Ripples of Dedication: Celebrating Joe Piazza, the 2023 Golden Secchi Award Recipient
Texas Stream Team is thrilled to name Joe Piazza, a dedicated community scientist since 2001, as the 2023 Golden Secchi Award recipient! This accolade celebrates his contributions to water monitoring and environmental stewardship in the San Marcos community. As one of our program’s most consistently active community scientists, his tireless efforts to monitor and preserve have not gone unnoticed.
Joe's journey with the Texas Stream Team began over two decades ago, spurred by a troubling forecast that the San Marcos Springs could cease flowing. He explained, “A 1980s state map of Texas predicted that the San Marcos Springs would quit pumping and the San Marcos River would become a dry ditch, except during wet weather, by the 2010s, and I did not want that to happen!”
His motivation is as much personal renewal as it is environmental protection. The monthly visit to his monitoring site offers him a stress-relieving retreat and a front-row seat to the shifting seasons and the migratory patterns of local wildlife.
“Just going to my monitoring site at the dam that separates Spring Lake from the San Marcos River reminds me of the paradise this area has been for millennia,” he said. “The springs and river need to be cared for and monitored for the watershed to stay healthy, and Texas Stream Team gives people a way to get involved.”
For Joe, the most crucial work done by the Texas Stream Team lies in training community scientists and empowering them with the skills to monitor and preserve the state’s waterways. Among his proudest achievements are his contributions to the understanding of local water quality changes in the San Marcos River during a construction boom in the early 2000s. His monitoring data provided researchers with invaluable insights into the health of the ecosystem, particularly considering construction impacts.
“Back in the early 2000s, when there was a lot of construction happening in the Sessom Creek watershed area, researchers used my monitoring data to compare with the data collected at the confluence of Sessom Creek, less than 100 yards downstream,” he said. “The data showed a significant difference in water quality between the two areas.”
Another significant contribution includes his observations on Texas Wild Rice, which helped expand the community’s knowledge about where this endangered species thrives in the San Marcos River.
“I would regularly report on the Texas wild-rice at my monitoring site, and, at that time, San Marcos River Foundation representatives thought that Texas wild-rice was only found in the San Marcos River below the dam until I told them it also is found above the dam in Spring Lake.”
Joe encourages those interested in joining the Texas Stream Team to engage deeply with their chosen monitoring site, learning to interpret the subtle signals of the river's health and the activities of its wildlife. He shared anecdotes of encounters with raccoons and a resident water moccasin, highlighting the rich biodiversity that community scientists experience at their monitoring sites.
He explained, “I once saw a small band of raccoons walking by my monitoring site like a group of drunk fraternity brothers – either they had eaten some fermented fruit or had rabies. Also, I used to see the same fat water moccasin in the same 20-square-foot area next to the riverbank on a regular basis – I still look for him.”
When asked what he wishes more people knew about Texas Stream Team, Joe hopes that more people will appreciate and understand the vital role that the Texas Stream Team and its community scientists play as guardians of the river, remarking that “community scientists are the eyes and ears of the river.”
Joe is a shining example of how individuals can profoundly influence the protection of our waterways. In recognition of his extraordinary efforts, we reflect on his remarkable tenure:
- Community scientist since 2001 (22 years!)
- Conducted 200+ monitoring events
- Roughly 300 hours dedicated to monitoring water quality
Thank you, Joe, for your remarkable service to the Texas Stream Team!
About the Golden Secchi Award
In October 2018, Texas Stream Team celebrated training its 10,000th community scientist through a Texas Stream Team festival with partners, community scientists, and friends. During this event, Texas Steam Team staff created a yearly award to commemorate our most dedicated community scientists called the Golden Secchi Award. This award remains at Texas Stream Team Headquarters so that it may be etched with the recipient’s name each year.