Hoosier Riverwatch Monitoring Training

​The Hoosier Riverwatch program is part of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). The program was established in 1996.  One of its many services is to provide Volunteer Stream Monitoring training to the public. This is both an opportunity to participate in citizen science and to be part of a watchdog service. The program has the unattended purpose of making me feel more connected to my colleague Giiwedin, an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) water protector.
 
The program is designed to increase public awareness about water quality issues by training volunteers to monitor flowing water quality. This is a daunting task. Indiana has over 100,000 miles of rivers, streams, and ditches. Additionally, there are over 35,000 miles of surface waterways that measure more than a mile in length. Training volunteers to objectively assess the quality of these waterways is critical.
 
The Hoosier Riverwatch program defines its mission as, To involve the citizens of Indiana in becoming active stewards of Indiana’s water resources through watershed education, water monitoring, and clean-up activities.  
 
A group of volunteers from northeast Indiana participated in Stream Monitoring Training this past spring. The formal part of the course took place at the Nature Center of Metea County Park. Besides the classroom training there is a fieldwork component. That could not occur on the day of the classroom training. The Ceder Creek was running too high and too fast to safely navigate for training. The following month the group completed the field work component at Eagle Marsh, one of the sites of Little River Wetlands Project.
 
The classroom training focused on the history of the program, the materials needed, and: Habitat Assessment, Chemical Monitoring, Assessment of Macroinvertebrates, Aquatic Invasive Species, and Hoosier Riverwatch Database.
 
Training was provided by Jacquelyn Buck, Executive Director of St. Jospeh River Watershed Initiative and Deanne Jensen, Education Director of the Maumee Watershed Alliance. The first video focuses on the formal classroom training with emphasis on Habitat Assessment and Chemical Monitoring. This included lectures and hands-on training. The second video continues with the hands-on training and then focuses on the biological assessment component of the program.
 
After the training has been successfully completed volunteers complete their applications to become certified Hoosier Riverwatch monitors. I am looking forward to being part of the LRWP monitoring team. Eagle Marsh is on a continental divide. This means we will be monitoring the water quality of watersheds for the Great Lakes and the Mississippi/Gulf of Mexico watershed.  If you are interested in citizen science, protecting water, or being part of a watchdog agency then consider signing up to participate in future training.

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