Testing the waters

Abstract

Environmental monitoring is not simply busy work for enthusiastic volunteers. Monitoring and data collection help raise environmental awareness. When CEW volunteers take to their local stream, they are no longer clerks, managers or Boy Scout leaders - they are community scientists. By getting outside and collecting information about ecosystem health, citizens re-establish a link with nature. The data they collect give the community an indication of general watershed health and when anomalies arise, their monitoring experience can give them the confidence and understanding to take further action.