Cooperative Extension/Volunteer Monitoring Partnerships
As published in the Volunteer Monitor Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 1, Winter 2003
by Elizabeth Herron and Kris Stepenuck

Cooperative Extension is uniquely poised to carry out volunteer water quality monitoring programs. Extension has an established framework within communities and is structured to provide the kind of community education and training that is vital to volunteer monitoring efforts. In fact the very mission of Extension-to bring science to the people, conduct educational outreach, and encourage "better practices"-could be lifted right out of the stated goals of most volunteer monitoring programs. This extraordinarily good fit led Extension in a number of states (for example, New Hampshire, Florida, Rhode Island, and Maine) to support volunteer monitoring even before the 1992 Extension National Water Quality Initiative.

In 1995 the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension (URI) received funding from Extension's national headquarters to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of Cooperative Extension volunteer monitoring programs and their benefits to Extension and communities. Four years later, URI and the University of Wisconsin-Extension (UW) jointly were awarded a National Facilitation Grant to build on that work and create a comprehensive support system for Extension volunteer water quality monitoring efforts.

A crucial first step for the Facilitation Project was to update and expand the earlier assessment. We found 29 programs in26 states or territories in which Extension plays a significant role, and from them we gathered detailed information about why they started, how they operate, and their successes and failures.

One thing we have learned is that no two programs are alike! Different communities have different water quality issues, and each Extension program is unique in the specific resources it can offer. Extension programs around the country have been very creative in finding the best ways to support volunteer monitoring efforts.

Grassroots origins
While Extension volunteer monitoring programs started for a variety of reasons, we found one important similarity: these programs are typically community-driven. Many began when individuals or groups set out to respond to local water quality problems and discovered that little reliable, long-term data existed for the waterways they were concerned about. In attempting to find good technical advice about monitoring they turned to their neighborhood Cooperative Extension, which responded by working with local groups to create programs based on the best current science while focusing on specific community resources and needs.

For example, New Hampshire Lakes Lay Monitoring Program Coordinator Jeff Schloss told us that the program originated due to a "lack of timely and adequate sampling to discern any water quality changes." Statewide Marine Educator Esperanza Stancioff reported that Maine's Shore Stewards began in response to a crisis in the shellfish industry: bacterial water pollution from a variety of unknown sources was forcing the closure of many shell fishing areas.

Some Extension programs-including the Water Action Volunteers in Wisconsin, the Hoosier Riverwatch in Indiana, and the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Partnership in Minnesota's Twin Cities Metropolitan Area-were established to help standardize monitoring methods among existing volunteers. According to Barb Liukkonen of the Volunteer Stream Monitoring Partnership, "Many separate local programs were in place, but there was virtually no communication between or within basins or between volunteers and agency staff or decision makers." The Volunteer Stream Monitoring Partnership was formed to fill a need for more consistency in methods and data management, and more coordinated use of the data.

As the report summarizing the initial URI assessment concluded, "The overall success of Cooperative Extension volunteer programs is due in large part to their grassroots, bottom up approach. These programs often become embedded in their communities, as well, as individuals and businesses take personal responsibility for the health of their community's water bodies."

Different roles for Extension
Our assessments revealed that Extension interactions with volunteer monitoring take a variety of forms. Extension often plays a lead role, with overall program coordination provided by Extension staff. It's probably not a coincidence that several of the longest-running Extension programs (the New Hampshire Lakes Lay Monitoring Program, now entering its25th year; and URI Watershed Watch and the Maine Shore Stewards, both started in 1988) have enjoyed this kind of substantial support from Extension.

Cooperative efforts with state environmental agency programs are also quite common, with Extension typically providing technical or staff support, and sometimes funding. In Wisconsin, two programs (Adopt-A-Lake and Water Action Volunteers) are cosponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Department of Natural Resources, with assistance from other partners and local organizations. The Hoosier Riverwatch in Indiana is run through a similar partnership between Extension and the state environmental agency. Alabama Water Watch was formed as a cooperative effort between the Auburn University Fisheries Department the Alabama Department of Environmental Management; Alabama Cooperative Extension recently joined forces with these groups to manage the program.

Sometimes Extension's role is less apparent, with Extension staff providing training assistance, technical consultation, or educational materials. In Georgia, Extension agents assist with well-established state-run Adopt-A-Lake and Adopt-A-Stream programs. Several staff members with the University of Missouri Extension have taken advanced training with the Missouri Stream Team Program, qualifying them to lead or teach Stream Teams.

Regardless of the role played by Extension, Extension-supported programs are not immune from the challenges faced by most volunteer monitoring programs-concerns about the critically important elements of stable funding and stable staffing. Because Extension over all is a federally managed program, changes in national policies or funding priorities can jeopardize locally important projects like volunteer monitoring. Long-term Extension programs are generally those that have diversified funding sources and program elements, ensuring program flexibility while maintaining the core priorities of the local community.

Beneficiaries
The advantages to stakeholders, to the monitoring program, and to Extension from Extension involvement with volunteer monitoring are many and varied. First, of course, the community gets answers to their concerns and the ability to respond to problems or protect their resources. In addition, the volunteers gain access to current scientific research and methods, as well as other university resources, which can enable them to expand their monitoring activities and improve the scope and credibility of the data.

The large number of Extension programs that have elected to sponsor or support volunteer monitoring efforts is a clear testament to how well volunteer monitoring fulfills Extension's three core goals:

Educating the public.
Volunteer monitoring programs disseminate water quality information broadly in the community through citizen-to-citizen interactions and provide an opportunity for hands-on science education for youth.

Encouraging citizens to "adopt better practices."
Through monitoring, citizens learn how our actions on land affect the quality of surface and groundwater. This leads directly to voluntary adoption of recommended best management practices (BMPs) for water quality protection.

Bringing university science to the community ... and community science to the university!
Volunteer monitoring programs can turn the Extension link between university researchers and citizens into a two-way street. The volunteer monitors benefit from university expertise, and the data they generate can in turn be useful to university scientists-especially since volunteers frequently gather data in areas where few others are monitoring, and often for longer periods of time than most universities or agencies. Applied researchers can especially benefit by targeting their efforts toward locally identified concerns.

In addition, Extension support of volunteer monitoring benefits Extension by:

Heightening the credibility and visibility of Extension within the community.
Community-wide volunteer monitoring efforts attract solid press coverage, increasing local awareness of Extension activities and drawing diverse audiences to other Extension water quality programs. The value of Extension activities is underscored when government agencies, community groups, or researchers use volunteer data.

Forging new links between Extension and other organizations.
Volunteer monitoring lends itself to collaboration among citizens, educational institutions, private organizations, and governmental agencies.

National Facilitation Project
Given the multitude of benefits to all parties, our National Facilitation project is interested in expanding Extension/volunteer monitoring collaborations. We plan to do so by developing training materials and programs to strengthen existing efforts and encourage the formation of new ones. Because Extension programs around the country have already created so many good resources, we are gathering many of these together to create our "Guide to Growing Extension Volunteer Monitoring Programs." We also are working to support sharing between Extension volunteer monitoring groups through a project website and electronic listserv. Finally, to enhance data management and sharing, a web-based data entry tool has been developed and is currently undergoing testing through the Water Action Volunteers.

So the next time you are looking for some information about water quality, watershed education, or good management practices, consider Cooperative Extension at your local land-grant university-they just may have the answer, or maybe able to help you find it. After all, it is the people's university.

For a complete listing of programs that are sponsored or cosponsored by Extension across the nation, or to learn more about this National Facilitation Project, visit our website at www.usawaterquality.org/volunteer.

Q: What is one thing that all U.S. states and territories have in common?
A: A land-grant university.
The name land grant comes from the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided states with federal funds equivalent to 30,000 acres of land for each Congressional senator and representative. These funds, known as "land scrip," provided an endowment to establish a people's university. Today there are a total of 105 land-grant colleges, with at least one located in every state and territory (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territories).

Over time, these land-grant universities assumed a variety of duties to better serve the people in their home states. To support these efforts, Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act in 1914,which created the Cooperative Extension Service, housed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Essentially, Extension was charged with taking practical information generated by land grant university scientists directly to the people and encouraging citizens to adopt better practices in agriculture, home economics, and rural development.

As our society has shifted from a rural agriculture focus to more urban and suburban, so has the mission of many Extension programs. In 1992, water quality impacts from nonpoint sources became a priority with the establishment of the Extension National Water Quality Initiative, which opened the door to Extension support of volunteer monitoring efforts.

Elizabeth Herron is Program Coordinator at URI Watershed Watch, Coastal Institute, 1 Greenhouse Road, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island 02881; emh@uri.edu; 401-874-2905.

Kris Stepenuck is Volunteer Stream Monitoring Coordinator for Water Action Volunteers, UW-Extension and WI Department of Natural Resources, 210 Hiram Smith Hall, 1545 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1289; kris.stepenuck@ces.uwex.edu; 608-265-3887.