PORT ANGELES — Streamkeepers, Clallam County’s volunteer stream monitoring program, is seeking new volunteers to help collect stream health data, perform data entry and analysis, and conduct education and outreach.
The group recently released to the state Department of Ecology 20,000 data records and is seeking more volunteers to help continue the effort to protect and restore the county’s waterways, according to Ed Chadd, Streamkeepers coordinator.
The first class in a series that combines indoor sessions and a field day will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
Classes are free.
Trainees will learn how watersheds provide services to fish, wildlife and people; what threatens area watersheds; why and how they are monitored and what happens to the data.
No experience needed
No previous experience or special equipment are required and accommodations can be made for those with special needs.
For the room of the meeting and other details, contact Streamkeepers at 360-417-2281 or streamkeepers@co.clallam.wa.us.
Chadd said he hopes to acquire at least 10 new volunteers to join the approximately 60 now at work in Clallam County.
Four years of data
Streamkeeper volunteers recently sent to the state data from 2011-15 that covers 11 projects in which the organization has been involved, according to Streamkeepers intern Grace Little.
Projects range from Streamkeepers own quarterly stream monitoring program to projects for other agencies and organizations such as the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim, area tribes, the Dungeness River Management Team and the Clallam County Departments of Health and Community Development, said Little, a senior at Whitman College in Walla Walla.
The projects evaluate dozens of water-quality parameters, including streamflow, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, fine sediment, bacteria, nutrients, hydrocarbons, pesticides, heavy metals and aquatic insect populations, she said.
“Like a doctor’s tests, these data points paint a picture of our waters’ health,” Little said.
Every few years, Ecology requests water data to comply with the federal Clean Water Act which mandates that states restore their waters to be both “fishable and swimmable,” Little said.
Data from Streamkeepers volunteers helps Ecology assess waterways in categories corresponding roughly to the colors of a stoplight, where red means “stop polluting and start cleaning up,” she added.
Industry-standard ways
Streamkeepers volunteers use industry-standard scientific methods, Little said.
Data is entered, checked and analyzed by volunteers and staff, then archived in Clallam County’s Water Resources database, which is managed by Streamkeepers.
More than 100,000 data records date back to 1986.
To generate the latest round of data, volunteers have clocked more than 20,000 hours since 2011, Little said, adding that in 2015 alone, they devoted 4,250 hours.
To generate this effort, the county employs one half-time employee, the coordinator.
“There’s only one way to amass such a treasure chest of information: go out there and get it,” Chadd said.
“That’s what our volunteers do, day in and day out, in the rain, snow, muck, and buggy heat, all for the sake of our waters.”
For more information about Streamkeepers, see www.clallam.net/SK/.
