BUZZBAIT
TEXAS STREAM TEAM PADDLE PARTICIPANTS
TEST REMOTE WATERWAYS FOR POLLUTION. PHOTO: SHANE TOWNSEND
[CONSERVATION]
KAYAK ANGLERS GET CAUGHT UP IN SCIENCE
JOIN THE STREAM TEAM
When the angler’s kayak slips into the channel he knows the tide is right and the wind will shift to push him back to his truck at the end of the day. He slides across blue cellophane—listening, watch- ing, studying the sky, the water, the weather. A stingray glides under the boat followed by a pack of redfish searching the ray’s wake for a meal. The angler knows the wildlife, plants and fish like family.
T
his scenario is what makes kayak anglers spe- cial to Meredith Blount Miller, senior program
coordinator for the Texas Stream Team citizen sci- ence program. “Kayak anglers know what’s hap- pening on the water,” she says, “they know things about the waterways that other people do not.” Texas Stream Team (TST) has been working to
understand and protect the state’s rivers, streams and creeks since 1991. In that time, some 8,000 citizen scientists have been trained to perform experiments that test temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity and other water conditions. Their data supports academic research and conservation efforts and serves as an early warning system that alerts water management organizations of threats to water quality. Monitoring 191,000 miles of water is no small
task. To increase coverage and test hard-to-reach areas, Miller is forming the Texas Stream Team Paddlers. Here’s how it works. Texas Stream Team will work with retail partners such as Austin Ca- noe & Kayak (ACK) to host monitoring kits at regional paddler hubs. A paddler trained by the Texas Stream Team will pick up a testing kit at the hub and use it to test conditions in a designated stretch of water. At the end of the day, the volun- teer returns the kit to the hub and submits the data to participating scientists. At ACK, project man- aging partner Chris Hackerd jokes, “We are geeks obsessed with data; our goal is to make it easier for more collectors to participate.”
30…KAYAK ANGLER Travis Tidwell, program coordinator at TST
points out, “Kayak anglers will play an important role in protecting fish habitat.” Tidwell explains that TST paddlers will test for illegal dumping, E. coli episodes, elevated chlorine and other hard-to- detect pollution events. Water monitoring is a natural addition to kayak
fishing, adds Tidwell. As a kayak angler himself, Tidwell wants to make sure that citizen science is easy, safe and engaging. He expects the research will even provide fishermen with another con- nection to the fish. “Water quality monitoring can help anglers find good fish habitat,” Tidwell says, “by identifying areas with the best temperature, pH, salinity and other conditions that fish prefer.” “Kayak anglers are already citizen scientists,”
says Meredith Miller, “they have an incredible amount of knowledge about the health of the wa- ter and the ecosystems they fish and paddle.” She looks forward to working with paddlers to increase the collection of important data and to tell a more complete story about the state of Texas waters. Shane Townsend writes from Austin, Texas.
In 2014, FalconGuides will release his book, Pad- dling Texas. Connect with him at
Linkedin.com/in/ JShaneTownsend.
Neighborhood Watch
CHECK OUT ONE OF THESE CITIZEN- SCIENTIST PROGRAMS NEAR YOU
Texas Stream Team Paddlers Volunteers test streams, rivers and creeks for water quality.
txstreamteam.meadowscenter.
txstate.edu | (512) 245-6697
People for Puget Sound Washington state paddlers help identify and track invasive grasses.
www.pugetsound.org | (206) 631-2600
Citizen Lake Monitoring Program Minnesota Pollution Control Agency trains paddlers to test water quality in the remote Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
www.pca.state.mn.us | (800) 657-3864
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cornell University offers a dynamic set of interactive online tools for documenting, tracking, sharing and exploring birds around the world.
www.birds.cornell.edu | (800) 843-2473
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