Stream Team 2022 Review

Stream Team Soars in 2022:

Expanding Reach, Enriching Experience, and Driving Data

2022 was a successful year for the Stream Team program! In the past year, ALLARM at Dickinson College expanded the program to three new counties: Clinton, Lycoming, and Susquehanna; this added 24 new monitors. In addition to expanding the geographic reach of the program, ALLARM was successful in enriching the monitoring experience for existing volunteers in a few ways.

• After the ALLARM team went through a study design process, it was determined that additional data connected to water levels and turbidity would help in further understanding the baseline health of Susquehanna tributaries. Therefore, two new parameters, stage and water clarity, were added to the protocol.
• Additionally, after a significant pause due to COVID, ALLARM was finally able to hold macroinvertebrate identification and collection workshops. ALLARM held a workshop open to Cumberland, Dauphin, and Lebanon volunteers in September. Another workshop open to Lackawanna and Luzerne volunteers was held in October.
• ALLARM also facilitated its largest data interpretation experience to date! Data packets were created for 62 Stream Team sites. Volunteers participated in a water quality primer workshop in April, attended office hours with ALLARM to review their findings. In June, ten teams presented their data stories to the Stream Team community.
• Lastly, ALLARM was able to host in-person follow up meetings for all counties during the year in addition to hosting two online open calls for all volunteers. ALLARM looks forward to the 5th year of Stream Team and continuing to contribute water quality data in the upper Chesapeake Bay watershed.