John Bunker Sands Wetland Center

JBS Wetland Center fulfils its conservation literacy mission by conducting programs in the 810ha East Fork Water Reuse Project, which filters 91 million gallons of water each day reducing contaminates and decreasing suspended solids in the urban water cycle. The filtered water is pumped underground for 43 miles where it flows back into the Lake Lavon reservoir from which the water originated. This water filtration system provides 20 percent of the total water used by the North Texas population. This closed loop urban water cycle has been the laboratory of JBSWC education and research programs for over 8,000 students and 2,500 adults annually, with over 50 percent of participants being direct recipients of the recycled water. Our Wetland Ecology and Water Conservation programs strive to make students aware of this relationship to water, how they use water affects all aspects of the urban water cycle, and the process of how testing the water affects overall water health and quality and how this affects the available resource. In 2010 our non-profit was formed as a public private partnership between The Rosewood Corporation and the North Texas Municipal Water District. Our goal to promote conservation literacy to more students has a measurable and profound impact on conservation behavioral changes. In May 2022 we will receive the Texas Leopold Conservation Award - a national recognition to promote replication of reuse wetlands and education and research.