Stream and Riparian Habitat Citizen Science: Impacting Natural Resource Management and K-12 Students

Authors: Rosa Bieber Stanley, Daniel Shaw

Year: 2016 (xlviii)

Abstract

We have participated in two citizen science programs, the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) and New Mexico Watershed Watch (NMWW) that have both informed management decisions of the Rio Grande, its tributaries, and its riparian forest. Furthermore, there have been substantive academic gains for K-12 students involved in these programs. We present how such programs are created, sustained over decades, and funded. In particular we present student findings related to personal care products detected in the Rio Grande as a way to engage K-12 students in understanding impacts of waste water effluent on fisheries habitat.