Stream Monitoring and Stewardship Programme Involving a Partnership Between Community Organizations, High Schools and a University

The long range aim of the programme described in this paper is to raise public awareness of water environmental issues to a point where meaningful and informed public participation in environmental decisions is possible. The approach to achieving this goal is as follows: Students from local high schools learn to monitor the level of coliform bacteria, E. coli, phosphate ions, ammonium ions, toxicity, using Daphnia magna, and other pertinent parameters (dissolved oxygen, hardness, pH, temperature) in streams, during a 5-week lab course. They do this as part of their curriculum study programme. An organization of citizens concerned with a local stream, in this case Red Hill Creek, then contacts the students and points out to them their concerns about sites along the creek. The students subsequently monitor the sites of concern using the skills they have learned, and either document causes for the community group's concerns or allay their fears through the information gathered. The quality of the data obtained by the students is very important to the success of the programme. A partnership in environmental stewardship is thus formed between the community group and a local high school. The students findings are presented at meetings organized by the community group and attended by the local authorities. In the cases reported herein the environmental authorities confirmed the students findings, and in most cases were stimulated to remedial action. The press was found to play a significant role in this process.