River Rally Resources

Several of Wisconsin’s local groups were able to attend River Network’s annual River Rally, thanks to scholarships provided  by the Department of Natural  Resources and the good offices of Todd Ambs. We asked the conference attendees to share some of the great resources they discovered at the conference.

Suggested Materials

Culvert Assessment
• Bridge and culvert assessment information is available at http://www.streamcontinuity.org/.  An assessment tool will be available in the near future.

Flow Data
• USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) website (http://water.usgs.gov/nsip/) provides information about the network of stream gages providing real-time stream flow data.

Fundraising
• Big Gifts For Small Groups: A 1-Hour Board Member’s Guide to Securing Gifts of $500 to $5,000,  by Andy Robinson

• Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network & Fund (http://www.glhabitat.org/) includes materials and grant sources for projects in the great lakes basin

General Resources

• Rivers For Life: Managing Water For People And Nature is a highly recommended book by Sandra Postel and Brian Richter.

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov/watertrain) offers the “Watershed Academy” education program on-line or on CD-ROM

• The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation website offers five steps to adopt a stream as well as resources for stream keepers.

GIS
These links focus on user- friendly approaches to creating  and using Geographic Information  System (GIS) data.

 •  http://www.vertices.com/
 •  http://www.gis4kids.com/

• Water Resources Impact, a bi-monthly magazine by American Water Resources Association focuses on understanding water resources and the use of GIS mapping

Rally Presentations
• The River Rally presentations  can be downloaded from  http://www.rivernetwork.org/rally/post.cfm?doc_id=933

Watershed Assessment
• Stony-Brook-Millstone  Watershed Association’s “Municipal  Assessment: Partnering with  Local Governments”, http:// www.thewatershed.org/

• Rocky Mountain Watershed Network   http://www.rmwn.org/
A comprehensive “Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Design Workbook” is available as a download or as a CD-ROM from Barb Horn at the website above.  Click on “Resources” then “Design Workbook.”  The workshop uses the traditional watershed management process: Planning  Monitoring/Information Gathering  Assessment  Implementation.

Water Trails
• National Park Service water  trail tools and presentations,  www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/rtca/ helpfultools/ht_publications.html