- Success Story -

This project is just one example within the Land Grant University System that enhanced better nutrient and pesticide management thereby improving water quality. Please check back periodically for other highlighted programs.

Tallapoosa Watershed Project (TWP)

children planting shrubsSituation
Management of non-point source pollution requires that the general public understand the link between land use and water quality. More data was needed in the Tallapoosa River Watershed to educate local citizens of this connection at the local level. Formal environmental education curricula were needed since it was inconsistently taught in Alabama and rarely integrated field and classroom activities that correlated to the Alabama Course of Study.


Actions
The Tallapoosa Watershed Project (TWP) external link integrates research, education and Extension activities. The project collected watershed nutrient and sediment data using different methods, including volunteer monitor collection in the Alabama Water Watch program, calculated nutrient and sediment loads into local streams and export coefficients, and determined the relationship between nutrient loads and land use/land cover. An environmental science program (The Living Streams Curriculum) for middle schools (grades 4-6) that utilizes the Tallapoosa River Watershed as an outdoor laboratory was developed. The general public, including Alabama Water Watch volunteers, were the focus of TWP’s outreach activities, including conferences and water festivals, to teach local residents about land use impacts on water quality, based on the locally-generated data.


Impacts
TWP impacts include:

Significant increases, 54 percentile to 71 percentile over a four-year period, in standardized test scores (Stanford 10 Science test) for students who participated in TWP-sponsored environmental education activities.
children learning in classroom Increased dialog and collaboration among state regulatory agencies, municipal government and citizens regarding river basin management.
Significant changes in Extension programs and approaches to address watershed management and nutrient-sediment issues, from a traditional agronomy-animal husbandry approach to a community participatory-whole ecosystem management approach.
Increased synergy among USDA-CSREES programs including collaboration between the TWP, CSREES Extension-Education Grants, and CSREES National Facilitation Project in Volunteer Water Monitoring.
Quantification of amounts of nutrients and sediments exported from various land uses in the Piedmont.
Validation of citizen volunteer monitoring through extensive side-by-side testing with agency scientists using Standard Methods test procedures.
Leveraging of thousands of dollars from municipal governments, the Middle Tallapoosa Clean Water Partnership and other organizations to extend and enhance TWP activities, with plans to extend activities beyond the life of the project (in the form of an annual watershed conference and water festival, further outreach through the internet, presentations and meetings, teacher trainings and curriculum development).