Protecting the Quality of our Local Waterways – April 2024

hello everyone I'm H Thor the community relations coordinator for the storm water quality division here at the of Oklahoma City I'd like to officially welcome everyone to the April edition of our 2024 re before we begin hearing from our presenters I'd like to provide some information to help enhance everyone's experience during today's webinar to reduce background noise we ask that everyone [ __ ] themselves needed during the presentation if anyone has any questions during the presentation please feel free to type them into chat we will be monitoring monitoring that chat for questions and we will have our speakers answer as many questions as possible at name of each presentation if anyone would like to receive a certificate of attendance for today's webinar please send us a request via email we will place my email address into that chat so you'll have it handy each of the presentations in this webinar series will be available within a week or so after the expected webinar date on our website under storm water Workshops the section where these webinars are posted is called the webinar series and today's session will of course be the April Edition we'll post a link to the website where you can find those of presentations for the end of today's session if anyone has any questions at this time please feel to tyag them into chat but without further Ado we'll play a short webinar series welcome fation good afternoon and Welcome to our 2024 storm waterer quality webinar series we appreciate being able to provide you with an opportunity to learn how to help keep our local waterways clean we are all Downstream from someone else so it's to our mutual benefit to work together to protect the waterways in our communities this year's Series has several great presentations planned you will have the opportunity to hear from some of our own stormwater quality staff as well as select guest speakers we hope to see you for each session so be sure to tune in during today's session we will be hearing from Presley Pew the horiculture manager at scissor tail park right here in OKC and Connie Patilla with Wind River microbes about aspects of soil Health as we've already mentioned each of the present ation should be available online within a week or so after the presentation has aired live the links will be posted on the workshop's page of our stormwater quality website we'll put a direct link to that page in the chat towards the end of today's session if you are not already subscribed to our newsletters please do so now by aiming your phone's camera at one of the newsletters QR codes the quarterly newsletter is the first QR code and this newsletter provides overall information about what we're up to you can find this one on the gub delivery website the only way to sign up for either the construction or industrial training and education newsletters is via a direct website link or these QR codes as these two options are both hidden in our email service site go delivery these newsletters are the main way we announce upcoming training events webinars and workshops so be sure to subscribe if you miss any of these codes send Holly an email and she'll send you the direct website links some of our presentations will be live and some will be pre-recorded we do our best to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information possible while also working with our presenter strengths and their schedules for more information about storm water quality what we're up to and local regulations be sure to visit our website or reach out to the staff currently shown on the slide we hope you enjoy today's webinar up next are the presentations for today's session today we're going to hear from Presley Q the hor culture manager at CER Hill Park and Connie patella and authorized distributor for Wind River microbes Preston Pew was born and raised in Norman Oklahoma he graduated from Norman North in 2015 and then from OSU and then from u stillw in 2022 with a bachelor's in business Bo he then completed an internship at OSU in involing vegetable trials across Oklahoma he has worked in both greenhouse and Landscape settings first has been at censor tale Park since mid May of 2023 and has been a horiculture manager as of late November 2023 at home presy plants an annual 20 square 250 square foot garden and enjoys of his children Connie patillo has directed her career towards the pivotal role of advocating and promoting awareness regarding the intricate and diverse microbial realm for Relentless efforts I focused on studying the ly neglected world of microbes and your God help recognizing their significance for their her passion for Education she she event strives to Enlighten the public about the cound impact that microbes wield on our lives from enviral sustainability to fely consume again if anyone has questions during today's presentations be sure to type them in the chat prly your now break share your screen thank you so much for the introduction I'll go ahead and I'll share that screen here one moment for you can you see everything okay yeah there you go okay thanks Presley yeah absolutely um so yes as they mention uh my name is Presley Pew I'm the ho culture manager here at scissor tale Park um coming here and in May uh 15 it'll be one year that uh I've been with scissor tale um but without further Ado um I'll be talking about maintaining um the healthy soils um here at scissor tail Park so a few things we'll go over is the overview of the park and kind of our vision um and how we maintain the the grounds here um scissor tale Park is a 70 acre um Arboretum Park uh in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City um of course we'll focus more on the Upper Park which has um our Lake on the on that side um we'll also be going over um some of the native plant materials that we use to help maintain our healthy soils um how to improve unhealthy soils and then also how our Irrigation Design um goes into playing a part in how we maintain our soil and plant [Music] material so um here here's a little diagram of the um the top half of scissor tail Park we have um our Great Lawn area which is mostly our turf grounds um we do lots of practices in here like um dethatching uh spreading compost um reducing um any um non-desirable U plant material we also have what we call our parer Gardens that's this area here this is going to be uh more of a specimen Gardens we have our Woodlands this is our um Lake our scissor tail Lake that we have here this is all fed through um natural rainwater any of our rain Gardens which are these more cylindrical uh sorry circular um areas here these have a Japanese Riverstone in them that um helps uh filter the water um and then it goes through um uh bios swells which would be at the top of the lake here um all the water is pumped through the top and filtered all the way back down which I'll go more in depth um later on um and then of course we have um some more uh um natural native planted areas with our Children's Garden area and then also our native um grass B area over here as well so um we'll go in a little bit more in depth about those um but this is just an area of an overview of the map for those so with those this is kind of a um photo of the first steps of the construction for the park um as you can see here um it's a bunch of um heavy um construction equipment that was in our areas which led to um immense compaction and um with the lake being right here as well we have lots of soil that is very Soden and moist so trying to deal with keeping plant material in there and and um keeping it from you know root rot and things like that while also improving the soil that was around here during construction um is something that we try and work on to the best of our abilities we do lots of um ation through um mechanical means we also try and um increase penetration through uh native plant materials and mulching and compost which we'll um touch on that a little bit more as well but um on here as well you can see a little bit of the back of our lower Park area so it looks nothing like how it is here um we have a bunch of um soccer fields and um um basketball courts and pickle ball courts over here um but all of this area is still Turf and we keep we kept a lot of these larger trees and stuff in the lower Park area which was really nice um to keep around so um about the Oklahoma native plants uh we are in a Cross Timbers ecosystem um which has a lot of the different um trees in that so you have both native trees and grasses along um in in that sort of ecosystem um what we use is um as much of the okoma native plant um in our designing as we can um to both allow the plants to thrive and the um over all environment and ecosystem uh for that area as well um we conserve water through um the the organic plant material and native plant material conserves water through the ad adaptation uh to the natural environment so it being a native plant it's lived through um many seasons and adapted to those areas to um handle the occasional drought um and heat waves and colds um that come through and things like that um and then same thing for the trees and grasses because they are native um they're also very low maintenance so we don't really have to worry as much about um them not getting enough water through um a drought or um heat cold things like that um it also they are more pest resistant um which would keep them alive for longer both Pest and disease and then also any of the trees and grasses um that are in our landscape design um it takes up a majority of it being 95% of them being oklah Oklahoma natives we also try and Implement um other desired um Horticultural specimens that would um be attractive both in our parer Gardens and any of the other plantings um we've planted over a thousand trees 45 of which are different species es um mentioning earlier we are an arboretum uh we're a class two and to continue um on that road um I believe once we get to about 500 different species we would be able to submit for the um third uh level and then after that we would have a curator and then we would be at the uh the highest level of U an arum status which is something we are working towards um we have thousands of grasses that we've pled Ed on on grounds to stimulate the native grasslands um in another following slide we'll talk about what some of those look like um but we have plenty of switch grass um muly grasses blue stems um to kind of simulate that um Native prairie grassland style um a lot of our um not as trafficked Turf grasses like it says down here at the bottom um we planted um Buffalo Prairie Grass in addition to any other kind of ated grasses um that we maintain in there um throughout the the seasons um we also have um aquatic plants that we use in our Wetland areas so that would be like around the lake um and any of the aqua lenses we use things like junus ausus which is a common rush we use um things like canas which can tolerate a lot of water um just to name a few but we try and diversify the plant material around there um as best as we can and keep those clear um of any uh undesirable things like um we have a lot of um Cattails that will um go to areas where they're we don't exactly want them so trying to keep them along the banks and keep them under control um to both provide habitat for birds and um filtration for the for the lake and whatnot um we also have formal garden areas um that are planted um in terms of low water uh for perennials and natives so in those uh areas where we plant those Buffalo grasses um we do over seeding of Rise of a winter Rye um during the winter um and that would be so to preserve um the the soil integrity and the soil Health instead of it just being uh um say you know dormant um Bermuda or the buffalo grass at the time would also be be dormant so just having some sort of ground cover um on in these areas is better than it being a bare soil um which we also do practice plenty of mulching and um composting along with that as well um now so some of the plants that we do use in here two of the most numerous trees uh in Oklahoma that we have on site would be of course the Blackjack Oak and then the Post Oak um we use those as being an arboretum uh we plan on having plenty of shade here on grounds the trees here are going on I think five years old and so they're as big as a five-year-old tree you can imagine is um and um so we're working on trying to get those um to to in the future be large enough for to have plenty of shade um and then also we have plenty of grasses so like I had mentioned we have bushy blue stem we have those in several areas uh especially uh we have some around the banks of the lake we have our um penum of verdum which is our switch grasses we have several different types especially um ornamental types and then we also have both big blue stem and little blue stem throughout the park um any of those are going to be a really good Oklahoma native grass um and we also have plenty of shrubs here just to name a few we have some fragrant sumx which are in our lower Park area um near the soccer fields and then we also have some viburnums along the park those are scattered around in our Woodland areas um as well as um some of uh just in specimens like in the children's uh playground and then so for soil improvements um what we do on site we actually divert 100% of our green waste through um fer grounds and uh we also do in-house composting which would include liquid composting and Verma composting um what's nice is through the ferti grounds composting we actually then buy our compost from them and use that on ground so we try and keep a closed loop system um and then we also try and uh pull uh any green waste from surrounding um businesses um through our Horticultural compost program um to then provide for the community and uh for the grounds as well um what this does is it increases the levels of organic matter in the soils a lot of the um composting liquid composting vermac composting um that will promote a lot of beneficial microbes and fungi like I have there at the bottom um and what we're also working on is um looking towards beneficial nematodes and um other micro risey that we can uh Implement into the the soils to both lower the amount of pesticides that we have to use or fungicides and um hopefully cultivate a beneficial microb um system instead of solely relying on um chemical pesticides and then so some of the um photos here um the one on the left uh is going to be our Monarch waste Station that we planted um through OG this area here is um actually um has a lot of problems in terms of um filtration with the soil it was very clay dense um and so a lot of the trees and plants there um had a lot of root rot issues so what a few things that we've done is we've planted a lot of the Native species in here um through the plantings and then so we have um excuse me um some milk weeds um through here we have some blackeyed Susans um just to name a few and then we have um Indian blankets that we have that we seed there annually and then we've of course um amended it with compost put Mo Mulch on top um and then hopefully these trees as well will allow for there to not be as much um direct uh water to soil contact from um The Rains so instead of it just tons of water hitting that immediately hopefully um with the design that we have you will have a tiered system where the water will hit the canopy of the trees to slow it down so that the um soil and the ground has more time to allow the water to penetrate and then get filtered through back into the lake um and then also just as an example we do a lot of Wildflower overseeding um so like in those areas where the buffalo grass are we also do a whole bunch of wildflower seeds um all of those will have um very deep root systems um that are would allow for both um penetrating um lower um water reserves um and also not having to really water them as much um allowing for us to um use and save that water for uh when we would experience a drought or something of that occasion um like I mentioned here water penetration and retention uh through compost and we also do um some air raing um through mechanical means so we have air Raiders that will go around on on any areas in particular that have um large um issues with compaction which um any of we host lots of um concerts and festivals um farmers markets things like that as well as our normal lawn equipment that would be driving around the grounds so what we do is we always try and do some um Iration with some compost and then um we go ahead and we mulch any of the garden beds that we have we try and make sure that um we reduce the fungal um pathogens by taking up any of the um thatch from any of the um Turf areas but with that like I had mentioned uh we're not really taking too much organic matter away from that because when we divert it to the fle grounds to compost or inhouse we then respread it back onto the ground so it's just kind of a way to kind of Quicken that process instead of it slowly building up and and causing problems for us um next I have um the the canopy um and ground cover both slow the water to prevent erosion and increase penetration like I had mentioned um if we have just bare soil then that water through torrential rain or even casual rainfall uh will be washed away and um with that um sediments um could be pesticides or fertilizers and then also um any um plant material and things like that we want to try and avoid that from going uh and clogging up any drains or or contaminating any water or anything like that so we always try and make sure that anything we are using near um our Lake area is of course both good for um the environment and any of the U Aquatic Life for plants that would be involved in that um and then so on here as well I have that plants thrive on a nitrogen and phosphorus um in that the plant roots uh trap sediment so like talking about the erosion of course you can plant um you know Bermuda or something like that but in terms of how far those roots are penetrating um it's not really going to allow that water and nutrients to soak deep uh into the soil it would um something like a like a native plant or native grasses would be more desirable to really hold on to that um those sediments in in soil so as an example and a little bit more of a visual I have here um some non-native species on the side here um where you have turf Fescue Which is less than an inch um in in depth and then we have like our buffalo grasses which are some the area here on the right is an entire buffalo grass lawn and then that's been seated with um wildflower seeds we have plenty of plantings where it is um a mono planting of prairie drop seed in lower Park um but it is on a on a really steep embankment so seeing that this goes almost to nine feet deep we're really holding on to that um that soil and then same thing for our blackeyed Susans um I don't believe we have any common nine bark but um as you can see things like this would go very far um in terms of of retaining and improving um filtration in the soil um and then like I had mentioned over here on this side um we do a uh winter cover of um annual Rye so that um we have some sort of color in the areas instead of it being a a brown dormant Bermuda um and then as it comes into spring um our wild flowers that we seated over the winter um fill in and um this is also a pollinator pocket so on grounds we actually have um four beehives so in this area too um we make sure to try and use as much um uh insect safe uh herbicides as we can um so that we're both maintaining the property and not being harmful to the uh to the bees and other pollinators and then some of the stuff for the lake so we actually stock Our Lake here on the grounds um there's plenty things like perch um Channel cat bass here um so this was one of the initial stockings we've I think sent stocked at least once um so with um having the The Aquatic Life both Turtles um aquatic Birds fish um frogs um any of that is both helping uh to enrich our Waters and also U maintain a healthy relationship um with what we put into our our grounds that would then go to the lake we want to make sure that we're not being any harmful towards them um in that way while it's being filtrated back onto the grounds um and then also as an example we just have lots of areas where we try and promote the beneficial um micro rizy and fungi so like any of our um mulch drops that we use um from arborists uh in tree Wells we get lots of fungi that grow up in there um and then that would hopefully be beneficial to any of the uh tree roots of course we make sure to look out for anything that would be harmful um but this is just a photo that we had uh taken at the time um it being in Bermuda at this point but just to show that um that you know this is only the Fring body and there's plenty of of activity under underground as well um and then so with our Irrigation Design um our source of the irrigation system is the scissor tail lake that is specifically for the Upper Park area um the lower Park area is um on the city water which um is really beneficial for us if something happened where our water system was contaminated in any way um we would be able to um use the the city water but also vice versa if somehow the city water was um contaminated um or undesirable then we would be able to use our Our Lake water as well um and then of course the lake is fed through the Garber Wellington aquer um we do our best to um practice um effective irrigation so if it is uh planning on raining uh we will not irrigate um and then use that water to then fill up our lake when we would need to uh irrigate that into the future um All Surface waterers drained back into the lake so like I had mentioned with those um uh rain Gardens and aqua lenses um they retain and fill up to a certain point with an overflow grate and then if any water if we had such a torrential rainfall where it would do that um it would of course go through that grate and then straight back into the water into the lake um but we would want to make sure that those those retention areas they are facilitated to slowly filter and drain out any of that water um and then of course the the wetlands like like I had mentioned are consist um composed of five Weir those are the biofilters that we have um we have plenty of Aquatic Life um in those areas uh and and Aquatic birds and then all those areas are planted with aquatic plants we had actually just gotten a um Grant through the occf um to do floating islands so we have three floating islands that are in the lake right now that are planted with aquatic plants um those are more for the um the animals um in the waters um but it is a an exemplary um example of it of what specimens would be used for the aquatic plant so um as a go-to example there's plenty of cattails around um the the border of our uh Lake we make sure to try and make sure that that doesn't become more of a nuisance than a benefit for the um birds and whatnot um and then we have like I mentioned common Rush before um and then we had also planted plenty of um like arams and other aquatic plants around those areas and then here's just a few photos of um some of our informational material that we have around the park so like it talks about the wetlands here in terms of water quality um when they go through are um the stages of the wears here um through the biof filters you can see that the water quality would clear up towards the end um and which we've only drained Our Lake once as far as I know um and that was um to clear out a lot of stuff that had been um poed into the lake and whatnot being a public park um and getting an idea of everything being uh clear for filtration but and since then the water quality has been very good um for uh any of the Aquatic Life and plant material that has been around there um and as you can see the different stages as it goes along um and then I believe it's a limestone um retention wall and stuff like that that are in there so um for us that has been a little bit more of a pH problem that we've been trying to deal with um but we're we're really on the on the path to um get that up to a point where we don't have um a large calcium uh deposit uh amount in our in our areas and that we keep up the um the nitrogen and the and the potassium for the for the plant materials and then uh just as an example this is the frontmost part of our wears here as you can see there's Cattails planted here um up along the sides and towards the back we have bushy blue stem um to help keep the embankments held um and then um as you can see one two three four and then five towards the end um of these filtration points um we have since keep um an area right here that is U very tall it houses a lot of the redwing black Birds um it's almost deafening walking by this area just with how much Bird activity is in there um and then we've laid logs around the um the um excuse me the edges of the wears so that um Turtles and whatnot can can pass back and forth and and bask in those areas um and then uh as an example here I'm just showing uh even when we do like a mono planting um we do have Mulch and stuff on the grounds um to prevent erosion um and that water penetration for the grounds we also have things like orb Willows and wax myrtles um plenty of blue stems like here along the lake um to help with any of that filtration and u erosion control that's pretty much what I have here um for our soil Health um I'm happy to answer any questions if if anyone has any well we do have quite a few questions for you Presley I will try to get to everybody's questions um if if we aren't able to get through everything uh before we need to move on to the next presenter we'll come back at the end if we have time and revisit any remaining questions um so first question um I know there's a few tenes that may not be familiar with fertile ground would you mind sharing a little bit about about who they are and how they assist C Hill Park sure yeah fertile grounds is a um is a Community Driven uh compost um organization so they do lots of um Outreach through both residential and Commercial so we have a grant through the through DEQ um and they um allow us to pay for our green waste diversion and so um we have come at least um once a week um during our busy seasons of course to fill up a large dumpster and then they' take that they're very close to us they're probably no more than a mile away from us um so they go and take that there and if we ever need to do um any diversion other than that uh we then rent a trailer and we'll take that over there back and forth um to make sure that we aren't putting a lot of our green waste into landfills um but they do lots of other things instead of just compost they do um they provide mulch um if we need it they also do residential recycling both um plastic glass um aluminum those things um and so it's really nice to have them um so close and and be a part of um the diversion they also do um like erosion socks as well um that we've gotten from them before um for any of our drains but um I think that would that would cover a lot of what they do you're of course welcome to look them up and find out any other information that they do but they are based here in Oklahoma City um and they do reach out to the surrounding Metro no thanks for that Presley yeah they do a lot of good work here um next question um what were the typical sizes of the trees at the initial planting and then how are they irrigated that's a really good question um mentioning I had only been here going on year now um we have um when we initially get those trees in they're they're pretty large um I would say they're somewhere between 10 eight and 10 feet probably um the trees that we get in they're they come in those steel burlap um ball cages and then um we we plant those and and stake them and then try and keep them you know in ground with all the the heavy winds we have with not not having such uh good wind breaks with that being new tree plantings and stuff like that um it can be a struggle sometimes but we do our best to make sure that if um anything does happen to the trees that um they they get replaced or we take the best action to um make sure that they uh live a long time um what was the other part of the question uh just how they were irrigated um their size and then how they were irrigated yeah and so how they are irrigated they have um direct irrigation um at least for most of them there are certain areas that they are not directly irrigated like we have a specific type of Arboretum in lower Park which we call our Pine edum it is mostly pine trees um and then anywhere like um in like our back of our Sky rink area those are going to be um irrigated as well through mostly rotors so it's not an in a direct irrigation but all the other uh Street trees and tree wells in the main grounds of the park do have a direct um kind of like a it's a three-pronged um irrigation head um I can't recall the name of it but that's usually what we use to irrigate them um they are just on the edges of the tree Wells where they're irrigated in um but like mentioned they are irrigated through both Lake water and the city water depending on where in the park that they are located but on the initial plantings we do use the um Arbor bags to um keep them irrigated or use our uh Water trailers to irrigate them until they've become established and then we kind of just let the regular uh IR the regular irrigation of the grounds to uh keep them water fantastic um we do have a few other questions but I want we do need to move on and hear from here from Connie um but if you don't mind sticking around Presley uh till the end and uh if we have time I'd love to come back and see if we can get through some more of those questions sure I appreciate it thank you okay all right miss Connie you're next all right thank you that was that was lovely Presley thank you for doing what you're doing and just be breaking down that entire system and it just expanded it's like okay y'all are doing way more than I thought you were that's really cool and so thank you for that let's see all right there go and ha um thank you everyone for joining us today I love the health of the soil that our little microscopic world that we don't often see because it's something something that's so tiny but yet so vital to our existence without microbes we essentially don't function and one of the biggest things that we need for them to do is to process a lot of our Cycles from our from breaking down organic matter like the mulches mulches and different additives that we have break down into the soil to go into our nitrogen fixation that our plants can take up oftentimes the nitrogen that our plants need are either too big or in a wrong State and microbes help them change into states that the plants can absorb through their root structure and and everything from the cat ion exchange to the soil structures themselves carbon sequestering they do a lot of amazing things let's see H as I say without microbes life as we'd know it would ground to a halt nutrition would stay in unstable forms and be unable to absorb and for plants or they would build up to the point where they be would become toxic levels one so think I go too far so think probiotics for the soil the soil is the guts of our plants and excuse me one of the biggest cycles that we need is our R Riso Fiji stage Roots will give off different ex dates sugar carbohydrates and different things to actually attract microbes to them and those microbes will often come with various nutrients that they've broken down the Plant can absorb them in and it'll cause gases inside those different cells and cause expansion that's where we get our root growth root hairs and also and also they will play with the minerals on the outside edges of the roots and essentially acidify them making it easier for those roots to penetrate into materials and increase the surface of area of the what the plants can get to versus not having the proper balance without them with micro a proper microbiome Health a root can increase its surface zones by up to 700 times versus just the plant trying to do it on its own with the microbes that it comes with in its seeds let's see let's see great so next now oftentimes we think of when we think of microbes we think of something that's a pathogen something that's bad for us something that makes us sick something that kills our plants but often times it's simply a system that's out of balance every microb in the soil has some form of function in our ecosystem and when we can when they get out of balance that's when certain things will expand they'll either eat too much or there won't break down something and it just causes an imbalance so what we might think of as bad it just something that just needs to be corrected let's see see when microbes come into the system they can create a natural gluing kind of like how when you see a snail path cross that sticky stuff behind it microbes will do essentially the same thing they will pull all these soil structures and particles together and glue them into microaggregates that can form around the root structure and protect it from uh excessive pathogens or can yeah and different things uh also help with water retention nutrients as well as build soil structure when these microaggregates team up with fungi they can make a macro aggregates and what essentially has happening in the soil is it's becoming think of like chocolate cake you got all these holes it's very porous but it's still a solid structure when we have rain come in those that rain can now percolate into the system bringing in oxygen bringing in more water into the area which can balance the pH on a better scale for a lot of our more crop productive plants to ALS and also fight off all those more acidic bacteria that can cause a lot more of our problems in the soil think of it as kind of not just just a blank ground of bits and pieces but of more of a nutrient Highway when those often times we'll just see the top of the fungi we'll see the little fruiting bodies but underneath can be mild mil and miles of all these macro and micro Aggregates connected together to where plants can then communicate with one another they can send out signals through the microbes and through the fungi to warn a pests to help with nutrient distribution in water as well and to balance different systems these are more natural ways our plants work with each other to keep a healthy e system this is and this is a beautiful example of our one of our Ry grasses that is covered in these sheets this is super healthy super beautiful to see this is a system that's going to survive a lot more stressors easier than say without them and a lot of our practice IES when not done in a nice balance with the system can destroy these we have a lot of chemicals that we can use um bleaches hydrogen peroxides uh rubbing alcohol and different things that we can add to the soil can actually destroy these different things that we need uh overt tilling can cause compaction it can expose the microbes to UV lighting such as the sunlight and it can kick off other microbes that help break down the soil it can kick them into overdrive and then end up destroying a system that they're just trying to maintain antibiotics antimicrobials in excess can cause these cause a destruction of the systems and even removing water from a system not because microbes can swim better than they can walk they can still walk but they're gonna take them a lot longer and as what in even our overuse of synthetic fertilizers are different salts and different things to the point where the plant if it has what it's getting won't send off these exid dates and not be able to attract in the microbes that it needs so forcing us to have to keep adding things into it so because it's not it's just disrupting the cycle and different things so now good news is we can restore these with fairly simple practices mulching diverse cropping cover crops things planting things that are native that are nativized that can and diversities that bring back in different Critters the nematodes and the different things that will pull these microbes back in and encourage them to come back into the system a reducing of our sprays and working with nature versus against it and of course reducing tillage and different practices that we've done for a while just slightly adjusting of when we're doing them and how often can help these microbes come back in and continue do doing their job and also you can add in other systems compost tees are very common and of course of adding balanced micro formulas all right now American Lawns are now the largest single irrigated crop in America and it's one of those that's 36 thousand square miles of space that we are we're going through several different cycles per area pre-emergence sprays fertilizers additives all these different things of this Mass space that every year can it go anywhere from can have things added to it anywhere from three to 12 different things added per lawn and not everything is absorbed especially if the microbiome structure is broken down and not able to do what it needs to this stuff is washing off into our waterways and into local areas and into our habitats that we're surrounding in our in urban areas in all the things around us which can cause various problems such as algae blooms and our waterways there's too much nutrients so nutrients are just feeding different things and we can get all all these fun out of balance problems all right so um microbes have the ability to decompose and process very chemical various chemical pollutants that we're adding that are typically commonly found on our Lawns and our waterways one way to speed up the degradation of harmful chemicals is to introduce a balanced microbial Community specific for the problems that are having in that area in for such as synthetic fertilizers chemicals and anything that's affected by a chemical runoff our urban areas our environments to Industrial sites and transportation corridors the microbio microbial degradation process can convert complex chemical compounds into simpler less harmful substances uh thereby reducing the risk of chemical pollutants when we get heavy rains and get things that can affect our areas and this is where we come into play a lot of our different herbicides and things can be broken down by microbes matter of fact a lot of them such as husky FX suggest that this be part of the process because when the system is balanced it comes in it does its job and then dissipates into a natural manner that is not going to be destructive to non-target plants and help with conditions that can also slow us down such as drought crazy tempure changes all these different things that can be balanced naturally now with werever microbes we can reduce the rates of different things that we still have to need to have our um ways that we do things still function such as 24d can be reduced Roundup damba and the list continues on and on and thus we can save money where you're needing to add these sprays in we can reduce what you're already doing and work with the soil system let's see one of so there are a lot of things out there on the market I know a lot of y'all have been hitting the different uh like social medias and the stores and seeing just a massive amounts of all these things it's like okay which one do you use how do we know it's this one or that one what's going to help with our system which you have to be very careful because you can overbalance your system and throw it out of whack by adding something in that's not a good idea our our stuff is made here in Oklahoma we're all natural made in house we don't start with h cow feces we don't we don't include things like ecoli we don't don't start with it we've been able to gather our our species from nature be able to reproduce them in house and be able to present them in a dormant formula so you don't have to refrigerate it you don't have to um do processes you don't have to feed it you don't have to do all these things and essentially keep it out of the sunlight to get a place you you can store perfect spot for it um Mo a lot of microbes oftentimes have a 3 to 12 month shelf life our current test batch is over 12 years old with an open lid in a warehouse and it's has it still has the majority of its ethicacy it's has barely changed in 12 years then again you don't have to feed them you don't have to do any of the things that cause uh other stuff to break down don't have to do any of that they are asleep till you add them into the system and they can even be tank mixed with certain kinds of things we with the exception of fungicides everything else can be mixed in and we have tested it and so that way you can come in plug it in spray keep going with some of our main effects are being able to help with environmental stability for some of our extreme temperatures and weather changes that happen here in Oklahoma the the picture with our cow field here only the trees themselves have been irrigated but that entire field has been sprayed with microbes and right now or this picture was taken when there uh there was a severe drought as you can see it's like just a little bit healthier a little bit stronger a little bit more resilient just having a balanced system as and then same with our um our Fields over here one farmer sprayed one half of his field and didn't spray the other half it's Greener it's Lusher it's bigger same processes it's just a few steps or a few steps difference than what he was already doing is we've tested it with trees with our this was our um double blind study with over 800 different Native and nativized trees in the area we've seen better growth in the root systems more surviving of the trees themselves when they were transplanted when they had to deal with various things fighting off for diseases that we have to deal with and a lot better rapid growth and fill in for those areas that can be a lot harder to grow around especially when you have a tree involved because tree a tree microbiome and a grass microbiome are actually two different communities which we've been able to help them work in unison we've also been working with various grasses this is our Maiden grass it's the one with the red tag is what's been inoculated and it's a little bit bigger a little bit healthier and able to take into its environment a lot faster which we are very excited about this and a lot of concerns that especially a lot of parents or pet owners have is like okay when can I come back on a place that's been inoculated with our stuff immediately you can come in inoculate water it in walk away people can come back on there's no waiting time there's no downtime for most areas for these different things it's again we're 100% organic this is just taking what the ecosystem already had and putting into a formula that can just be straight added and again we need microbes to process things they help they are the essentially the nutrient Highway of how we do our everyday living and without microbes things simply don't grow and I do appreciate you guys time for being here and I can open this up to questions which you're welcome H do we have any questions for Connie Jordan I haven't seen I'm sorry can youbody hear me I haven't seen any come in just yet um if anybody has any questions ah we just had one um Connie um how um can your products be purchased so we you can order online through our main website wender microbes.

Comom or you can order through me which they're going to send you to a distributor if you go through online anyway and I'm going to come in and evaluate where you're at and help you with what you're needing and to make sure you get what you're specifically needing for your spots such as we have things for specifically for trees specifically for soil we even have things for um like a hydrocarbon breakdown such as uh light oil spills like if your equipment busts we have things for that too coming out soon hopefully within the next quarter but we go ahead did you say something I'm sorry oh just have a we just have another question but I I didn't want to interrupt you if you had something to add um next question is uh what is the biggest benefit or takeaway uh from adding microbes to a home Garden it enhances the structure often times people will come into a garden all right you got your flowers you got your fertilizer you put it all together and you just set it and forget oftentimes that doesn't fully work because you still need the microbes to process that those nutrients that your fertilizer will have for the plants such as uh nitrogen nitrogen has several different forms that aren't readily available and corn would be a better example corn when you add a uh what I would consider like a salt base or salt additives would it will take up probably about 40% of what you're actually putting down when you add the micro bio microbiome to it it will increase that to 90% or more depending on your area it can um one of our we had a salt Farm that had a high sodium amount say you put in something and it's too high it's too much we can bring that back down and the microbes can help break that down to where it's a level that your plants can work with and when I added it to my tomatoes last year or sorry year before I was able to take an overgrown 4inch pot or one inch potted tomato that was way overdone put it in it went from very sad to extremely happy and it survived one freeze and still put on it Tomatoes go it's well I think uh we're we've just reached our our end of our time um we still had a couple of questions remaining but uh what we can do is uh take note of those and uh we can reach out to to Connie and Presley and send out their responses to those questions um after the webinar um but we do have a few closing comments um Holly would you like to take us home yeah so again thank you Presley thank you Connie presentations were great information was great it was nice having you today uh remember if anyone like to receive a certificate of attendance for today for today's presentation please send us an email to request it I'm placing my email again into chat please don't request certificates in the chat because we may not have your email address linked to your username or on teams I will not the certificates later on this week um as we've mentioned a recording of today's presentation should be available on our website in the next week or so and I will put that website link into the chat for you now if anyone still needs to register for either the 2024 webinar series or our quarterly e newsletter please reach out to us and I'll be happy to provide you with that information you can also sign up by using the QR codes that will be on your screen momentarily thank you for all attending today's session we hope everyone enjoyed the presentation and our continuing to enjoy our webinar series we hope to see you again June 18th the next installment of our webinar series we'll be hearing from our very own Melanie Lawson who will be sharing information about the city of OKC's construction plan and permit review process we hope everyone can tune in again in June have a great afternoon thank you Presley again and Connie really appreciate you guys it was wonderful thank you for having us yes thank you for having us and putting on these presentations they're such a needed thing for all of this we've had some amazing presentations you know Holly and I are new to it really within the last year but they've held these series for quite some time and there's a lot of value information that we have you know coming through this uh the series so um I learned a lot today I know that for sure yeah that's good um one thing I wanted to mention is that I think I tried to get some of the questions answered in there um because there were there were a few of them um the ones that I did not answer um either it's a really long explanation or the question itself was either um not to what I could totally understand like um I think I have Wayne crany um how much makeup water do you withdraw per year um I'm not 100% understanding the question but um if there's the ones that I didn't answer if maybe we could understand what they're asking in particular I'd be happy to answer them how much water do you just do you take out of the aquafer oh well so the the well like the lake itself retains water from the initial rainfall if if the lake is low like if we've been irrigating a lot then we will pump water through that which is already fed through the the water that we have around here um I mean I could give you a number on the like estimated amount that we've used in years past but that's not even like for um just like out of the aquafer it's also like what is just in our lake so I couldn't give you an exact on like what we've pumped from say the aquafer um we ever needed to do something like that but in terms of like the the irrigation throughout the season I think it's somewhere between like maybe four million gallons but that is with the lake and the lower Park um as well so we try to do our best to lower that number as much as possible because I mean four billion is a is a lot is a big number but um with all the plant material and stuff that we have and of course we we adhere to um uh any regulations during droughts and things like that where we aren't um to be irrigating um we adhere to that as well um to the best as we can um on those scheduled days and things like that we we understand that you know we are providing um an area for the public but we also don't want to be taking from the public for whatever water supply they they might be using in for their own Gardens and stuff thank you yeah thank you for your question thanks Presley yeah this is Derek uh just a quick question the the Park Pond is lined correct yes yes it is and I I think there was just one more I think you got everything else just from Dawson are you still on I think you are he yes yes and your your question was one that was um quite a large one to answer so I appreciate you still being here so um for collecting um the soil samples or water samp um we''ve done both um because of our um what we've done with having the newer lower Park um it was a scrapyard pretty much and so we're wanting to make sure that that area doesn't have um a lot of um toxic you know like stuff in it and whatnot or doing our best to help um alleviate that through our best means of like compost and things like that um but you talking about how you're trying to figure out um adding too much nutrients than what's needed we do a lot of um calculations here with what we've been putting out um so as an example like with our annual Rye for our o um overseeding I believe it's like one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet so we use that math um and that's what the plant would mostly be feeding on under optimal circumstances so um we use our chemical like our fertilizer whatever we may be using and use that math so so that we're providing at least the amount of nutrients that it would be using and hopefully nothing more or if anything more that would be used um by the other plant material during the spring or stuff like that that would actually stay around longer um like your phosphorus or potassium um for like flowering and root development um but in in terms of um areas that that aren't like Optimal uh we do our best to take soil samples and figure out what they need um so that we can get it to a healthy uh to a healthy Point Presley on that same line um what he was mentioning is one of the rain Gardens we installed uh as a mitigation effort in one of our parks and we did add a little too much compost to that so we are having some export um but as far as the design of the rain Gardens you may not be able to speak to it uh but did you add compost as a design feature to those rain Gardens so the edges of the rain Gardens are um sloped inwards um they're they're a circular with it going downward um and then at the bottom they have that Japanese Riverstone that I had mentioned um that's just a design choice that they decided to put in there um it could have you know been any other kind of stone or anything like that um and then throughout the entire par there are um these little uh rain chains basically it's just more that River Stone along the bed so that if there's any irrigation or uh ER or sorry any water flow from the The Lawns that it would hit that before it went straight into the lake so that it's C caught there and then goes through and is filtered before it gets back into the lake um interesting but yeah with the um with the lenses there is um both compost Mulch and plant material there so sometimes we have um from our experience mulch that will um get down into that area and then it um is organic matter that then leads to seed germination and then you got a whole bunch of weeds and stuff in there so we do our best to um in those areas we actually um use different means of IPM so we'll use like uh flame weeders um and um other herbicides that are safe for aquatic um plants and animals um um that is only for like the target species well not so much the target species but it's torched is typically what we use in there which is an organic one that we like to use um and then um that is that inflame weeding or hand pulling is kind of what we do to get that stuff out of there but um yeah to to divert the amount of extra whatever it might be fertilizer we try and do our best to um get the desired of what we want so like if it's herbaceous or if we want it to flow then we would either go nitrogen or or you know a different um particular uh uh fertilizer or element and then um we try to run math off of that so we're not adding too much into the area um that we don't need I hope that answers your question yeah yeah thank you uhuh I think that was most of them but um again I I really do appreciate it um hopefully we can we can uh be a part of it again next time for whatever else you might have oh there's so much going on at scissor tail yeah I'm sure you could probably speak on any num we'd love to have you back yeah absolutely and Connie thanks again you guys both staying a little bit later and uh you know answering everybody's questions um but uh appreciate you both and yeah we would love to have you both back if you're willing anytime um if you guys need anything from us please let us know uh but we will be posting this um I'll be sending it out to be posted today so you guys should see it and hopefully next week um it'll be on our YouTube channel and there'll be a link available on on our web page as well so you guys can access it and if I I'll try to send that to you guys as well just so you guys don't have to look for it well thank you again yeah I appreciate y'all thank you so much thank you both thank you

As found on YouTube

Contact Us