EPA's role is primarily to provide technical and outreach assistance to groups engaged in volunteer monitoring. If you are interested in becoming involved in volunteer monitoring, you may want to start by visiting our volunteer monitoring homepage . Consult our National Directory of Volunteer Environmental Monitoring programs for the address of a volunteer program near you, or visit our Surf Your Watershed page to learn about other watershed-based volunteer opportunities. To learn more about volunteer monitoring in general, look through our national newsletter, The Volunteer Monitor , read our volunteer monitoring fact sheet , or browse through one of the methods manuals on our homepage. Wetlands are the link between water and land or the collective term for areas between dry land and bodies of water.
Wetlands also act as filters thereby protecting sources of drinking water.
The loss or degradation of wetlands has many consequences, such as increased flooding or the decline of water quality. In addition, EPA has recently published a new document called the Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection , which provides information on 52 federal grant and loan programs which might be avaiable to fund watershed protection and restoration projects. Watersheds are nature's boundaries. They are the areas that drain to water bodies, including lakes, rivers, estuaries, wetlands, streams, and the surrounding landscape. Ground water recharge areas are also considered.