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ANRA highlights outreach: Stash Your Trash, Texas Stream Team trainings and River Rendezvous comeback
Summary
ANRA communications staff reviewed education and outreach campaigns, volunteer monitoring trainings, distribution of litter bags and the successful relaunch of the Natchez River Rendezvous paddling event.
Kimberly Wagner, ANRA’s executive manager of communications, outlined outreach campaigns and volunteer programs the authority is running to increase public engagement with basin water-quality work.
Wagner said ANRA distributed roughly 10,000 reusable “Stash Your Trash” litter bags over the last two-plus years and recently ordered 15,000 more for distribution at public events and through partner businesses. The bags are recyclable and intended to be durable for recreational uses such as kayaking, fishing and tubing.
Wagner reviewed ANRA’s role as an affiliate partner of the Texas Stream Team volunteer monitoring network and said she has trained more than 100 volunteers through classroom sessions and paired cleanup events. She described a March volunteer training and cleanup at Bonita Creek that drew about 50–60 community members and students and said ANRA plans to run additional trainings and a fall cleanup.
Wagner also described the May 31 Natchez River Rendezvous, an ANRA‑led paddling event the authority revived after the 2018 hiatus. Wagner said the revived event limited participation to 100 vessels and drew roughly 140 paddlers and more than 100 volunteers from local groups and agencies; the event featured community partners and attracted positive feedback.
Why it matters: Outreach and volunteer monitoring expand the basin’s sampling capacity, raise awareness about pet waste and litter as nonpoint pollution sources, and connect residents to opportunities to report or reduce pollution.
Other items: Wagner noted ANRA’s growing social-media reach following outreach events and said the authority is collaborating on a documentary about the Natchez River and planning school- and community-focused materials for the fall. She invited residents to contact ANRA for Texas Stream Team training and to volunteer at upcoming events.
