Texas Stream Team Final Report (1a): Contract #18-80175

Date

2020-05

Authors

Arismendez, Sandra
Austin-Bingamon, Eryl
Campos, Claudia
Lobban, Meagan
Navarro, Aspen
Walker, Jenna

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Abstract

March 2019 to March 2020 has been an ambitious year for Texas Stream Team at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment (the Meadows Center). Throughout the past year it has been the goal of Texas Stream Team to increase the accessibility, accuracy, and availability of our program resources to all our partners and stakeholders across Texas. Texas Stream Team staff have been working to streamline organizational policies and procedures, provide our partners and citizen scientists with updated training and monitoring resources, update and enhance the Texas Stream Team Waterways Dataviewer database, increase education and outreach efforts, and many other activities included in this report. Texas Stream Team is dedicated to involving Texans in the process of citizen science and environmental stewardship. In the past year, Texas Stream Team staff and partners have led 101 trainings, certifying 733 citizen scientists. Of these citizen scientists, 51 are actively monitoring. Among existing citizen scientists, 170 sites were actively monitored, and 85 new sites were established. In the past year, Texas Stream Team citizen scientists dedicated 3,672 hours to volunteer efforts. To further engage the public in water and environmental stewardship, Texas Stream Team attended 30 Education and Outreach events, one Teacher Workshop event, and established seven new partnerships. Within the past year, Texas Stream Team added two new 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, helping with outreach and training materials, scheduling all Texas Stream Team activities, and assists with providing 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 assists with providing statewide trainings. In May 2019 Texas Stream Team was honored with the Texas Environmental Excellence Award for the Civic/Community category by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The 2019 winners of the Texas Environmental Excellence Awards were celebrated at an award reception and banquet on May 15, 2019, hosted by the commissioners for the TCEQ at the Austin Convention Center. Texas Stream Team was honored to receive this award as a recognition for bringing together numerous partners and thousands of citizen scientist to monitor and protect water quality across Texas. This report will elaborate on short-term and long-term goals of the past year, as well as information on recent Texas Stream Team projects. During the past year, Texas Stream Team valued the opportunity to grow alongside our partners and citizen scientists and we look forward to another year of ambitious water and environmental stewardship.

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Keywords

water quality, watershed protection, Texas Stream Team, Spring Lake

Citation

Arismendez, S. S., Austin-Bingamon, E., Campos, C. D., Lobban, M. L., Navarro, A., & Walker, J. J. (2020). Texas Stream Team final report (1a): Contract #18-80175 (Report No. 2020-02). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

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