Izaak Walton League Tackles 2021

2021 was an exciting year for stream monitoring with the Izaak Walton League of America. 2021 began in the middle of Winter Salt Watch’s third monitoring season with more volunteers than ever – over 2600 kits sent around the country! 15 monitoring groups and hundreds of individual monitors submitted 979 data points within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

In the world of benthic monitoring, 47 new monitors and 5 new trainers joined the Save Our Streams volunteer network in 2021. Nearly 100 more volunteers began the online certification process and will have the opportunity to complete their certification with a field session this spring. With CMC partners, IWLA also helped develop and pilot a new benthic collection protocol to fill watershed data gaps in the Chessie BIBI index.

In July, IWLA hired Kira Carney as the new Mid-Atlantic Save Our Streams Coordinator. She and the IWLA team are excited to kick off 2022 with trainings and webinars to continue to grow the volunteer network and empower them to Save Our Streams!