The Official Blog of Alabama Water Watch
The AU Office of Sustainability’s annual Sustainability Picnic celebrates the community’s actions towards sustainable living while calling attention to the work that still needs to be done towards goals for Nature, Economy, Society, and Wellbeing.
Freshwater mussels, also known as bivalves, are a type of mollusk, along with snails. Alabama has the greatest diversity of freshwater mussels in the United States with 181 total species.
Villosa iris. Photo credit: Alan Cressler (Flickr)
Rainbow (Villosa iris) are found in the Tennessee River Basin, and favor shoal habitats. Its periostracum varies from yellow-brown with green rays.
Continue reading “Freshwater Mussels”
Thanks to our friends and workshop sponsors at Legacy, Partners in Environmental Education, AWW’s Mona and Sydney along with Dr. Bill Deutsch got to travel down to Prattville in late June for an Alabama Rivers Educator Workshop. Alabama Rivers Educator Workshops focus on curriculum based on the book, Alabama Rivers: A Celebration & Challenge by Dr. Deutsch.
Continue reading “Alabama Rivers Educator Workshop in Prattville”We were excited to host the 2023 AWW Annual Meeting at the beautiful Lake Guntersville State Park! We gathered with Monitors, Trainers, Board Members, program partners and new friends to celebrate the accomplishments of our AWWesome Volunteers throughout the last year.
Congratulations to our 2022-2023 AWWard Winners! Thank you all for your dedication, enthusiasm, and incredible contributions to the AWW Program. You are an integral part of our team!
Continue reading “2023 VOLUNTEER AWARDS”On June 6-7, 2023, a new cohort of educators gathered at the Alabama 4-H Center in Columbiana to complete their certification as 4-H Alabama Water Watch (AWW) Educators who will conduct bacteriological monitoring with their students in the coming school year. This is the second cohort of educators to be part of this NOAA BWET-funded project, which started with the first cohort in 2021.
AWW Staff and Volunteer Trainers have started off a strong 2023 Monitoring Training Season with nearly a dozen trainings including recertifications, full certifications, large trainings, and one-on-one sessions for over 170 monitors! Read on for a recap of staff-led trainings!
AWW Program Staffers Mona and Sydney, along with former AWW Director Dr. Bill Deutsch, had a great few days learning and exploring at the 2023 Environmental Education Association of Alabama Conference at Lake Point State Park in Eufaula, AL in early February.
The EEAA Conference was a great opportunity to meet and network with amazing environmental educators across Alabama, and to learn new and exciting ways to teach kids (and adults!) about environmental stewardship. Take a look at a few of the conference highlights below.
Continue reading “AWW @ EEAA 2023”As program coordinators, we can easily get wrapped up in numbers, reporting, and data, which are all vital things to the program, but not the focal point. We are starting off 2023 by re-centering our focus on what really matters, our volunteers! After all, Alabama Water Watch is just as much about people as it is about water. There is no AWW without dedicated volunteers who collect credible water data, educate others in their community about water issues, and advocate locally for protection and restoration of waterways .
Each AWW staff member sincerely cares about each of our Volunteer Monitors, Trainers, Board Members, and project and community partners; however, with such a small staff, it can be difficult to reach out to everyone to let them know they are valued and appreciated.
Monitors who were trained by a Volunteer Trainer or are new to the program may not have met any of us yet. We are a small group of dedicated folks who want to make a difference in Alabama, just like our volunteers.
AWW Staff’s New Year’s Resolution is to prioritize connecting with our volunteers and providing new avenues of support. Read on to see what we are doing in 2023.
Continue reading “AWW Staff’s 2023 New Year’s Resolution”290 monitors were certified or recertified in 2022 by Volunteer Trainers and AWW Staff around Alabama. It’s been a wonderful and busy year!
Over 700 folks completed* our online courses, marking a great first full year of using them for our Monitoring Trainings! *Completion is defined as individuals who completed the entire course with 80% accuracy or above.
Here are some of the highlights from AWW Staff Trainings. 2023 dates are listed at the end of this post and can be found on the AWW Events Calendar.
Continue reading “2022 Workshop Highlights and Looking Forward To 2023”