Texas Stream Team Final Report (1B): Contract #18-80175
Date
2021-08
Authors
Arismendez, Sandra
Austin-Bingamon, Eryl
Campos, Claudia
Huff, Anna
Lobban, Meagan
Navarro, Aspen
Neal, Alexander
Parchman, Laura
Walker, Jenna
Vasquez, Daniel
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
The past three years have been a period of intense organizational growth at Texas Stream Team at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment (the Meadows Center). Throughout the contract period (March 1st, 2018 – February 28th, 2019; April 1st, 2020 – February 28th, 2021) it has been the goal of Texas Stream Team to increase the accuracy and availability of our program resources to our partners and stakeholders across Texas. Texas Stream Team staff have been working through challenges posed by staff turnover and COVID-19 restrictions to streamline organizational policies and procedures, provide trainings, update monitoring resources, enhance the Texas Stream Team Waterways Dataviewer database, diversify education and outreach efforts, and many other activities that are included in this report.
Texas Stream Team is dedicated to involving Texans in the process of citizen science and environmental stewardship. Throughout this contract reporting period, Texas Stream Team staff and partners led 124 trainings, certifying 583 citizen scientists. Of these citizen scientists, 257 are actively monitoring. Among existing citizen scientists, 195 sites were actively monitored, and 182 new sites were established. In the past year, Texas Stream Team citizen scientists dedicated 19,219 hours to volunteer efforts. To further engage the public in water and environmental stewardship, Texas Stream Team attended 280 Education and Outreach events, one Teacher Workshop event, and established three new partnerships.
Within the contract reporting period, Texas Stream Team has added two new full-time team members to the program, Aspen Navarro and Dr. Sandra Arismendez. Aspen Navarro is the Program Coordinator, acting as the primary liaison for Texas Stream Team inquires, project management, helping with outreach and training materials, scheduling all Texas Stream Team activities, and assisting with statewide trainings. Dr. Sandra Arismendez is the Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator, acting as the primary contact for all monitoring and equipment inquiries, overseeing all Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs), helping with training materials, and assisting with statewide trainings.
This report will elaborate on short-term and long-term goals of the contract period, as well as information on recent and upcoming Texas Stream Team projects. Throughout the period of March 2018 – February 2019 and April 2020 - February 2021, Texas Stream Team has valued the opportunity to grow alongside our partners and citizen scientists and we look forward to ambitiously pursuing water and environmental stewardship in the next upcoming contract period.
Description
Keywords
Texas Stream Team, watershed services, water quality, water resources
Citation
The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. (2021). Texas Stream Team final report (1B): Contract #18-80175 (Report No. 2021-07). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.