Thanks to each of you who kept up monitoring this year! October closes our official monitoring season, be sure to enter your data.
We want to hear from you! As a way of saying thanks, Utah Water Watch wants to put together a more personalized and informative map of monitoring sites and Utah lakes and streams. We need favorite pictures of your site and any experiences or stories you’d like to share from monitoring. Tell us a little about your sites. Although none of us here at UWW are masters of the "selfie", we certainly do not condemn them either. It's really up to you what you'd like to share! Just send us an email at waterquality@usu.edu.
We welcome 80 new volunteers who helped monitor 125 rivers, lakes and reservoirs this year! Find volunteer data at uww.usu.edu.
In addition to Tier 1 data, Tier 2 volunteers have assisted with data collection for the Division of Water Quality, US Forest Service and additional partners.
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Volunteer Data
This graph shows that Hobble Creek temperatures have stayed below the 20 degree C limit for cold water fisheries. We have graphs from 2016 available by watershed on our website. Updated graphs will be coming this winter for 2017 data. If you have questions about your data, contact us and we will be happy to help you interpret your data.
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Natural Resources Field Days
Image: Kids exploring the Logan River at Natural Resources Field Days 2017 in Cache County
USU Water Quality Extension participated in another Natural Resources Field Days with other partners. 1900 4th graders, their teachers, and volunteers from USU participated. The kids learned about water, soil, plants, and wildlife in an outdoor environment. USU students learned and practiced valuable, informal teaching skills.
Teachers said “This is a great...no....fantastic opportunity for our 4th graders. They learn so much and have so much fun. It seems its a rare occasion when kids can get outside to learn, hands-on.“ Find out more about our annual outreach events.
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Volunteer Engagement Survey
A survey, recently sent out to anyone that has attended a Utah Water Watch workshop, will provide valuable assessment data for the UWW program. Thank you for submitting and answering the survey honestly! Your responses will be instrumental in improving Utah Water Watch. We are already working on ways to better share information and data with volunteers.
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Image: Salt Lake Watershed Symposium 2017
Upcoming Events:
Use this link to see our full calendar
Weber River Watershed Confluence - November 8-9
Salt Lake County Watershed Symposium - November 15-16
(We are sharing a USU Extension Water booth at the Salt Lake Symposium)
UWW training will start back up in 2018
Email waterquality@usu.edu or call
435-797-2580 for more info.
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City of Ogden Projects
Image: Doug Johnson and Cade Andrus collect macroinvertebrates in Weber River
Tier 2 volunteers helped collect macroinvertebrates on the Weber River this October and will try to collect data on the Ogden River also. The section of interest on the Weber River is listed as impaired for aquatic macroinvertebrates, and a project is slated to begin soon to improve aquatic habitat. Collection and analysis of macroinvertebrates will give baseline data for comparison after the restoration work has been completed. On the Ogden River, restoration work was completed in 2012 and the City of Ogden is interested in data to show project success.
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Harmful Algal Bloom Updates
Image: Harmful algal bloom - paint-like swirl, floating on surface
Harmful algal blooms have been reported in 10 lakes, reservoirs and ponds so far this year. Current conditions and updates can be viewed at the Division of Water Quality website. Fall blooms may seem out of the ordinary but are due to natural seasonal lake dynamics, when layers mix and nutrients circulate.
Thanks to the volunteer network, we were able to send local volunteers out to collect a sample at suspicious locations. Anyone visiting lakes and reservoirs, use our Field ID guide to identify suspicious blooms from green algal blooms; send us photos or collect a sample to bring to one of the listed microscope locations. Let us know as soon as possible if you have found something.
Next year we will send out bottles to keep with your kits in case a sample is required and expand our network.
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