GEORGIA Adopt-A-Stream Volume 16, Number 1, January/ February 2009 Editors Harold Harbert, Tara Muenz, Andrea Sproul Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division A Year of Challenges, A Year of Success 2008 was a year of challenges for Georgia Adopt-A-Stream. We started the year with only one state coordinator and lost her before the onset of summer. We could have thrown in the towel, but instead we cobbled together a patchwork team of dedicated interns and veterans, all the while relying on our partners and our resourcefulness. Through it all, the program made significant progress. In fact, 2008 may one day be considered a watershed year for Adopt-A-Stream; several programmatic changes were realized, with one particularly significant step forward in the creation of our online water quality database. In 2008, the State Office certified 93 trainers for conducting chemical and biological monitoring workshops. These trainers work closely with or serve as leaders of our 52 community coordinators to assist you with local water quality issues, lead monitoring workshops and serve as a local partner. With the assistance of these trainers, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream offered a record 240 workshops across the state. During these workshops, 2,089 citizens received Quality Assured Quality Control Certification (QA/QC). In addition, our volunteers registered 88 new sites to add to the 227 actively monitored sites. The time and effort our trainers and volunteers contribute to the program is significant; in fact, according to the Independent Sector website, the value of AAS volunteers in Georgia is in excess of $350,000! The Adopt-A-Stream newsletter, published six times per year, is now delivered to more than 4,800 homes, schools and nature centers. Our website continues to provide up-to-date information for volunteers. Our guides and manuals on watersheds, stream physical characteristics, water chemistry, macroinvertebrates, bacteria, wetlands, amphibians, and even waterway cleanups, still garner much interest. In fact, we receive requests from places as far away as Costa Rica, Argentina, and Singapore for AAS resources. Success through Partnerships Monitoring programs continue to take root in new areas of the state. New programs have been initiated on the west side of the state, in places such as Columbus and Carroll County. We have a new crop of trainers in the Columbia County/ Augusta area, and interest in the program has begun to take AAS Volunteer Value 2003-2008* root in the Macon area. Southwest Georgia has a newfound interest in the program as they have discovered the amphib- $400,000 $350,000 $300,000 $250,000 $364,423 $210,821 $250,835 ian-monitoring program and have begun testing stream bacteria levels. North Georgia was not left out of the activities, as new programs and reinvigorated programs popped up in Rome and throughout the Coosa basin. Despite these steps forward, we have experienced a few set backs, especially in Value ($) $200,000 $150,000 $155,952 $152,486 $160,872 coastal Georgia, which suddenly finds itself with an excess of monitoring programs and few trainers or coordinators to $100,000 provide leadership. Our partners on the coast have achieved $50,000 $0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 a level of success that's hard to match; we hope to work closely with the coastal program to ensure continued success. Year Our partnership with the EPD TMDL program resulted in *Values are based on Independent Sector research and includes workshop and monitoring hours. (continued on page 3) Adopt-A-Stream Database Has a Story to Tell Over the past year, AAS has emphasized the utility and function of the newly created database in workshops and newsletters. It provides an easy interface for data storage, but can also be used for information sharing. Database efforts in 2008 focused mostly on data cleaning, backlogged data input, creating functional interfaces for data entry, and providing interfaces for state and local programmatic documentation. In 2009, the primary focus is on creating functional interfaces for sharing and displaying water quality data. This includes increased program and group communication capabilities. This article is part of a series of upcoming articles that highlight the different ways in which you can engage and use the AAS database. The volunteer database will be an ever-growing project, so please send us your comments on how it can be more useful to you! While we encourage everyone to become familiar with using the online database, only QA/QC certified volunteers can register sites to adopt and add stream monitoring data. Registered AAS volunteers can access the online database at www.GeorgiaAdoptAStream.org. Special thanks to our programmer, Rick Hitchcock, IT Professional Principal of the University of Georgia Agricultural and Environmental Services Laboratories Summary Data: Exciting Numbers for AAS! The database can now provide summary data, which provides an opportunity to view the activity status of the AAS Year 2003 Volunteer Hours 7,983 2004 7,807 2005 8,238 2006 10,793 2007 12,845 2008 18,665 Table 1. AAS Volunteer Hours. Volunteer hours more than doubled over the last five years! Figure 1. Direct from the Database: AAS Program Statistics, 1999-2008. Active groups, active sites, the number of events and total certifications all increased in 2008, continuing an upward trend over the last decade. Program Continues to Grow (continued from page 1) in our first foray into the world of producing regulatory certified data. In 2008, EPA Region 4 provided documentation that our dissolved oxygen (DO) methods met EPA regulatory standards. This opened the door for the creation of EPD-approved sampling quality assurance plans (SQAP) for the submission of DO samples, using volunteer field methods for inclusion in the regulatory process. This partnership also included the use of volunteers to serve as runners to pull samples analyzed by Georgia certified laboratories. Moving into the New Year For 2009, we look forward to working with our local partners to continue to develop new programs. A primary fo- cus for this year will be the develop- ment of new monitoring forms for our visual stream assessment and a fully up- The Tucker Waterway Rivers Alive Cleanup 2008. dated watershed manual. Expect us to put the finishing touches on our amphibian manual. We during the fall, 26,841 volunteers participated in Rivers also plan to produce a lake monitoring guide to address the Alive events--almost 10 percent more than any single monitoring of impounded bodies of water. And, much like previous year. These cleanup events totaled 90,924 in 2008, we'll spend the next year making significant up- volunteer hours, removing 368.3 tons of garbage from dates to our online database, focusing attention on water 2,265 miles of waterway. Thank you to all volunteers who quality data display and dissemination. Also, for the first took part in a record-setting 2008! time, all volunteer water quality data will be made avail- able to the general public through our online database. In addition to cleanup volunteers, event organizers plan and coordinate events locally, taking on a significant We will also continue our strong partnership with Rivers amount of work behind the scenes. Their work makes it Alive, providing coordinator support for the implementa- possible for others to get involved in Rivers Alive tion of this program, communicating with volunteers, local cleanups. On April 22nd, these organizers will be organizers and the Rivers Alive Board. recognized for their outstanding work at the annual Rivers Alive luncheon at Zoo Atlanta. Despite our staffing challenges, 2008 was a year of tremendous success for Georgia Adopt-A-Stream. We ex- Improvements for 2009 pect the same for 2009! Changes are afoot for 2009, with the creation of an updated website that will provide a query-driven interface Significant Developments in Rivers Alive for locating cleanup sites. We'll also post cleanup events In 2008, the Rivers Alive campaign celebrated 10 years of year-round; however, as in the past, only events that occur cleaning up Georgia's waterways. Over the past decade, in the fall will qualify for T-shirts. And finally, we're over 182,842 volunteers have extracted 3,862,348 pounds designing another fun T-shirt for the 2009 campaign that of trash from 12,086 miles of waterway. And, while these will promote this year's educational message of water impressive numbers indicate the tremendous impact this quality. program has had on communities and their watersheds in the past, the numbers from the 2008 cleanups indicate that Thank you again to all organizers and volunteers who Rivers Alive will continue to grow into the next decade. made 2008 a great success! Your contributions leave Georgia's waters cleaner, healthier and more enjoyable for Despite high gasoline prices and a gasoline shortage everyone and make a positive impact on the environment. Thank You to Our 2008 Adopt-A-Stream Trainers! Allison Hughes Andrea Sarisky Angela Bliss Anne Stahley Annie Huff Brenda Rashleigh Brian Johnston Brian Sterner Brian Wiley Chris Kodani Courtney Walz Cynthia Taylor Dave Butler Dave Wenner David Promis Dianna Wedincamp Duncan Cottrell Emily Toriani Frank Carl Harold Harbert Jennifer McCoy John Davis John Graham John Kominoski Johnna Tuttle Judith Cocus Kate Mowbray Kelly Voss Kevin Fandrich Kevin Finney Kevin Smith Laura Aikens Lori Forrester Mary Carol Sheffield Melissa Rottenberg Michael O'Shield Michael Reardon Ray Sprankle Renee Gracon Robert Phillips Ruth Eilers Ruth Mead Scarlett Fuller Sharon Smith Sheila Humphrey Sue Eggert Susan Meyers Tammy Heiselmeyer Tara Muenz Tyler Sims Vicki Clubreth William Tietjen For more information as well as the time and location of upcoming workshops, visit www. GeorgiaAdoptAStream.org. The Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Newsletter is published six times per year. For more information about the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program or to contribute to the newsletter, call or write to: Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Environmental Protection Division 4220 International Parkway, Suite 101 Atlanta, GA 30354 404.675.6240 www.GeorgiaAdoptAtStream.org Dragonfly Riffle Beetle Dobsonfly Stonefly Net Spinning Caddisfly