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Save Our Streams workshops


 

By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

HAMILTON, Ohio — Are you curious about what’s in that creek running through your farm? Become a Save Our Streams (SOS) monitor; it’s a fun way to test water quality by collecting and identifying underwater critters called macroinvertebrates. It’s an excellent project for kids, families, and anyone interested in water quality.

 

SOS is the Izaak Walton League of America’s (IWLA) national water quality monitoring program. In April, the league will present two Saturday SOS workshops. On April 14, the workshop will be in Hamilton. On April 28 it will be presented in Ashley. The next day, Sunday, April 15 in Hamilton and April 29 in Ashley, the league will offer Creek Freaks, an educator training workshop for the SOS program.

 

“SOS has been around since 1969,” said Samantha Briggs, project coordinator. “The program is designed to give citizens the power to monitor their local water quality, so they know the health of the water in their backyard.”

 

Because the monitors are trained, the data is of good quality, Briggs said. It can be submitted to the state and local agencies so they can use that information for their decision-making purposes.

 

“Our key component is our biological monitoring,” Briggs said. “We seine out macroinvertebrates, which are little insects and bugs that live in the stream; we identify them and then, depending on what insects we find, we’ll be able to tell the water quality of the stream. Some macroinvertebrates are more pollution-tolerant than others.”

 

The morning of the workshop the presenters will talk about water quality principles and watersheds, and about the macroinvertebrates which are inhabiting the local streams and how to identify them. The afternoon will be spent outside, getting hands-on in the stream.

 

Dan Hayes has been a certified stream monitor for 20 years. A member of the Hamilton chapter IWLA, they had, at one time, a group of 20 to 25 kids who would take part in the stream monitoring. A retired teacher, Hayes involved his students in the project.

 

“The kids liked it,” Hayes said. “I like the SOS program; it gets people out in the streams and appreciating the quality of water in this area.”

 

For educators who are interested in monitoring, Creek Freaks workshops teach individuals the same type of monitoring as SOS, but participants also learn how to do indoor activities with youths and other extra youth-centered activities. Teachers can use the workshop to obtain continuing education credits.

 

For information on the SOS program visit www.iwla.org/sos. For Creek Freaks information visit www.creekfreaks.net.

 

For questions regarding the course contact Samantha Briggs at sbriggs@iwla.org or (301) 548-0150 X222 or Scott Maxham at smaxham@iwla.org or (301) 548-0150, ext. 229.

2/21/2018