Document an artesian spring seep's flow condition near the Ottine Swamp Trail boardwalk.

How this work is done

A documented method, so this packet comes out the same whoever does it.

Steps

1. 1. From the boardwalk or the park's public trail only, photograph a visible artesian spring or seep outlet feeding the swamp, including any ephemeral mud-boil feature, without approaching or entering it. This work never steps off the boardwalk or maintained trail into the swamp, never wades, and never walks on saturated ground at any skill level; the dwarf palmetto swamp is fed entirely by artesian groundwater rather than rainfall, and trampling the palmetto understory or saturated swamp floor is exactly the harm this work exists to prevent.
2. 2. Note the outlet's general visual flow appearance (steady, weak, or dry) as a qualitative indicator only, and note the upland buffer's plant cover and any bare or eroded gap around it. No water sample is ever collected from the artesian springs, seeps, or the San Marcos River at any skill level; no plant of any kind is ever collected; and no precise coordinate or description of a rare or unusual plant stand is ever published beyond the general work site.
3. 3. This documents the swamp's artesian groundwater dependency specifically, distinct from a generic wetland survey; state the outlet's approximate location relative to the boardwalk in the record without publishing a precise coordinate.
4. 4. Record a ranked follow on note naming the buffer gap for a native-planting crew working on the park's maintained ground.

What counts as done

• Photo of the spring or seep outlet taken from the boardwalk or public trail without approaching it
• General flow appearance and upland buffer condition noted
• Confirmation that this job never stepped off the boardwalk or maintained trail into the swamp, never waded, and never walked on saturated ground; that no water sample was collected from the artesian springs, seeps, or river and no plant was collected or its precise location published; that any river-adjacent work stayed bank-top only with the current weather and flash-flood forecast checked before starting; and that insect repellent, sun protection, and adequate water were carried given Central Texas heat, humidity, and mosquito/chigger/snake presence.
• Ranked follow on note naming the buffer gap for a native-planting crew
• GPS waypoint of the public vantage, general location only

Proof is measured against these, not judged by taste.

The standard this serves

Watershed Health. A watershed is everything the land pours into a stream, and the stream keeps the record. The EPA's bioassessment method reads that record through the small creatures living in the gravel: mayflies and caddisflies mean clean water, only worms and midges mean trouble. Mastery looks like a person who can wade one riffle with a net and tell you how the whole valley is doing. That skill is built sample by sample. This packet is one of them: one site, one careful count, one entry in the long record of a stream.