Adopt-a-stream, Vol. 16, no. 3 (May/June 2009)

GEORGIA
Adopt-A-Stream

Volume 16, Number 3, May/ June 2009
Editors: Tara Muenz, Andrea Sproul

Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division

Rivers Alive Recognizes 2008 Success, Prepares for 2009

DNR commissioner speaks at RA awards ceremony

On Earth Day, April 22nd at Zoo Atlanta, Rivers Alive celebrated ten years of helping individuals and communities clean up and protect Georgia's water resources. Over 80 cleanup organizers, volunteers and board members attended the annual luncheon to recognize the efforts put forth during the 2008 cleanups. Recognizing the importance of this kind of environmental stewardship, newly appointed DNR Commissioner Chris Clark spoke at the ceremony honoring this year's Rivers Alive award winners.

Clark praised the Rivers Alive model of educating and engaging people in river cleanups, telling the audience that one of his important goals is to engage Georgia citizens to become better stewards of the environment. He wants to help fulfill Governor Sonny Perdue's vision of a "culture of conservation" in Georgia by making people aware of the state's abundant natural and cultural resources. This awareness, he said, leads to an understanding and appreciation of the environment, which in turn leads to stewardship.

DNR Commissioner Chris Clark was the Featured speaker at this year's annual Rivers Alive awards luncheon.

Clark also talked about his transition to DNR, praising the achievements of programs like Rivers Alive while acknowledging the challenges the agency faces, from budget issues to meeting the increasing demands of citizens who want more opportunities to get outside. The good news, he said, is that people across the state from DNR staff to Rivers Alive volunteers are working together to protect the state's resources and to create a culture of conservation. Article Contributed by Becky Marshall

Rivers Alive registration opens with improvements! Following the ceremony, online registration for 2009 opened with several exciting improvements. Updates include a new website, new registration process and a move to year-round registration.

Registration Process: The Rivers Alive website, www.riversalive.org, has changed since 2008. The biggest overhaul is the registration process , which is now year-round. Each organizer now has a unique password to access registration information. If you are an Adopt-A-Stream volunteer this is the same login information to the AAS database. Through this system organizers can now update their personal information, add more cleanups as needed, and submit accurate cleanup data directly to the online database.
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Know of a site that needs a cleanup? A new "Got Trash" section of the website is available to allow anyone who knows of a location that needs a cleanup to post site information directly on our cleanup map page. There is also an option to upload images documenting the amount of garbage at the site. Citizens and organizers looking for places to clean can target these sites for future events.

Want to find a cleanup near you? In addition to locating trash, anyone can search for cleanup events through our "Locate a cleanup" link. With a map linked to the Rivers Alive cleanup registrations, users can now search for local cleanups within a 50 mile radius of a city via a drop-down menu.
Sponsors needed. As in the past, Rivers Alive is depended on corporate sponsorship to support local cleanup activities. All tax deductible funding is accepted through our fiscal partner, the Keep Georgia Beautiful program.

With over 26,000 volunteers participating in 2008, there is no doubt that Rivers Alive continues to succeed in its mission of keeping Georgia's waterways clean. It is our hope that in 2009, with improvements to the website and registration process, even more volunteers and organizers will be able to participate!

For any questions about Rivers Alive, for help with registration or more information on sponsorship, please contact our office at 404-675-6240 or by e-mail at riversalive@gaepd.org.

A glimpse of the new www.riversalive.org website.

Volunteer Database Goes Live
On August 1, the Adopt-A-Stream online database became available for everyone to access volunteer water quality information. Through our database-driven website you can now search all volunteer water quality data that has ever been submitted. The site includes embedded graphing capabilities for cities, counties, watersheds, water planning regions and yes, individual monitoring sites. In addition, you can view monitoring site information overlaid with watersheds (8, 10, & 12 HUCs), USGS streamflow gauges and EPD 2008 listed streams. More layers will be added as we develop the website. You can also export all information to Google Earth to combine our data layers with other publicly accessible layers. Soon we will provide more comprehensive online analysis of water quality data and associated watershed conditions, by monitoring sites, streams, watersheds and regions.
The database is a work in progress. Therefore we encourage everyone to checkout our website and let us know your thoughts and comments. You can send your comments directly to us by clicking our `Contact us' link in the upper right hand corner.
Please note that the website works best on the following browsers, Internet Explorer 6 or higher and Mozilla Firefox. Soon it will work on Safari and Chrome.
Harold Harbert, Outreach Unit Manager, Watershed Protection Branch, Environmental Protection Division

Thank you Adopt-A-Stream board members!
The Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program owes much of its success from the wonderful contributions of our advisory board members. They provide assistance and guidance on many aspects of the program, such as reviewing training and education materials and monitoring protocols, and they especially help us to implement the AAS goals. The board meets four times a year in all corners of the State to receive updates on the program's direction and growth.
Lately the board committees have been tasked with evaluating the database, and how AAS can create linkages with other organizations to get the word out about volunteer monitoring. They are also advising us on how to better our visual monitoring program and fine tune other levels of our monitoring efforts. These are just a few of the many aspects we're working on to make the program stronger and better for AAS.
So who exactly is the AAS board? Currently we have 21 members (including Harold and Tara) in all arenas of science, industry and education. Many of our members have been with us since the very beginning and some are brand new to the program, to all of which we are grateful for their contributions!
Dr. William `Hap' Tietjen, Georgia Southwestern State University Bob Bourne, Cobb County Water System Dana Skelton, Georgia River Network
Lynn Cobb, Department of Community Affairs, Keep Georgia Beautiful Tony Wasilewski, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory Dr. Becky Champion, Georgia Environmental Protection Division Frank Henning, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Courtney Reich, Ecological Planning Group Dr. Stephen Golladay, Jones Ecological Research Center
Beth Fenger, Community Impact Solutions Ted Mikalsen, Georgia Environmental Protection Division
Tom Broadwell, Georgia Power Company Darcie Holcomb
Steve Blackburn, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Dr. Tom Weiland, Georgia Southwestern State University
Susan Meyers, Stone Mountain Education Center Katherine Atteberry, Jordan, Jones, and Goulding, Inc.
Dr. Alan Power, UGA Marine Extension Service Shana Udvardy, The Georgia Conservancy
Board member, Dr. William Tietjen discusses bacterial sampling using the IDEXX method at a meeting. The Board played a big role in creating the current AAS bacterial monitoring program.
Members learn about the Flint River at a recent board meeting at the Jones Ecological Research Center.

Save the Date: AAS Confluence, February 27, 2010!
Georgia Adopt-A-Stream is excited to announce a one-day conference and award ceremony dedicated to our volunteers, The Confluence! As the name implies, this will be a merging of AAS volunteers, trainers and coordinators to meet one another, share advice, learn and collaborate. It will also be an opportunity to recognize the outstanding work of our volunteers and coordinators through our 2009 Awards Ceremony.
The event will take place at Stone Mountain State Park on Saturday, February 27th, 2010. There will be three concurrent sessions with topics such as the uses of AAS data, the AAS database, water quality methods for volunteers and advice from our 2009 award winners, as well as hands-on sessions. Stay tuned for updates and mark your calendars for the 2010 Confluence!
Please visit our calendar of events at www.GeorgiaAdoptAStream.org for upcoming monitoring workshops and Adopt-A-Stream events.
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.GeorgiaAdoptAStream.org

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