 Alabama is number one in freshwater biodiversity and that may or may not resonate with people but what that means is the the streams, our rivers, our lakes they are alive and we're all connected to that freshwater biodiversity. So how do we use our streams? How do we use our rivers and lakes? Well we can think about recreation, transportation, drinking water. That diversity that's in there means that we also have a stewardship responsibility. We also have a lot of streams and rivers, more than 132,000 miles of streams and rivers which we like to say you could circle the earth five times with all the streams and rivers that we have in our state. With extension and with the Water Resources Center we like to look at ways that we can be positive working together to improve our water resources in Alabama. The main threat to water in Alabama and in the United States is polluted stormwater runoff. When it rains and rain washes over the landscape it picks up the litter, the oils and gases and it rushes it forward to the nearest water body. It could be a direct discharge into a stream or it could go into a local storm sewer. Good news is we have control over how we can minimize those impacts to streams, to rivers and to our lakes. What we've learned from farmers who are the first conservationists is we can take actions, we can change our behaviors, we can put things in place to slow down the movement of these pollutants and to really improve not only soil quality but that direct benefit to water quality. With 132,000 miles of streams and rivers it's really difficult to have eyes and water monitoring on every mile of stream. Our quality assured quality trained citizen scientists help us in pinpointing priority areas. Is there a concern that we can get to before it becomes a large problem? Are there areas that are doing really well and we need to make sure that we maintain and protect those waterways. I've been fortunate that my career path led me this way. Growing up I was always out in the woods and I just feel really lucky that I'm able to hopefully inspire others to catch that spark and to work on projects like I've been able to work on.