SCWC Listserve Members -

        Below is my summary of the SCWC meeting held on Thursday 11 January:

1.  The members in attendance reviewed the presentation being developed for the 7th Annual Water Monitoring Conference to be held on February 1-2 2007 in the Scheman Building on the ISU Campus (more information here: http://wqm.igsb.uiowa.edu/activities/conferences/conf_2007.htm).

2.  Plans were finalized for the 2007 SCWC Annual Meeting:

Day:    Monday 5 March

Time:   6:30 PM

Place:  Community Room at the Ames Public Library

Agenda:

1.  Introduction (Colbert)

2.  Squaw Creek Watershed Assessment Project (Ashley Wendt)

3.  Bacterial Monitoring in Squaw Creek (Erv Klaas)

4.  Fish Monitoring in Squaw Creek (David Rowe)

5.  Nominations and elections (Secretary/Treasurer and Chair-Elect position are both open)

6.  Inauguration of the 2007 SCWC Chairperson, Mr. John Pohlman

- Mike Lazere and John Pohlman will take care of providing some cookies and juice for the meeting

- Ashley Wendt will provide a video projector for the presentations

- Rick Dietz has reserved the room at the library and will ask local press to announce the meeting

A.  Pass this information on to any people who you think might be interested in attending

B.  Consider nominating yourself for the position of Secretary/Treasurer (2 year position) or Chair-Elect (the Chair-Elect would become the Chair in March of 2008 and serve for one year as Chair)

C.  Make time in your schedule to come join us at the SCWC Annual Meeting and learn some interesting things about the Squaw Creek Watershed

3.  Erv Klaas updated the group on several upcoming issues

        - There a new housing development being planned near Onion Creek (a Squaw Creek tributary) along North Dakota Avenue

        - There has been discussion of using the current horse pasture north of 13th Street along Squaw Creek as a site to develop a "water park".  The members in attendance asked Erv Klaas (member of Parks and Recreation Board) to oppose this proposal.

        - There has been discussion about developing trails along the Skunk River in the eastern portion of Ames.  Erv Klaas has been trying to interest the Parks and Recreation Board in exploring development of trails along Squaw Creek up to Cameron School Road.

4.  Ashley Wendt has provided us a direct comparison of the IOWATER nitrate and phosphate data with the UHL nitrate and phosphate data from the snapshot last fall (attached).  As you can see, the IOWATER data appear to substantially underestimate the nitrate levels in the water.  It's unclear  (to me anyway) whether our volunteers were doing a "poor job" reading our nitrate test strips that day, or whether these test strips typically underestimate nitrate levels.

If anyone who was in attendance at the meeting feels that I have overlooked, or misrepresented, some aspect of the meeting in this summary, please feel free to provide your perspective to the listserve.

Jim

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Jim Colbert
Associate Professor of EEOB
Undergraduate Biology Program Coordinator
jtcolber@...
113 Bessey Hall
515-294-9330
Home Page: http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/profiles/ColbertJ/pages/Colbert.html
Skunk River Navy:  http://www.biology.iastate.edu/SRN/SRN.html

"End the suspense..... Get your feet wet right away"