Check Out the New and Improved Stream Smart Website!
Oftentimes, to encourage major improvements on something that you’re passionate about, it requires you to take a step back and let someone else make suggestions and bring their vision to the mix. A few months ago, Stream Smart staff was approached by a collaborative team member from Rogue Valley Sewer Services (RVSS) offering her... Continue reading→
Support Stream Smart in April by Rounding Up at the Ashland Food Co-op
Spring is the perfect time to support Stream Smart! You can get involved by volunteering at the Bear Creek or Rogue River clean-ups, supporting our Spring Salmon Watch programs, or simply shopping at the Ashland Food Co-op and rounding up your spare change this April. By donating your change through the Co-op’s Change for Good... Continue reading→
Garlic Mustard: Winning the Southern Oregon Battle
Who would’ve thought that a plant named after two foods could be such a problem. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a priority noxious weed and a true outlier within Jackson and Josephine counties in comparison to the rest of the state of Oregon. It was first discovered in Southern Oregon on the mainstem of... Continue reading→
Who You Gon’ Call? Someone on the Rogue Basin Water Contacts List!
Picture this: you’re out walking the dog when you notice a dark substance flowing into a nearby storm drain along the sidewalk. It mixes with a puddle of water in a pothole, and there’s a distinct rainbow sheen on the surface. What do you do? Exactly how this write-up began: take a picture. If... Continue reading→
Salmon Watch Successes – Fall 2025
The Rogue Basin Salmon Watch program is a K–12, field trip–based program that brings watershed education to students in both Jackson and Josephine counties. This fall, the program ran from mid-September through the end of the first full week of November 2025. During this time, nearly 1,500 students from 29 schools had the opportunity to... Continue reading→
Celebrating the Return of Salmon to Bear Creek
It truly is a wondrous thing to see spawning salmon in Bear Creek. In the late fall, one can observe dozens of these amazing, anadromous creatures surging the waters in downtown Medford, as well as Central Point, Phoenix, Talent, and sometimes even Ashland. As a celebration of this environmental phenomenon, the organizers of the Rogue... Continue reading→
What is Stream Smart: A Rogue Basin Clean Water Project?
Stream Smart: A Rogue Basin Clean Water Project is a community-wide education and action campaign aimed at improving water quality in the Rogue Basin’s streams and rivers. It functions in two main ways: Education & Awareness – Helping people understand how everyday choices (like managing pet waste, designing paths with permeable materials, or planting native... Continue reading→
Summer Water Quality Press Releases
Every year between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend, water quality press releases are sent out to the local news outlets to share with the public. These advisory notices include information related to water quality, specifically elevated bacteria levels (E. coli), and actions that you can take to help mitigate bacterial loads into our... Continue reading→
Another Successful Rogue River Clean-Up!
On the morning of May 17th beginning around 7:30, groups of volunteers arrived at Hog Creek County Park just outside of Grants Pass. By 8:00, nearly 100 volunteers were lined up to check in for the Rogue River Clean-Up & Let’s Pull Together!, an event that has been going on for 33 years. At around... Continue reading→
Walk for Water this March
Beginning on March 1st, 2025, make a pledge to walk 3 miles each day (or the equivalent amount of steps using a fitness tracker), to honor the effort that many people make to collect water for everyday use. According to Water Mission, a charity that helps support Walk for Water events, “millions of women and... Continue reading→