Adopt-a-stream, Vol. 6, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1999)

GEORGIA
Adopt-A-Stream
Volume 6, Number 1, January / February 1999
Michele Droszcz and Harold Harbert, Editors

Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division

The Georgia Adopt-A-Stream 5th Annual Conference Was A Great Success: Wish You Were There!!
This year's conference was packed with outstanding speakers, exhibits and discussions. The speakers were fantastic and the participants were enthusiastic. The conference was hosted by Dr. Becky Champion and Columbus State University. She and the folks from Oxbow Meadows Environmental Center did a wonderful job of organizing the conference. This is the first time the conference was held outside the North Georgia area and the participation was lower than last year. But it is important to recognize all regions of the state, as there are many great volunteer monitoring efforts throughout Georgia.

Pictured are participants from the conference panel discussion. Starting from the left is moderator Wayne Bennett of WTVM Columbus, Steve Blackburn with EPA, Larry Hedges from EPD, Dee West from the City of Alpharetta and Deanna Ruffer with Ga. Water Management Campaign.

Adopt-A-Stream Community Programs Initiated in Fulton County, Clarke County, Cobb County and Augusta Area!
Georgia Adopt-A-Stream is excited to announce that four new Community Programs have been initiated in much needed and high profile locations: Welcome Fulton County Adopt-A-Stream coordinator

Sharon Cowden, Athens-Clarke County Adopt-A-Stream coordinator Ann McDaniel, Cobb County Adopt-A-Stream coordinator Bob Bourne and Augusta Area Adopt-A-Stream coordinator Ginny Brady!
Sharon comes to us from the Environmental Protection Division Project WET program where she worked as an assistant to Petey Giroux. Previously Sharon served as a volunteer in the Georgia Environmental Organization (GEO) AmeriCorps program. Under GEO Americorps Sharon worked on numerous water quality projects, including habitat enhancement projects, stream monitoring programs and water education public outreach activities. As the Fulton County AAS coordinator, Sharon will focus her attention on developing a program implementation plan that will stress AAS activities in unincorporated Fulton County.
After a year of searching, Athens-Clarke County Keep America Beautiful has found a new director and Adopt-A-Stream Coordinator. Ann McDaniel has taken the lead in reorganizing the Athens-Clarke County Adopt-A-Stream efforts. This January and February she will co-host two Train-The-Trainer workshops at the State Botanical Gardens, in Athens.
Bob Bourne, Environmental Compliance Supervisor for the Cobb County Water System Water Quality Laboratory, is a welcome addition as the new coordinator of the Cobb County Adopt-A-Stream program. Bob has been involved in monitoring Cobb County streams for numerous years. He brings a level of expertise and enthusiasm to the program that will be well received. We are confident that Bob will prove a valuable resource for the people of Cobb County in their effort to expand local Adopt-A-Stream programs. Congratulations Bob on your new responsibilities!
Ginny Brady, of Augusta, has been involved in Adopt-A-Stream activities for over 2 years, serving as the local contact. Now, however, she has increased her level of participation and is serving as coordinator of the Augusta Community Program. Ginny is excited about the possibilities of this new position; she has already begun formulating plans for developing trend monitoring feedback between local programs. Ginny is supported by Georgia Department of Education (DOE) Educational Technology Training Center where she serves as the Educational Technology Specialist.
Adopt-A-Stream T-Shirts Available Now!!
The t-shirts are natural cotton and pre-shrunk. They are only available in extra large. The artwork is olive and plum and depicts vegetation and wildlife in Georgia's streams and wetlands. The words read "Adopt-A-Stream 1998" / "From Cold Water Streams To Black Water Swamps." To order, make checks out to Columbus State University/AAS ($10.00 per shirt) and send to Adopt-A-Stream, 7 MLK Jr. Drive, Suite 643, Atlanta, GA 30334.
Adopt-A-Stream Changes Workshop Schedule
This year, the State Adopt-A-Stream office will be changing the manner and types of workshops offered. Instead of offering regular chemical and biological workshops as it has done in the past, Georgia AAS will be offering Train-The-Trainer, recertification and more comprehensive Level 1 workshops. Train-The-Trainer workshops are for those dedicated volunteers and community leaders who would like to be trained to teach chemical or biological workshops. To participate in the Train-The-Trainer workshop, you must have a solid science background and commit to conducting two workshops within the year.
Recertification workshops are offered for QA/QC volunteers who wish to be recertified for another year. These workshops will consist of a field test and a written test. Other than a small amount of time allotted to notifying volunteers of updates in the protocols and data sheets, no time will be given to instruction. If you want a refresher course, you are encouraged to take one of the regular workshops.
Level I workshops will be offered after July 1999. These workshops will be based on the new AdoptA-Stream Level I manual and will go into greater detail about the watershed walk, visual survey, cleanups

and stream bank restoration.
The regular Level 1 / Chemical and Biological workshops will be offered through the Adopt-A-Stream
Community Programs and Regional Training Centers. As always, the dates and contact numbers for these
workshops will be listed in the Adopt-A-Stream newsletters. For more information, please call your local Adopt-A-Stream program or the State office.

1999 Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Workshop Schedule

DATE

WORKSHOP

TIME

LOCATION

January 30

Level I/Chemical TrainThe-Trainer

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Athens The State Botanical
Garden of GA

February 20

Biological Train-TheTrainer

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Athens The State Botanical
Garden of GA

March 13

Bio. and Chemical Recertification Workshop

Biological 10 a.m. Chemical 1 p.m.

Fernbank Science Center

March 27

Adopt-A-Wetland

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

GWF Alcovy Site, Covington

April 24

Level I/Chemical TrainThe-Trainer

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Dunwoody Nature Center

May 8

Biological Train-TheTrainer

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Fernbank Science Center

May 22

Adopt-A-Wetland

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Newman Wetland Center, Clayton Co.

June 26

Bio. and Chemical Recertification Workshop

Biological 10 a.m. Chemical 1 p.m.

Dunwoody Nature Center

July 10

Level I Workshop

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Flat Creek Nature Center, Fayette Co.

July 17

Level I Workshop

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Yellow River Water Reclamation Facility,
Gwinnett Co.

August 7

Adopt-A-Wetland

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

GWF Alcovy Site, Covington

September 11

Bio. and Chemical Recertification Workshop

Biological 10 a.m. Chemical 1 p.m.

Athens

September 25

Level I Workshop

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Lorraine Elementary, Rockdale Co.

November --

Level I/Chemical TrainThe-Trainer

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

TBA

1999 Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Workshop Schedule

DATE

WORKSHOP

TIME

LOCATION

November 20

Adopt-A-Wetland

10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Frank Mason Robinson Memorial Nature Preserve, Smyrna

December --

Biological Train-TheTrainer

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

TBA

1998 River Clean Up: Over 47,453 Bags of Trash Collected!
The Seventh Annual River Clean Up Week, October 10-18, was the most successful effort to date at cleaning our streams, rivers and lakes. This year's river clean up saw large increases in participation and even greater increases in the amount of trash collected. More than 3,600 individuals volunteered over 16,000 hours and collected 47,453 bags of trash. In addition, organizers collected more than 30 dump trucks of garbage and roughly 12.5 tons of miscellaneous items. The river clean up event witnessed the consolidation of efforts between numerous organizers. This resulted in larger, more centralized clean up efforts.
Thirty-six organizers, from the north Georgia mountains to inner city Atlanta to the coastal plain, helped coordinate river clean up efforts in all parts of the state. The diversity of groups participating mirrored the diversity of methods organizers used for conducting their clean up efforts, and for attracting volunteers. Some groups used canoes and small river boats to help retrieve trash in hard to reach places. Many of our groups combined water education programs with their clean up activities. Some of these groups conducted chemical and biological monitoring activities, while other programs held discussions on nonpoint source pollution. Still, some groups attracted volunteers by providing refreshments, hot dogs and t-shirts for weary workers.

The Hutson family helps clean the Tallapoosa River. They retrieved over 700 lbs. of trash!

One program deserves
Special Recognition
for their participation in the River Clean Up Week. Chattahoochee Help the Hooch, in
Columbus, Georgia, contributed more volunteers and retrieved more trash then the rest of the state combined! Help the Hooch was coordinated through Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, Columbus Water Works and Keep Columbus Beautiful. Congratulations on your excellent River Clean
Up contribution!

Watershed Outreach Guide
The EPA has helped put together an excellent booklet, "Getting In Step: A Guide to Effective Outreach in Your Watershed." This

guide is geared for individuals interested in organizing watershed outreach programs. It is broken down into 3 parts to help you, 1) develop an outreach plan, 2) create outreach materials, and 3) work with the media. To order this or other EPA publications call the EPA Wetlands Information Hotline at 1-800-8327828 or email wetlands-hotline@epamail.epa.gov. You can also search for wetlands information and publications at http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed.

Community Program Meeting Clarifies Goals and Focus
On December 5, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream held its first meeting with local Adopt-A-Stream Community Program Coordinators from across the state. Community Programs are defined as local Adopt-A-Stream programs with elevated responsibilities to serve as contacts for individual Adopt-A-Stream programs at the local level. Community Programs generally include those that are sponsored by a city, county or non-profit organization. Almost all have obtained some manner of funding to run their programs--an important aspect for long term stability. The goals for the Community Program meeting were to; 1) provide an opportunity for all Community Programs to actively participate in the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program by voicing their concerns, ideas, plans and suggestions; 2) clarify expectations, program focus and future goals of Georgia Adopt-A-Stream; and 3) create a positive environment for the development of a cohesive, interactive and connected state-wide Adopt-A-Stream program.
The results were overwhelmingly positive! Despite the short notice, there were 11 participants at the meeting, representing 9 local Community Programs (out of 22) and Georgia AAS. Much of the meeting was spent discussing AAS expectations of local programs and methods the State could use to assist local groups trying to start and maintain their programs.
Some of the changes discussed included new developments in AAS training workshops--see article on page two, "Adopt-A-Stream Changes Workshop Schedule." Georgia AAS suggests all Community Coordinators become QA/QC workshop trainers so they can better facilitate AAS programs at the local level. Becoming a trainer ensures a level of involvement and participating that otherwise would not be possible. It also allows Community Programs to provide better local support for their AAS groups. Increasing Community Program autonomy frees up Georgia AAS to focus on other important objectives such as training other trainers, providing Adopt-A-Wetland and recertification workshops, and making changes and updates to the manuals. It also frees up Georgia AAS to initiate new programs in areas of the state presently not involved in Adopt-A-Stream.
Other subjects discussed included the manuals, Level 1: Getting Started and Level 2: Chemical & Biological Monitoring. Efforts will be made in the coming months to 1) develop a committee to review and effect changes in the Level 1 manual, with an emphasis on the watershed walk and visual survey portions; 2) rewrite the chemical portion to include more background information and explore the addition of new testing parameters; and 3) redevelop protocol for the biological identification key and index to incorporate aquatic macroinvertebrate information specific to Georgia.
Exciting changes are underway at Georgia Adopt-A-Stream. Now more then ever it will be important to increase communication between all groups involved in state volunteer water quality monitoring. The Community Program meetings are a good step in the right direction towards increasing involvement by all parties. The next meeting for Community Programs will be March 5 at the Atlanta Zoo.

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Community Programs and Contact Names

Metro Atlanta Urban Watershed Alliance City of Atlanta Fulton County DeKalb County Adopt-A-Stream Peavine Watershed Alliance Roswell Clean & Beautiful Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Cobb County Adopt-A-Stream Gwinnett County Adopt-A-Stream Alpharetta Project Ripple Barrow County Adopt-A-Stream Walton Clean & Beautiful Apalachee Water Watchers City of Kennesaw Clayton County Adopt-A-Stream City of Cumming City of Austell City of Gainesville, Hall County City of Cornelia River Kids Network, Columbus Rome Adopt-A-Stream GSAMS River Internet Project, Augusta Conasauga Watershed Savannah Adopt-A-Stream Athens-Clarke County Adopt-A-Stream

Keshia Johnson or Dan Lemmey Sharon Cowden Nicole Vachon Patricia White Judy Muscari Dana Poole Bob Bourne Michael O'Shield Dee West Shannon Navarre Elaine Oakes Dan Parson Jeff Smith Eric Osborne John Heard Duane Demeritt David Dockery Mona Painter Dee Shore Martha Little Ginny Brady John Lugthart (vacant) Ann McDaniel

404-330-6980 404-330-6605 404-730-8006 404-508-7602 404-508-7603 770-641-3586 404-352-9828 x17 770-528-1480 770-822-7157 770-442-9057 770-307-3020 770-267-1443 770-267-9411 770-421-8582 770-474-7128 770-781-3474 770-944-4325 770-532-7462 706-776-7346 706-569-2501 706-236-4406 706-821-0632 706-272-2485 912-651-1457 706-369-5708

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream 1998 Report (In Brief)
Georgia Adopt-A-Stream has had a very busy year with many changes. Two new state coordinators, Harold Harbert and Michele Droszcz, began working with the program this year.
The Regional Training Centers, located at State College and Universities in Columbus, Dahlonega, Savannah, Milledgeville and Valdosta, continued their work under a 104(b) wetlands grant. This grant facilitated the beginning of the Adopt-A-Wetland program. The Level I Wetland Manual was completed in September. Nine wetland workshops have been conducted and two wetlands have been adopted. A very successful wetland conference was held on June 5 at North Georgia College and State University where 70 participants attended.
The Adopt-A-Stream program has developed in leaps and bounds this year. Seven new Community Programs were formed and 60 new streams were adopted. The total number of Adopt-A-Stream groups in the state is 225.
This year, the state coordinators conducted 59 Level I, Chemical and Biological workshops and presented 20 additional talks on water quality, volunteer participation and stream ecology. This number does not include the numerous Adopt-A-Stream workshops and presentations conducted by the Regional Training Centers and Community Programs. The total number of Georgia citizens trained as Quality Assured/Quality Controlled volunteers in 1998 was 306. In addition, nine Train-The-Trainer workshops were held throughout the state, training 66 new Adopt-A-Stream workshop trainers.
Highlights:
OThe Lake Management Society released the third edition of the Adopt-A-Lake manual in August. Three groups have registered their lake monitoring programs. ORiver Clean-up had twice the number of participants as last year. 3600 volunteers cleaned up rivers, lakes and streams during the week of October 10-18. OThe 5th Annual Adopt-A-Stream Conference was held on October 24 at Columbus State University. OAdopt-A-Stream partnered with UGA Cooperative Extension Service, NRCS, Pollution Prevention Assistance Division, Oconee River and Upper Ocmulgee River RC&D, the State Soil and Water Conservation Commission and GEO to conduct a two day Watershed Stewardship Seminar in Eatonton, GA. OGeorgia Adopt-A-Stream continued to offer quarterly Community Watershed Workshops in the metroAtlanta region in partnership with Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Peavine Watershed Alliance, DeKalb County Parks and Recreation, City of Atlanta, MAUWI and Fulton County. OAdopt-A-Stream and the Savannah State Regional Training Center gained great support in the coastal region from the EPD Coastal Environmental Management District and the Coastal Resources Division. OAdopt-A-Stream and the Valdosta Regional Training Center has found two fabulous partners in Southwest Georgia. International Paper and the Jones Ecological Research Center have become invaluable resources and have provided a lot of support to the State program. OAdopt-A-Stream partnered with Georgia Forestry Commission, US Forest Service, NRCS and Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in a program called PASS (Plant-A-Streamside) on Clean Water. The initial focus has been in the Soquee River Watershed and encourages landowners to vegetate their stream banks.
The Georgia Adopt-A-Stream newsletter is mailed to approximately 1,800 Georgia citizens. We at Georgia Adopt-A-Stream would like to thank all of the volunteers who work to protect our streams, lakes, rivers and wetlands!

Two Great Funding Opportunities!
If you're looking for funding support, the River Network's Watershed Assistant Grants (WAG) program is funding "innovative efforts that build the capacity of community-based partnerships to conserve or restore watersheds." Grants range between $4,000 and $30,000. For more information contact Kathy Luscher with River Network, Watershed Assistance Mini-Grants, PO Box 8787, Portland, OR 97207 or by e-mail at kluscher@rivernetwork.org.
The Five-Star Restoration Challenge Grant Program provides modest support, between $5,000 to $20,000, to watershed or community based organizations focusing on wetland and riparian restoration projects, building partnerships, and cultivating natural resource stewardship. Call the EPA Hotline for more information, 1-800-832-7828.
Adopt-A-Stream Calendar of Events The following are trainings and workshops which educate citizens about wetland and stream monitoring. In 1999 we are placing more emphasis on providing Train-The-Trainer workshops for those interested in leading and assisting in conducting workshops. Note that one day chemical and biological recertification workshops will be offered quarterly. Please call early to register. Space is limited!

What Peavine Creek Clean Up Level I / Chemical Workshop Biological Workshop Lev. I / Chem. Train-The-Trainer Level I / Chemical Workshop Biological Train-The-Trainer Level I / Chemical Workshop Biological Workshop Biological Workshop Bio. & Chem. Recertification Wksp. Biological Workshop

When Jan. 9 Jan. 16 Jan. 30 Jan. 30 Feb. 13 Feb. 20 Feb. 20 Feb. 27 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 13

Where Decatur Community Dunwoody Nature Ctr. Davidson Arabia Athens, GA TBA (Emory Area) Athens, GA Morgan Falls, Fulton Co. TBA (Emory Area) TBA (Fulton County) Fernbank Science Ctr. Davidson Arabia

To Register 404-508-7603 404-508-7602 404-508-7602 404-656-0069 404-508-7603 404-656-0069 404-730-8006 404-508-7603 404-730-8006 404-656-0069 404-508-7602

Don't forget, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream requires that you must get recertified every year so that your data is QA/QC! Sign up for a workshop now!

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 7 ML King Dr. SW, Suite 643 Atlanta, GA 30334 404-656-0069
printed on recycled paper