With Water Professionals Appreciation Day set for the first Monday of each May, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful would like to take this opportunity to shine the spotlight on a handful of our local “Water Warriors.” Their dedication and hard work, even those not officially titled as Water Professionals, have significantly impacted our community. They were all recently recognized during the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream 2024 Confluence Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Conference earlier this year – and we think that’s awesome!
John Butler
Water Resources Outreach Manager
Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources
An incredible partner to Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, John is always willing to make a WaterGoat run with us for a stream cleanup or team up on events like Great Gwinnett Wetlands and our biannual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Days. He was recognized with an Innovation in Adopt-A-Stream Award for leading a Virtual Habitat Survey that took technology conventionally used for 3D real estate tours and repurposed it for environmental education.
“The Habitat Survey is a long-standing Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program that requires you to go outside and work alongside a stream,” explained John. “That is great unless you are a teacher without access to a stream on your school campus or have other barriers that may keep you from taking your class outside. The Virtual Tour allows users to visit a stream from their computer, complete the habitat survey, and learn valuable lessons about stream habitat, erosion, and environmental health. Georgia Adopt-a-Stream is one of my favorite programs to work with and I was excited to represent my team with this award.”
Garret Dufty
Outreach Specialist
Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources
Another excellent partner to the GC&B team, Garret received the well-deserved title of New Adopt-A-Stream Trainer of the Year. Very invested in the Adopt-a-Stream program – using methods from the program in his everyday work, Garret hosted over an average of one workshop per month and certified more than 50 volunteers since becoming a trainer in 2023. Leading into 2024, he is excited to continue that pace and expand the local program in Gwinnett. He envisions our community to not only be more aware of our water resources but also to have access to a cleaner local environment.
Dr. Christopher Kodani
Professor of Biology
Clayton State University
A regular fixture at Great Gwinnett Wetlands, leading volunteers in habitat assessments, Dr. Chris Kodani was also recognized as a New Adopt-A-Stream Trainer of the Year.
Wes Nettleton
UGA Extension Gwinnett Master Gardener
Adopt-A-Stream Volunteer for Five Years
We’d also like to extend our heartiest congratulations to Wes Nettleton for receiving the 2023 Excellence In Data Collection Award for the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream program. This is truly a remarkable achievement and a testament to his hard work, dedication, exceptional talent, and the positive impact he has made on the program over the last five years. We’re so glad his contributions and commitment to the Adopt A Stream program have not gone unnoticed.
Last, but far from least, as a whole – for the first time in history – Gwinnett County Government’s Department of Water Resources brought home the Georgia Association of Water Professionals’ Education Program of Excellence Award.
We applaud these outstanding individuals, the entire DWR team, and their achievements in landing these well-deserved recognitions. We are proud to join forces with them regularly in our collective desire to make Gwinnett County the cleanest, greenest, most livable community on the planet!
To learn more about Gwinnett County’s Department of Water Resources and what they do, please visit https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/web/gwinnett/departments/water. To join our Adopt-A-Stream program and make a difference on behalf of our community, visit https://gwinnettcb.org/programs/adopt-a-stream/.
