Janne Debes started volunteering with AWW when she was certified as a Bacteriological Monitor in winter 2016. Since then, she has joined several monitoring groups, including Save Our Saugahatchee, Lake Watch of Lake Martin (where she serves on the board), and the USFS Tuskegee National Forest group. She has collected a total of over 320 Water Chemistry and 110 Bacteriological Monitoring data records. It’s easy to see why she has been named the Alabama Water Watch Monitor of the Year two years in a row!
Because Janne is so AWWesome, we thought you would enjoy learning a little more about her, or should we say you would like to Meet Our Wonderful Water Watcher.
Where do you call home?
Janne is a native of upstate New York, but calls Auburn her home, where she lives with her husband in his childhood home.
What stream, river, lake, bay, or bayou is your favorite water-spot?
Out of all her monitoring sites, Janne enjoys sampling Parkerson Mill Creek the most. Specifically her site on Parkerson Mill Creek on Veteran’s Boulevard.
What water recreation/sports do you enjoy most?
Janne enjoys swimming, kayaking, and rowing on the water. It would be difficult to catch her doing something that wasn’t outdoors!
What got you interested in Alabama Water Watch?
Janne’s interest in AWW began with an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) course led by Dr. Bill Deutsch on Alabama’s rivers. Dr. Deutsch started offering the course several years ago, and Janne was hooked – and we are so glad she was, because she has a contagious, enthusiastic energy!
How many sites do you test each month?
Janne is not one to shy away from a challenge, as she has 18 sites that she tests monthly! She is also a regular at the AWW office, and often visits via her bicycle, to check to see if there are new sites for her to sample.
While the majority of her 18 monthly testing sites are on creeks in the Auburn area, Janne has taken on three of the monitoring sites associated with the USFS CitSci Project in the Tuskegee National Forest, and several sites on Lake Martin. It’s safe to say that Janne’s monitoring schedule stays busy!
Thank you, Janne, for being such a wonderful water watcher!
What have you learned from monitoring?
“So much science! And that a few hours out sampling are EXTREMELY tranquilizing.”
What are your biggest challenges/issues in your favorite watershed?
Janne has a keen eye for invasive species and is always prepared to take them down. She says that her biggest challenge is “annoying plants – I carry hand snippers always.”
Do you have some “lessons learned” that you could pass on to the rest of us relative to watershed stewardship?
Janne shares with us that patience and consistency are key aspects of monitoring. She says, “expect yourself to make inattentive errors, and forgive yourself. Try not to make that mistake again, but don’t be surprised if you do. Just correct it each time. Reread the instruction manuals from time to time.”
What are some of your favorite pastimes?
Janne enjoys reading, hiking, killing invasives, testing waterbodies, cycling in her free time when she’s not out monitoring her 18 sites!
If you could be an aquatic critter, which one would you be and why?
“Gavia ummer — the common loon. I grew up with them on a wild lake in upstate New York.”
