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Community Corner

Seeking Volunteers! for Stream Walk Surveys - Byram and Mianus River

Seeking Volunteers! for Stream Walk Surveys  - Byram and Mianus River - Training Day June 25, 2011

If you want to have some fun, learn about our region's beautiful rivers, and get your feet wet (literally) on how to help keep our rivers and Long Island Sound clean, fish-able, and swim-able, read on!

The Byram Watershed Coalition, the Mianus River Watershed Council, the Town of Greenwich and the Natural Resources Conservation Service are all looking for community volunteers to perform Stream Walk Assessments of the Byram and Mianus Rivers this summer. 

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 Following a brief training session on June 25th, teams of volunteers will go out and collect information about an assigned section of either the Byram or Mianus River. Training is conducted by experts from the National Resources Conservation Service and will tell you everything you need to know to fill out the stream assessment sheets.

 Stream Walks are flexible! You can perform your assessment whenever it fits into your schedule, following the training session. We estimate that you'll need to dedicate about 5 to 8 hours for everything from preparation, field work, and filling out the worksheets for your assigned stream segment.

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The information gathered during the Stream Walks help us better understand our rivers and identify areas of concern that may require trash cleanup, stream bank restoration, planting, dam modifications or erosion control. 

This is an amazing opportunity to explore the beautiful natural terrain of our region while supporting those who work year-round to maintain our rivers. Last year over 50 people participated in Stream Walks and we hope that, with your help, we can surpass that number for Summer 2011. 

Training will be held on June 25th at 9 am - 1pm at the Greenwich Audubon Center, 613 Riversville Road

Greenwich, CT 06831 (203) 869-5272

For more information please visit the Byram Watershed Coalition site:

http://sites.google.com/site/byramwatershedcoalition/events

and for information on Stream Walk procedures please visit the NRCS website:

http://www.ct.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/communities/streamwalk_initiative.html

If you are interested in participating please send an email to Jack Stoecker at byramwc@gmail.com or  call (203) 253 9348 no later than June 22nd. Please provide us with your: Name, Organization, Email address, Phone Number and if you are at least 14 years old. (Volunteers under age 14 are welcome - but must be accompanied by a parent!  

Parental permission signature is required for volunteers that are under age 18.  See the Earth Volunteer Services Agreement form below.

If you were a volunteer last year, I hope you will volunteer again and sign up for a stream walk assignment.  You are welcome to participate in the training session again if you feel you need a refresher.  If not, we will make a stream segment assignment to you. 

All volunteers must fill out and sign the attached Earth Volunteer Services Agreement that includes basic information, parental permission and emergency contact information. The “ET Application.pdf” can be downloaded from: http://bit.ly/ksKb5d

Please share this opportunity with environmental and volunteer organizations, high school and college students, teachers and anyone that might be interested.

Jack Stoecker

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