Citizen Environmental Monitoring Conference

Citizen Environmental Monitoring in Appalachia: Building Environmental Monitoring Programs for Validity, Impact and Sustainability
Bristol, Virginia November 4-6, 2004

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Keynote Speaker - Dr. Hague Vaughan- Dr. Vaughan is an ecologist with Environment Canada and since June, 1998 in charge of the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) Coordinating Office. EMAN aims to enhance the effectiveness of ecological monitoring in Canada through partnerships and collaboration in areas of shared interest including standardization of methods; outreach,engagement and capacity building; and the improved delivery of needed information to decision-makers. Previously, Hague was responsible for the co-ordination of science within the Aquatic Ecosystem Conservation Branch of the National Water Research Institute and for liaison with other agencies and programs. His responsibilities included the synthesis of communication of science related to Climate Change, Toxic Chemicals, UV-B and Endocrine Disrupting Compounds. Prior to taking up that position in 1989, he was in charge of Environment Canada's water quality monitoring programs in the Prairie and Northern Region. A graduate of Dalhousie University and the University of Florida, he has held positions with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment, Canadian Wildlife Service, the University of Maine, the Florida State Museum and various consulting firms. He has published an archaeology, paleoecology, water chemistry, water quality monitoring, water management, organic analytical methods, acid rain, UV-B, climate change effects on wetlands and landscapes, community engagement better linking science to decision-making and Scouting.

Carol Andress joined the Environmental Defense staff in 1994 as economic specialist working to foster pollution prevention and preserving and advancing public access to information on chemicals in the environment. Her first project, the Great Printers Project, was a joint initiative of local environmental activists, industry groups, state and federal regulators, and labor unions and lead to reforms to enhance the public's access to information and illuminate pollution prevention opportunities. Ms. Andress also collaborated with community-based organizations to develop a model for measuring environmental performance in urban areas and establish a community-based monitoring network. More recently, Ms. Andress has led Environmental Defense's work to promote chemical hazard reduction and preserve the public's access to information about environmental risks in their community.

Heidi Ballard is a PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She has collaborated with Native American, forest worker, and citizen environmental groups to develop and implement participatory inventory and monitoring projects. Her dissertation research examines the impacts of harvesting salal ( Gaultheria shallon ), a non-timber forest product in the Pacific Northwest, through participatory research involving harvesters and public and private forest managers. With the Makah Indian Tribe, she designed and implemented participatory inventory of non-timber forest resources on the Makah Indian Reservation, designed and implemented a participatory research project on salal ( Gaultheria shallon ), and developed a curriculum unit for their middle school. She also conducted a participatory monitoring project with a citizen-based environmental group to monitor oak regeneration and native grasslands in the open space preserves in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area, presenting the results with citizens to preserve land managers. As a former high school biology teacher, she hopes to continue working with students and other community members to monitor the effects of resource management and enjoy the outdoors.

Thomas Benjamin is the President and Founder of the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement (EASI), a non-profit 501(C)3 organization founded in 1991, that works with local organizations to encourage senior volunteers to take a leadership role as community mentors for volunteer driven environmental projects. A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources with a degree in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Education, he has over 20 years of experience directing environmental education programs and building environmental centers, over 30 years of experience working with volunteers and has done volunteer work for the past 15 years, in over 10 countries, including Haiti. He is the recipient of the United Nations Global 500 Award, the President's Award for Sustainable Development and the Points of Light Award.

Steve Brooks is director of Virginia Forest Watch, which he organized in 1998. He first began organizing around environmental issues in Eastern Kentucky in 1968. After moving to SW Virginia in 1975 he worked for the Rural Area Development Association from 1977 to 1997 as a program director. He helped form the Coalition for Job and the Environment in 1989 and The Clinch Coalition in 1998. Steve serves on the board of the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, Appalachian Sustainable Development and the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable.

Paul Carlson has an MS in Forestry and BA in Economics and is a NC Registered Forester. Paul worked a dozen years in reforestation and agroforestry projects in the Andean Region of South America before making his home in western North Carolina in the late 1980s. He worked for six years as a private, forestry consultant, served on the local Soil and Water District Board and was a founder of the Little Tennessee Watershed Association. In 1997 he became the Director of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee, a position he continues to hold today.

Ken Cooke fell into water, streams and rivers via his canoeing hobby in the early 80's. He served as conservation chair to a Kentucky Canoeing organization and was constantly asking the agency what could citizens do to help enforcement of environmental law. The Kentucky Division of Water hired him in 1985 to coordinate a newly formed volunteer monitoring program. He has held the position of Coordinator of the Kentucky Water Watch Program since. Kentucky Water Watch has been working with volunteers in the field conducting educational activities, scientific monitoring projects and community action on streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and groundwater systems since 1984.

Courtney Crabtree is the West Virginia Partnership Development Coordinator with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) based out of Charleston , West Virginia . A SCA alumnus herself, she is working to increase the number of partnerships the SCA has within West Virginia and the surrounding area, and also to increase the number of students participating in SCA who are West Virginia residents.

Bill Deutsch- has been a faculty member of Auburn University's Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture since 1988. A co-founder of Alabama Water Watch (AWW), Bill has helped AWW become involved with nearly 225 citizen groups monitoring water quality. These citizens have sampled over 1,400 sites on 500 waterbodies and submitted over 25,000 chemistry and 4,000 bacteriological data forms. This water information has had positive impacts on education, restoration and local-to-state water policy. Recently Bill began a new program, Global Water Watch, which is an affiliation of community-based water monitoring projects in the Phillipines, Ecuador, Brazil, and Thailand, all hosted by AU's International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments.

Jane Forrest-Redfern is the Executive Director of Rural Action, a membership-based organization working for economic and social justice in Appalachian Ohio. Rural Action envisions a region of clean streams, healthy forests, thriving family farms, jobs for everyone and lively towns that celebrate their history. Jane has worked for over 18 years locally and regionally on water protection, air, solid and hazardous waste issues, sustainable agriculture, legislative and campaign work and won numerous awards for her work throughout Ohio.

Bob Gable is currently the Scenic Rivers Program Manager with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Bob has worked in different positions within the Scenic Rivers Program throughout his entire 12 + year career with the Department. Prior to working with ODNR, Bob worked at the Columbus Zoo in the Pachyderm Building and the Aquarium. Bob also worked at the Battelle Memorial Institute, Aquatic Toxicology Laboratory while he was a student at The Ohio State University. Bob grew up in the Big Darby Creek , State and National Scenic River Watershed and received his bachelor's degree in Zoology from Ohio State .

Jay Gilliam began as a volunteer monitor with Virginia Izaak Walton Save Our Streams program in 1991 and coordinated that program from 1996 to September 2004. During his time there Jay finalized an agreement between the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality and VASOS to: 1) support citizen monitoring efforts statewide 2) promote appropriate quality assurance and quality control 3) establish methods for data use and assessment. Today VASOS has about 350 certified volunteers monitoring over 200 sites statewide.

Linda Green is Program Director of the URI Watershed Watch Program, a part of the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension Water Quality Program, and has been since its inception in 1988. This science-based volunteer water quality monitoring program promotes active volunteer monitoring, informal educational outreach and generates virtually all the of the RI lake water quality monitoring data. She is a founding member of the New England Monitoring Collaborative, a regional organization of volunteer monitoring service providers. On a national level she represents the volunteer monitoring community on the thirty-five member National Water Quality Monitoring Council, co-chairs its Collaboration and Outreach subcommittee and also co-chaired its May 2002 National Water Quality Monitoring Conference. She is a member of the editorial board of The Volunteer Monitor newsletter. She leads a national Cooperative Extension project to expand and enhance volunteer monitoring in Extension programs across the country.

Harry Groot is General Manager and CEO of the Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative in Hiwasee, Virginia. Harry, with his wife and family, operate a diversified family farm that has marketed value-added agricultural and forest products since 1977. The farm's operating strategy is based on permaculture principles and is an evolving experiment focused on sustainability. Harry has been working with like-minded landowners to organize the Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative with support from co-ops in the upper Midwest and New England, the Appalachian Forest Resource Center, and the Community Forestry Resource Center in Minneapolis.

Tom Grote is the Director of the Kiski-Conemaugh Stream Team. The Stream Team is a non-profit organization that oversees the monitoring of a 1887 square mile basin focusing on AMD discharges and in-stream water quality. He is also the Executive Director of Kiski Basin Initiatives – Conemaugh Valley Conservancy. In this role he coordinates the USDA Forest Service Grants program for the Kiski-Conemaugh River Basin and the 12 th Congressional District. From 1998 to 2000, Tom was the Executive Director for the Loyalhanna Watershed Association. Tom also taught environmental science for 30 years at Latrobe High School .

Richard Hart is a consulting ecologist with national and international expertise in watershed and land use biophysical assessment and monitoring. He is the creator and project leader of participatory biophysical monitoring in a local community near Fremont-Winema National Forest's Lakeview Federal Stewardship Unit. Richard teaches the art and science of biophysical monitoring through the professional growth education program of the Forest Guild, and international association of certified foresters and resource managers.

Jerry Iles is an Ohio State University Watershed Management Agent working primarily in southeastern Ohio 's Appalachian counties. Jerry provides leadership for the Ohio volunteer monitors involved in this project. Jerry's previous positions included serving as: Raccoon Creek Headwaters Project Coordinator, public school teaching in Ohio & West Virginia and as a VISTA volunteer with the Monday Creek Restoration Project – Rural Action. Jerry holds a M.S. in Environmental Planning & Policy from Ohio University and is currently a Ph.D. student in Ohio State University 's School of Natural Resources . Jerry and his wife Teresa live in the country near Athens Ohio .

Hugh Irwin is Conservation Planner for the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition (SAFC) and coordinates their spatial analysis and mapping program. He received his B.A. in Physics and Math from Vanderbilt University and holds an M.S. in Forestry (Forest Ecology) from the University of Tennessee. He was one of the founders of the Sierra Club's Southern Appalachian Highlands Ecoregion Program, and was also one of the founders of Cherokee Forest Voices, which monitors activities on Cherokee National Forest. He has worked for twenty-five years on public lands issues, particularly relating to Southern Appalachian biological diversity and protection of key areas. Hugh's interests have increasingly focused on long-term biodiversity issues and the development of regional and landscape conservation proposals to protect and restore the Southern Appalachian's rich biological heritage. He was the principal author of SAFC's Return the Great Forest: A Conservation Vision for the Southern Appalachian Region . He has authored a number of other books and articles that address the remarkable natural values of the Southern Appalachians, including The Wilderness Society's Tennessee's Mountain Treasures: The Unprotected Wildlands of the Cherokee National Forest and contributed to Wilderness Trails of Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest .

Norma Ivey is an organizer for the Western North Carolina Alliance (WNCA). She holds an undergraduate degree in math with a minor in geography and a Master of Arts for Teachers degree in Geography from Indiana University . Her graduate study in geography focused on physical geography/geomorphology, cartography, and weather and climate. Norma taught high school math in Atlanta before becoming a member of the Western North Carolina Alliance in 1992. She coordinated the Old Growth Project in 1994, which led to a full time position as an organizer with WNCA. Norma was lead organizer for the North Carolina Clean Smokestacks campaign that lobbied for passage of a bill that gives NC some of the best clean air legislation in the country. She served as the WNC Alliance representative for CORA and organized a spring regional meeting for grassroots groups funded by CORA. She is a firm believer in grassroots organizing because it grows ownership of the issue within a population that will then work to protect the object of the issue if necessary.

Michele James-Deramo is the Service-Learning Director at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. She has held this position since the Centers establishment in 1995. Prior to her appointment there, she was the Director of Service-Learning and Director of the Faith-Justice Institute at Saint Josephs University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has served as a speaker and presenter on service-learning topics at a variety of meetings, conferences and workshops, including the Second World Forum of Jesuit Business College Deans in Recife, Brazil, and the BP Conference on Students as Tutors and Mentors in London, England. She was a member of the National Service Leader Schools Design Team, and a three-time Learn and Serve America grantee. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Seton Hill College in Greensburg, PA. She received her Masters degree in Religious Education in 1987 from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and a Masters in Religion and Social Change from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Gary Kauffman is the Forest Botanical Product Specialist for the national forests in North Carolina. For the past 4 years his primary duties have been studying sustainability of the non-timber forest products harvested from the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests. These include medicinal plants, floral products, culinary products, and horticultural products.

Alexandra Kenny has managed the grants programs of the National Forest Foundation in Washington, D.C. for over three years. She acts as the main point of contact for all potential and actual grantees, and reports on project accomplishments in furthering the NFF's mission of engaging communities in caring for our National Forests and Grasslands. Ms. Kenny worked in the non-profit sector for four years prior to joining the NFF staff, conducting research in the museum and archaeology fields. She holds an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the George Washington University and a B.S. in Psychology from Longwood University.

Gigi La Budde serves as ecologist and education coordinator for the Community Forestry Resource Center (CFRC), a non-profit organization that promotes responsible forest management by encouraging the long-term health and prosperity of privately owned woodland, their owners, and their communities. Gigi works with forest landowner groups, resource managers, and loggers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. She is the owner of Bison Belly Futures, an ecological restoration consulting business, where she acts on the belief that all who hold title to the land have both the privilege and the responsibility to restore the land to long-term health and biodiversity. Gigi is an organic Goldenseal grower, and is interested in non-timber forest product opportunities for woodland owners.

Abby Markowitz manages the Communications and Outreach group in Tetra Tech's Center for Ecological Sciences in Baltimore and has worked in environmental communication, coordination, and collaboration for over 15 years. She serves on the editorial board of the national Volunteer Monitor newsletter; participated on the steering committees for the 1994, 1996, and 2000 national volunteer monitoring conferences; and is the co-author of the EPA publications Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual and The Volunteer Monitor's Guide to Quality Assurance Project Plans . Abby is a member of the Maryland Water Monitoring Council's board of directors and has provided contractual support to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council since 1998 .

Ed Moyer is America's Clean Water Foundation's Coordinator for World Water Monitoring Day. He is responsible for the overall development, management and promotion of the event throughout the world. Mr. Moyer joined ACWF in 2002 after a 20 year career as an analyst and manager with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. He holds a BA in Education from Michigan State University and resides in Lansing, MI.

Pamela J. Nabors is a Senior Geographic Analyst with the Tennessee Valley Authority and is currently occupying a joint venture position with the Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) as biogeographer and Geographic Information System coordinator. PJ has a Master of Science degree in Geography from the University of Tennessee. Her thesis was The Current Status and Potential Spread of an Invasive Exotic Species: Chinese Yam in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida with a minor in mathematics.

John D. Peine is currently a scientist with the U. S. Geological Survey, Southern Appalachian Field Laboratory. As early as 1979 John began working with others to create the first National Heritage Corridor in the U.S. This new classification within the national park system has been applied to numerous other locations in the country and elsewhere. He is currently in a leadership role to create an environmental monitoring program along the 2,167 mile-long Appalachian Trail as well as a website compiling information on best environmental sustainability practices within the Southern Appalachian highlands.

Alan Raflo is a research associate for the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg. He edits Virginia Water Central, a newsletter on water issues in Virginia, and coordinates Virginia Service Training for Environmental Progress (Va. STEP), a water-related service-learning program for college students. He received a B.S. in Economic Biology from Clemson University in 1979 and an M.S. in Water Resources (limnology concentration) from Iowa State University in 1988. He also attended Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., to become certified to teach high school biology. Prior to joining the Virginia Water Center in 1997, he had previously worked as an educator for a natural history museum, an editor of agricultural economics publications, a water-resource planner, an aquatic biologist, and a science teacher for grades K-8.

Linda Randolph is a District Silviculturalist and Operations Assistant in the Appalachian Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, where she has been since 1999. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Forest Management from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has worked for the Forest Service since 1991.

Jack Ranney heads the invasive/native species initiative of the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere. He leads two weed teams, is vice president of the Tennessee Exotic Pest Plant Council, is on the Board of Directors for the SE Exotic Pest Plant Council, and conducts research on invasive plant policies and situations at local to regional scales. He also works with ecological restoration and environmental indicators. His present position is research ecologist at the University of Tennessee.

Kristin Sewak has spent the last 5 years as Director of Natural Biodiversity in Johnstown, PA. Natural Biodiversity's mission is to develop and implement a strategy for conserving the diverse natural heritage of the landscape, ensuring harmonious interactions within populations, communities and ecosystems of southwestern and south central Pennsylvania watersheds. Kristin holds a B.S. in Terrestrial Ecology from the University of Pittsburgh. She served with AmeriCorps National Service for 2 years as Greenway Coordinator for Kiski-Conemaugh River Basin Alliance, Southwestern PA and spent 1 year as Greenway Coordinator for Juniata Clean Water Partnership, South-central PA. She enjoys hiking, forest exploration and painting and is a mother of two concerned with the quality and pace of life for this and the next generations.

Cheryl Snyder works as a biologist in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Watershed Management and is DEP's Citizens' Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator. She coordinates various activities for this statewide program and provides assistance to volunteer monitors in water quality sampling, biological monitoring, habitat assessment, streamside physical monitoring and watershed assessment project monitoring as well as helping volunteers develop study designs for their monitoring programs. Cheryl has worked in a number of water programs for DEP over the last 18 years.

Kris Stepenuck coordinates a statewide volunteer stream monitoring program in Wisconsin called the Water Action Volunteers. It is a cooperative program between the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Kris and others at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, also work in partnership with the University of Rhode Island-Cooperative Extension on a project designed to build a comprehensive support system for Extension volunteer water quality monitoring efforts across the country.

Matthew Stevens is the Environmental Monitoring Coordinator with the Appalachian Trail Conference. Through its Appalachian Trail Environmental Monitoring Initiative (ATEMI), the Appalachian Trail Conference connects citizen volunteers, university and other professional scientists, and its trail managers. Their common effort collects information about the status of the Appalachian mountain environment using the protected A.T. corridor as a laboratory. Volunteers monitor at set periods the visible and invisible quality of the air, water quality, wildlife habitat and activity, invasive plants, migratory birds, and rare, threatened, and endangered species. This information not only helps direct land management but changes also serve as an "early warning" of incoming harm to the physical environment.

Kenneth W. Stolte has been a Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service's Southern Research Station since 1991. From that time till 2002 he held the title of Deputy Program Manager of Research with the Forest Health Monitoring program. His current research interests include: developing new indicators and monitoring approaches for urban forest inclusions and the Appalachian Trail; using digital photography to monitor soil erosion, identify unknown plant species, and identifying salamanders and reptiles; and developing approaches to model and evaluate the Montreal Process Criterion and Indicators.

Cathy M. Sutphin is an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Volunteer Development in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at Virginia Tech. Cathy spent 15 years as a 4-H Youth Development Extension Agent in Southwest Virginia before assuming her current role. As Volunteer Development Specialist, Cathy has developed numerous professional development resources and experiences for Extension faculty in the area of volunteer development. Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) currently engages nearly 34,000 volunteers, which contributed 1,076,711 hours in support of VCE educational programs which equates to more than $18 million in contribution.

Andy Whitman has been an ecologist with Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences for 11 years studying tropical and temperate forest biodiversity. He has studied a range of taxonomic groups including birds, butterflies, ground beetles, trees, herbaceous plants, mosses, and lichens. Currently field research is focused on the conservation of late-successional and old-growth forests in the northeast on public and private lands. Generally his research has focused on developing integrative tools and approaches for maintaining forest biodiversity in the context of managed landscapes. This includes using different communication tools as well as developing thinking frameworks to help stakeholders grapple more effectively with natural resource issues including the conservation of forest biodiversity.

Buzz Williams is currently the Director of the Chattooga Conservancy. The Chattooga Conservancy works to protect, promote and restore the health of the Chattooga River watershed. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Management and was involved with the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE) from 1990 to 1994. Buzz was awarded the Forest Service Award in recognition of outstanding partnership with the USDA Forest Service in 1994 and the Georgia Wildlife Federation Forest Conservationist of the Year Award in 1995, both accepted on behalf of the Chattooga Conservancy.

In June of 1999, citizens, businesses, agencies, and organizations began to unite as one watershed group: the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable . The Upper Tennessee River Basin (headwaters for the Tennessee River ) is located in southwestern Virginia . The watershed covers parts of eleven counties: Bland, Wythe, Grayson, Smyth , Washington , Russell, Tazewell, Dickenson, Wise, Scott, and Lee. Three major tributaries make the Upper Tennessee River Basin . They include the Clinch, Holston , and Powell rivers with over 4,400 miles of rivers and streams, which drain over 2 million acres (3131 square miles) or about 8 percent of the total land area in Virginia . T he mission of the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable is to achieve clean water throughout the watershed with the involvement of citizens in planning, education, coordination, attracting funding, and as an advocate for our water resources. The Upper Tennessee River Roundtable is the recipient of an $800,000 Targeted Watershed Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is the first round of funding for the Targeted Watershed Grants Program. EPA selected 20 watershed groups in the U.S. to receive these grants, with the Roundtable being one of those selected to coordinate projects that protect and restore water resources.

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