Outcomes
The Watershed Alliance:

• Makes it possible for secondary schools and youth groups throughout Vermont to bring the classroom into the outdoors and learn about the watersheds in which they live.
  
• Works in ten watersheds with more than 400 students per year.
• Allows University of Vermont undergraduates to connect with students and serve as mentors to those who are thinking of college or work in environmental sciences.
• Enables students to visualize a watershed, understand watershed concepts, and learn safety practices and monitoring techniques.
• Disseminates their findings to the local community via student presentations to planning commissions, school boards, watershed groups, parents, and 10,000 Vermonters via television.
• Gathers data that results in greater protection of wetlands.

Background
Since 1999, the Watershed Alliance, a partnership of University of Vermont Extension, the School of Natural Resources and Sea Grant, has trained students to be 'citizen scientists' as they conduct water quality monitoring and collect valuable data on bacteria, phosphorous, temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen and macroinvertebrates in rivers and streams.

The Watershed Alliance provides schools with curricula, written materials, and equipment to monitor, but perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the program is the work of the resource assistants. Resource assistants are UVM undergraduates studying and interested in water resources and environmental education. Due to their closeness in age, resource assistants are able to connect with the students and serve as mentors to those who are thinking of college or work in this area. In addition to the knowledge they have from their classes, resource assistants partake in approximately 10 hours of water quality monitoring training with the Watershed Alliance enabling them to successfully implement the curriculum and help teachers facilitate monitoring.

The Watershed Alliance curriculum is divided into 4 components: classroom, field, laboratory and taking action. For the classroom activity, the students are shown a hands-on interactive watershed model and taught safety practices and monitoring techniques. The second component entails a venture to the river to conduct chemical and biological assessments. Using Watershed Alliance equipment and methodology, the resource assistants work with the students to ensure accurate data collection. Next, the students visit the University of Vermont Rubenstein laboratory and work with the Center for Lake Champlain staff to verify their field results. Working in a controlled setting and following EPA protocols, the students are able to verify E.coli and phosphorus results. The last component, taking action, is viewed as the most vital aspect of the curriculum. It entails the students disseminating their findings to their local community via student presentations (see "Outcomes") sharing their results and knowledge.

The UVM Watershed Alliance, in conjunction with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), has also begun wetland monitoring which is done by few groups in Vermont. Often the wetlands monitored are not considered significant (Class III) by current state statute, but this may be a fluke of the classification system rather than an informed evaluation of the wetland. By studying the wetlands and providing data, Class III wetlands can potentially be reclassified to Class II, thus affording these wetlands more protection under the "significant" category. The current effort to gather data about the wetlands could result in a more definite determination, which will be a significant contribution by the students. Evidence about the soils, plants, and wildlife in the wetland could yield a more accurate picture of the wetland's significance.

Currently, the Watershed Alliance, in partnership with River Network, is developing a web accessible database to store this valuable water quality data. Schools, watershed organizations, and other monitoring groups that are following the same methodologies will be able to enter, use, or view data via the web.

As Brian Slopey of U-32 High School stated about the Watershed Alliance, "It's meaningful for the kids to feel a part of something larger than the school, and to know that their data will go somewhere."

UVM Watershed Alliance Program Coordinator: Caitrin Noel, Caitrin.Noel@uvm.edu, 802-656-5428.

To view other highlighted programs, visit our highlighted program archives.

Photo by: Bill Dilillo, University Photography

Updated Tuesday, 27-Nov-2012 10:41:40 CST