Minnesota Needs Volunteers To Keep An Eye On Waterways

April is Earth Month. It's a month that we are urged to take care of the world that we are living in. The month also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness of ways that we can protect what we have so we can pass it on to the next generation.

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You can do your part by helping to keep the areas around the state clean, reporting things that you see that are not right or out of place and just overall being environmentally friendly.

The State of Minnesota is giving you the opportunity to go a little deeper and make a bigger impact on the waterways around the state.

You can become a volunteer to monitor waterways in the state. What does this entail? The state has maps available of bodies of water, rivers and streams, that need someone to pay close attention to them. Volunteers will document the water clarity that fits into one of the ranges the state uses to grade the water, so they can see which areas need attention. State officials say for some of these areas, the volunteer data is all that is collected for those sites, and that makes the work of the volunteers that much more important.

This monitoring will need to be done at least twice per month during the summer months. Each time volunteers go to the area they’ll need to measure the water using a Secchi Disk or a tube. While there, check on the physical condition and if there is any recreational condition because that information will need to be reported too.

This data that is collected will impact the decisions that are made when it comes to watershed protection and restoration.

You do not need experience or special training. Click here for more details.