Weekly Update
June 11, 2010
Becky, Ralph and Bob at Greene County Park
Announcements
Virginia Citizens for Water Quality Annual Summit…
Save the date: Saturday August 14, 2010
The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay will be hosting this year’s summit at Holiday Lake 4H Educational Center, in Holiday Lake State Park. Additional information, draft agenda, lodging and dining details, and registration will available soon. Learn more here.
StreamWatch summer workshops…
Introductory Training Workshop
Saturday August 14, from 10am – 3pm
The workshop will cover the fundamentals of stream biological sampling—catching and identifying aquatic invertebrates for the purpose of evaluating water quality and stream health. The workshop is free, but class size is limited. To reserve a space, or for further information about volunteering, contact Rose.
StreamWatch Advanced training
Sunday August 29, from 1pm – 4pm
Refresh you identification skills and learn more about family identification. We’ll cover all levels of experience, so beginners are welcome too (in order to attend, you must have already attended an introductory training workshop). To reserve a space, contact Rose.
New USGS report about urban stream health…
A USGS study, conducted in 9 U.S. metropolitan areas, shows that by the time a watershed reaches about 10% impervious cover in urban areas, aquatic insect communities are degraded by as much as 33% in comparison to aquatic insect communities in forested watersheds. Comparisons among the metropolitan areas show that not all urban streams respond in a similar way.
StreamWatch’s findings over the last several years suggest that in the Rivanna system, biological degradation follows imperviousness closely and continuously, with degradation beginning at a fraction of 10% impervious cover. The StreamWatch land use effects study, to be released this fall, will help us to understand these trends in more detail.
Learn more about how stream ecosystems respond to urban development from USGS reports and video podcasts on the USGS website.
June anniversaries…
Congratulations to the following volunteers, whose volunteer anniversaries are this month. Thanks so much for your work.
CJ Arban – 1 year
Alissa Gador – 1 year
Nancy Gercke – 1 year
Leigh Thomas – 1 year
Brian Walton – 1 year
Potential Volunteer Dates
(These dates are weather dependent. Please contact Rose if you want to sign up.)
Wednesday 6/16: morning and/or afternoon
Thank you for volunteering with StreamWatch!
Rose Brown, Program Manager
StreamWatch
434.962.3527
P.O. Box 181
Ivy, VA 22945
Email Rose
www.streamwatch.org