StreamTeam 101

by Paul Martzen, Pacific Regional Stream Team Leader and Matt Muir, StreaMaster
last updated 4/11/2008

Basic HTML Photo/Video 101

Welcome to the StreamTeam Project! This page is intended to help new StreamTeam members get started and to keep “veteran” StreamTeam members up to speed. (New sections and changed text are highlighted in red.)

There are a few main duties of Stream Team members.

1) Act as a contact for anyone wanting more information about a river.
2) Edit and maintain the AW stream pages for their chosen rivers.
3) Act as an AW liaison to other groups and entities with interest in a river.

It is very beneficial to have one or more Stream Team members signed up for a river reach so that website users, agencies, reporters, fishermen, politicians, or others have someone they can talk to about a river.

Having a river reach in the online guide and having good info is important, but having your name listed with that river means that there is a person acting on behalf of that river and acting on behalf of AW. The importance of this personal representation cannot be overstated.

First, login to the AW site.
To accept a reach, mouse over “Administrator” in the top navigation bar, and click on “Stream Team.”
Then, next to one of the states in your “permissions,” click on the button that says “List Reaches (w/ Accept Option).”
This will bring up a list of all the river reaches in your state, such as
https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/StreamTeam/reach-list/state/AK/. (To make this link work for you, replace the “AK” in the URL with the abbreviation for one of the states in your list.) Underneath the name of each reach will be either the name of a StreamTeam member, or an “Accept” button.
Click on the “Accept” button and you will be listed as the StreamTeam member for that reach.

If someone else is already listed as the StreamTeam member, you can still be a StreamTeam member, but you must send a message to a Regional StreamTeam leader and list the river teams that you wish to join. Copy and paste the State, River, and Reach Name from the Accept page into the message so that the regional team leader has enough information to assign the correct reach.
Examples:
UT Colorado 2. Westwater to Rose Ranch (Westwater Canyon)
UT Cottonwood Creek Joe's Valley Reservoir to Route 29 (Straight Canyon)
CA Kings 4. Pine Flat Dam to Centerville (Route 180)
CA American, Middle Fork 1) Tunnel Run: Oxbow Bend (Ralston Afterbay) to Drivers Flat Road

Please join the StreamTeam for a reach if you want to edit that reach. Though at present you can edit a reach without joining the specific team for that reach, it is much better if you are listed as a team member.

Team members can edit a river page starting from several points. The easiest is to view a river page and then find the box with editing buttons on the right. It should be the fifth box down. You can also go to your StreamTeam page and click on “Manage My Streams.” This will bring up a list of the rivers you have joined. Beneath each reach will be editing buttons.

Edit: This takes you to the main edit page where you input the primary info about a stream, including the gauge and reach descriptions. Most of the time, this will be the main input page that you use. We strongly recommend saving your descriptions and other info in a file on your hard drive, so that you can easily re-enter data that the website may not accept when an error occurs. Note: some of the fields seem a little weird or obscure. Please fill in as many fields as possible!

Entering a Gauge, with Min and Max flows:

1. In the “AW Gauge ID” field, type some of the beginning characters from the gauge of interest. (i.e., for Carter’s Creek at Roslyn, type “Carter”.) Click on the little “arrow” icon to the right of the input field.
2. Or you can add the Gauge ID by using the three-, four-, or five-digit gauge ID. You can find that in the URL for the gauge of interest. For instance, the Hoosic in Schaghticoke gauge is gauge # 8541. One easy way to get the gauge ID is to goto the list of state gauges (for e.g., NY State Gauges) and mouse over the gauge of interest. With most browsers, you’ll see the URL in the bottom of your browser window.
3. When the interface gives you a few gauges to choose from, click on the gauge that you want to use, to select it.
4. In the “Units” field, type either “cfs” (for flow) or “ft” (for stage).
5. Enter appropriate numbers in the “Minimum Recommended Flow” and “Maximum Recommended Flow” (if applicable) fields. This will enable the website to display your stream “in the green” when it’s running.

EPA, Zip Code, Lat/Longitude Coords: The EPA HUC designation is used for sorting rivers by watershed. Locate Your Watershed

The zip code is used for the weather box in the reach description. Zip Code Lookup

The putin and takeout lat/longitude coordinates are used for mapping. If you don’t have a GPS, you can estimate the coordinates using the Tiger Mapsurfer or Google Maps. Or just make a rough guess and click on the “map it” button. Drag the map to the correct location and zoom in to fine tune it. Click on “Drop Marker Here” then drag the marker to the correct location. The coordinates will be automatically updated by any changes to the marker in the “map it” window. Note: all North and South American rivers are located in the Western hemisphere, with negative longitude coordinates. If you don’t type in the longitude as a negative number, you will get an error massage.

Edit Rapids: This allows you to create an organized list of rapids and other features of interest. Each rapid or feature is edited separately and they are sorted by distance from the put-in. Input the name of the feature, the distance from the put-in, a description, and a picture ID number if you choose. Now there are input options for rapids’ latitude and longitude. Get your GPS ready! If you input the lat/long coordinates, not only will the rapids’ locations show up on the maps (in the pages’ Map tab), but the database will be available to rescue personnel, who will be able to better home in on an accident location–taking the "Search" out of "Search and Rescue!" Note: if you don’t type in the longitude as a negative number, you will get an error massage.
If you know of a good photo of the rapid, you’ll certainly want to add it here. The best way to do this is:

1. After the photo’s been uploaded to the AW site, open the photo in a different window or tab.
2. Note the name (title) of the photo.
3. In the “AW Photo ID” field, enter the name of the photo (or, at least, the first word or characters of the title).
4. Select the photo from the list of titles that the Search function displays.
   

For instructions on uploading photos to the AW website, see Photo/Video 101.

Edit Maps: This feature predates the Map Tab and is outdated. However it is still one way that online maps can be linked with this page. Map links will show up in the bottom right-hand side box. See the Stylized Shuttle Map, MapBlast Shuttle Directions, and the Tiger Mapsurfer Map in the Bottom Moose page. (Note that the “MapBlast” actually links to a Google map.) If you wish to use map links in the body of the river description, you will have to use a different system. See some instruction in the AW StreamTeam forum at: https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Forum/read/send/25,327/

Directions/Shuttle Details: This feature is new as of Nov. 2007; we’re still working with it. The results in the Directions tab can be weird, based on the way that mapping programs interpret data:

1. Sometimes they don’t recognize old logging roads.
2. They won’t show you how to hike to or from the river.
3. If your putin or takeout coordinates are interpreted as being on the “wrong” side of the river, it might send you on a loooong drive to nowhere.
   

So play around with it, and see what works for the reach that you’re working with. In any event, you can always type in a text description of the preferred shuttle.

If you know of a reach (or important park-&-play spot) which does not yet exist in the AW database, please add it! In the StreamTeam Page, Under “My States,” click on “Create and Accept a New Reach” in the appropriate state. Be sure to fill in the State, River, Section, and Length (in miles) fields. (If you don’t fill in those fields at the outset, the website will return an error message and your edits won’t be saved.) It is recommended that you enter only minimal info at the outset, so that if a problem occurs, you haven’t lost a boatload of work. You can always add more info later. It’s also recommended that you save your descriptions and other info in a file on your hard drive, so that you can easily re-enter data that the website didn’t accept the first time.

1. I just added a new Reach, but it doesn’t show up on the state listing. Have I lost all my work?
   New reaches will not appear on the state listing until you “Publish” them. They will show up in your personal list, which you get to from the “Administrator” menu item, clicking “StreamTeam”, then “Manage My Streams”. From there, when you are ready for them to be available to the public, when you pull it up to look at it, you should find the “Publish” button along with the other edit options.
   If you make changes to an existing (published) reach, and those changes do not take, there may be a new bug or perhaps you hit the wrong button - ‘close’ instead of ‘update’, for instance. Make sure you save your work before trying to update again. If it continues to not take, post a note on the StreamTeam Forum with as complete a step-by-step description of the problem as you can. If it is a new bug, others will be able to duplicate your problem and then figure out how to solve it.
   Note: because occasional glitches can occur, we strongly recommend that you save your info in an external file–such as a text file–so that, if your edits get lost, you can cut-n-paste the stuff in at a later date.
2. How do I change my email address on the AW site?
   In the top menu bar, simply mouse over “My Account,” click on “Account Settings,” and select “UserPreference.” Enter your updated email and click on “Submit” at the bottom.
3. I’ve logged in, but I can’t edit my streams. Is that a bug?
   It might be, but first check your account. In the right-hand frame of the AW Homepage, does it say “Please verify your email address. Click here.”? If so, that means that you haven’t logged in for awhile. Please click on the link and make sure that your email address is up-to-date. We need your current e-address, so that we can contact you about changes or problems with the Stream Team and the NWRI.

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