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About Us |
| The mission of the WaterWise
Council is to promote water conservation practices in Texas through a
public-private partnership that fosters awareness and implementation of
sound water management. "Our future depends on our ability to conserve and manage our water resources, to educate our citizens, and to actively take part in protecting the water we have." |
The Council has established the
following objectives:
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| The Texas WaterWise Council began
on September 24, 1993, when a small group of interested individuals met at
the offices of the Texas Association of Nurserymen (now the Texas Nursery
and Landscape Association) to hear Mr. Fox McCarthy report on an
organization in Georgia founded to promote water conservation and efficient
water use in the landscape. By March 1994, an organizational entity had been created, a mission statement adopted, Bylaws written, the name Texas WaterWise Council officially adopted and registered, and an appealing Texas WaterWise logo was created. In October 1997, the Council was granted 501(c)3 non-profit status by the Internal Revenue Service. Initial goals were to:
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| The WaterWise Council of Texas is
a non-profit organization having been granted 501(c)3 status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Council is incorporated in the State of Texas
under the name "Texas WaterWise Council, Inc.". A Board of Directors meets monthly, usually on the second Thursday of the month at 1:30 pm. The meeting is open to the public and is normally held at the offices of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association (TNLA) located at 7730 South IH-35, Austin, Texas 78745-6698. For the specific date and location of the next Board of Directors meeting, please refer to the calendar. The Board of Directors is composed of President, Past President, President Elect, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, four Green Industry Representatives, four Blue Industry Representatives, and three Members-at-Large. To contact the Board of Directors, please refer to the contact information. |
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Partners' Project The Texas WaterWise Council has a dual-tier structure of associates. Partners are nursery industry professionals, municipalities, and water management entities who agree to espouse and promote water-wise landscaping, gardening, and irrigation principles. Members are trade organizations, governmental entities, educational institutions, service leagues, educational personnel, or individuals who agree to espouse and promote these same principles using the capabilities of their organizations and professions. Members' dues help support Council activities. As of December 1998, the WaterWise Council has a total of 76 members. The Partners' Project is a three-pronged effort: (1)to educate the nursery professional, (2) to educate the consumer, and (3) to create a partnership opportunity between water providers and the retail nursery industry. The WaterWise logo was transformed into a WaterWise Partner's logo. Municipality members agreed to promote the logo for consumers seeking landscape information. To be eligible to use the logo, a business is required to send its employees to a WaterWise Seminar. Using slides and a script developed by the WaterWise Council, seven such seminars were presented under the aegis of the Texas Association of Nurserymen Employee Seminars. Municipal partners agree to create an information campaign including bill stuffers, media events, billboards, public service announcements, and articles in staff departmental newsletters. Descriptions of the public information campaigns are crucial to convince a business that it is worthwhile to become a partner. The Partners Project also involved municipalities and water management entities in a cooperative effort with the green industry to reduce peak water use during the heat of summer. After the success of the Partner's Project, the script was revised and developed into a 27-minute consumer-oriented video called Ride the WaterWise Wave. This entertaining vehicle has been distributed to Council members statewide. With a voice-over by Austin sports announcer Wally Pryor, the tape first presents an easy-to-understand and richly illustrated overview of the hydrologic cycle (and the "hydro-illogical" cycle), then describes the importance of plants in preventing erosion, and finally takes the viewer through preferred landscape and irrigation practices. The video price is $10 (free to members) plus applicable sales tax and freight. Please order from Marilyn Good, WaterWise Council of Texas, 7730 South IH-35, Austin, Texas 78745. Marilyn can be contacted by email. For the funding of future projects, the Texas WaterWise Council has submitted a proposal for an EPA Section 319 grant through the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board. The Council contracted with SourceAg LLC for grant proposal development .This three-year grant will fund educational endeavors such as workshops; preparation of materials including irrigation best management practices; expansion of the Partners' Project; categorizing the Council's database of WaterWise resource materials; and public outreach activities. Armed with a vision of likely water scarcity in a state whose population is expected to double in the next 50 years, the Texas WaterWise Council has embarked on a project to proactively lay the groundwork for landscape and irrigation ordinance guidelines and strategies. Marilyn Good of the Council introduced the idea of fostering coalitions of nursery and irrigation professionals, civic organizations, and homeowners associations to draft landscape ordinances preemptively. The goal of the study is to dissect the process of the evolution of landscape irrigation ordinances, and to allow nursery and landscape professionals input during the initial states of drafting ordinances that might affect them. To this end, landscape ordinance surveys were mailed to almost every municipality in the state requesting information on existing ordinances, their effectiveness, and the proper groups be involved in the ordinance-writing processes. Irrigation Best Management Practices David Smith, landscape irrigation specialist with Texas Water Audits, prepared for the Council the WaterWise Irrigation Best Management Practices for Homeowners, Irrigation Designers and Contractors. Landscape Irrigation Calculator The Texas WaterWise Council has created a landscape irrigation calculator to help professional landscape irrigators and managers, as well as home owners, save irrigation water while maintaining functional and healthy landscapes. For more information, click here. |
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