By: Jera Dills
AWW Staffers Mona, Sergio, Sydney, and Jera kicked the new year off strong by completing the first training session of 2024 in early February! We were very excited to have a diverse gathering of Extension and 4-H Agents, college professors and students from Huntingdon College, Faulkner University, and Auburn University at Montgomery, members of the newly formed Friends of the Alabama River, Lake Jordan HOBOs, and many others who cohesively shared a goal to protect Alabama’s waterways through routine monitoring.
In addition, we were joined by representatives of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Herb Society who were co-coordinators for the training opportunity. They shared information about their current watershed project that includes the construction of a rain garden at the Crump Senior Center. Read more about the project through this article.
The workshop was held at Montgomery Whitewater, which had its grand opening in July 2023. The park features an Olympic-standard whitewater channel catering to both adrenaline-seeking athletes as well as casual recreational paddlers. Check out Montgomery Whitewater for more information about their amenities and be sure to take a look at their events calendar to plan your next adventure!
The day was a balance of classroom lectures and hands on practice! We first had our lesson on bacteriological monitoring procedures led by Mona and Sergio. Attendees practiced pipetting and collecting samples on R-Cards. We enjoyed seeing the reactions to examples of R-Cards collected the week prior on Auburn University’s campus. Some had little to no coliforms while others were almost entirely covered in blue colonies- E. Coli! This was a great way to show the possibility of a wide variety of results as well as giving attendees a chance to practice counting colonies.
Unlike usual training sessions, we did not have direct access to a natural water source. however, we problem-solved and were able to still teach testing procedures with water gathered in buckets to simulate a stream, where we coined the term “Bucket Stream!”
The second half of the day was dedicated to water chemistry! Sydney led an overview of the procedure and a tour of the Chemistry Kits, and we then moved back outside to practice. Attendees paired into groups and were guided through all steps of the process.
This workshop was a great way to start the new year for AWW and we are so excited for the workshops to come! We have several training opportunities coming up that you can find on our Events page. Sessions are filling up quickly, so if getting certified is something you’re interested in, sign up today!
We also cannot give enough thanks to the staff at Montgomery Whitewater for being so helpful and allowing us to use their space to continue our mission!