Land uses that impact water bodies include such things as urbanization, stream and shoreline land modifications, sudden climatic changes, human, wildlife and livestock activities, forestry operations, highway construction, farming practices and fires. All of these events should be noted. If you are near a large body of water, you may be able to enlist the aid of volunteers in monitoring its water quality. We are learning more and more each day about the role that individuals, local citizen groups, schools, clubs and groups can play in assisting local, state, regional, federal water quality and natural resources agency personnel with gathering baseline data. That depends on the goal or purpose of monitoring.
Volunteers monitor a wide range of water and watershed characteristics.
The watershed is the geographic basin or region from which water drains and contributes to the water body being monitored, whether lake, river, stream or pond. The variety, extent, and frequency of measurements depend on the goals of the monitoring program, the training available, and the resources to be used for monitoring, data compilation, and interpretations. The next column will deal with what, when and how to measure. After that, columns will describe how to begin recording measurements. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also has information on voluntary monitoring.