Water and Drought

Adopt-a-Stream Volunteer Training

Paulding County's rapid growth, coupled with its diverse land uses, results in a need for water quality education to be provided to the general public, green industry personnel, farmers and other land managers. In cooperation with the Coosa River Basin Initiative, the Paulding County Extension Agent, five Master Gardeners, two Paulding County Extension 4-H Program Assistants, and two interested citizens have been trained to conduct Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Chemical and Biological Monitoring of stream quality in Paulding County. Adopt-A-Stream is a volunteer monitoring program that trains interested citizens to collect baseline data on stream quality. Data from monitoring is then submitted to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, through the Adopt-A-Stream program. A summer program was conducted with Cloverleaf 4-H'ers to teach them about basic biological monitoring at a local stream. Two local streams have been registered for “adoption” by trained volunteers. Through a partnership with local Department of Natural Resources officials, volunteers have gained access to one of the locally impaired streams for sampling. Volunteers have performed more than 50 hours of sampling and data management for stream quality monitoring. Chemical and biological data has been collected on these sites monthly, since July, 2006 and submitted to both the state Adopt-A-Stream program, as well as to local officials, including the Department of Natural Resources and the Paulding County Water Department. (2006)

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