Dear Stream Team Family,
I hope this finds you all healthy and safe during these challenging times. What a twist 2020 has brought us! Through these uncertain times, I am hopeful for a safer and healthier tomorrow. I am hopeful because of this wonderful community of citizens dedicated to making the world a better place than the way they found it.
Citizen science is more important than ever. Future funding for environmental protection is uncertain and may, at times, take a backseat as our nation recovers from the disastrous effects of the global pandemic.
Despite the setbacks over the past few months, Texas Stream Team is still making big strides to continue monitoring efforts and improve our program. Within this next quarter, we will be working to convert some of our trainings to online platforms and updating our training resources. Stay tuned for more updates!
I am hopeful that we as citizen scientists can continue to take the pulse of our river systems, fill in the data gaps, and sound the alarms when we discover causes of concern. I am hopeful that we can continue to diversify this wonderful community and reach more Texans to join us in the movement to protect our precious waterways and the environment for all.
Wishing you all peace, safety, and good health,
Jenna Walker
Texas Stream Team Manager
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Upcoming Trainings
Riparian Evaluation – Online
June 20 | 8:30am – 1:30pm learn more >>
Standard Core - San Marcos
June 21 | 9:00am - 10:00am learn more>>
Standard Core - San Marcos
June 28 | 10:00am – 1:00pm learn more >>
Standard Core - San Marcos
July 26 | 10:00am – 1:00pm learn more >>
Standard Core - San Marcos
August 23 | 10:00am – 1:00pm learn more >>
Standard Core - San Marcos
September 27 | 10:00am – 1:00pm learn more >>
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Texas Stream Team COVID-19 Update
Due to concerns of transmission of the novel COVID-19, the Meadows Center remains closed to the public until further notice. Meadows Center staff is officing remotely and working to be as responsive as possible. All Texas Stream Team staff-led, in-person trainings are suspended until further notice. Texas Stream Team staff is working to come up with virtual training options and will resume in-person trainings as soon as possible. Please continue to perform water quality monitoring under safe and socially distant conditions. We appreciate you!
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The 2021 Texas Stream Team Fest has been scheduled for March 27, 2021 at Spring Lake to celebrate our 30th anniversary. We would like to open it up to our network to nominate your favorite group or citizen scientist to receive an award at the event...stay tuned for details!
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We Moved to a New Office!
We are excited to announce that our team has moved to Spring Lake Hall on the Texas State University campus! Our mailing address remains the same, however our new physical address is 201 San Marcos Springs Drive, San Marcos, Texas 78666. Please remember to use our new physical address when picking up and dropping off monitoring equipment.
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Community Forum
In the beginning of the year, our staff worked to give the Texas Stream Team website a major facelift to provide easier access to trainers near you, calendar events, training information, and more! With feedback from our Texas Stream Team community and recent website improvements, we have realized the need for the online Community Forum has diminished significantly. Because of this, we plan to discontinue the Forum starting September 1, 2020. We appreciate everyone’s feedback and contribution to the Forum over the years and hope we can continue collaboration and engagement with the Texas Stream Team community through more modern fashions. We will be spending the next four months brainstorming ways to do just that and would like to get input from our members on preferred communication platforms. Click the button below to cast your vote!
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Trash Free Texas Program Expands
 The Texas Stream Team Program is proud to announce that our partners with the Trash Free Texas program have received funding from the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Trash Free Waters grant program to continue litter reduction efforts in the great state of Texas!
In Texas, over 435 million pieces of visible litter accumulate on roadways each year. It is in our community, the sides of our roads, in our rivers, and along our beaches. Litter control efforts cost the American taxpayers over $11 billion each year. The Trash Free Texas “Adopt-a-Spot” site and Online Mapping Tool was created to foster a litter-free environment in Texas watersheds and track trash removal activities - Adopt-a-Spot to do your part to keep litter out of our waterways!
The Trash Free Texas program is a cooperative program between the City of Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston Area Council, North Central Texas Council of Governments, and Texas Stream Team at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. To learn more about the Trash Free Program and what you can do to help, visit www.trashfreetexas.org.
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Headwaters at the Comal Kick Off Monitoring Efforts in New Braunfels
 The Comal River is said to be “the heart and soul of New Braunfels.” A new Texas Stream Team monitoring group was established at the Headwaters at the Comal earlier this year. The vast interest in monitoring those waters is a tribute to the level of importance local volunteers place on the Comal River. The natural habitats of this 16-acre area are being restored to their natural state so that visitors and locals alike can learn, enjoy, and experience history and nature. One of the goals of the Headwaters is to strengthen the relationship between the community and nature by showcasing the significance of the Comal Springs. Read more >>
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Photo of newly minted citizen scientist, Rhonda Neal, conducts Standard Core water quality monitoring at the Headwaters of the Comal in New Braunfels, TX courtesy of Sandra Arismendez.
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Delores McCright has been leading Texas Stream Team efforts in Northeast Texas since its inception 29 years ago. To a group of people, Delores is someone that trained and introduced you to the world of water quality monitoring. Whether you know her or not - at Texas Stream Team - Delores is regarded as a Rockstar! Delores has recently undergone life changing medical hurdles and we wanted to take this time to acknowledge her beautiful spirit, her community efforts and involvement with Texas Stream Team, and to ask our Texas Stream Team community to keep her in your thoughts and well wishes. Read more >>
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Photo of Delores McCright (left) and Judy Reeves (right) (03/10/2018), courtesy of Delores McCright.
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Farewell to Fellow Citizen Scientist Richard McCarthy
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In this Waterways edition, Texas Stream Team would like to take a moment to mourn the loss of a great environmental steward and educator, Richard G. McCarthy. To many, Richard was a mentor, an inspiration, and a friend. I had the pleasure of working alongside Richard and his wife, Marilyn, at the Lake Waco Wetlands for several years. Richard had a talent like no other for educating kids (and adults alike!) about the amazing world of macroinvertebrates. He was a dedicated Stream Team volunteer for many years and will be sorely missed. Although Richard was one of a kind, I hope that each of you experience a “Richard” in your life – his smile was contagious; his energy, dedication, and passion for sharing his love for the environment was evident; he showed up ready to serve others even when he was faced with challenges, and he had a knack for capturing even the most rambunctious children’s attention. May his legacy live on through us! Read more >>
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Going Green: New Online Forms!
Aside from recycling and using scratch paper, Texas Stream Team staff have been shifting to online forms to eliminate the use of paper as much as possible in the office. We will be highlighting some of these resources to help you out with your Texas Stream Team needs.
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Texas Stream Team staff recently published a video on our Texas Stream Team YouTube channel to serve as a resource to guide Texas Stream Team citizen scientists on how to properly test for Escherichia coli (E. coli) in water. These water quality parameter videos also provide citizen scientists with refreshers on the proper procedures for collecting water quality data.
The water quality parameter E. coli is the indicator bacteria for freshwater bodies in Texas. E. coli may result from inadequate treated sewage, improperly managed water, livestock and pets waste, wildlife waste, or failing septic systems. The presence of high numbers of E. coli poses a potential health risk for people, developing fevers, nausea, hepatitis, gastroenteritis, ear infections, etc. Learn more >>
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Final Report (1a) Now Available Online!
Texas Stream Team staff are pleased to share the final report (1a) for Texas Stream Team Contract #18-80175. This report (1a) covers the contract activities completed between March 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020. Please feel free to take a look and see what amazing accomplishments our staff and partners have achieved in the past year – we could not have done it without you all!
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Texas Stream Team is very fortunate to have 29 years (and counting) of wonderful and dedicated volunteers that help us gain a better understanding of our Texas water bodies through water quality monitoring. Because of our amazing citizen scientists, we hold a plethora of data and want to start showcasing this data in our newsletters every quarter to show data trends, tips, updates, and more!
Data Spotlight
We are very excited to announce we have updated our online Datamap, which is a public interactive map that displays all Texas Stream Team monitoring sites as well as the corresponding data. Check out the video below to see what the updates include!
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Cypress Creek Data Summary Report
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Every quarter, Texas Stream Team analyzes collected data in a specific watershed through Data Summary Reports. Data Summary Reports highlights trends, environmental factors, Texas Stream Team activities and more within the selected watershed.
This quarter, the Cypress Creek watershed, a tributary of the Guadalupe River, was selected and is located in Hays County. Read report >>
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Texas Stream Team Data Analysis
As of February of 2020, Texas Stream Team has been collaborating with Stacey (Haddad) McLeod to help manage and analyze Texas Stream Team data in order for Stacey to complete her current degree in Master of Science in Data Analytics with a focus on Data Science. For our new members or those who do not know her, Stacey worked for Texas Stream Team for three years before and during her journey to obtaining her first master’s degree in Master of Applied Geography in Environmental Studies and Natural Resources at Texas State University. While Stacey is pursuing her current degree, she will be analyzing Texas Stream Team data and we will be sharing it with you all. We are thrilled to be working with Stacey again and grateful to have her expertise!
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Number of Sites Per County
As of January 2020, Texas Stream Team oversees 1,549 distinct water quality monitoring sites across the state. Of the most densely populated counties in Texas, four have the highest number of monitoring sites: Dallas, Travis, Harris, and Tarrant counties. This model not only helps us see where the most sites are built, but it also tells us where future efforts can be applied.
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June 16 | Facebook
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July 13 | Online
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July 28 | Online
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July 29 | Online
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August 6 | Wimberley
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August 25-26 | Austin
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October 14-15 | McAllen
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October 24 | Dripping Springs
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Your guide to purposeful (and FUN) outdoor play.
Camp Tinkergarten's 8 weeks of expert-designed outdoor activities are easy on parents and delightful for kids. Starting on June 19, they will release one new week of activities each Friday.
learn more and sign up today>>
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Want Texas Stream Team to highlight your community event? Send us a description and photo to TxStreamTeam@txstate.edu to be included in our next Waterways Newsletter.
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A recent opinion from the United States Supreme Court, County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, provides guidance on the significance of the phrase “from a point source” in the the Clean Water Act.
read more >>
Planning for the future is always a challenge – even more so amid a pandemic. Texans currently are coping with the uncertainties of the Covid-19 crisis – financial hardships, continuing hospitalizations and deaths, the impacts of “reopening” the economy while the virus spreads – focused on the next several months, not looking 50 years ahead.
read more>>
A federal judge in Montana on Monday upheld his ruling last month that canceled an environmental permit for the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline and threatened other oil and natural gas pipeline projects with delays.
read more >>
Masks and gloves are being flushed into our sewage systems or being thrown out and collecting in our city water treatment cycles and natural waterways.
read more >>
On April 15, EPA held a Trash Free Waters as part of their webinar series. For anyone that missed out, this webinar recording is available online. This webinar provides a deep dive into a cutting-edge platform that marries litter hotspots and citizen activism in ways that prevent and reduce the flow of trash into our watersheds.
read more >>
To halt the illegal flow of raw sewage into Nova Scotia’s LaHave River, it took a determined 11-year-old with water samples and a Facebook page.
read more >>
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Check out this free-form, neighborhood-focused way of doing citizen science while getting outdoors and staying safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
read more >>
This Think Science event features representatives from the City of San Antonio and San Antonio River Authority talking about the process of restoration, and what is in the future at the intersection of urban landscapes and natural areas.
learn more >>
Choose from a variety of online courses that cover topics such as center pivot irrigation, climate science, watersheds, agriculture sustainability, soil and site evaluation, private land stewardship and more.
learn more >>
National Geographic’s free online courses for educators equip teachers with powerful tools to transform their classrooms. Through these courses, educators build their own skills and knowledge so they can foster the mindset of a National Geographic Explorer in their students.
learn more >>
Are you a birder? If so, try out eBird, a birding app hosted by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology! Practice citizen science at home or outdoors, while maintaining social distancing, by recording the birds you see in your area. These sightings help researchers track bird populations, species diversity, and migration patterns across the country.
learn more >>
Do you have a garden that attracts bumble bees? Consider joining the Bumble Bee Watch, a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. With any luck, you might help Bumble Bee Watch find remnant populations of rare species before they go extinct.
learn more >>
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Are you interested in partnering with Texas Stream Team? Let us know!
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Mailing address:
601 University Drive
San Marcos, Texas 78666
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Visit us:
201 San Marcos Springs Drive
San Marcos, Texas 78666
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