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Save Our Streams and Anne Arundel County government have expanded
their Community Education and Outreach Program to increase citizen
involvement in water quality monitoring. The expanded program
will train citizens in science-based methods to monitor county
waterways and identify potential problem areas.
Save Our Streams and the county have worked together
on the program since 1989. During 1997 and 1998, citizens volunteered
more that 8,000 hours surveying and cleaning up county streams
and waterways. Save Our Streams estimates the value of that
volunteer labor to Anne Arundel County at $132,000.
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Save
Our Streams Staff: Sue Maszczenski, Dominique Cater,
and Diane White examine a kick seine for aquatic insects
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Save Our Streams is focusing
it's Adopt-A-Stream and monitoring efforts in Anne Arundel
County around the South River Watershed. SOS is now recruiting
citizens and businesses to participate in stream restoration
efforts during the next year. It will support existing
citizen-based watershed organizations, school, and community
groups doing projects such as storm drain painting, stream
clean ups, and planting trees along the water. In addition,
SOS has lead a watershed survey and trained citizens as
certified "Mudbusters" to assist county inspectors
in the identification of sediment and erosion control
violations. SOS is organizing and training citizens to
monitor the health of the watershed by collecting a number
of benthic macroinvertibrates (aquatic insects) found
there. Finally, volunteers will be trained to measure
the physical characteristics of streams and surrounding
habitat. |
If you or your organization would like to participate in a project
in Anne Arundel County call Terry Lehr
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