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Online Data Entry

Program Contacts

Program Information

Monitoring Overview

What's Monitored

Becoming a Citizen Scientist (Training)

Monitoring Schedules

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

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!