Prepare yourself to more confidently and competently participate in water-related chapter projects, talk to the public about the importance of water quality and its challenges, or managing your own land’s riparian or wetlands environments. These certifications broaden your knowledge about riparian environments and lend credibility, when needed, to influence others to consider stronger conservation action.
Texas Waters Specialist
Become a well-informed volunteer specialist ready to provide education, outreach, and service to promote healthy water bodies in your community. The Texas Waters Specialist certification program, made possible by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), is a self-paced, online program open to anyone. Training topics include:
- how to identify a healthy watershed ecosystem
- types of aquatic habitats and the species they support
- ecological significance of natural flow in riparian environments
- what causes watershed change
- and an overview of Texas water law and planning.
Things to know:
- There is no formal application process, but let our chapter’s Membership Director know that you are starting the courses so your VMS account profile can be updated to record water-related training and service that is visible by TPWD’s Texas Water Specialist administrator. This is the only way that your certification will be recognized.
- There is no time limit to complete the initial training or obtain Advanced Training for initial certification.
- Training hours required to obtain certification and volunteer service hours required to re-certify may count for both annual TMN chapter re-certification requirements and the TWS requirements.
- Complete 8 hours of training by:
- reading the online Texas Waters: Exploring Water and Watersheds curriculum guide
- scoring 100% on quizzes at the end of each of the chapters (tests are straightforward, short, and can be taken as many times as needed with no penalty).
- Complete 8 hours of advanced water-related training from the Texas Waters Webinar series (attend or replay the online webinars)
- Record the related TWS initial training and advanced training in VMS
Once certified, within a few months, you will be recognized at a GLC chapter meeting with a TWS certificate and an official pin in recognition of your achievement. Participate in at least 10 hours of volunteer services in water, aquatic habitats, and watersheds and record your service in VMS checking the Texas Waters Specialist box in the opportunity to ensure it is visible by TPWD’s Texas Water Specialist administrator.
Core Water Quality Community Scientist Training
Texas Stream Team has trained over 11,000 citizen scientists to monitor water and environmental quality across Texas. Trained citizen scientists are the first line of defense for Texas natural resources, documenting approximately 4,000 monitoring events to assess water resource conditions at over 400 sites annually.
Standard Core monitoring involves performing tests for parameters such as conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, total depth, water and air temperature, and water transparency using a chemical Standard Core kit. In addition to these parameters, Standard Core citizen scientists also conduct various field observations. We ask citizen scientists to make a commitment to monitor at least one site monthly for at least one year. Citizen scientists performing water quality are encouraged to monitor their site(s) monthly at the same time of day each month. Adherence to a consistent monitoring time is crucial because the physical and chemical parameters fluctuate over a 24-hour period. Monitoring takes approximately one to two hours depending on the time spent traveling to the site.
This in-person training course is currently offered at The Meadows Center in San Angelo, however, our chapter has been able to bring a trainer to our area to give the training, but there are no plans at this time to offer it. If you want to get your Core Water Quality Community Scientist Training certification that will allow you to utilize our test kits to monitor a site of your choosing, you will need to attend a training session in San Marcos at the Meadows Center. To find out more information about the training, click here. To see what classes are available this year, click here. To reserve a spot, you must contact:
Adam Berglund (Coordinator – San Marcos River Rangers)
[email protected]
Once certified, please let Wanda Anglin know so she can add you to our test group’s list, and provide you with extra materials and resources for our chapter.
Riparian Evaluation Certification
Become a biomonitor by completing the Texas Stream Team’s Riparian Evaluation training.
A riparian area is the interface between the upland and a water body. When a riparian area is healthy and functioning efficiently, it slows run-off and floodwaters protecting riverbanks from erosion and land from too-frequent inundation. It filters the water before it enters the body of water or groundwater, traps sediment, and stores water.
Certified Riparian Evaluation biomonitors go on-site to observe key factors of a riparian habitat to assess the health of lakes, rivers, streams, and estuaries. They report their findings to be coupled with water quality data to track ecosystem and habitat health over time in the rivers and streams that flow to our Texas Coast. Collecting and analyzing riparian health data over time can lead to the identification of activities, usually human, that may be hindering the natural riparian recovery process causing impairments that affect wildlife and humans.
The Riparian Evaluation training focuses on the nature and function of stream and riparian zones, and the benefits and direct impacts from healthy riparian zones. Texas Stream Team Riparian Evaluation citizen scientists are certified by completing a full-day training session that is half in classroom and half in three-phase training that measures water quality by assessing the riparian habitat.
To see what classes are available this year, click here. To reserve a spot, you must contact:
Adam Berglund (Coordinator – San Marcos River Rangers)
[email protected]
Once certified, join the Riparian Evaluation chapter project that adopts various riparian areas to monitor periodically and report the data to Texas Stream Team. Annual or biennial monitoring is conducted at the same time each year for each site. Each site monitoring session requires approximately one hour plus travel time. Completion of the training will earn you a Riparian Evaluation certificate and the ability to participate in riparian evaluation projects.