The Alpine Watershed Group's volunteer monitoring program is important for providing data that can be used to examine changes over time to water quality, habitat, and general watershed conditions. The data allows us to accurately measure the success or failure of various landuse practices in protecting the quality of our waters.
Program Objectives:
- Enrich the understanding of Alpine County residents to issues affecting water quality and habitat conditions within the watersheds.
- Identify potential water quality and habitat concerns
- Provide useful data for decision makers and the public
[img_assist|nid=491|title=|desc=|link=|align=left|width=200|height=148] Chemical and Physical Conditions
The Alpine Watershed Group currently monitors nine sites within the Upper Carson River Watershed. The scope of these efforts will be expanded to the other four watersheds in 2005 and 2006. Residents of Bear Valley and Kirkwood are encouraged to participate. Contact Laura at watershed@alpinecountyca.com if you are interested in learning more about volunteer citizen monitoring.
Funding for this project has been provided in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) pursuant to Assistance Agreement No. C9979204-02-0 and any amendments thereto which has been awarded to the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) for the implementation of California’s Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the USEPA or the SWRCB, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use.
Biological Conditions
The Alpine Watershed Group has initiated their Volunteer Bioassessment Program. In the Fall 2006 the Group hosted a two day training to instruct our volunteers to collect benthic macroinvertebrates and assess the habitat of our streams and rivers. This new protocol will be first applied on Markleeville Creek to establish baseline data that will assist us in assessing the success of the Markleeville Guard Staton Restoration Project.
What is a Bioassessment? Biological assessments or Bioassessment is the monitoring of biological communities in addition to the monitoring of chemical and physical conditions. Bioassessments are important tools for measuring the integrity of our streams and rivers and assessing the effectiveness of our restoration efforts. Macroinvertebrates are often used as indicators in bioassessments. Macroinvertebrates are indicator species of the health of our waters and watersheds because their tolerances of pollution or other disturbances vary amongst the different families. The diversity and type of macroinvertebrates present or not present in a stream can indicate sedimentation, chemical contaminants, and excess nutrients. They can also help in identifying other sources of pollution including wastewater discharge, mineral mining wastes, road surface discharge, and inadequate forestry and grazing practices. Bioassessments can detect pollutants and disturbances that can be overlooked with other types of monitoring. If you are interested in participating in or making financial contributions to our Volunteer Bioassessment Program contact us at watershed@alpinecountyca.com.[img_assist|nid=493|title=|desc=|link=|align=left|width=183|height=200]
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