The Texas River and Reservoir Management Society (TRRMS)
was involved in two great meetings in 2005. First, the Annual Conference
and Symposium was held in the new Baylor Sciences Building at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas on May 16-17, 2005. Attendance for the meeting
exceeded 120 for each of the two days. The broad focus of the Annual
Conference was "Research on Texas Rivers and Reservoirs,”
which produced a wide range of excellent presentations on topics as
divergent as nutrients in streams and reservoirs, “Golden Algae” blooms
in Texas reservoirs, instream flow studies, biological monitoring
results, and toxics studies. The Symposium, “Importance of
Fluvial Geomorphology in Maintenance and Restoration of Stream Systems”,
opened with an overview of fluvial geomorphology principles and progressed
to more specifics of channel stability, riparian ecology considerations,
and stream restoration techniques and approaches. The afternoon session
provided an enlightening view of the impacts of dams on Texas rivers,
flood sediment delivery, the current state of stream restoration,
and a case study of a Central Texas stream. In the fall, a joint meeting
was held with the Oklahoma-Texas Aquatics Research Group (OTARG) at
the University of Oklahoma Biological Station on the shores of Lake
Texoma October 14-15, 2005. Both events were a smashing success for
TRRMS and its members.
This year's Annual Conference and Symposium is being held on May
18-19, 2006 at the UT Space Center in Austin Texas (click
here to see the Conference Announcement, which includes the
Registration Form). The Symposium's theme is “Emerging Technologies
for Research on Rivers and Reservoirs” and was chosen in
recognition of the modern methods being used today to answer questions
about aquatic organisms and ecosystems that were difficult or impossible
to answer in the past using historical methods. The broad focus
of the 2006 TRRMS Annual Conference on “Management of Texas
Rivers and Reservoirs” will include a wide range of excellent
presentations, including a mini-symposium of its own exploring “Nutrient
Biocriteria Assessment Tools” with topical presentations
on Tiered Aquatic Life Use (TALU) Methods, NDS Periphytometers,
and related subjects. Other presentations in the concurrent sessions
will cover nutrients and toxics, biological monitoring and new developments
in fluvial geomorphology and instream flow studies, among a range
of scientific and engineering presentations too varied to list here.
Early Registration ends April 29th and there are
still openings for papers to be presented in the concurrent sessions,
but abstracts will have to be received soon.
TRRMS has provided an important service to the professional river
and reservoir management community over the past several years by
hosting various conferences that appealed to the academic and governmental
community. My question for each of you, as members of TRRMS is:
Are we heading in the right direction? That is, should we continue
to focus on providing conferences for the professional community
or are there other activities we should be including as part of
our mission? To begin to answer this question we should review our
mission statement and objectives.
The Mission of TRRMS is to promote and encourage the understanding,
protection and management of lake and watershed ecosystems in the
State of Texas.
The objective of TRRMS are to:
1) Promote and foster the formation of local lake associations,
and to encourage all organizations and individuals interested,
to become actively involved in TRRMS;
2) Provide means for education and dissemination of information
related to scientific, administrative, financial and legislative
aspects of lake and watershed ecosystems management,
3) Encourage, assist and support the development of local, state
and national programs promoting lake and watershed protection,
restoration, utilization and management; and
4) Foster communications and working relations among lake associations,
local, state, and national governmental agencies, organizations,
universities, consultants, and individuals concerned with lake
and watershed protection, restoration, utilization and management.
If you would like to provide a comment regarding conference topics
or the organization, please e-mail me at garypowell@austin.rr.com
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