Greetings
from Your Stones River Watershed Association. August 2008
There's a lot going on and
plenty of opportunities to connect with like-minded citizens of the
watershed.
Board
and Membership meeting, Thursday, Aug. 21, 6:30 p.m., Carriage
Lane Reception House, 337 E. Burton in Murfreesboro. Everyone welcome
and encouraged to attend.
Watershed
Summit on Short Mountain, Friday-Sunday, Sept. 19-21. This will
be another great family weekend with a strong program, plenty of
activities for kids and families and an opportunity to enjoy the top of
our watershed. The meeting will be held again at the Short Mountain
Bible Camp, perched at about 2500 feet above Woodbury. We lead off with
the Blueways Summit on Friday and end with a strategy session on Sunday
morning. Stay in the bunkhouse, camp or just come for the day. A
schedule and registration form is attached. For complete information:
http://watershedsummit.pbwiki.com.
Fun
Float, Percy Priest dam to the Cumberland River, Saturday, Sept. 27.
This is an easy 6-7 mile float with plenty of water. We'll put in near
the dam and takeout at Heartland Park just before the confluence of the
Stones and Cumberland. BYOB -- bring your own boat, plus water and a
lunch. We'll work out some carpooling opportunities for those coming
from Rutherford County. For more information or to register contact
Diane Persbacher,
35th
Natural Areas Conference, Tues-Friday, Oct. 14-17. This major
national conference is in Nashville this year, hosted by the Tenn.
Dept. of Environment and Conservation. It's sponsored by the Natural
Areas Association and the National Association of Exotic Pest Plant
Councils. For complete information: www.naturalarea.org/08conference/.
Fall
Color Float, Saturday, Nov. 1. This will be our annual joint
event with the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association. Place TBA. Watch
for more information.
2008
Summit for a Sustainable Tennessee - November 13-16 at Lipscomb
University in Nashville. This will be a 2nd Annual event
sponsored by the Tennessee Environmental Council. Last year's meeting
featured some excellent presentations and the proceedings are held in
the impressive and beautiful facilities of the Institute for
Sustainable Practice (http://sustainability.lipscomb.edu/) at Lipscomb.
Updates:
Volunteer Water Monitoring:
Free online publication. If you're interested in the science and
culture of volunteer stream monitoring you'll be interested in The
Volunteer Monitor. This print journal is partially funded by EPA and
back issues are hosted on the EPA site..:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/volunteer/vm_index.html. You can sign up to
receive the new issues in print by sending a subscription request and
your postal mail address to the editor, Eleanor Ely:
ellieely@earthlink.net
GLOBE
(www.globe.gov) training was a success. SRWA hosted a training
for educators on July 28 with generous sponsorship of the Murfreesboro
Water and Sewer Department and facilities provided by the Center for
Environmental Education at MTSU. Costs of our ongoing water monitoring
work with schools is being underwritten by a grant from the World
Wildlife Federation's Southeastern Rivers and Streams Project. The
project is designed to equip and train classroom teachers to do
effective monitoring of streams, and to log their data on the GLOBE
site. Thirteen educators took part, which was less than hoped for but
still an effective core.
Boat
Day blow out on July 12. When the dust settled we had provided a
good boating experience to about 350 people: 220 at the Murfreesboro
site hosted by Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation and 130 at the Smyrna
site hosted by the Smyrna Stormwater Program. The day was helped
immensely by the participation of skilled paddlers from the Tennessee
Scenic Rivers Association and the sponsorship of Dick's Sporting Goods.