Volunteer Monitoring Program
There are numerous lakes, wetlands, river miles and resources in need
of protection throughout the Middle Fork Crow watershed. It is impossible
for the staff and board of the MFCRWD to know what is happening throughout
the 275 mile area. Therefore, volunteers are an essential component
to learning and managing our water resources. Additionally, we believe
that citizens who learn about and care for their resources are the
best way to protect those resources as they have the history and connection
to the resource. Through day to day interaction volunteers can be aware
of
changes, problems or improvements to their lake or river area.
Our volunteer program focuses on stream and lake monitoring efforts. We are building on a strong volunteer network that was established in the past several years by the “Middle Fork River Lakes Partnership” made up of folks who really care about our local water resources. This group obtained funding and technical support to conduct volunteer monitoring on many lakes and stream sites in the New London/Spicer area which resulted in the development of an annual report on monitoring efforts (see reports page). There also was an active group in the Diamond Lake area who conducted monitoring efforts through the MPCA enhanced citizen monitoring program.
In order to build our volunteer program we worked with the CROW (www.crowriver.org) to write and submit a grant proposal to the MPCA in the fall of 2006 to increase and enhance volunteer monitoring efforts in the entire Crow River Watershed, which is a 2,725 square mile basin and includes the North Fork, Middle Fork, South Fork and Buffalo Creek watersheds. This grant was approved and we began to implement the program in March 2007. The goal of the volunteer monitoring project is twofold: 1) expand the CROW’s and MFCRWD’s training programs and outreach efforts enabling our organizations to recruit and retain additional citizen volunteers for both lake and stream monitoring in the Crow River Watershed and 2) enhance and complete datasets for streams and lakes throughout the watershed to evaluate overall water quality. We are pleased to be collaborating with Minnesota Waters (www.minnesotawaters.org) and the North Fork Crow River Watershed District on this project.
Currently there are 10 volunteers taking sampling the chemistry and transparency on 5 lakes and 11 river sites in the Middle Fork Crow watershed. There also are more volunteers who take transparency readings or rain gage readings. Volunteers attend training sessions and submit data to our office once per month throughout the open water season.
Interested in Volunteering?
Monitoring our lakes and streams is an important way to contribute through
volunteering your time while enjoying the outdoors. Volunteers must
attend a training course. Two training sessions were held in March
and April of 2007 (click
for brochure) and more will be held during
late winter and spring of 2008. If you are interested in volunteering
please contact our office and we
will put you on a mailing list to
alert you of training opportunities. If you are unable to attend a
course, please let us know and we will try to provide additional training
sessions.
Right now volunteers are needed in the following areas:
Lake Transparency monitoring using a Secchi disk.
A Secchi disk is lowered
into the lake to determine water clarity. There is a strong correlation
between Secchi disk transparency depths and the amount
of phosphorus
in a lake. Secchi disk readings are usually taken once per
week or once
every other week. Currently, we are looking for volunteers
on George,
Elkhorn, Long (by Hawick) and the upper portion of
Monogalia Lake.
Stream Transparency monitoring using a transparency tube.
Volunteers collect a stream sample in the tranparency tube, or T-Tube and
determine the transparency by looking down into the tube until the disk,
similar to a Secchi disk, becomes is visible. Stream transparency is
an important indicator of stream health because higher transparencies
are correlated to decreased amounts of sediment in the river or stream.
T-tube readings should be taken once per week and after rain events.
Currenlty volunteers are needed in the upper and lower portions of the
watershed as
well as along county ditch systems. Volunteers also are
asked to check
stream level (height) when obtaining the transparency
reading.
Enhanced Monitoring Program
We also have funding for volunteers to conduct enhanced monitoring by
collecting water quality samples that are sent to a laboratory for
chemistry analysis. Lake analysis includes determining the concentrations
of: 1) Chlorophyll a, which indicates amount of algae; 2) Total Phosphorus
and
3) Total Suspended Solids. Stream analysis includes determining
the concentrations of: 1)Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, which is organically
bound nitrogen plus ammonia; 2) Total Phosphorus and 3) Total Suspended
Solids. All results from the lake monitoring program except Total Suspended
Solids are available by visiting the RMB Environmental Lab website
at www.rmbel.info. Results of the stream monitoring program are available
by contacting our office. Funding for lake and stream chemistry is
limited,
so volunteers are encouraged to notify us right away to determine
eligibility
of funding. We are currently looking for volunteers to
take chemistry
samples on Elkhorn, Long (by Hawick), George and upper
portions of Monongalia Lake.
