GEORGIA Adopt-A-Stream Volume 17, Number 3 May/June 2010 Editors: Allison Hughes, Tara Muenz May is American Wetland Month Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of American Wetlands Month. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and its partners in the federal, state, non-profit and private sectors celebrate wetlands by participating in American Wetlands Month in hopes of inspiring people to work throughout the year to protect, preserve and expand wetlands. This year's focus is on coastal wetlands and we would like to highlight our Coastal Adopt-A-Wetland program. (AAW). Did you know that there are approximately 40 million acres of wetlands in the lower 48 states, with nearly 81% of those acres on the coastline of the southeast? Georgia has nearly 100 miles of coastline comprising one-third of salt marshes on the East coast. The Coastal Adopt-AWetland Program has many dedicated volunteers who actively monitor our coastal marshlands, many of which have been monitoring for more than five years. The AAW program has thirty-five active groups, which monitor thirty-six sites, and in 2009 these volunteers collected data at 256 monitoring events. We would like to thank our coastal volunteers for their tireless efforts to protect our marshlands. To celebrate American Wetland Month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency encourages all Americans to consider doing the following: 1. Learn About Wetlands Georgia Adopt-A-Stream and Coastal Adopt-A-Wetland offer many exciting activities to help people learn about wetlands. On the coast you can assist UGA Marine Extension's G.E.O.R.G.I.A. (Generating Enhanced Oyster Reefs in Georgia's Inshore Areas) program to help protect and restore our Georgia's oyster population and for those of you who live inland, we have a very exciting field based workshop in which you will learn about freshwater wetlands. Check our website for upcoming workshops. 2. Explore a Wetland Near You Georgia has a vast array of freshwater and coastal wetlands, from the marshes of Glynn County, to the Okefenokee Swamp, to Reed Branch Wet Meadow in Northeast Georgia , to the isolated wetlands of south Georgia. With over 5.3 million acres of wetlands in the state of Georgia, it is very likely that you have a wetland nearby. To find a wetland near you, we recommend contacting your local parks and recreation staff, Georgia State Parks or by visiting the U.S. Fish a n d W i l d l i f e Service's National Wetland Inventory at www.fws.gov/wetlands. (Continued on next page) Wetlands Continued... 3. Take action to protect and restore wetlands There are many ways in which you can take an active part in the protection and restoration of wetlands. In Georgia, you can participate in one of our coastal or freshwater Adopt-AWetland workshops to learn about the vital roles wetlands play and the data you can collect to help protect them. You can also support conservation and watershed organizations that work to protect wetlands. For more information, visit www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/awm Mapping Tool : Community Resource Mapper Here's a handy tool for those of you interested in creating your own online maps at a county, watershed or state level. The Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga in a cooperative partnership with the Southeast Water Forum has created online mapping. With this tool you can highlight impaired streams, impervious surfaces, protected lands, State Wildlife Actions Plans and satellite images, with more outlets planned for the future. It is very easy to navigate and great if you want to virtually `walk your watershed!' You can find this resource at: www.watershed-assistance.net/mapper Blue Trails On March 11, 2010, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream participated in the Georgia River Network's Water Trails Workshop. Nearly 100 river enthusiasts from a diverse field (local, state & federal governments, tourism representatives, riverkeepers, and non-profit organizations) joined together to discuss efforts being made to create water trails throughout the state of Georgia. We learned about the value of creating water trails, explored potential funding opportunities and listened to presentations from groups who have established or are working to establish water trails. It was very exciting to hear about the many water trail projects that are underway in the Altamaha, Ocmulgee, Chattahoochee, Tallapoosa and Chicamauga watersheds, just to name a few. The Georgia River Network (GRN) is working diligently to design a Water Trails Clearinghouse for Georgia. This will be a one-stop shop for paddlers as well as for communities who are interested in creating a river trail. The clearinghouse is in the information gathering stage and GRN would like to hear from groups who have a trail or may be interested in water trails. To learn more about this collective effort, please contact Georgia River Network at www.garivers.org or by calling 706-549-4508. Mark Your Calendars! Confluence 2011. We've already started planning for next year's event and have selected Saturday, March 26, 2011 for our volunteer conference. Location will be within Metro Atlanta. Please check our website for updates! Back to the Chattahoochee River Race Festival: June 12, Roswell. Race is at 9:00 am and festival events occur from 10:00 am-2:00 pm. Paddlers of all ages and skill levels welcome. Visit http://www.chattahoochee.org/ for more details. Savannah Riverkeeper's 3rd Annual Paddlefest: August 21st, Augusta. This is a homemade canoe and raft competition to benefit the SRK. Visit http://www.savannahriverkeeper.org/ for more information. See you on the river! Adopt-A-Stream will be joining Paddle Georgia this year on the Broad and Savannah Rivers from June 18-25th. Look to future newsletters about our monitoring adventures. Monitoring Tip: Replace Your Reagents Annually! Could the dream get any better? Replacement reagents! For a limited time, we still have at the State Office chemical reagents for your monitoring kits (pH and dissolved oxygen). Remember, as part of our QA/QC requirements, reagents are to be replaced on an annual basis. In addition, if you need monitoring equipment for bacterial or benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring, we also have those available. Interested but not certified? Check our online calendar for upcoming workshops or call us to teach a workshop in your area! AAS Program Updates: Recertification Notice & Electronic Newsletter Maybe some of you have learned about new initiatives with our database. These initiatives are geared toward making the life of a volunteer easier and in the case of working with your data, more interesting! In an effort to increase the integrity of our QA/QC data, we have created a way to keep track of everyone's certifications, which includes your very own personalized email that will let you know when it is good to start planning for your recertification. Your certification lasts 1 year and you will receive an email notice about 3 months prior suggesting to contact your local coordinator or the State Office about recertification opportunities. Workshops are also listed on our website calendar. Another initiative, as requested by many volunteers, is to have the option to receive our newsletters electronically. Under your profile in the database you can now click on which option you prefer. If you would like to keep receiving a copy in the mail, then there is no need to change anything. Otherwise, login to the database, go to your personal profile, click on `Edit' and on this page click the box that states `I would like to receive an e-newsletter.' Please check to make sure your contact information is updated, which can be found by logging into our online database at www.georgiaadoptastream.org, or by contacting us at aas@gaepd.org, 404-6756240. Adopt-A-Stream Welcomes Our New Groups! (groups registered 04/01/2010 through 05/24/2010) East Atlanta Water Warriors, DeKalb County WHS Posey Branch, Cherokee County Hogwallow Watch, Fulton County Lindsay Renbaum, Oconee County Spirit Creek Educational Forest, Richmond County Waldorf School Green Team, DeKalb County Underwater Education Pearls, Liberty County GS Troop 2315, Cherokee County Keep Liberty Beautiful, Liberty County Science Alive, Newton County 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 Dragonfly Riffle Beetle Dobsonfly Stonefly Net Spinning Caddisfly