Author: srs0013

Bill Deutsch and Sergio Ruiz-Cordova traveled to Arley, Alabama to train a group of Alabama Water Watch-certified volunteer monitors to become AWW trainers Saturday, September 12th. The AWW Training of Trainers Workshop was held at the Meek High School in Arley. The AWW Program has been training citizens throughout the state to test the water quality of their local streams, rivers, lakes, bays and bayous since 1993. Bill quickly realized that the exponential growth in volunteer monitors could not be sustained with just a couple of AWW trainers, and developed the Training of Trainer Workshop in 1995. Currently, the AWW Program has about 40 trainers statewide, and AWW-certified volunteer trainers conducted about 2/3rds of trainings within the past year. Since 1993, over 5,000 Alabamian have been certified as AWW water monitors.

Trainees, Larry Barkey (on left) and James Mason (in back) receive training materials from Bill Deutsch

The ranks of AWW trainers gained four new recruits at the Arley training, and two veteran trainers went through the Trainer Refresher Workshop. The workshop participants came from the Black Warrior, Coosa and Tennessee River basins, and represented five AWW monitor groups (listed below). New trainees included: 

• John Kulbitkas representing Smith Lake Civic Association

• Larry Barkey representing Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy

• James Mason representing Huntsville Senior Environment Corps

• Loretta Weninegar representing Columbia High School, Huntsville, AL

Trainers that got refreshed included:

• Ray O’Donnell representing RSVP/Marshall County

• Isabella Trussell representing Logan Martin Lake Protection Association

Bill opened the workshop with an overview of AWW Program trends. He then reviewed the Executive Summary of the 2008 AWW Annual Report, and lead a discussion “Thinking about AWW in the Big Picture”, touching on comparative advantages of AWW monitoring, maintaining quality citizen water data, interpretation of the citizen data, better use of the data, and AWW success stories and local initiatives.

Other topics of discussion included volunteer monitor group dynamics, levels of AWW certification, role of the Alabama Water Watch Association, what is involved in becoming a trainer, planning an AWW workshop, preparing for a workshop, conducting a workshop, and following up after a workshop.

Special thanks to Ms. Susette Rohde, the Meek High School science teacher who assisted with  training logistics and provided delicious home-made treats for the participants! To locate an AWW trainer near you and request a training workshop, go to the AWW website at www.alabamawaterwatch.org and click on the Monitor Resources menu, or call the AWW toll-free number at (888) 844-4785. And the next time that you’re out cruising on a beautiful lake, paddling down a picturesque stream, or fishing in a productive bayou, remember to shout out a big “Thank You!” to the selfless volunteer trainers – like John, Larry, James Loretta, Ray and Isabella, and the volunteer monitors who give hundreds of hours of their time to watch over and protect the rich aquatic resources of our State.

Find out what’s been going on over the summer in the Alabama Water Watch Program by reading the:

        AWWareness Summer 2009 Newsletter

On October 28th and 29th, the Alabama Erosion and Sediment Control Partnership will held the 2009 Clear Water Alabama Field Day in Bessemer, Alabama. The field day will highlight many erosion and sediment control practices and give participants a chance to observe and discuss many on-site practices.  Some of the practices include new sediment basin technology that reduces the suspension of soil particles in water, called turbidity.

Click here to see a brochure and registration info for the 2009 seminar.

To see about the 2008 Field Day click here.

“My Lake”: 34 years of volunteer-collected data and no evidence of change…yet.

2008 Update: first Microcystis bloom seen this year. Transparency still 25 feet.

This is an invitation to participate again in this year’s Secchi Dip-In, which starts June 27 and runs thtough July 19. This is the 16th year of the Dip-In, and the three week event in June and July continues to demonstrate that volunteers such as you can collect quality data.

The Dip-In is a network of volunteer programs and volunteers, that, together with all the other Dip-In participants, gathering and providing continent-wide (and world-wide) information.

Because volunteers contribute data year after year, we are able to examine trends in transparenacy over time, but it takes a minimum of 5 years of data in order to begin to see trends. We now have 1,876 waterbodies with 5 or more years of data . Of those waterbodies, 202 exhibit significant levels of transparency change, both positive and negative. Are changes in 11% of North America’s volunteer-monitored waters significant? It might depend on whether it is “your” lake or stream that is changing and in what direction that change is occurring. Wouldn’t it be important to you to know what causes a waterbody to lose transparency or what tends to increase transparency?

We have already evidence that waterbodys having decreasing transparency are sometimes close to ones that may be improving in transparency; there is little evidence of whole regions changing simultaneously. This adds to our knowledge about whether urbanization or disturbance is changing the transparency of our lakes, but also emphasizes our ignorance of mechanisms of change. It emphasizes that yes, more data is necessary on more waterbodies for more years.

If you have missed several years of the Dip-In and would like us to calculate trends on your waterbody, you can enter data for previous years to “catch up” with our database.

We accept data from a wide range of turbidity instruments such as turbidity tubes and turbidimeters. We now have sufficient data to make some rough equivalents between instruments, so sometime in July I’ll be able to post North American transparency maps including all the data normalized to Secchi transparency. We have also been collecting data on temperature and oxygen for several years in order to examine whether they can reinforce our trend data and provide information on whether our continent is warming.

We also encourage the involvement of programs that sample rivers and streams, estuaries, and marine environments. It isn’t just lakes that are changing and need monitoring.

All of the data, including Dip-In 2008, will soon be available on our website. You can retrieve it by state, by county, or by waterbody. This allows you to see how your waterbody is faring relative to neighboring bodies in other programs. If you find errors, please let us know; you know these sites better than we do. If you want all of the information for your program or state, we can provide it as an Excel file or Access database.

For more details, Contact

Bob Carlson

2009 Secchi Dip-In

Biological Sciences, Kent State Univ, Kent, OH 44242

Phone 330.672.3992

FAX 330.672.3713

E-mail Dipin@Kent.Edu

Please visit the Dip-In website at:
http://dipin.kent.edu

Read about how an Alabama Water Watch volunteer monitor in Cullman County, Bob Keefe, has inspired dozens of students from Wallace State Community College over the past several years to get more in-tune with their local aquatic environment.

NRCS National Newsletter – Alabama Success Story

Local News Article

Wallace State Thank You Letter

Photo Gallery by Connie Briehn, Biology Instructor, Wallace State (be sure to hit the play arrow at the bottom of the first picture to view all 135 photos).

Bob monitors water chemistry and E. coli bacteria at 24 stream sites throughout Cullman County, and has contributed over 1,600 data records over the past eight years to the AWW statewide water quality database (online at www.alabamawaterwatch.org – click on the AWW Data menu).

To explore Bob’s stream water chemistry data, CLICK HERE.

To explore Bob’s stream E. coli data, CLICK HERE.

In 2008, Bob received the coveted Monitor of the Year Award for most total records submitted in one year (311 records), the Mike Mullen Award for the most water chemistry records submitted in one year (164 records),  and the Award for the Most Bacteriological Records submitted in one year (147 records).  All of this effort adds up to a great legacy of environmental stewardship that Bob is passing on to the next generation of conservationists – THANK YOU BOB!

The Watershed Leadership Conference was held at Camp Beckwith in Fairhope, AL March 14 to 16, 2008.
Click here to read more about it.

Lake Wedowee Stewards got recertified to keep monitoring their Lake.
To Read More…

The Alabama Water Watch Association Annual Meeting and Picnic was held at Smith Lake, AL June 14 2008.
To Read More…

During Data Entry you may visit the new Six Parameter Charts where you can review your data year by year and Email AWW with any discrepancies or confirming validity of data.