Volunteers needed to monitor streams
2015: The MPCA wants you to be come a stream monitorer today! Learn more about the program, use their interactive map to see if your lake or stream needs monitoring. Volunteers are being recruited to monitor streams across Minnesota, including several in Northeastern Minnesota. Volunteers take stream samples weekly during spring and summer months and report their findings to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The Citizen Stream Monitoring Program looks at water clarity, rainfall, weather conditions and general appearance of the water at designated spots along streams. Source: DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE (MN) Read the news release from the MPCA. Get involved with E. coli monitoring and learn more about the project here. Become an Urban Salt Monitorer (WI, MI, IA residents only). The LakeSuperiorStreams project needs volunteer help in evaluating how well two efforts to fix problems in our local streams are working. One is at Miller Creek just behind the Miller Hill Mall and the other is on a small tributary to Amity Creek just upstream from the most downstream bridge crossing Amity. Please contact us if interested. Watch an interactive tutorial on using a secchi disk, or view all the updated videos for volunteer stream monitors produced by Water Action Volunteers (WAV). Streams in NE Minnesota needing monitors:
Visit the MPCA website for more information about their Citizen Stream-Monitoring Program.
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Lake volunteers needed across Minnesota
Source: DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE (MN) If you live on, own a cabin on or just like to visit a favorite lake in Minnesota, state pollution regulators may need you. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Citizen Lake-Monitoring Program is in need of dozens of volunteers to keep track of water quality on lakes across the state, including many in the Northland. Data gathered once each week during the summer by volunteers yields valuable information about the current health of Minnesota's waters. Now in its 32nd year, volunteers in the program are monitoring 900 different lakes. The job doesn't take much time. Volunteers visit a designated spot on the lake where they drop anchor, make notes of the water's physical condition and recreational suitability and measure the clarity of the water with a Secchi disk -- an 8 inch white metal disk that is lowered into the water until it can no longer be seen. The depth, measured by markings on the cord, helps give a snapshot of the lake's relative water quality. For information on becoming a volunteer, call the PCA at (800) 657-3864, or go to www.pca.state.mn.us/water/clmp.html. Northland lakes in need of volunteers are, by county:Aitkin
Cook
Itasca
Lake
St Louis
Visit the MPCA website for more information about their Citizen Lake-Monitoring Program. |
