Lange Tree Eco Center: It’s All About the Kids

Approximately 250 students, kindergarten through fifth grade, and 50 adult leaders met on Saturday, March 29, 2008, for a day of environmental training at the Lange Tree Eco Center in Liberty County, Texas.

The Lange Tree Eco Center is on the property of Chuck and Barbara Lange. For many years, the Lange’s lived and worked in Houston. About five years ago, they decided to move back to the family farm and build an outdoor learning center to help youth learn about conservation and the environment.

Topics covered included soils, soil erosion, plants for conservation, crops and crop residue management, water conservation, water quality, nutrient and pest management, importance of wetlands, forest management practices, urban conservation, and backyard conservation.

The instructors involved the students in the learning process by allowing them to participate in soil loss and water quality demonstrations, proper forest management techniques, and by using a model on “how plants grow.”

The Lange’s have participated in Farm Bill programs through NRCS over the last several years. Their goals were to control Chinese Tallow, plant improved grasses for hay land, and enhance wetlands using funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Texas Prairie Wetlands Project (TPWP). But last Saturday, it was all about the kids.

John Davidson, coordinator for the Southeast Texas Resource and Development Area (RC&D); Delwin Cannon, soil conservationist with the NRCS office in Houston; and Tom Smith, natural resource manager for the Liberty NRCS office; teamed up to teach the eager-to-learn students about conservation in the country.
 

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Delwin Cannon presents information on plants.	John Davidson talks to the students about forestry practices.
Students learn about conservation at the Lange Tree Eco Center.	Tom Smith discusses soil erosion with students.

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