Understanding the Ways of the Water

Preparing middle school on STEM fields has been gaining popularity, but comes with its own challenges, such as lack of perspectives on STEM education. There is a need for inquiry-based learning modules for such students and to better create awareness directed at the public, particularly in socioenvironmental themes. A service-learning approach was followed in this study by having graduate students (i) develop activities/lesson plans for middle school teachers and students using a field-based learning curriculum, and (ii) create a water quality awareness campaign. In the first project, graduate students in a Water Biogeochemistry course demonstrated water quality measurement techniques to middle school students and led middle school student groups to sample and analyze water from a nearby recreational water body. Lesson plans and field protocols developed by graduate students were provided to the teachers for inclusion in curricula. The second project focused on developing poster signage that were installed around the walking trail in the same recreational lake. Through partnership with the university's facilities department, graduate students developed signs to convey the various stages of the water cycle by creating a story line about an anthropomorphized water droplet. The signs also discussed how water can get contaminated along the way, with examples of harmful algal blooms and trash pollution. Feedback collected through surveys from participating students and QR code in the posters indicated both the students and the public found the activities and posters to be engaging and helped create a sense of environmental stewardship. Reciprocally, graduate students got to experience developing community-based projects using their technical knowledge on water quality. Such community-centered outreach activities play an important role in helping students and the public gain a better understanding and awareness of water cycle, quality and resources.

Bays and bayous represent a unique location for public access to the water. Water access facilities such as boat ramps, marina facilities, and commercial docks are common occurrences along the waterfront. Recreational boating activities also represent a large potential stressor to the water environment. This presentation will provide an overview and examples of how marina facility planning and design can be successfully tailored to mitigate impacts to surrounding habitat and water quality. Marina operations and recreational boating practices, such as those promoted by the Clean Marina program will also be discussed.

In 2013, the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program embarked upon a holistic, watershed-based approach to guide coastal ecosystem restoration and protection measures through watershed management planning. The MBNEP's five-year Ecosystem Restoration and Protection strategy of the MBNEP's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan initiated this novel approach. It prescribed development of watershed management plans (WMPs) for drainage areas, not political jurisdictions, to ensure restoration projects are scientifically defensible and components of an overall management program. 
This planning process, guided by the MBNEP's Project Implementation Committee and watershed stakeholders, charts a conceptual course for improving and protecting the things people most value about living along the Alabama coast. In addition to meeting requirements for watershed planning specified by EPA's Nine Key Elements, these plans also encompass issues related to environmental health and resilience, heritage and culture, public access, and critical coastal habitats identified by the MBNEP's Science Advisory Committee as most threatened by anthropogenic stressors.
Over the next decade, with funding secured through grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund and the State of Alabama through RESTORE, watershed plans have been completed or are in progress for all of Alabama's intertidal watersheds. Once finalized, these plans will encompass 45 12-digit Hydrologic Unit Code watersheds, providing a roadmap to improve the quality of water entering Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Improving water quality and maintaining critical habitats are essential for ensuring what is most important to Gulf Coast residents: access to Gulf waters, abundant fish and wildlife, preservation of heritage and culture, environmental health and resilience, and water that is fishable and swimmable.

Mobile Bay National Estuary Program's (MBNEP) State of the Bay, provides a comprehensive assessment of the environmental health of Alabama's coastline, focusing on Mobile Bay and its watershed. The Mobile Bay Watershed is the sixth largest river basin in the United States and the fourth largest in terms of streamflow as such the Bay serves as a transition zone where freshwater from rivers mixes with the tidally influenced salt water of the Gulf of Mexico. The scope of this State of the Bay includes a vast network of wetlands and waterways, with over 200 rivers, bays, creeks, and tributaries (coastal and far inland). This State of the Bay serves as an update to the 2008 report integrating 15 years of new data to share. Program priorities and data analysis focuses on critical elements such as community and environmental resilience, water quality, land use change, hydrologic and bathymetric alterations, habitat health and diversity, heritage and culture, and access. The environmental signals-at-a-glance highlight the status and trends available for these critical elements to provide resource managers information on whether environmental conditions are improving, declining, or stable. Using an integrative approach, collaborators included: MBNEP stakeholders including the Science Advisory Committee, environmental consulting partners, and The NOAA RESTORE funded Decal study team of Academic professionals. Pulling together scientific publications and publicly accessible data, impacts on the coastal environment were highlighted, stressing the importance of community involvement and education in fostering sustainable stewardship of natural resources. This watershed approach is instrumental in developing a shared understanding of conservation priorities across many different stakeholder interests, and this understanding is key to informing future land and water management decisions.