Volunteer Opportunities that Improve Water Quality in Texas
Opportunities to participate in water quality monitoring and environmental restoration projects allow citizens to personally contribute to efforts to improve Texas’ water quality. Their contributions often significantly assist state agencies evaluate watershed health and are usually essential components of restoration projects. The following links provide information about ongoing programs in Texas that are primarily volunteer organizations and that will accept additional volunteers.
Texas Watch is a network of trained volunteers and supportive partners working together to help the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission monitor the health of Texas lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, bayous, and estuaries. Established in 1991 and funded primarily through the federal Clean Water Act, Texas Watch trains students, teachers, and volunteers to collect quality-assured information that can be used to assist professionals in developing local and regional management strategies. To accomplish this, Texas Watch promotes a wide range of activities, including a rigorous certified water quality monitoring program, environmental education programs, civic activities including storm drain stenciling, and statewide and regional conferences and workshops. Texas Watch provided the description above.
Texas Cooperative Extension in collaboration with local and federal partners administers a youth conservation/education program where youth ages 8 to 19, teachers, and volunteers learn about wildlife that live in wetlands and other wet areas. The program is called MarshM.A.L.L.O.W.(Management Activities for Learning the Lifestyles of Wildlife). Participants identify a wetland, or other wet area such as a small pond, tank or flooded field, and actively manage it for a specific wildlife species. Management techniques employed often result in improved water quality.
For a catalog of Texas organizations involved in protecting local water bodies, including formal watershed alliances, local groups, and schools that conduct volunteer monitoring, click here. This is EPA’s web site for Adopt-A-Watershed. EPA also maintains a River Corridor and Wetland Restoration Project Directory that lists local projects involving clean-ups and restoration projects.