New Monitors Join the Save Our Streams Network

The Izaak Walton League of America hosted three benthic macroinvertebrate trainings in March to certify new Save Our Streams monitors. The first training was attended by eight enthusiastic high school students who are members of their school’s Trout Out of the Classroom afterschool club in Vienna, VA. One student brought his own viewing tank and helped his classmates identify the minnows and salamanders we caught in addition to the macroinvertebrates.

The second training took place in Richmond, VA where eight James River Master Naturalists were trained in both the Rocky and Muddy Bottom collection protocols. The last training was held in Ellicott City, MD where 14 volunteer and staff members of the Patapsco Heritage Greenway were trained in the Rocky Bottom protocol.

IWLA staff are excited to welcome these 30 new volunteer monitors to the Save Our Streams network in Maryland and Virginia and support them as they collect critical water quality data throughout the watershed.