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It takes some kind of commitment to be on the river at sunrise, on a Saturday, to do chemistry and paperwork as a VOLUNTEER. Read on to discover why Watershed Watch volunteers do it, season after season.
Watershed Watch is a statewide, volunteer program founded in 1998 that trains and equips hundreds of citizens each year to monitor the health of their local waterways. Kentucky is water rich with over 89,000 miles of streams, more than any state except Alaska. Yet the quality of our streams has declined at an alarming rate and less than 10% of those stream miles are actually monitored by government agencies. Watershed Watch volunteers step forward to collect water quality data three times each year (in May, July and September) from streams and sites that may have never been tested. That information goes to the KY Division of Water in Frankfort and can have a real impact on water policy decisions; in some cases information from volunteers leads to further, more in-depth investigation.
Testing on the Little Kentucky River started in 1998 when two volunteers attended the first training hosted by the Salt River Watershed Watch (SRWW) project. The "early years" were lonely and frustrating; the science seemed overwhelming and the drought of 1999 was depressing. Since then our efforts have grown to a team of nine volunteers testing at five sites in the Little Kentucky watershed.
Little Kentucky volunteers do more than the testing three times per year. We hosted a regional training session for new SRWW volunteers at the Campbellsburg Police Post this spring. In 2001 we taught basic water quality chemistry to hundreds of school kids at the State Fair, took Henry Co. High School students to test on the creek and gave several slide presentations in local schools. Also in August last year we did a special study of fecal coliform bacteria in the streams near Sulphur, after our July results were unusually high. These kinds of bacteria can cause flu-like symptoms and worse to swimmers and waders in the creek.
Watershed Watch volunteers on the Little Kentucky plan to continue monitoring in 2003 and for years to come. We have a treasure in our stream and have become part of a watershed community that crosses county lines and other political boundaries. We do it for fun; we do it for love; we do it for the future. Won't you watch with us? We'll bring the coffee.
[To get involved with Watershed Watch on the Little Kentucky, contact Steve Perry at 502-743-5177 or forestry1954@aol.com or visit the website at kywater.org/watch/salt/index.html]
Meet the Watershed Watch Volunteers
Tim Foree is a teacher in Louisville who grew up visiting family near the Little Kentucky in Henry Co.; Lee Agee is a biologist and educator at the Louisville Zoo. Both tested below the landfill the year of 2001.
Boots Fox is a retired engineer living in Westport who serves as part-time coordinator for the Little Kentucky River Watershed Education Project. He tests as a volunteer with Susie on Bartlett Fork just west of New Castle.
Anna Kunzler is a biologist who works for the KY Dept. of Surface Mining and is the treasurer of Kentucky Waterways Alliance. Her Bluebird Hill Farm lies along the Little Kentucky above Sulphur; she has been a Watershed Watch monitor, trainer and area coordinator since 1998.
Steve Perry, former paramedic and one-time park ranger at Lake Jericho, lives up on the ridge in Pendleton. He has been an active monitor above the landfill (S107) on the Little Kentucky since 2001 and serves on the Salt River Watershed Watch Steering Committee.
Karen Bess Smith is a member of the Little Kentucky Watershed Board and the Trimble Co. Solid Waste 109 Board. The Little Kentuck runs through the middle of Karen & Steve's farm below Bedford. When not in the creek (or meetings about creeks) she is a landscape designer.
Kelly Nicole Smith tested with Anna and Karen from 1998 through 2000 when she was attending Trimble Co. High School. She is now majoring in genetic engineering at Western KY University, working part-time as a biology lab technician.
Laraine Staples has been testing for two years at the Connector Rd. site (S45). She is the administrator for the Cattlemen's Association in Trimble and Henry Counties and markets beef locally from their family farm in the watershed west of Bedford.
Tami and Valerie Thomas started testing this year at Connector Rd. with Laraine and Karen. The Thomases are frog lovers living above the Demeree Branch of the Little Kentucky. Valerie attends Trimble Co. Middle School.
Susie Turner teaches biology at Henry Co. High School; her special field of interest is aquatic insects. Susie has tested since 2001 on Bartlett Fork (S108 and 109) near her home in Smithfield.
Thanks Are Overflowing To:
Our Watershed Watch Volunteers for all those Saturday mornings when you would have rather stayed in bed.
The KY Division of Conservation for funding our efforts to gather information and provide watershed-based education to our community.
Louis and Bates Webster, Coleman Sibley, Paul Baxter and Brenda House for allowing the volunteers access to their properties for testing.
The Salt River Watershed Watch Team for "parenting" us and for keeping on keeping on.
Dr. Jeff Jack and Gina Bergner in the biology department at the University of Louisville for always being available to help us understand the science and for staying cheerful....
Trimble Co./Solid Waste 109 Board for funding studies of the impact of Valley View landfill on the Little Kentucky.
Ken Cooke at the KY Division of Water, fun and funny guru of all things water.
Kerry Prather and Jeff Crosby of the KY Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Clark Dorman, Salt River Basin Coordinator, for helping us make friends in government.
Linda Ingabrand, owner of "Linda's Place" in Sulphur (and former owner Frank Louden) for your warm hospitality and rewarding breakfasts for weary volunteers.
The Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Henry and Trimble Co. Conservation Districts for sharing resources with us.
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