USDA-CSREES Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring National Facilitation Project This Project is designed to build a comprehensive support system for Extension volunteer water quality monitoring efforts across the country. The goal is to expand and strengthen the capacity of existing Extension volunteer monitoring programs and support development of new groups.

Izaak Walton League Save Our Streams Program The Save Our Streams program has created highly effective tools to educate volunteers how to monitor streams, stabilize streambanks and address changes in their watersheds. Includes an easy to follow Stream Quality Survey form in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

National Volunteer Monitoring Newsletter

The Volunteer Monitor's Guide to Quality Assurance Project Plans

Volunteer Lake Monitoring: A Methods Manual

Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual

Volunteer Wetland Monitoring: An Introduction and Resource Guide

You Are Invited to Take a Dip

Have you heard about the Great North American Secchi Dip-In? It is an annual event that gets voluntary water quality monitoring programs to participate in collecting water clarity data. From June 23 to July 15, 2007, the Great North American Secchi Dip-In celebrates its 13th year of collecting transparency data.

The concept of the Dip-In is simple: get volunteers to sample water clarity using a Secchi disk, transparency or turbidity tube, or a meter on one day in a period surrounding Canada Day and the Fourth of July. Individuals may sample lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams, or estuaries and submit their results to an online database. The data is used to assess the water clarity throughout the United States and Canada.

This event was started by Ohio's Kent State University in 1994 with approximately 800 volunteers and only 6 states participating. Over the years the participation and interest has grown to include over 2500 participants in nearly all 50 states, Canada, Australia, Korea, Ireland, Pakistan, Peru and Great Britain.

Arkansas has been represented by efforts from the Lake Fayetteville Watershed Partnership, the Beaver Lake Watershed Partnership, the Rogers Urban Watershed Management Program, and the Lower Little River Watershed Coalition. These groups have sampled waters in Lake Fayetteville, Beaver Lake, and Lake Atalanta in Northwest Arkansas, the Illinois Bayou in West-central Arkansas and Dierks Lake in Southeast Arkansas.

Arkansas has abundant surface water and the opportunity to include Arkansas's resources in this annual survey would show the world how involved and dedicated citizens of Arkansas are to water quality issues. Get the community involved in protecting the natural resources of Arkansas while collecting valuable data for a national database. Log on to http://dipin.kent.edu/ to receive more information about the Dip-In, to register your site, view results from the past Dip-In events, or find information on getting media coverage for your event.