With the Texas Waters curriculum, we want to inform and educate the citizens of Texas about the most precious natural resource Texas possesses, its water. Many challenges face our state concerning water, particularly in our aquatic habitats, the water for wildlife. Texas Parks and Wildlife values the natural and cultural resources of Texas and we want there to always be drinkable, swimmable, and fishable waters in our great State. It’s intended to lay a foundation of knowledge about how water affects the land, how people affect water, and its importance in the environment. You may find it useful as a primer for folks in any water related leadership position on boards, districts, and committees etc., to add another layer to their understanding of Texas Waters.

The primary audience for this curriculum is the Texas Master Naturalist group and other concerned citizens. It will allow them to earn a Texas Waters Specialist designation and then start giving back to their community by performing community service in areas like:

• Water focused educational activities such as fairs, festivals, events, outreach,
• Projects such as habitat restoration, creek cleanups, aquifer recharge/karst feature flagging and clearing, etc., or
• Demonstrations like runoff models, runoff landscape features such as dry creek beds, rain gardens, etc.

Through this program, we plan to develop a corps of well-informed volunteer specialists who provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of aquatic resources and aquatic habitats within their communities for the state of Texas.

Johnnie Smith is the Director of Outreach and Education for Texas Parks and Wildlife, responsible for TPWD’s Hunter, Boaster, and Angler education programs as well as Outreach and our K-12 wildlife and habitats science curriculum: Project WILD, the Texas Children in Nature Network, and TPWD’s Community Water Education efforts, including the popular Texas Aquatic Science curriculum for grades 6-12. His background includes a 21-year USAF career, an elementary and middle school science educator, Education Programs Manager at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, public school campus leadership as Assistant Principal and Principal, and is a Past President of the Informal Science Education Association of Texas.