AWWareness

by: eric reutebuch

Pat and Tom Lynch moved to their home on Lake Martin seven years ago, drawn by its beauty and high water quality. They quickly gravitated to Lake Watch of Lake Martin, the volunteer monitor group that has been watching over the lake for the past two decades. They got trained and certified by Alabama Water Watch (AWW) in water quality monitoring, and adopted a site at the Elk’s Lodge, where they’ve been faithfully monitoring for four years.

Wishing to share their love of the lake and spirit of stewardship with others, they became involved in youth education through interactions with local schools. They teamed up with Dick and Mary Ann Bronson, who developed a whole program of environmental education activities for the gifted class at Radney School. The program linked certified and experienced Lake Watch water monitors and Auburn University scientists to the class curriculum, introducing students to in-class and beyond-the-classroom experiences to inspire them about the sciences.

The Lynches spread their stewardship experiences beyond the state borders by inspiring Jessica Blanchard, their granddaughter in St Cloud, Florida to think about water for her 7th grade project for the school science fair. They shared their Radney School experiences with her, and introduced her to Exploring Alabama’s Living Streams, an AMSTI-accredited environmental curriculum developed by AWW. She latched on to Water
Usage and Conservation and ran with it!

Jessica’s Award-winning Water Conservation project

Continue reading “AWW Water Watchers inspire water conservation beyond Alabama”

by: Barbara & Ron Estridge and eric reutebuch

Save Our Saugahatchee (S.O.S.) celebrated the 15th anniversary of its founding at its April 19, 2012 bi-monthly meeting. S.O.S was incorporated as a non-profit in April 1997 with the mission of improving the quality of Saugahatchee Creek and educating the public about the value of the creek. The initial board of directors who incorporated S.O.S. in 1997 were Alex Bailey, Eric Reutebuch, Tom Ivers, Ron Estridge, Claude Conn, Ken Olson, and Johnny Crance. Tom Ivers served as the first President of the new group.

Continue reading “S.O.S. celebrates 15 years of Saugahatchee Stewardship”

by: eric reutebuch

And, can YOU make a difference in protecting and preserving the world, or at least a piece of it? I recently got a lesson in what individuals can do to make our world a better place.

Continue reading “Are you smarter (and more environmentally conscious) than a 5th grader?”

by: eric Reutebuch

Congratulations to the Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Group for receiving the Rise to the Future, National Hydrology, and Soil Science Award from the U.S. Forestry Service. WCSLAI was “recognized for their partnership with the National Forests in Alabama to sponsor lake shore clean up events as part of Alabama Power Company’s “Renew Our Rivers” campaign. Over the past six years, the partnership has engaged to the local community and convened hundreds of volunteers to remove approximately 180 tons of litter (appliances, Styrofoam, tires, boating and fishing accessories). Over 166 tributary river miles on Smith Lake have also been targeted. Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Group is accredited for raising environmental awareness and engaging a broad coalition of community businesses and groups and the entire staff of the Bankhead National Forest in this effort. Click here to see all 2011 Rise to the Future winners.

Continue reading “Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Group Receives Rise to the Future Award”

Many of you participated in the first annual Alabama Gives Day on February 2, 2012, by donating to Alabama Water Watch and/or by encouraging others to do so (go to www.alabamagivesday.org to learn more). Thanks to you over $1300 were raised for the AWW Association who funds workshops, chemical replacements for active volunteers, and other important services provided by AWW.  The AWW Association is a membership based non-profit organization that enables citizens to contribute their experiences, services, membership dues and gifts to ensure that AWW will continue to educate, train, and empower citizens through community-based watershed stewardship for years to come.

If you didn’t have a chance to give on Alabama Gives Day, don’t worry, you can become a membership or make a gift to AWW 365 days a year by visiting the “Support AWW” button on the AWW homepage (www.alabamawaterwatch.org) or by sending a membership form and check to:
Alabama Water Watch Association
P.o. Box 3294
Auburn, AL 36830

When Alabama Water Watch was just getting started back in 1992, it operated quite differently than it does today. Bill Deutsch, AWW Director, has been in the picture since the beginning and remembers that first year of Water Watch as exciting but exhausting.   People throughout Alabama were interested and enthusiastic about the possibilities of the statewide Water Quality Monitoring Program and as a result there was a great demand for the AWW workshops. At the time AWW only offered the Chemistry Water Monitoring Certification, and there were no citizen trainers. As a result Bill and co-founder Dr. Bill Davies (BD² as Bill and Bill were called back then) were on the road for 20 weekends per year!

                   2005 Training of Trainers Workshop held at AU

Continue reading “AWW Citizen Trainers – Essential to AWW!”

Many Alabama Water Watch monitors, Association members, and staff participated in the 14th Annual Alabama Water Rally which is hosted each year by the Alabama Rivers Alliance.  This year’s Rally took place at Camp Beckwith on beautiful Weeks Bay on March 16th-18th. It was a particularly special weekend as participants celebrated several milestones of water protection for Alabama including the 15th Anniversary for Alabama Rivers Alliance (ARA), the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act, and the 20th Anniversary for Alabama Water Watch (AWW). There was even a special birthday cake to commemorate the occasion.

Throughout the weekend participants were given opportunities to expand their knowledge of water policy, advocacy strategies, community organizing, and current water issues facing Alabamians by participating in concurrent sessions led by national experts.  Keynote speakers included Nancy Stoner who is the Acting Assistant Administrator for the U.S.EPA Office of Water.

Continue reading “2012 River Heroes: Bill Deutsch and Mike Mullen”

by: eric reutebuch

Radney Elementary School’s gifted student program was honored on Friday, March 1, 2012 when the Best Environmental Education Program (BEEP) Award was presented to Radney teacher, Laurie Barrett.

Continue reading “Radney Elementary wins BEEP statewide environmental ed award”

by: eric reutebuch

Dick Bronson received the 2012 W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award at a surprise award ceremony during the Lake Watch of Lake Martin annual meeting at the Elk’s Lodge on Lake Martin on Sunday, February 19th, 2012.

Continue reading “Water Watcher wins 2012 W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award”

Students from Geraldine, North Sand Mountain and Sardis high schools recently received awards for their Earth Team projects in water monitoring. Chip Blanton, FFA instructor at Fort Payne High School, trained area students in water quality monitoring techniques developed by Alabama Water Watch (AWW). AWW has worked for the past two decades developing water chemistry, bacteriological and stream biomonitoring techniques and training citizen volunteers throughout the state to become water monitors . AWW also conducts train-the-trainer workshops to train and certify volunteer trainers. Mr. Blanton was trained as an AWW trainer, and has conducted over a dozen water monitoring workshops in the Fort Payne-area.

Chip Blanton trains students in water monitoring
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