Citizen Science! Boise Watershed Watch

by Kati Carberry, BREN Coordinating Team Chair

Hi Fellow Boise River Enthusiasts,

The Boise River Watershed Watch Day is coming up on Saturday September 30th from 10:00-12:00.  Watershed Watch is a great program led by the Boise Watershed where a Team Leader and a group of citizen scientists monitor an assigned surface water site along the Boise River. On the day of the event more than 20 sites from Lucky Peak to Caldwell will be monitored for DO, pH, turbidity, Temp, bacteria, TSS, TP, macroinvertebrates, and invasive species. Watershed Watch is the perfect way to get kids engaged in science.

Figure 1. Watershed Watch volunteers identifying macroinvertebrates

Clean water is essential to support healthy fisheries, wildlife habitat and ecosystem function in addition to drinking, irrigation and recreation. Water quality enhancement is a goal of BREN, and a number of strategies are described in the Boise River Enhancement Plan. Many water quality reports for the lower Boise River can be accessed through our website.

BREN is going to be monitoring two sites this year, one at the Star Bridge and one at the Linder Bridge. If you would like to volunteer as a citizen scientist at a BREN site (Linder Bridge or Star Bridge), please sign up. I really think all of you would enjoy this one day event, and it is a great opportunity for your friends and family to become involved with BREN.

This will be the 10th consecutive year of Watershed Watch and it is amazing to see the amount of historical data that has been collected on the Boise River from this one day annual event. Below is a link to more information and how to register.  Feel free to pass this on to anyone else you think would be interested.

http://bee.cityofboise.org/watershed/get-involved/watershed-watch!/  Register Here

Registering is super easy and quick. Once you are at the site, click on the link to register in the middle of the page. From there you will be asked to fill out a simple registration form. Please make sure to select the Linder Bridge Site in Eagle site # 29, or the Star Rd. Bridge site # 25 (see below for website images).

See you on September 30!