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Monitoring
Overview
What's
Monitored
Becoming
a Citizen Scientist (Training)
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Current Monitoring Sites - Including Station #
- Lakes, Ponds & Reservoirs
- Rivers & streams
- Bays, salt ponds & harbors
Participating
Communities
Program Partners
Monitoring
Manuals and
Quality Assurance
Project Plans (QAPPs)
Monitoring
Data and Results
Water
Quality Factsheets
Research
Connections
Additional Resources
We invite you to join a network of volunteer programs and
volunteers by participating in the 15th Annual
Secchi
Dip-in:
June 28 - July 20, 2008
Click here for details
Join us!
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Getting
Involved - Becoming a Volunteer
Water Quality Monitor
Volunteer
monitoring can be a great family activity, a good excuse to
get out on the water, or simply a good way to learning
about, and protect your favorite waterbody.
Our volunteers come from diverse educational backgrounds and
experiences, with some holding advanced degrees in science,
and others still in high school. No previous education or training
is required order to participate, simply a way to get to your
monitoring site, and a desire to help out, and get a little
wet. URI Watershed Watch provides all the training (classroom
and field), equipment and laboratory analyses.
For lake, pond, and reservoir sites: Boats
are needed for monitoring these sites. Volunteers
must provide their own boats, personal flotation devices and
have completed an approved boating safety course in
order to monitor these sites. Because the measurement of water
clarity, a critical element of lake monitoring, is heavily influenced
by the height of the sun, monitoring at these sites takes place
mid-day, when the sun is at it's highest
from
10:00
AM
until
2:00 PM, on a weekly basis on the day of your choice.
Then at least three times a season according to a schedule established
by URI Watershed Watch, samples will be collected between and
immediately brought to the URI Watershed Watch laboratory in
Kingston for analysis of parameters that can not be done in the
field.
Narrow River, salt pond and Greenwich
Bay sites: Boats are needed for monitoring many of these
sites. Volunteers
must provide their own boats, personal flotation devices and
have completed an approved boating safety course in
order to monitor these sites. Dockside sites ARE available
for some Narrow River, salt pond and Greenwich Bay sites, for
those without access to a boat. The shoreside sites may be
located at commercial marinas or other public /
private access points, and thus may require signing an additional
liability waiver to protect the property owner. Monitoring
at these sites is done first thing
in the
morning -
preferrably
before 9:00 AM - on a weekly basis on the day of your choice.
Once a month according to a schedule established
by URI Watershed Watch, samples will be collected between 6:00
and 9:00 AM, and immediately brought to the URI Watershed Watch
laboratory in Kingston for analysis of parameters that can
not be done in the field.
River and stream sites: Most
of our river and stream sites are quite shallow, and monitored
from shoreside or within the stream (waders or other water gear
is recommended.) Monitoring at these sites takes place first
thing in the morning - preferrably before 9:00 AM - every other
week (bi-weekly) on the day of your choice. Once a month
according to a schedule established
by URI Watershed Watch, samples will be collected between 6:00
and 9:00 AM, and immediately brought to the URI Watershed Watch
laboratory in Kingston for analysis of parameters that can not
be done in the field.
Whenever possible,
we try to recruit 'teams' of volunteers to monitor each site.
Sharing a set of monitoring equipment, these teams can either
work together, alternate weekly or monthly monitoring, or just
have a back-up for vacations, or other scheduling conflicts.
Mostly we hope to provide citizens with an opportunity to learn
about a much appreciated local resource, about the science
of water quality monitoring, and what it all means!
Click here to become a
URI Watershed Watch volunteer monitor!
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