Outdoors Americorps

Americorps Stream Team Assistant Program

Tom Arth is an Americorps volunteer serving as our Stream Team Assistant until August 2007. He is working half time, splitting his hours between the Bryant Watershed Education Project and Missouri Stream Team. We are very excited to have him on board!

Water Quality Monitoring Stream Data
Tom is working with our webkeeper to set up online charts showing the results of Stream Team water quality monitoring in each of our watersheds. This will be an ongoing project that will make the data readily available to students, residents and visitors. “Part of my work as the Americorps Stream Team Assistant this year is to encourage Stream Teamers in this area to monitor our waterways and report their data. It's going to be great that we'll be able to get this data up on the Watershed Atlas quickly,” says Tom.

On February 15, Tom participated in a series of demonstrations at Ava Elementary School. The photo shows a boy trying to suck water up through a series of straws to show how impossible it is for an 80 foot tree to suck water up that high. Tom demonstrated water tension by floating paperclips on water, and adding pennies to a full glass of water until it overflowed. He also demonstrated testing the pH, dissolved oxygen, and nitrates of Ava city water.

In January, Tom organized a Stream Team cleanup of Howell Creek and the Neathery Skate Park in West Plains. It was a cold day, but a good crew turned out. In the photo below, Tom is standing on the far right. The cleanup was co-sponsored by KSPQ-94FM with a remote broadcast truck at the site.

During his time with us so far, Tom has also:
• taught activities demostrating the differences between point source vs. non-point source pollution and soil erosion at WaterFest 2006.
• led students on a walking tour at Stream Days.
• begun collecting stream data on the four major watersheds that are the focal point of the Bryant Watershed Education Project: the Eleven Point, Bryant Creek, Spring River, and the North Fork River. Are you part of a Stream Team collecting stream data on these rivers? Download this volunteer form (PDF) and email Tom for more information at tomarth@watersheds.org. We appreciate your data and your volunteer time!
• attended a storm water committee meeting in West Plains to lobby for more storm drain stenciling in the city.
• spoke on two radio stations in the area to promote World Water Quality Monitoring Day.
• promoted a Make a Difference Day event.
• Coordinated the River of Words contest, which uses art and poetry to portray an aspect of the environment in the Ozarks. Tom produced press releases, distributed flyers to local schools, and sent direct mail to teachers.

AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects Americans in intensive service to meet our country’s critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment. Missouri Stream Team sponsors river cleanups and many other activities throughout the state.

This is the Web site of the Bryant Watershed Education Project, based in West Plains, Missouri. Our site is a toolkit for exploring the Bryant Creek, North Fork, Eleven Point and Upper Spring watersheds in the southern Missouri Ozarks.
Learn more.