NJ Watershed Watch Network Department of Environmental Protection

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NJ Watershed Watch Network Department of
Environmental Protection
Danielle Donkersloot Volunteer Monitoring Program
Coordinator EPA Quality Conference May 2009
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Jason R. Pinchback, Director River System
Institute, Texas Stream Team
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Workshop Overview

• Introductions
• Volunteer Monitoring Community
• NJ Watershed Watch Network
• Texas Stream Team
• Assuring Quality- 4 Tiered Approach
• Name that Tier (interactive)
• Training on Rapid Bioassessment Protocol
• BREAK
• Data Management
• Data Uses

May 2009, EPA Quality Conference
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What Exit are You From?
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Great Bay, Tuckerton, NJ
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Oswego River, Pine Barrens, N J
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Great Falls, Paterson, NJ
The Great Falls are the second-highest on
the east coast (second only to Niagara). 
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Scotts Landing Creek, Leeds Point, NJ
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Introductions

• Who are you?
• Where are you from?
• Are you currently involved with volunteer
  monitoring?

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• Population NJ 8.7 million people
• 7,505 square miles
• 1,134.4 persons per square mile
• 18,126 miles of rivers streams

NJ DEPs latest evaluation 19 of the States
Waters are fully assessed Nationally, 19 of the
nations waters are assessed
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Myths of Using Volunteer Collected Data

• Quality Assurance Quality Control
• Volunteers have hidden agendas
• Volunteers are not scientists
• Volunteers cant do what we do

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Reality of Using Volunteer Collected Data

• We need more data at a higher frequency of
  collection
• EPA has been encouraging the use of volunteer
  collected
• data since 1988
• Volunteers want to do it right

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NJ Watershed Watch NetworkSurvey results from
2003

• 29 River/Stream Monitoring Organizations
• 800 active river monitors
• Over 460,000 in out of pocket expenses
• 58 Lake Monitoring Organizations

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NJ Watershed Watch Network

• Internal Advisory Council
• Water Monitoring Standards
• Water Assessment Team
• Division of Watershed Mgt.
• Office of Quality Assurance
• External Advisory Council
• Riverkeepers
• Watershed Associations
• Volunteer Coordinators

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Potential Data Uses

• Watershed planning/open space acquisition
• Monitoring the success/failure of restoration
  projects
• 303d 305b Integrated Report

• Education
• Identifying potential sources of pollution
• Local decision making
• Research
• NPS assessment
• TMDL

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NJs 4 Tiered Approach

• Allows for volunteers to choose level of
  monitoring involvement based on
• Intended purpose for monitoring
• Intended data use
• Intended data users

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Tier A-Environmental Education
Data Users
Data Use
Quality Needed

• Participants
• Students
• Watershed
• residents

• Promote stewardship
• Raise their level of understanding of watershed
  ecology

• Low level of rigor, but use sound science
• Wide variety of study designs are acceptable
• Quality assurance (QA) optional

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Tier B-Stewardship
Data User
Data Use
Quality Needed

• Understanding of existing conditions and how any
  changes over time
• Screen for and identify problems and positive
  attributes

• Participants
• Watershed residents
• Landowners
• Local decision makers (optional)

• Low to medium rigor
• Variety of study designs is acceptable
• Training
• QAPP recommended

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Tier C-Community /or Watershed Assessment
Data Users
Data Use
Quality Needed

• Local decision- makers
• Watershed association
• Environmental organizations
• Possibly DEP

• Assess current conditions
• Track trends
• Source track down of Nonpoint source pollution

• Medium/high level of rigor
• Data needs to reliably detect changes over time
  space
• QAPP approved on file w/ intended data user.
• Training required

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Tier D-Indicators Regulatory Response
Data Use
Quality Needed
Data Users

• High level of rigor
• Study design methods need to be equivalent
  recognized by agencies using data
• Training required
• QAPP approved by Office of Quality Assurance
  data user, annual recertification
• Audits

• Assess current conditions
• Supplement agency data collection
• Research
• Evaluate best management practices (BMP) measures
  
• Regulatory Response

• NJDEP
• Local decision- makers
• Watershed associations
• Environmental organizations

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Problem ID, Assess Impairment, Local Decisions
Credit to Geoff Dates
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NJDEP Data Users

• Watershed Area Managers (TIERS B,C,D)
• Water Assessment Team/Standards (TIER D)
• NPS Program (TIER C, D)
• TMDL Program (TIER B, C, D)
• Other Programs or Divisions

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Watershed Ambassador Program/AmeriCorps

• Conducts 1000 biological, habitat, and visual
  assessment annually
• Assigned streams by the DEP
• Assists with other DEP programs when possible
• Train over 1000 volunteers and students annually

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Addressing Data Quality Issues

• Quality Assurance Criteria
• QAPP or Study Design is needed
• Program Specific Training Support
• Individual Evaluation of each Monitoring Program
• There needs to be translator between volunteer
  community regulatory agency
• Communication, Communication, Communication

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NJ Water Monitoring Assessment Strategy
2005-2014
THE STATES MONITORING MATRIX
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Data Use

• Organizations need to Take Ownership of their
  Information
• Organizations need Guidance on Different Types of
  Data Use
• Sometimes it may take another person to find your
  story.
• share success and failures stories
• get the word out-articles, press releases
• find examples of data uses at all levels, local,
  state, national

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NAME THAT TIER
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Delaware River Oil Spill Volunteer Emergency
Response

• No Fixed monitoring locations
• No QAPP
• No Training

• Basic Study Design
• Assigned Segments
• Assessment Tip Sheets
• Data Sheets standardized w/ State Protocol

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What did Volunteers Document?

• 15 New Jersey tributaries suffered oiling
• One Delaware tributary suffered oiling
• 4 New Jersey Beaches suffered oiling
• Three wildlife preserves suffered oiling
• Various main stem Delaware River locations
• 13 streams monitored had no signs of oiling at
  time of monitoring (PA and DE mostly)

Faith Zerbe, Delaware Riverkeeper Network
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Boom Placement Malfunction
Faith Zerbe, Delaware Riverkeeper Network
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• Volunteer Monitors alerted DRN and the Coast
  Guard to over 20 instances where booms and clean
  up equipment were in need of attention

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Riverkeeper Data Use

• Emergency response/clean up vigilance
• Talks with Coast Guard and NRDA officials
  checks on scope of oiling, reports
• Press
• Increased citizen base for advocacy issues

Faith Zerbe, Delaware Riverkeeper Network
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NJ Natural Resource Damage Assessment
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NAME THAT TIER
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TIER B Stewardship/Screening
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Pequannock River Coalition
Ross Kushner, Pequannock River Coalition
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• Electronic data loggers are placed in the river
  at known monitoring locations in early summer for
  the entire growing season
• Fixed Monitoring Locations
• Stations are located where data loggers can be
  checked frequently
• Loggers record Temp every 30 minutes
• Early Fall data loggers are removed data is
  downloaded

Ross Kushner, Pequannock River Coalition
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Ross Kushner, Pequannock River Coalition
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TIER D Regulatory Response
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Lessons Learned

• Make it Easier for the Volunteers
• Unintended Data Use Data Users
• Clear Quality Assurance Guidelines
• NJDEP should not be the only Group using the Data
• Volunteer Monitoring is Cost Effective NOT Cost
  Free-L.Green

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1. Lessons Learned
Make it Easier for the Volunteers
J. Eudell, Hackensack Riverkeeper Inc
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J. Eudell, Hackensack Riverkeeper Inc
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2002 IDEA ! Nov Recruit and train schools for
2002-2003 Dec Apply for received NY-NJ HEP
Mini-Grant 2003 REVISION Feb Begin
monitoring Feb Told of QAPP necessity Feb Begin
QAPP process Mar Receive HEP grant
extension Sept MERI proposes partnership Put
QAPP on hold Oct Recruit and train schools for
2003-2004 (data doesnt count) Dec Awarded
NJMC/MERI grant Revise QAPP 2004 IMPLEMENT?? Jan
-Aug Detail HRI/MERI partnership Revise
QAPP Sept Recruit and train schools for
2004-2005 Oct Still working on QAPP (when will
data count?)
Jared Eudell, Hackensack Riverkeeper Inc
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2. Lessons Learned
Unintended Data Use Data Users
One example isvolunteer data was rejected by
303d 305b Integrated Report because of the
sampling frequencyYET the TMDL group found the
data to be very valuable.
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3. Lessons Learned
DO NOT Design a Program for a Tier
Organizations should design the program to meet
their OWN GOALS firstotherwise frustration will
follow
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Jason R. Pinchback, River System Institute
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BREAK
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Training is a Process that Flows Throughout the
Program

• Well-run volunteer programs recruit
  automatically. Build a better program and the
  volunteers will beat a path to your door.

• Effective volunteer training is essential for
• Program success
• Volunteer success

101 Ways to Recruit Volunteers, S. McCurley and
S. Vineyard, Heritage Arts Publishing Co., 1986
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Training is a Process that Flows Throughout the
Program

• Orientation (classroom)
• Monitoring Skills (class field)
• Field visits by staff (field)
• QA/QC testing (lab or field)
• Annual refresher / re-certification
• Advanced training

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Off-water Training Topics

• Purpose, goals and objectives of program
• Basic ecosystem ecology
• Condition of the waterbody(ies) being monitored
• Parameters to monitor the condition
• Procedures to measure the parameters
• Role of volunteers
• Data use how and by whom
• Reporting Results

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Field Training

• Briefly review what these parameters tell about
  the resource
• Review the procedures
• Demonstrate the procedures
• Volunteers practice the procedures until they are
  comfortable
• Discuss how to report their data
• Send equipment home so volunteerscan start
  monitoring immediately

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Group versus One-on-One

• Group
• Saves time and money
• Volunteers can learn from others
• Can not address unique problems or
  characteristics of individual waterbodies

• One-on-One
• Time consuming and expensive
• Procedures learned under actual conditions the
  volunteer will encounter
• Can account for unique situations

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Training Tips

• Avoid learning overload
• Break topics into manageable chunks
• Repeat information through multiple sessions
• Make use of experts/practioners
• Provides new perspective
• Change in style and voice
• Provide on-site assistance
• Builds confidence
• Assures technical proficiency

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Importance of Reference Sites

• Needs to be Watershed Specific
• Its easy to determine if a stream should be
  healthy but more difficult when determining is a
  stream is unhealthy
• Assures consistency among data gatherers

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Resources Available for Monitoring Programs
You arent alone
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What are we Assessing?
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What are we Assessing?
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Its All about Scale
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Stream Order
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Class Exercise

• Finding the Stream Order

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Wadable vs. Non-Wadable

• A wadable stream is one that you can safely enter
  into and stand in
• A non-wadable stream is a stream in which the
  current in moving too fast or the depth of the
  stream is unsafe for you to walk in.

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Epifaunal Substrate/Available Cover

• The RBP manual reads
• Includes the relative quantity and variety of
  natural structures in the stream, such as cobble
  (riffles), large rocks, fallen trees, logs and
  branches, and undercut banks, available as
  refugia, feeding, or sites for spawning and
  nursery functions of aquatic macrofauna. A wide
  variety and/or abundance of submerged structures
  in the stream provides macroinvertebrates and
  fish with a large number of niches, thus
  increasing habitat diversity. As variety and
  abundance of cover decreases, habitat structure
  becomes monotonous, diversity decreases, and the
  potential for recovery following disturbance
  decreases

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Epifaunal Substrate/Available Cover

• Looks at the different varieties of habitat types
  available to macroinvertebrate, fish, and other
  aquatic organisms.
• Different organisms prefer different types of
  habitat
• The more habitat types present the better the
  biodiversity.

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Epifaunal Substrate/Available Cover
Poor
Optimal
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Channel Flow Status

• The RBP manual reads.
• The degree to which the channel is filled
  with water. The flow status will change as the
  channel enlarges (e.g., aggrading stream beds
  with actively widening channels) or as flow
  decreases as a result of dams and other
  obstructions, diversions for irrigation, or
  drought. When water does not cover much of the
  streambed, the amount of suitable substrate for
  aquatic organisms is limited. In high-gradient
  streams, riffles and cobble substrate are
  exposed in low-gradient streams, the decrease in
  water level exposes logs and snags, thereby
  reducing the areas of good habitat

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Optimal
Poor
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Channel Flow Status
Upper Bank
Base of both lower banks
Lower Bank
Water fills greater than 75
Water fills 25 - 75
Very little water
Stream Bed
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Stream Substrate

• Fine Particles (silt, clay, mud)
• Sand (less than 0.25 cm)
• Gravel (0.25 cm-5 cm)
• Cobble (5 cm-25 cm)
• Bedrock (solid unbroken rock)

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Gravel Bottom
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Muddy Bottom
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Silt Covered Bottom
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Bedrock Bottom
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Other Orange/Red
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Embeddeness

• The RPB manual reads
• Refers to the extent to which rocks (gravel,
  cobble, and boulders) and snags are covered or
  sunken into the silt, sand, or mud of the stream
  bottom. Generally, as rocks become embedded, the
  surface area available to macroinvertebrates and
  fish (shelter, spawning, and egg incubation) is
  decreased. Embeddedness is a result of
  large-scale sediment movement and deposition, and
  is a parameter evaluated in the riffles and runs
  of high-gradient streams

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Optimal
Poor
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Embeddedness
0-25 26-50 51-75 76 or greater
If you are in a low gradient stream you may not
be able to rate embeddedness
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Bank Stability

• The EPA manual reads
• Measures whether the stream banks are eroded (or
  have the potential for erosion). Steep banks are
  more likely to collapse and suffer from erosion
  than are gently sloping banks, and are therefore
  considered to be unstable. Signs of erosion
  include crumbling, unvegetated banks, exposed
  tree roots, and exposed soil. Eroded banks
  indicate a problem of sediment movement and
  deposition, and suggest a scarcity of cover and
  organic input to streams. Each bank is evaluated
  separately and the cumulative score (right and
  left) is used for this parameter.

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Bank Stability

• Stable- less than 5 of the bank affected
• Moderately Stable-5-30 of bank in reach is
  eroded
• Moderately Unstable- 31-60 of bank in reach is
  eroded
• Unstable- 60 or greater is eroded
• Look at the left and right banks separately
  facing upstream

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Optimal
Poor
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Bank Erosion
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Bank Erosion
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Under-cut Bank Erosion
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Under-cut Bank Erosion
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Canopy Coverage
0-25 none 26-50 minimal 51-75 good 76-100
excellent
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No Canopy Coverage
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0 25
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75 100
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75 100
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Predominate Aquatic Vegetation
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Submerged Aquatic Vegetation
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Emergent Vegetation
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Also Assessing.

• Pipes both permitted and non-permitted
• Ditches flowing into stream
• Current land use

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Volunteer Monitoring Cost Effective Not Cost
Free

• Staff (incredibly hard-working, usually
  underpaid)
• Field and lab equipment and supplies
• Laboratory space or analytical services
• Office supplies
• Communication and mailing
• Publications
• Conferences / workshops
• Transportation (personnel or samples)
• Insurance
• Special events / volunteer recognition

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Other Regulatory Non Regulatory Groups

• NOAA, ice observers
• NJ Office of Climatology, rain, snow, hail
• Permitting Groups including
• Aquatic Pesticides, Mosquito Control
  Commissions, NJPEDES
• USGS

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Is it worth it?

• Using Independent Sectors estimate 18.04 an
  hour, a standard measurement for the value of a
  volunteers time, the value of the 8.2 billion
  hours annually donated by Americans equates to
  147.6 billion, a powerful economic impact of
  volunteering to the entire nation.
• Youth Adult Konnections, August 30, 2006

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Is it worth it?

• The NJ volunteer monitoring community provides
  the Department with
• 780,000 annual in services by collecting
  water monitoring information
• 1.15 million including watershed and water
  monitoring education

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
its the only thing that ever has. --Margaret
Mead