Success Stories

Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring: I. New England Programs

Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring: II. New England Collaborations

Please visit our Success Stories page for more information on New England Water program accomplishments and outcomes.

Other New England Volunteer Monitoring Success Stories:

The Volunteer Monitor Newsletter Highlights Successes

The Volunteer Monitor is a national newsletter distributed biannually with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It facilitates the exchange of ideas, methods, and successes stories among volunteer monitoing groups.

volunteer measuring stream flow The Summer 2002 issue focused on Success Stories throughout the United States.

Highlights included:

Protecting a Scenic Treasure (Chocorua Lake), New Hampshire - p.4
Various success story excerpts from NH's Lay Lakes Monitoring Program - p.6
Keeping Trout Cool (Thermal discharge to the Hoosic River), Massachusetts - p.8
Opening Clam Flats, Maine - p.14
Stuffed Clams & "Soupy" Ponds (Yawgoo Pond), Rhode Island - p.16
Weed Watching, New Hampshire - p.26
Aquatic Invasives, Massachusetts - p.26
Aquatic Invasives, Vermont - p.26
Algae Surprises, Maine - p.31
Setting Phosphorous Standards, Vermont - p.31

View The Volunteer Monitor (vol.14 no.2) to read these Success Stories.

The Winter 2003 issue focused on University Partnerships throughout the United States.

Highlights included:

Cooperative Extension Programs and Volunteer Monitors written by Elizabeth Herron (Rhode Island) and Kris Stepenuck (Wisconsin)- p.18
Participatory Research at University of New Hampshire written by Jeff Schloss- p.22

View The Volunteer Monitor (vol.15 no.1) to read these Success Stories.

Maine Watershed Stewards Program

volunteer sampling macroinvertebrates In the fall of 1996, the Watershed Stewards Program was initiated. Modeled after the Master Gardener Program, it provides water quality educational training to interested individuals. Within each series of trainings, a NH Dept. of Environmental Protection staff member describes status and trends, using volunteer monitoring information. The program also partners with the nonprofit Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program . Lake monitors are often the first ones to sign up for the Watershed Stewards Programs and Watershed Stewards may commit their volunteer time to lake monitoring. This educational program is an excellent example of 1) partnership with other state agencies and programs; 2) a high impact educational program; and 3) another Extension educational program that returns more in value than the cost of program delivery.